More Slaves Now Than in the 18th Century?

The American Interest says

The oldest human rights movement is the anti-slavery movement dating from the 18th century. There are more slaves now than there were when the movement was founded.

In this day and age, we should be able to get basic facts like this in five minute or less, right? So I tried to verify the claim in five minutes or less.

Here's a screencast of my attempt:


My rating scale, from best to worst, is VERIFIED TRUE, UNVERIFIED, VERIFIED UNSUPPORTED, VERIFIED FALSE.

I'd chalk this one up as VERIFIED UNSUPPORTED. I found the book that is the likely source, read that part of the book on Amazon, and it looks like the author has not provided any particular back-up for his claim.

If I am wrong, I'd love to hear about it! Please let me know.

NCAA Basketball Profits

Good job, NCAA!

What are you guys doing with the cash?

Federal Spending is Bad, but It's Not THAT Bad

I'm a big fan of educating people about how bad our spending problem is.

Which is why I'm sad when people exaggerate hideously to make the point.

Here's the Heritage Foundation:



The problem with this graph is that it's comparing apples to oranges.

It compares Total Federal Spending, which is for the entire country and is a cost that will be borne by all households, to Median Household Income, which is per household.

The comparison you really want to make, the only one that makes sense, is Total Household Income to Total Federal Spending:




Does the Heritage Foundation think their comparison is more meaningful? Or are they just trying to be sneaky? Or were they just rushing and didn't stop to think?

What's Up With Italy's Birthrate?

Google posted some data from the World Bank into their Public Data Explorer. It included data on birth rates going to back to 1965:



So what's up with Italy's birth rate there?

I googled "Italy baby boom" and here you go: Italy baby-cash aims to boost births

Who knew it was so easy?  Just pay em!

The Data Collective Challenge

Find an interesting article.

Pick one of its quantifiable claims.

Try and verify the numbers in 5 minutes.

Win or lose, post the screencast.


For my first challenge, I try and find out how US government spending compares to the GDP, in 5 minutes or less.  How do you think I did?

I won't spoil the surprise, check it out: http://www.screenr.com/BL2s

Or try it for yourself!  5 minutes, no cheating!

A message.

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Medicaid vs GDP: iCharts test