Today I typed in “the average worker” taking me to a whole lotta interesting factoids gathered by a guy called Dr. Donald E. Wetmore, who wrote these after making over 2,000 Time Management presentations around the world. Keep in mind that these were written 10 years ago – that’s before Twitter, Facebook… before restaurant hosts stopped asking “smoking or non”:

Turnip #1

The average person gets 1 interruption every 8 minutes, or approximately 7 an hour, or 50-60 per day. The average interruption takes 5 minutes, totaling about 4 hours or 50% of the average workday. 80% of those interruptions are typically rated as “little value” or “no value” creating approximately 3 hours of wasted time per day.

Turnip #2

20% of the average workday is spent on “crucial” and “important” things, while 80% of the average workday is spent on things that have “little value” or “no value”.

Turnip #3

80% of employees do not want to go to work on Monday morning. By Friday, the rate only drops to 60%. (More heart attacks occur on Monday than on any other day of the week.)

Turnip #4

The average worker gets 6 hours and 57 minutes of sleep per night.

Turnip #5

The average worker spends 35 minutes per day commuting.

Turnip #6

The average working person spends less than 30 seconds a day in meaningful communication with their children.

Turnip #7

By taking 1 hour per day for independent study, 7 hours per week, 365 hours in a year, one can learn at the rate of a full-time student. In 3-5 years, the average person can become an expert in the topic of their choice, by spending only one hour per day.

Last week’s Turnip was “more women prefer,” so as not to slight the men, this week I typed in “more men prefer” and “most men prefer,” unearthing the following:

Turnip #1

Most Men Prefer Playing Video Games to Sex: UK Study – A third of men would rather play video games than have a night of passion with their partners, reveals a new UK study.

Turnip #2

According to new research published today, most men prefer a traditional wife and women are often only too happy to oblige

Turnip #3

Shaving can be done by way of using a wet razor or else with an electric razor. More men prefer the former because it gives a closer shave.

Turnip #4

The independent study, to be presented at the 4th World Congress on the Aging Male (WCAM) later this month confirms that more men prefer Cialis to Viagra

Turnip #5

It appears that many more men prefer women with curves and curvaceousness is the key with DatingBBW.

Turnip #6

More and more men prefer Laser Hair Removal for the most sensitive parts of their bodies. Did you know that 30% of spa visitors are men?

Turnip #7

A new survey from Ontrack, a disaster recovery company, claims that more men prefer to try and fix a PC problem themselves.

Today I typed “more women prefer” into Google, unearthing the following:

Turnip #1

More Women Prefer Dogs Over Husbands – An online poll released shows more women would rather have a pet than a husband.

Turnip #2

The behavior of men in choosing urinals is different from that of women choosing restroom stalls, according to some reports. Whereas more women prefer stalls in the middle section, men prefer urinals to either end of the line, obviously hoping to draw as little attention as possible. Those men who actually choose urinals in the middle (4, 5, or 6) seem to be less self-conscious and less likely to succumb to external influence or pressure.

Turnip #3

Study: More women prefer pretty-boy features on men than rough-hewn look

Turnip #4

This explains why more women prefer fun games like bingo than “profitable” games such as poker and blackjack.

Turnip #5

More women prefer diving and they now make up about 40 per cent of all scuba divers.

Turnip #6

More Women Prefer to Have Kids Without Marrying.- A growing number of women are having children and raising them without marrying.

Turnip #7

Why More Women Prefer Breast Success Pills To Augmentation Surgery – In 2005, more than 290,000 breast augmentation surgeries were performed in the United States, making it the third most commonly performed cosmetic surgical procedure according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

Today I typed “Most scholars agree” into Google, unearthing the following:

Turnip #1

The person who wrote the manuscript used a shortened form that looked somewhat like +. Most scholars agree, however, that the first published use of the plus sign was in a Dutch book, Een sonderlinghe boeck in dye edel conste Arithmetica, written by Giel Vander Hoecke and printed in 1514. The book also used the minus sign (-) to indicate subtraction.

Turnip #2

Much of William Shakespeare’s life remains a mystery. Most scholars agree that he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1554 and that he married Anne Hathaway in 1582, but about the details of his life, scholars agree on precious little.

