The largest online protest in history and quite possibly the largest mass action in human history.

Global Strike January 18th 2012,

Together Online and Worldwide…

We all took a stand together and here it is detailed in graphics, numbers and screenshots…

The Great SOPA PIPA Blackout Strike of 2012

The largest online protest in history – January 18 2012 Online and Worldwide detailed in graphics, numbers and screenshots…

Digital Signatures

Over 10,000,000+ digital signatures collected against SOPA

Emails Sent

Over 3,000,000+ Emails sent to stop SOPA. Through EFF, FFTF and Demand Progess. Wikipedia wasn’t even counting!

Websites in Participation

More than 115,000+ confirmed websites participated. Over 45,000+ on WordPress.com alone, many more yet to be recorded.

Twitter Tweets

More than 3,000,000+ Tweets

• Over 2,200,000 #SOPA hastags
• Over 159,000 #stopSOPA hastags
• Over 105,000 #Wikipedia hastags
• Over 411,00 #PIPA hastags
• Over 52,000 #SOPAstrike hastags
• Over 17,000 #SOPAblackout hastags
• Over 9,000 #blackoutSOPA hastags

*stats as of late Wednesday, before the U.S. West Coast working day even ended!

Senators Publicly Against PIPA

November 16th 1
November 17th 5
November 18th 8am 6
November 18th 8pm 34*
*10 of these are solid

Press Contacts for Fight for the Future

Email: press@fightforthefuture.org (Press only please! Otherwise email: team@fightforthefuture.org).

Phone: (508) 474-5248

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A project of Fight for the Future, a non-profit organization fighting on the net. Copyright (obsolete in) 2011. Much love to Reddit (leader).

Infographic provided SOPA Strike (@SOPAstrike)and created by Ivan Tolmachev (@itolmach) dribbble.com/itolmach

Are you a geek, or a nerd?

History:

The terms geek and nerd may sometimes seem synonymous, but they have very different roots in history:

Nerd: This term was coined from Dr. Seuss in 1954 in a line that read “A nerkle, a nerd, and a seersucker too!” – So really nerkle and seersucker are synonymous with nerd

Geek: While used as a derogatory term originally, the word “geek” gained popularity in the circus. Circus performers that performed amazing feats were Geeks

Nerd Traits:

• Extreme interest or fascination with academics
• Introverted
• Socially Inept
• Diverse and sometimes impractical skillets due to broad interests in games, movies, science, computers, etc.
• A PC
• Interest might include: Battlestar Galactica (BSG), LARPing, SecondLife, Physics, Chess, Fantasy/Sci-Fi, Computer programming

Likely nerd jobs:

• Rocket scientist
• Reclusive and renowned professor
• Computer programmer
• Engineer
• IT professional
• Inventor
• Or work at a video store

Nerd Talk:

You know you’re talking to a nerd when they insert obscure references into a sentence:

“There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don’t.”

“I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.”

“The box said ‘Requires Windows 95 or better’ so I installed LINUX.”

Nerd Love: nerds marry other nerds, it’s the natural state of the universe.”

Geek Traits:

• Someone with a specifc niche interest/lifestyle that they have become the expert on
• A fan of gadgets
• An early adopter
• A Mac
• Wears ironic t-shirts
• Can be pretentious and longwinded
• Knowledge can range from mundane to “living encyclopedia” status
• Interests might include gaming, film (both artsy and anything Will Ferrel stars in), collecting, gadgets/tech, computing, coding, hacking, techno music, screen printing, etc.

Likely geek jobs:

• Web design/development
• IT professional
• Marketer
• Graphic designer
• Game designer/developer
• Barista at an indie coffee shop
• Entrepreneur
• Record store
• Bartender

Geek Talk:

You know you’re talking to a geek when they remind you of their “hip” lifestyle by discussing their “cool” habits or dropping pop culture references:

“There’s nothing like kicking it to some crunchy bass while enjoying a good Malbec”

“60% of the time it works all the time”

[while pulling out their iPhone] “Let me pull out my pocket iPad”

Geek Love: geeks can fall for and marry non-geeks

Factoids/Stats:

• 17% of Americans identify as geeks
• 65% of video game designers identify as geeks
• 50% of technology engineers identify as geeks
• 37% of bloggers identify as geeks
• 87% of people prefer the word “geek” over “nerd”
• 66% of millennials think “geek” is a compliment
• 45% of people believe geeks are early adopters
• 31% of people believe geeks have a higher chance of being successful
• On average, self-identifed geeks have a better view of themselves than others view geeks
• 41% of people would be comfortable called a geek while only 24% would be comfortable called a nerd
• A geek would rather be called a geek over a hipster (23% are OK with being called hipster while 41% are OK with being called a geek)

From: MastersInIt.org

With this infographic, discover who is most at risk, what causes workplace stress, what the likely consequences are and how both employers and employees can reduce the problem.

Who Is At Greatest Risk for Work-Related Stress Death?

