2 ms·
How much of that water sphere is drinkable water? A tiiiny little sphere showing the drinkable water would be awesome on that picture too.
by SudarshanP 14y ago
How much of that water sphere is drinkable water? A tiiiny little sphere showing the drinkable water would be awesome on that picture too.
- DanBC 14y agoThat would be a really useful addition. There are some smart[3] people on HN. I think it should be possible for someone to have an Earth globe, with a sidebar of statistically correct, usefully laid out information that the user asks for - how much alcohol is produced each year vs how much soya, or gold vs copper vs uranium; people living on less than $2USD per day vs people with average income of $20; amount of energy used by renewables and non renewables; amount of CO2 produced vs amount able to be 'sunk'; etc. Some data would need to be retrieved from other places (with sources given.) Caveats for biases and inaccuracies would need to be clear. You'd monetise it by selling it to Wolfram Alpha. I'm finding the spheres a bit tricky to get my head round. How to Lie with Statistics covered this with the "money bags" example.[2] I was told that the entire population of the Earth could fit on the Isle of Wight[1]. [1] (http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ix=ucb&q=isle%20of%20wight&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&sa=N&tab=wl http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ix=ucb&q=isle%20of%20wight...) It's obviously wrong! I believed it for years, only just now working it out. [2] Pictographs of wages of carpenters in 2 different countries. (http://shodor.org/succeed-1.0/curriculum/MCN_NEW/lessons/statResources.html http://shodor.org/succeed-1.0/curriculum/MCN_NEW/lessons/sta...) With a nice, very simple, explanation. [3] Get on it with your %20 time, Googlers. Build it into Google maps.