Turnip #3

Most scholars agree the Gospel of Mark was written about the time of the destruction of the Jewish Temple by the Romans under Titus in the year 70 AD/CE, and that the other gospels were written between 70 and 100 AD/CE..

Turnip #4

Most scholars agree that the Dead Sea Scrolls are the remains of a library that belonged to an ancient Jewish sect, the Essenes. This community inhabited an arid plateau on the northwest corner corner of the Dead Sea.

Turnip #5

Most scholars agree that at least 30 million died in Mao’s great famine. Chang and Halliday say “close to 38 million people died.”

Turnip #6

…military or violent imagery remains surprisingly understated in Minoan art, and most scholars agree that Minoan religion was more female than male centered, as far as we can tell. However, evidence for human sacrifice has been found in some Minoan peak sanctuaries, and frescoes from Thera, an island about 60 miles north of Crete, are more military in nature.

Turnip #7

Most scholars agree the Ark was never placed in the Second Temple (the Temple of Zerubabel and Herod). It disappeared from the Biblical story during the First Temple period and cannot be clearly traced afterward.

Today I typed “6 out of every 10” into Google, unearthing the following:

Turnip #1

Six out of every ten new jobs are computer-related.

Turnip #2

In the US, six out of every ten couples buy a diamond ring for their engagement.

Turnip #3

Six out of every ten Americans live in areas that violate federal air quality standards.

Turnip #4

Six out of every ten U.S. smokers started smoking before age 14. Nine of every ten smokers became addicted before reaching age 19.

Turnip #5

A record six out of every ten is [sic] families own their own homes, according to figures just released by the Federal Rev Board. [ed. Note: this is from a newspaper from 1960!]

Turnip #6

Only six out of every ten… children will graduate from high school in New York – the third highest dropout rate in America.

Turnip #7

A study of US workers has revealed that six out of every ten employees surveyed stole company data upon leaving their job in the last year.

Today I typed “4 out of 5” into Google, unearthing the following:

Turnip #1

Study: 4 Out of 5 Doctors Don’t Get Enough Exercise

Turnip #2

4 Out of 5 People Think It’s OK to Steal From Work

Turnip #3

National Security Agency Representative Says 4 out of 5 Cyber Attacks Are Preventable

Turnip #4

4 Out Of 5 Real Housewives Of Atlanta Are Actually Broke

Turnip #5

4 Out Of 5 New Home Buyers Want Solar Power

Turnip #6

4 out of 5 sunscreens inadequate, study finds

Turnip #7

4 out of 5 Internet experts say phones to be primary Internet device by 2020

Today I typed “the fastest” into Google, unearthing the following:

Turnip #1

15 U.S. states with the fastest broadband Internet speeds: Delaware residents now enjoy the nation’s fastest broadband at 9.9 Mbs, nearly twice the national average — and up more than 5 Mpbs since 2007. At the lower end of the speed range, sparsely inhabited states such as Idaho, Alaska and Montana were well below the national average, clocking in around 2.5 Mbps. Average speed for the nation — about 5 megabits per second. That’s a quarter of South Korea’s 20.4 Mbps, and about a third of Japan’s 15.8 Mbps.

Turnip #2

The Fastest Solar Car on the Planet: In the most recent World Solar Challenge, a Japanese team upset the former 4-time Dutch champs to win the 1,864-mile solar car race across Australia.The Tokai Challenger completed the journey in 29 hours and 49 minutes despite a flat tire — that’s an average speed of about 63mph.

Turnip #3

At the Beijing Olympics,[Usain Bolt] became the first man to run the 100 meter dash in under 9.7 seconds.

Turnip #4

New Orleans: Fastest growing city in the U.S. Annual census report highlights Big Easy’s big charge back since Katrina. Small cities in Texas, North Carolina and Arizona are right behind it.

Turnip #5

According to a Nielsen report this week, Microsoft’s new Bing search engine is growing faster than any of its search competitors in the top 10.

Turnip #6

Speed of the Fastest Tennis Ball Big Bill Tilden, in 1931, was credited with 163.3 mph 262.8 km/h. Lester Stoefen, American also, was credited with 131 mph 211 km/h in the 1930s. In the post-war game Jack Kramer was accorded 110 mph 177 km/h and Richard Gonzales 112 mph 180 km/h.

Turnip #7

The fastest human powered bike world record was set in Oct, 2002 at 81 mph ( 130km/h) by Sam Whittingham from Canada.

