How unique are you?

How unique are you? Or, rather, how unique is your name? I have a rather unusual name. I was wondering whether any other person has my first and last name. I visited a site called "White Pages" and found out that there seems to be only one other person in the United States who shares both my first and last name. There are more than 9,000 people with a first name spelled "Erich." If you'd like to find out how unique (or common) your name is, as well as the states where your namesake(s) live, visit White Pages and click on the "Name Facts" link (located over the field for "City, State or Zip." Hint: If you leave that field black, you'll retrieve information for the entire United States. If you enter a state in that box, you see only information for that state. I found out that there are at least 870 people in the U.S. named "George Washington." There seems to be only one person named "Barack Obama." There are more than 20,000 people named "John Smith." There are more than 500,000 people with the last name of "Martin." There is one person in the U.S. with the first name "Sardine." More than 90 people have a first name of "Music." More than 700,000 people have the first name of "Jose." The most popular male and female names in the U.S. are "John" and "Mary." The site indicates that it gets its information from a variety of sources:

This is what it sounds like: information that's available to the public. It includes addresses, street names, cities, states and ZIP codes. Other examples of publicly available information include published phone directories and information published on the Internet, such as publicly available social network profiles.

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City of frozen people

This article from Discover News reminded me that there is a big community of frozen people in the U.S. Apparently not alive nor dead; more than 90 people are cryogenically frozen. Fascinating FAQ at the freezing company's website. I wonder whether any of the frozen people has ever asserted the right to vote by proxy or by absentee ballot. [Question] "Please explain why you are unable to vote in person in this election." [Answer] "Because I am frozen."

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Nanny’s Gone Wild

This may actually be more about problems in cross cultural communication. But it does appear to be a case of runaway Nanny-State-ism. I have come to accept with a chuckle the warning labels on toasters and VCR's to not use them in the bath or shower. I'm sure they are slippery when wet, and one might drop them on ones foot. This is a problem among electrocuted zombies, I'm sure. But what am I to make of the warning on this product? Warning on a chest of drawers I need ANSI-Approved eye protection to open a drawer? Did an actual lawyer sign off on this? This box is actually lower quality than a similar one that I'd bought at Target a couple of years earlier for the same price. Target doesn't have them any more, so I resort to Harbor Freight. I've been mail-ordering from Harbor Freight since the 1980's, long before they had stores east of California. This is a cheap tools import house that now has an outlet a few blocks west of Crestwood Plaza Court. The prices are amazing, but you get what you pay for.

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If you like geography and applause, this game’s for you

I thought I knew the locations of most of the world's countries, but I was humbled by this addictive fast-paced game called Globetrotter. It's lots of fun, but don't hit this link, because you'll end up spending a lot more time than you intended. I know it's just a program, but I enjoy getting the applause when I do a good job. Note to myself: Study the countries of Africa better.

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