Snippets and Soundbites

• One person = one grain of rice in a touring exhibition that gave visitors an understanding of how many people live on this planet. The creators of “Of All The People In All The World” used grains of rice to bring abstract statistics to life. There were 6.7 billion grains (that’s 112 tons!) of rice used to show things like the number of people born each day, the number of deaths in the holocaust, and all the people who have walked on the moon. Our favorite is the Titanic representations. See this blog to view some pictures of the rice displays.

• A college student in Ohio said he’d rather pay a fine than listen to classical music. He was facing a $150 fine for playing rap music too loudly in his car this summer. Twenty hours of listening to Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin would have reduced his fine to $35, but he lasted only 15 minutes. He decided he didn’t want to deal with the sentence. What would YOU have chosen? Read the full story here. 

• Have you ever gotten lost in the countryside and wished you had a compass? Probably not, but if you ever do, just look to the cows! Scientists have found that cows tend to face north. That’s because they align themselves with the Earth’s magnetic field. And you thought cows were dumb! Learn more at this website.