Today I typed “the widest” into Google, unearthing the following:

Turnip #1

With an internal diameter of 13.7 m the tunnel under the river Yangzi in Shanghai is the widest in the world. Connecting Shanghai to the Changxing island, the tunnel is 16.63 km long.

Turnip #2

The widest tornado (defined as damage path, not condensation/debris cloud or radar measurements) on record is the Wilber – Hallam, Nebraska tornado during the outbreak of May 22, 2004, with a width of 2.5 miles (4 km) at its peak.

Turnip #3

Nine lanes wide, with gardened medians between the opposing flow of traffic, [in downtown Buenos Aires 9 de Julio] is the widest street in the world.

Turnip #4

The Amazon is the widest river in the world. Many kilometers from its mouth it can be as wide as 11 kilometers, and 40 kilometers in the wet season.

Turnip #5

Where is the widest part of the Blue Ridge? Beginning with a narrow ridge in the north, c.10 mi (16 km) wide, the range broadens toward the south, reaching a maximum width of 70 mi (113 km) in North Carolina.

Turnip #6

MONSTERS VS. ALIENS is the widest non-summer release ever with over 7,000 screens.

Turnip #7

Phapheng falls, is said to be the widest waterfall in Asia.

Turnip #8

Neptune is the widest planet in the solar system.

Today I typed “travels at a rate of” into Google, unearthing the following:

Turnip #1

On average, a bumblebee travels at a rate of 3 meters per second, beating its wings 130 times per second.

Turnip #2

The times to take the travel trams to the observation deck way to the top of the arch, is about 4 minutes. The tram travels at a rate of 240 feet per minute, and the number of steps you can take in each way by the stairs are 1,076 steps. Only the stairs can be used for emergencies or maintenance. The Gateway Arch was authorized on May 17, 1954.

Turnip #3

Lightning travels at a rate of 60,000 miles a second.

Turnip #4

The average thunderstorm travels at a rate of 25 miles per hour. Once the leading edge of a thunderstorm approaches to within 10 miles, you are at immediate risk due to the possibility of lightning strokes coming from overhanging anvil clouds. Because of this, many lightning deaths and injuries occur with clear skies directly overhead.On average, thunder can only be heard over a distance of three to four miles, depending on humidity, terrain, and other factors.

Turnip #5

Conventional bottom-finding sonar uses a transducer to send ultrasonic sound waves, or pings, down through water. The pings bounce off the bottom, and objects such as fish, and are received back by the same transducer. A sonar ping travels at a rate of approximately four thousand eight hundred feet per second.

Turnip #6

Light travels at a rate of 186,282 miles per second (299,792 km/sec), which translates to about 5,870,000,000,000 miles (9,460,000,000,000 km) in a year.

Turnip #7

Speed of Sound: Sound travels at a rate of 761 miles per hour, or 1100 feet per second, or 1225 kilometers per hour. Sonic Boom: The sound that is created when an object travels faster than the speed of sound.

Turnip #8

Since the sun is so much larger than the earth, a spot on the equator travels at a rate of more than a mile a second.

Today I typed “Americans consume approximately” into Google, unearthing the following:

Turnip #1

Americans consume approximately one-third of the world’s available resources yet comprise about 5% of the world population.

Turnip #2

Whether it’s dine-in, pick-up or delivery, one common denominator exists in pizza: fat.No matter how you slice it, Americans consume approximately 100 acres of pizza each day. And, nutritionists estimate that the average fat content in pizza hovers somewhere near 5%

Turnip #3

The American Heart Association says that Americans consume approximately 22 teaspoons of sugar each day.

Turnip #4

Americans consume approximately 70 million pounds of “Tots” [tater tots] per year.

Turnip #5

the FDA recommends that all Americans consume approximately 25 grams of soy protein per day.

Turnip #6

Americans consume approximately 20% of their calories from refined sugars and sweeteners, 30% from refined grains, and often, 40% as fat.

Turnip #7

Americans consume approximately 1 billion pounds of avocado annually. [okay: who just put their little finger to their lips?]

Turnip #8

Americans consume approximately 11 ounces of meat per day, which calculates to approximately 250 pounds of beef annually, more than any other country in the world. The Japanese only eat 2 ounces of meat daily or approximately 46 pounds of beef annually.