CIA World Fact Book

[miriam_e]

I've always been a bit of a fan of the CIA's World Fact Book. Say what you want about the organisation's troublesome morals, they are good cataloguers of information. I downloaded the latest (2008!) copy last night because I needed some good vector maps and they include pdf maps in the appendix. (I hate pdf, but beggars can't be choosers.) Anyway, I was spending time I shouldn't have browsing the fact book itself and noticed an interesting thing. The summary at the beginning of each country's chapter, and at the head of each part inside that chapter doesn't necessarily reflect the statistics that follow.

For instance, based upon the summaries you could be forgiven for thinking that the USA has a wonderful level of employment, Australia has an acceptable one and that Sweden's is at dangerous levels. Actually, the fact book gives the figures for unemployment rate at:
USA 4.6%
Sweden 4.5%
Australia 4.4%

Likewise the glowing report on the USA's economy would lead you to believe they are a shining example of dynamism, and Sweden verging on stagnation. Here is the GDP:
USA 2.2%
Sweden 3.4%
Australia 4%

Of course that is just how the money side of things work, and that doesn't necessarily relate to how well off the humans are. The number of people living below the poverty level is a better indicator of that:
USA 12%
Sweden -
Australia -
The figures for Australia have to be pretty shonky because I consider myself below the poverty line, and there are people worse off than I am, but on the whole I have to say I lead a quite luxurious existence because my lifestyle requires very little money. Pity the USA though, where an 8th of the population lives below the poverty level! And given the employment figures, most of those below the poverty line must be working. What a horrid existence that would be -- to be an indentured wage slave with no way out and still stuck below the poverty line.

Two other guides to how good life might be are infant mortality and life expectancy:
Infant mortality (deaths per 1000 live births):
USA 6.37
Sweden 2.76
Australia 4.57

Life expectancy:
USA 78
Sweden 80.63
Australia 80.62

How is health hampered by religious intolerance?
AIDS prevalence in adult population:
USA 0.6%
Sweden 0.1%
Australia 0.1%

So... download the CIA World Fact Book. It is a goldmine of information, but do read further than the biased summaries.

Oh, the address?
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
You can refer online or download it.

Comments

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Yah your right, the US has a lot of "working poor".
The infant mortality rate is way too high for sure. One of the reasons I'm sure is how the majority of births are handled. But also how many are poor. Harder to care for babies in stressful environments for sure.

That being said, I'd much rather live here than say, Africa.
I'm in a position to actually help there from here. Poor here and poor there mean entirely different things.

Anyhoo, thank you for reminding me of that resource. That's lovely.

I thought perhaps you might like this:



About This Video:

"http://www.ted.com
With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, Prof. Hans Rosling uses software from Gapminder debunks a few myths about the "developing" world. This global health visionary has discovered a powerful new way to communicate complex data about the world; his remarkable interactive graphs help deliver profound insights about global trends and will change forever the way you think about "us" and "them." Rosling is professor of international health at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, and founder of Gapminder, a nonprofit that brings vital global data to life. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA.) More TEDTalks at www.TED.com "

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I can't view it on my sloooow dialup, but I'll try to remember to check it out when I go visit my folks in a couple of days (they have broadband).

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Okey doke. :)

[revbobbob.livejournal.com]

This is wonderful. More than just beautiful visualization, beautiful thought. If human beings can do something like this, maybe it isn't quite time to turn out the lights on our time on Earth.

BTW, Noelle, your LJ is glorious.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Oh my god! I finally got to watch it. That was amazing! Thank you so much for bringing that talk to my attention, jaguarnoelle. I am very grateful.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Isn't it though? Makes me all kinds of happy. You're very welcome. :)

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Yah your right, the US has a lot of "working poor".

I can't imagine why.
Their minimum wage is topped up by tips - the unofficial tax.

Hmmmm:
http://www.latimes.com/business/careers/work/la-fi-starbucks21mar21,1,7264466.story
Trickle-up economics?

[mindquakes.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting that info! Very interesting

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

you are most welcome. :)

[sharpblonde.livejournal.com]

World Factbook is your friend... I was on there today, checking things on Australia actually, but not finding what I needed. I didn't really expect to, but I thought I'd check anyway.

