Pecking Order

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By Salient | 14 May, 2007

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Percentage of Kiwis who have no idea what New Zealand super payments are worth : 81

Number of people in 20 who think that the $277 is enough to live on : 1

Number of countries in which the average life expectancy was less than 40 in 2002 : 6

Number of African countries in which the average life expectancy has declined since 1978 : 22

Number of confirmed deaths caused by doctored Halloween candy given to children by strangers : 0

Number of confirmed deaths caused by doctored Halloween candy given to children by their relatives : 1

Ratio of Americans killed by lightning since January 2002 to those killed by terrorism : 3:2

Year in which Hell Pizza gave out free condoms in an advertising stunt leading to 685 complaints : 2006

Rank of this to most offensive Kiwi advertisement of all time : 1

Age of a Napier pizza worker who was told by work and Income that she was better off on the dole : 20

Chances that an OPEC country discloses its poverty rate : 4 in 11

Chance that the poverty rate of an OPEC country that discloses it is less than 15 per cent : 0

Number of merit badges in safety awarded to boy scouts since 2001 : 15,417

Number in shotgun shooting : 65,249

Chances that a Swiss army knife produced this year will be bought by the Swiss Army : 1 in 400

Minimum amount a Swiss bank lost last in 2001 because of a typing error : $135,773,050

Number of deaths caused by hospital errors in New Zealand each year : 750

Estimated number of Americans who die each year as a result of doctors’ sloppy handwriting : 7,000

Number of times that the title of ‘world’s oldest person’ changed hands in January : 3

Average number of years that Nobel Prize-winners in chemistry or physics live longer than those merely nominated : 2

Number of the world’s top ten English-language Scrabble players who are not native English speakers : 3

Score by which a software program called Quackle beat a former Scrabble champion in a tiebreaker last year : 482-465

Cost to make the film ZYZZyx Road, which was released last year : $1,628,143.00

Amount it grossed at the U.S. box office : $41

E-mail Pecking Orders to editor@Salient.org.nz

SOURCES: 1, 2 Sunday Star Times April 29 2007 3, 4 World Health Organisation (Geneva) 5, 6 Prof. Joel Best, University of Delaware (Newark, Del.) 7 National Weather Service (Silver Spring, Md.)/U.S. Department of State Counterterrorism Office (Washington) 8 The Independent Financial Review 4 April 2007 9 Salient research 10 Radio New Zealand Feb 12 2007 11, 12 United Nations (N.Y.C.) 13, 14 Boy Scouts of America (Irving, Tex.) 15, 16 Harpers Magazine 17 The Press May 4 2007 18 Institute of Medicine (Washington) 19 Gerontology Research Group (Los Angeles) 20 Andrew Oswald, University of Warwick (Coventry, England) 21 The SOWPODS Scrabble Site (Sydney) 22 Toronto Scrabble Club 23 Leo Grillo Productions (Los Angeles) 24 Nielsen EDI (Los Angeles)

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