data block

College tech use

Two recent university studies show how quickly Macs are gaining in popularity among college students. Earlier this month University of California-Davis revealed figures that show students who own Macs have climbed 300% on its campus over the past three years, up from 7.2% in 2006 to the present 23.4%.

Meanwhile there are similar figures among first year students at the University of Virginia. It appears Mac ownership has tripled over the past four years on its campus. Now this figure is derived from operating systems, namely Windows versus Mac OS. Interestingly, the “other” category - likely for all you Linux users - aside from a few years has generally declined over the decade.

Also, and for me this is most interesting, it’s quite revealing that the desktop computer is virtually dead to students these days, at least UVA students. In 1997 there were 1,508 students with desktops and only 295 with laptops, according to the data. That means 83% of first-year students had desktops. By 2008 not only has computer ownership nearly doubled but the laptop has flip-flopped with the desktop in terms of popularity. Last year’s figures had 3,034 laptops versus 36 desktops - that means laptops are pulling nearly 99%.

Good news for all the beefcakes, meatheads, gym-rats and heart-throbs out there: men with big muscles from weight training are 40% less likely to die from cancer than non-weight-lifting sissy men, according to a recent study.

The data was compiled from more than 8,500 men from ages 20-82 and the study was conducted from 1980 to 2003. One thing I particularly liked hearing was: “Even among volunteers who had excess tummy fat or a high body mass index, regular weight training seemed to have a protective effect.” [via Current]

Introduction to SpatialKey (via spatialkey)

Very handy tool for organizing data and presenting it in a powerful punch.

It’s interesting that Italy, France and Turkey - all countries who are thought of as having generally fattening and rich cuisine - have low obesity rates and long eating times. The US and UK who spend little time eating but have high rates definitely speaks to the idea of living in a fast food culture.

outofsight:

Note where Japan and Korea are and then look at the position of the US.

Via ninakix:

Catherine Rampell over at the NYT Economix blog, created this graph of the average time spent eating in various countries, measured against the country’s obesity rate. She noticed originally that the French seemed to have a low obesity rate, despite the fact that they spent a lot of time eating. I’ve always been a horrendously slow eater, but I actually think, for whatever reason, it’s been good for my health. Something about eating slow limits the amount of food you eat, and makes you savor what you do eat.

rienfaire:

Get a friend of yours to download, using Facebook, the ten most frequent “favorite books” at every college via that college’s Network Statistics page on Facebook […].

Download the average SAT/ACT score (from CollegeBoard) for students attending every college.

Presto! We have a correlation between books and dumbitude (smartitude too)!

Each Nintendo employee turns more than $1 million in profit

The average Nintendo employee will produce more than $1.6 million in profit in 2009, according to the Financial Times.

Meanwhile, financial giant Goldman Sachs employees generate $1.24 million by average.

However, these two figures have very little to do with bringing home the bacon. Nintendo staff bring home $90,900, more than ten time less what they produce. But Goldman workers take home roughly $660,000 (as of 2007) - nearly half of the profit each one produces.

UN short 70% for funds to aid central and east Africa

From the United Nations:

Only 2 per cent – or $3.9 million – of the more than $225 million required for Uganda is available. By contrast, the appeal for Chad has received almost $134 million or 35 per cent of the nearly $387 million it requires, the highest of the seven countries.

What does the American public really know?

This image, from Pew Research, is the reason why Data Block exists. There is helpful and quantifiable information the can easily be conveyed through numbers, graphs, and charts. In this instance, it’s the knowledge - or lack of, depending how you see it - of the American public on several large topics that are frequently covered in the media.

For instance, the below image reveals that the public tends to have a more accurate idea of unemployment than the stock exchange. Are there social reasons for this? Such as many perceive Wall Street to be abstract and corrupt, while a topic like unemployment will strike a more relatable note close to home.

The next image I find the most interesting of the series. Republicans outscore Democrats 11 of 12 topics, ranging from war to the economy. It’s hard to account for this without plucking an excuse from thin air. Democrats and liberals are oft stereo-typed as being academics and intellectuals, the American media is often labeled the liberal media (barring Fox, of course), and so it’s hard to account for why Republicans fare so well over their rivals.

Pew has much more data in this post, including grading knowledge between the genders, ages, and on various other topics.