I'm trying to recall the name of that rather fanatic group, which I think has the word family in it, that keeps opposing just about everything... liberal I guess you'd say. Certainly I remember you or one of my other lj friends mentioned them in a post about adoption by same-sex couples and their opposition to it. I'm trying to think of "barriers to market acceptance" for an outdoor event hosting service. Some of the target markets for it will be Pagan festivals and queer focused events, so you can see why I thought of that group whose name escapes me. This sort of thing is so hard to google to figure out... It almost seems like you have to just know the answer.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

You might be thinking of Family First. They are a [shudder] political party here. Of course, what they mean when they say "family" is white, middle-class, husband works and wife in kitchen, 2.5 kids. They specifically don't include anything that might shake their xenophobic little trees.

One of the things I despise about them is their Orwellian use of words. For instance they say they are "defending" family, but in actual fact it is families they attack -- any family that associates with or is made up of "different" people.

The Wikipedia gives a pretty good backgrounder and links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_First_Party

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall that there was a Family First loony standing for election here who asserted that lesbians should be burned at the stake! There are some people who never made it out of the dark ages it seems.

Thankfully Family First are largely ignored... so far. They do have very good PR people though and scarily are adept at projecting a clean-cut, helpful image, when in fact if given any kind of power they'd adopt a scorched-earth approach to social change.

[sharpblonde.livejournal.com]

Yes, I believe that is the one... I do seem to recall hearing about their good PR people too. If I remember correctly they are supposed to make some pretty good propaganda which would do, hmm, I dunno, people like Hitler proud. Thanks, that along with a few other things I came up with will give me enough to have something for the first draft that the the teacher won't just throw out.

Fanatics and willfully ignorant and/or bigotted groups are always reprehensible and disgusting. That comment about lesbians about takes the cake though. Even in an accepting city in Canada, I've had a guy swerve his SUV at me and my girlfriend just because we were holding hands. The world still has a long way to go...

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

It will be interesting to see where information search systems end up going. Google is really useful, but quite often there are subjects that are virtually impossible to search on. I saw a joke a while ago based on the difficulty of searching for information on the rock group The Who. I imagine searching for another group, The The, would be next to impossible. In situations like that a live human (effectively a librarian) is the only alternative. One day we will have AIs that will do the job, but even then I have a feeling it will be a long time before we can replace human associative knowledge. On that point, it might be worth checking out the dmoz project.
http://www.dmoz.org/
It attempts to use a vast team of humans to continuously catalogue the net.

How revolting that someone would find affection so objectionable. We have come a long way from when it meant an automatic stoning to death, but we still have a long way to go. [sigh]

As humans we'd better grow up real soon. We are quickly achieving godlike power. That kind of power in the hands of such stunted people is a recipe for disaster.

[clubhopper15.livejournal.com]

Where in Aus are you, btw?

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Hi. I'm here...


or for a more detailed view, click this link to
Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&ie=UTF8&ll=-26.601958,152.769281&spn=0.028856,0.053387&t=h&z=14). GoogleMaps opens in a normal web page -- no special software needed (unlike GoogleEarth). To see the bigger picture zoom out.

But we're exporting our "successes"

[revbobbob.livejournal.com]

This conservative Republican administration's abstinence-only programs have turned successful HIV/AIDS programs around:

http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/03/30/uganda10380.htm

Uganda nowadays is not a totally screwed country in comparison to others . So that makes Bush, Cheney and Rice's "Achievement" even more spectacular.

Unreliable number warning: I remember reading recently that in the Uganda AIDS program alone, the Christofascists who've taken over America's government have in effect murdered 32,000 people.

That blood is on every American's hands. And on the hands of everyone who cooperates with America until we finally grow up and kick those bastards out.


But between now and then, don't believe a single number the US government publishes. Lying is so deeply ingrained in American conservatism, the CIA doesn't even tell the truth to itself.

CIA Factbook

[revbobbob.livejournal.com]

The copy you have may have been an earlier one from before the time lying and covering up became official policy.

Or it may be more recent and the true figures may have crept out unnoticed. These are not smart people we're dealing with here. They're right-wing ideologues , not Brookings Institution Fellows.

klanwatch.org is reliable. It redirects to the main Southern Poverty Law Center site where (lookee here!) a search for "Family First" turns up a history of the anti-GLBT "movement" which, of course, unlike real grassroots movements is strictly top-down.

Thank Ghod for the American dogma of the free market! There's enough little tinpot Mussolinis contending with each other to be top swine that they aren't as coordinated as you might fear. Sure, they all spout the same slogans, use the same kinds of cover, but all that means is that they lack imagination. I don't see a many-tentacled grand conspiracy, though a search through who gives money to these guys might find some of the same names. So who says fat cats can't be suckers too?


I didn't read far enough down to see any references to .au, but our own gangs of anti-gay thugs are plenty bad . Lawrence King is more than enough for me, and the kid who murdered him didn't come up with the idea all by himself.