• Over a 20 year study of 820 adults ages 25-65 at the study’s start, 53 died, and they were disproportionately likely to have reported a “hostile work environment”
• Middle-aged workers who have poor relationships with their colleagues are 2.4X more likely to die sooner
• Surprisingly, relationships with bosses had no ties to increased death, even though it is a top cause of leaving a job
• Women who reported having control/power in the workplace were 70% more likely to die than those who did not feel in control

How Stressed Are We?

• 40% of workers say their job is excessively stressful
• 29% say they feel extremely stressed at work
• 26% say they quite frequently feel burned out at work
• 1 in 4 workers feel their jobs are the most stressful aspect of their lives
• 3 in 4 workers believe job stress has increased over the last generation

Most Common Causes of Work Stress

• Heavy workload
• Management techniques
• Restructuring in the workplace
• Lack of support/relationships with coworkers
• 86% of surveyed firms reported bad behaviors like insults and poor manners
• Lack of clarity in job responsibilities
• Job security/future concerns
• Environmental issues (lack of space, excessive noise, unclean air, etc.)
• Abuse, both physical and verbal
• 20 workers per week are murdered in the US
• #1 cause of workplace death for women
• #2 cause of workplace death overall
• 18,000+ are physically abused
• Personal/home problems

How Coworkers Cause Stress

• Manipulation/pressure to obey orders
• Inappropriate or just different personalities/work styles
• Conversely, extreme similarity in personality/work style

Stress has been linked to:

• Heart disease
• 40% higher incidence for women
• 25% increased likelihood of heart attack for men
• Stroke
• Nearly 50% increased likelihood for men
• Depression
• Sleep issues
• Digestive issues
• Obesity (prolonged work stress has been found equal to being 40 lbs. overweight)
• Memory problems
• Aggravation of skin conditions
• The quickened progression of HIV/AIDS

Death from Overworking

• “Karoshi”—the Japanese word for “death from overwork”
• In Japan, about 10,000 managers, executives and engineers die annually from being overworked
• 11 workers for China’s Foxconn committed suicide by jumping from high buildings, citing overworking and neglect of spiritual needs
• Pan Jie, a 25-year-old female auditor in Shanghai, died from viral encephalitis in April 2011, after working for 10 days with a high fever

How Workers Can Reduce Stress

• Eat well
• Exercise often
• Get enough sleep
• Employ relaxation techniques
• Communicate with friends
• Remember to laugh and make jokes
• Seek counseling when necessary

From: HumanResourcesMBA.org

This infographic from MilitaryEducation.org gives you an overview of the various achievements, medals, ribbons and ranks available to members of the US Army by highlighting the accomplishments of two standout Army veteran soldiers, Audie L. Murphy (the most decorated Army veteran of all time) and William D. Hawkins (who is well known for what he achieved while being severely outnumbered).

From: MilitaryEducation.org

1. How much above-ground gold (gold that has been mined) is there in all the world?

The best estimate at the end of 2011 is that around 165,000 metric tons (or tonnes) have been mined in all of human history. That’s about 181,881 ordinary tons or 363,762,732 pounds, or 5,820,203,717 ordinary ounces. Gold typically is measured in what are known as troy ounces, which are a little bigger than ordinary ounces (a troy ounce is 31.1034768 grams whereas an ordinary ounce is 28.3495231 grams). There are 32.1507466 troy ounces in a kilogram or 32,150.7466 troy ounces in a metric ton.

“More than half of all humanity’s gold has been extracted in the past 50 years. Now the world’s richest deposits are fast being depleted, and new discoveries are rare. Gone are the hundred-mile-long gold reefs in South Africa or cherry-size nuggets in California. Most of the gold left to mine exists as traces buried in remote and fragile corners of the globe. It’s an invitation to destruction. But there is no shortage of miners, big and small, who are willing to accept.” [QUOTE SOURCE: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2009/01/gold/larmer-text.]

SOURCES: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2009/01/gold/larmer-text, http://www.gold.org/about_gold, and http://minerals.usgs.gov.

2. How much gold gets mined per year worldwide?

The table below shows world gold production from 1900 thru 2011. Production in 1900 was around 400 metric tons per year and has consistently moved up over the years. It is currently around 2,500 metric tons per year. The all time high was reached in 2001, with 2,600 metric tons of gold production worldwide. The total gold mined from 1900 to the present is just under 141,000 metric tons. Given that humans have mined a total of 165,000 metric tons over the course of history, that leaves just 24,000 metric tons mined before the 20thcentury.

SOURCE: http://goldratefortoday.org/world-gold-production-1900-2010.

*Estimated value for 2011.

**Cumulative average thru November 22, 2011, http://www.kitco.com/scripts/hist_charts/yearly_graphs.plx.

SOURCE: This table thru 2009 appears here: http://minerals.usgs.gov/ds/2005/140/gold.pdf.

