Famous Folks
Bruce Willis film appearances
vs.
People killed by an exploding boiler
2006 is the year Bruce Willis appeared in the most un-Bruce-Willis-like films. His credits that year include such action thrillers as Fast Food Nation and the voice of RJ, a cartoon raccoon in Over the Hedge.
SOURCES:
Internet Movie Database: Bruce Willis
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Detailed Mortality Data
Rachel Weisz film appearances
vs.
Deaths caused by exposure to melting pajamas
Significantly more women are killed by melting pajamas than men. Here, “significantly” means upwards of 300 percent. (Admittedly, this is only a disparity of 3 to 5 people per year.)
SOURCES:
Internet Movie Database: Rachel Weisz (You caught me; I’m counting the release of the deleted scenes from About a Boy to make that jump to four films in 2003. I feel safe admitting that down here in the footnote.)
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Detailed Mortality Data
Ben Affleck film appearances
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Accidental poisonings by pesticides
Ben Affleck’s full name is Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt. I, for one, would like to see him credited just once as “Benjamin Boldt,” if only to confuse viewers.
SOURCES:
Internet Movie Database: Ben Affleck
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Detailed Mortality Data
Points scored by Kobe Bryant
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U.K. citizens who immigrated to the United States
No word yet on whether U.K.-to-U.S. immigration is affecting tea consumption rates in the United States.
SOURCES:
National Basketball Association, Players: Kobe Bryant
Department of Homeland Security
Morgan Freeman film appearances
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Women who received cosmetic nose surgery
The “Morgan Freeman Effect” describes situations where one feature of something, like an actor’s soothing voice, makes up for everything else, like a terrible plotline. At least, according to whoever wrote the Urban Dictionary entry about it. I’ve never actually heard anyone say “Morgan Freeman Effect” in real life.
SOURCES:
Internet Movie Database: Morgan Freeman
The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, cosmetic surgery statistics
Urban Dictionary
Jennifer Lawrence film appearances
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GDP of Australia
Wool is a big contributor to the Australian GDP. The majority of Australia’s wool exports, more than $1 billion worth of wool annually, goes directly to China.
SOURCES:
Wikipedia: “Jennifer Lawrence”
The World Bank, GDP per capita—current USD
Government of Australia, Australia’s Top 25 Exports, Goods & Services (This isn’t a citation to an article about the Government of Australia, it’s a citation directly to “The government of Australia.” They stand behind their statistics down there.)
Natalie Portman film appearances
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Real Christmas trees sold in the United States
The data also shows that Americans strongly prefer real Christmas trees to fake trees at a rate of more than 2:1. However, this may be a case of organizational bias. The source of that data is “realchristmastrees.org.”
SOURCES:
Internet Movie Database: Natalie Portman
National Christmas Tree Association, Consumer Survey (The NCTA does not report how many people they surveyed to obtain these estimates.)
Nic Cage never said, “Don’t try this at home” before jumping off the aircraft carrier in National Treasure.
Nicolas Cage film appearances
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Number of people who drowned by falling into a swimming pool
Swimming pool drowning rates also seasonally correlate with frozen yogurt consumption. They both go up in the summer and down in the winter. You might say, “It’s warm outside,” but I say it’s a conspiracy!
SOURCES:
Internet Movie Database: Nicolas Cage
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Detailed Mortality Data
Passing attempts by NFL quarterback Drew Brees
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Complaints filed against airlines in the United States
Your chances of winning the Powerball from one ticket are around 1 in 175 million. Your odds of dying on any single commercial airline flight are closer to 1 in 10 million. Thus, it makes more statistical sense to attempt suicide by flying on a commercial airline than to get rich by buying a lottery ticket.
SOURCES:
National Football League, New Orleans Saints
U.S. Department of Transportation, Aviation Consumer Protection Division, Air Travel Consumer Report
The Huffington Post, “A Statistician’s View: What Are Your Chances of Winning the Powerball Lottery?”
Chris Evans film appearances
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Magnitude 8+ earthquakes
The USGS now tracks nearly twenty thousand earthquakes per year. Magnitude 8+ earthquakes, however, are only expected to occur at a frequency of around once per year. The increased frequency since 2004 is attributable to random chance—it’s spurious.
SOURCES:
Wikipedia: “Chris Evans (actor)”
U.S. Geological Survey, Magnitude 8.0–9.9 Earthquakes Worldwide
Goals scored by Lionel Messi for Argentina
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Top-grossing Marvel movie
The 2012 Marvel box office spike was The Avengers—which was also the first Marvel movie produced by Disney.
SOURCES:
Wikipedia: “Lionel Messi”
Box Office Mojo, Franchises: Marvel Comics
Harrison Ford film appearances
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Patents issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office
IBM alone accounted for more than 5,800 of the patents issued in 2010. In 2013, IBM was issued 6,788 patents. That’s more than 18 patents every single day.
SOURCES:
Internet Movie Database: Harrison Ford
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Liam Neeson film appearances
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Walmart sales
If the parking lots of every Walmart were put in one place, they would cover an area three times the size of Manhattan.
SOURCES:
Internet Movie Database: Liam Neeson
Walmart Annual Reports
Wal-Mart Watch, “It’s Not Easy Being Green: The Truth about Wal-Mart’s Environmental Makeover.”
Field goals made by LeBron James
vs.
High-profile crocodile attacks in Southeast Asia and Australia
These numbers are based on only the most notable attacks, as arbitrarily determined by users of Wikipedia. The Nile crocodile is responsible for hundreds more attacks in areas with less reliable reporting and recording systems in place.
SOURCES:
Basketball-Reference.com: LeBron James
Wikipedia: “Crocodile attack”
Keira Knightley film appearances
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Total supply of king crab in the United States
The king crab fishing industry peaked in 1980. By the time Keira was born five years later, overfishing caused the industry to decline by 90 percent.
SOURCES:
Internet Movie Database: Keira Knightley
U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, Fisheries of the United States