Has the infection that calls itself the Fellowship of Christian Athletes taken root over there yet? There's the potential footsoldiers, but, not to be a total bigot myself, some of them do nothing worse than holding prayer circles in facilities all of us paid for and giving all the credit for their victories to Jeebus.

Btw, I'm sure you know this: bilerico.com usually has important news for the community up, both in articles and on message boards. Getting off the front page is such a chore that I haven't found anything outside the US yet. It looks about as organized as my sock drawer. Maybe somebody will spill the secret for finding stuff there in words small enough that I can get them.

Re: CIA Factbook

[revbobbob.livejournal.com]

Or there's the explanation that has the highest probability of all: I'm simply full of it and the CIA factbook is fine, just you saw with your own eyes.

Well, I'm dead wrong in the first part of my posting. Klanwatch and bilerico.com are still pretty good.

Me, on the other hand:, not so good.

Here

[revbobbob.livejournal.com]

This is totally not right for me to say, but facts are facts: you have gorgeous hands.


So, Darwin, eh?

Re: Here

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Heheh. Nah. My hands are getting old and wrinkled. I used to have nice hands (not happy or unhappy about it -- merely an accident of genes). One of my girlfriends recognised me once by just my hand at a train station when I was obscured from sight, balancing myself with my arm outstretched lugging a heavy suitcase. That was decades ago though.

Yep. If by "Darwin" you mean "Coolabine". :)
I guess it could. "C" precedes "D" (1 backwards). "O" is the 4th vowel, just as "D" is the 4th letter starting from "A". Double the second letter. "L" is 6 backwards from "R", and because it's the 3rd letter of "Darwin" double the count to 6 to balance the doubled "O". "W" is a pretend doubled letter ("U") which is kinda cheating so we start all over again with two letters from the beginning of the alphabet "AB". The final 2 letters of "Darwin" are copied straight over, and the "E" is... ummm... hmmmm. Nope, I guess not. :)

Re: Here

[revbobbob.livejournal.com]

Hey, they look fine to me. Are you using them? One of mine still ain't workin' worth a damn, but it gets better day by day.

You still got the mounting brackets and setscrews for yours?

How much would it be to mail them to Alabama?

I've been reading that Laumer book A Plague of Demons >way too much.

Your fault again.

--
Rev. Bob

Re: Here

[revbobbob.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh, that Coolabine.

You don't want to know know how long I searched WA for it.

I'll bet it's wonderful.

Now that I found it, I'll bet it'll take you longer to find Decatur Alabama. Not exactly on the Sunshine Coast, but every now and then the Delta Queen pulls in here and plays their caliope while people get off the boat who've actually been someplace.

Re: Here

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Huh. :) It took me all of 2 seconds. :P
Do you live on the north side of the river or the south?

Re: Here

[revbobbob.livejournal.com]

I swear I sent this 10 minutes ago.

Hey, your hands look fine to me. Are you using them? One of mine still ain't workin' worth a damn, but it gets better day by day.

You still got the mounting brackets and setscrews for yours?

How much would it be to mail them to Alabama?

I've been reading that Laumer book "A Plague of Demons" way too much. No spoilers from me, but you'll get what I was referring to when you read it.

That's a great story.


We're on the South side of the river, right by the sludge pond, just down the road from the chicken plant. And our radio stations play country and western.



In a few months we'll be off to LA somewhere. I imagine you know where that is, too. My older son Patrick lives in Irvine, but there's no way we can afford that. I think we'll get a nice, quiet place in Death Valley and raise buzzards.

Now that I managed to figure out you're in Queensland, I'm oriented.

--
Rev. Bob

[idealistagain.livejournal.com]

The US government in general has a ton of very useful information on almost every imaginable subject. I've been a fan of the CIA factbook for years, but its not the only good resource. I'd suggest googling agencies like the US Geological Survey (very good for maps of almost all sorts), the National Oceanics and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Naval Observatory, etc. Various agencies of the Treasury Department have a wealth of economic information. And if you check the Government Printing Office, they offer an astounding variety of publications on, well, nearly everything--most of these are either free or very low cost, though in your case, you might have to pay for international postage on the ones where there aren't electronic versions.

The great thing is, virtually all of this information, with very few exceptions, is in the public domain and can be freely distributed, copied, used, sold, etc. People have made considerable sums of money coming up with new information products/services out of US government data. One exception to the public domain rule is the Postal Service, which copyrights nearly everything--they don't want people printing their own stamps, for instance. But the exceptions are rare.