Factoids

According to new U.S. Census city population figures:  Jacksonville is larger than Boston.  El Paso is larger than Washington, DC.  Fresno is larger than Miami. (Source: USA Today, 7/10/08)   

Median age of U.S. householder: 38Median age of U.S. network television viewer: 50(Source: Variety, 6/29/08)

Since its debut in 2003, Apple’s iTunes has sold more than 5 billion songs — an average of more than 100,00 songs per hour every our for the last five years.  (Source: Wired.com, 6/19/08)

“The video game industry is expected to shoot from $41.9 billion in global sales last year to $68.3 billion in 2012, a compound annual growth rate of 10.3 percent and better than all other media sectors except for online advertising and access.”  (Source: Hollywood Reporter)

“If every artist in the American workforce banded together, their ranks would be double the size of the U.S. Army. More Americans identify their primary occupation as artist than as lawyer, doctor, police officer or farm worker.”(Source:  NY Times, 6/12/08, citing a new NEA report)

Number of new books published last year: 276,649  (That’s 758 new books per day.)Number of new business books published last year:  7,651 (That’s nearly one new biz book each hour.)(Source:  RR Bowker report, 5/28/08)

In the U.S., “70% of all wine is drunk on the day it’s purchased.”(Source:  Fast Company, June 2008)

“The United Nations estimate(s) that retailers and consumers in America throw away food worth $48 billion each year.”  (Source:  The Economist, 5.17.08)

Koalas spend five hours a day feeding and ten hours a day sleeping.   (Not sure what they do the other nine hours, but I think it involves meetings.)  Photo taken at Cleland Conservation Park in Adelaide, South Australia, with Australian conference impresario Andrew Greatrex and Bindi, a four-year-old koala.  (I’m the one on the left.) […]

Entrepreneur is out with its annual Hot 100 — the magazine’s list of the fastest-growing businesses in America.   Who’s #1 this year?  It’s Simply Self Storage.