3. But didn’t the Spanish get lots and lots of gold from the New World, especially from the Aztecs and Incas?

In fact, the Spanish got much more silver than gold from the New World. In the 16th century, when production was in full swing, the Spanish only got 154 metric tons of gold, whereas they got 7440 metric tons of silver. Gold production in the new world for the entire the 16thcentury was thus less than half of what it was worldwide in 1900. Here is a comparison, decade by decade, of Spanish gold and silver production in the New World in the 16th century:

SOURCE: http://mygeologypage.ucdavis.edu/cowen/~GEL115/115ch8.html

4. How much gold, really, is 165,000 metric tons (the total mined throughout human history) and 2,500 metric tons (the total that’s currently mined annually)?

An Olympic swimming pool is 50 by 25 by 2 meters. It therefore contains 2,500 cubic meters of water. Each cubic meter of water is one metric ton. Gold is 19.3 times as dense as water. Therefore an Olympic swimming pool would contain 48,250 metric tons of gold. It follows that 3.42 Olympic-sized swimming pools could contain all the gold that’s ever been mined. Another way to imagine this is to think of all the gold in the world ever mined as a single cube. That would be a cube with each side just over 20 meters, or 67 feet, in length. Given that about 2,500 metric tons of gold is mined each year, this annual production of gold would fit in a cube whose sides were 5 meters, or 16.6 feet, in length. All the production of gold in the world for a given year would thus fit in a 20 by 30 foot room with an 8 foot ceiling.

5. Given 165,000 metric tons as an upper bound on available gold, how much does that leave to each human on the planet?

Humanity has just hit the 7 billion mark. That leaves just under 24 grams of gold to each person on planet earth, or .76 troy ounces or .83 ordinary ounces per person. In an ordinary male gold wedding band at 18-karat purity, there are about 5 grams of pure gold. That means every person on planet earth could own about 5 gold rings. At the current price of $1,750.00 per troy ounce of gold, that leaves $1,326.00 in gold for each person on planet earth. “Gold production has increased by a factor of 2.1 from 1959 to 2010. At the same time, the world population has been multiplied by a factor 2.2. Thus we produced more or less the same amount of gold per inhabitant as in 1959.” [QUOTE SOURCE: http://news.goldseek.com/Dani/1309290922.php)

6. How does the gold that’s mined get used?

52 percent gets used for jewelry, 18 percent constitute official holdings (as in central banks of nations), 16 percent take the form of investments, 12 percent find industrial uses, leaving 2 percent unaccounted for.

SOURCE: http://dollardaze.org/blog/?post_id=00479&cat_id=20

7. Which nations consume the most gold?

Since jewelry is the most common use of gold, gold consumption worldwide is most easily gauged by gold jewelry consumption. India is in this respect far and away the biggest consumer of gold. Here are the data for 2009 and 2010 of gold jewelry consumption by country in metric tons:

SOURCE: See “Full Year 2010 Gold Demand Trends Report” available at http://www.gold.org/media/press_releases/archive/2011/02/global_gold_demand_in_2010_reached_a_10_year_high_in_tonnage_and_all_time_high_in_value/ as well as http://www.forexyard.com/en/news/Gold-jewellery-consumption-by-country-2011-02-28T130619Z-FACTBOX.

8. Where does the world’s gold get produced?

Here is the breakdown of 100 top gold-producing nations in the world for 2009. China sits at the top, with the United States the runner up:

SOURCES: http://www.indexmundi.com/minerals/?product=gold&graph=production and http://www.indexmundi.com/en/commodities/minerals/gold/gold_t8.html. See also http://www.dani2989.com/gold/goldproduction2011gb.html.

9. What’s happening with gold prices?

The trend since 1900 has been rising gold prices with occasional sharp volatility. See the table in question 2 for the history of gold prices from 1900 to the present. Here is a graph of gold prices over the last fifty years, which includes also gold prices adjusted for inflation:

SOURCES: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gold_price_in_USD.png and http://minerals.usgs.gov/ds/2005/140/gold.pdf.

Here’s what’s happened with gold prices in the last decade:

SOURCE: http://www.kitco.com.

Here’s what’s happened with gold in the last year (2011):

SOURCE: http://www.kitco.com.

10. Who’s got the gold that’s used for monetary and investment purposes and how much of this type of gold is out there?

In 2011, about 2,100 metric tons of gold appeared in what are known as exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The lion’s share was in one fund: 1,240 metric tons in SPDR Gold Shares (http://www.spdrgoldshares.com). As of 2009, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) held 3,217 metric tons of gold. In 2010, the central banks of nations held a total of 28,398 metric tons of gold. Here is the breakdown:

SOURCES: http://www.gold.org/investment/statistics/reserve_asset_statistics and http://af.reuters.com/article/southAfricaNews/idAFLDE7551YW20110606.

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ADDITIONAL SOURCES:

http://money.howstuffworks.com/question213.htm [neat article on the world’s gold, titled “All the Gold in the World,” provides some background for this infographic]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2010/11/19/how-many-olympic-sized-swimming-pools-can-we-fill-with-billionaire-gold [describes how world’s gold fills 3.27 Olympic-sized swimming pools with gold, at 157,000 metric tons of above-ground gold in 2007 – these numbers have since increased, as reflected above]

From: Number Sleuth