wug7a “She was the largest craft afloat, the greatest of the works of man.” A “floating city,” she carried only as many lifeboats “as would satisfy the law.” Unfortunately, she hit an iceberg, “the only thing afloat she could not conquer,” and thousands were plunged into the icy North Atlantic, “their voices raised in agonized screams.” … Read more
On the afternoon of April 20, 1912, passengers on the German ship Bremen were told they were passing by the iceberg that had sunk the Titanic five days earlier. Those who rushed to the rails were horrified to realize that the hundred or so white dots in the ocean were frozen bodies, held aloft by life vests. … Read more
On April 15th, 2012, the passengers of the Balmoral, a cruise ship on the North Atlantic, will pause shortly after midnight to commemorate the loss of a vessel that sailed the same waters exactly 100 years before. The entire cruise, which departs Southampton on the 8th of April and is scheduled to arrive in New York … Read more
The odds a person who survived the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912 would later commit suicide are 1 in 89. Eight of the approximately 705 people who survived the sinking of the Titanic committed suicide: On October 10, 1912, Mrs. Annie Robinson, a stewardess on the Titanic, became agitated when the Devonian steamship … Read more
How would you react if you found yourself on a sinking ship with a couple of thousand other people? A study recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests your behavior—whether you shove your shipmates aside in a mad dash for the lifeboats or selflessly put the safety of others ahead … Read more
A New York Times article published on April 19, 1912 said the Titanic was “laden with 2,340 souls,” while the British Board of Inquiry gave the total number aboard the Titanic at the time of the disaster as 2,201. Using records from the White Star Line and passenger lists, the United State Senate put the … Read more
Of the 2,207 people aboard the Titanic when it hit the iceberg, 1,664 (75%) were male passengers or crew members and only 438 (19.8%) were female passengers or crew members. The odds a male passenger would survive the accident were 1 in 5.91 (16.9%). The odds a female passenger would survive were 1 in 1.37 (73%). The percentage of survival … Read more
For those who buy into the lottery, purchasing multiple tickets—one every week, say, or five-or ten-at-a-time—might appear to substantially increase their odds. But what are the odds of winning a lottery? And do any “strategies” really work? To answer that, Book of Odds delves into the numbers behind the biggest American lottery: the Powerball. The … Read more
All things considered, escalators are remarkably safe. The odds a person will die from an escalator accident in the United States during the course of a year are 1 in 90,470,000. That’s a fatality rate of 3 to 4 per year in a country of just over 300,000,000 people. It’s shocking when a death does occur, … Read more
Someone has been saying yes to drugs, and the proof is likely in your wallet. According to a study released in August by scientists from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, up to 90% of paper money in the US carries traces of cocaine. The researchers analyzed 234 bills, in denominations from $1 to $100, from … Read more