US Troops and Washington

Regardless of where you stand on the issue of the U.S. involvement in Iraq, here's a sobering statistic.

There has been a monthly average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theatre of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2,867 deaths.

That gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.

The firearm death rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000 persons for the same period. That means that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in the U.S. Capital than you are in Iraq.

Conclusion: The U.S. should pull out of Washington.

Invention of the Rubber Band

Like everyone else I do enjoy a pleasant distraction from time to time......and today discovered (as part of my quest, of course), that on March 17, 1845, the fist rubber band was patented by Stephen Perry of London. Perry owned the rubber manufacturing company Messers Perry and Co., of London, England. The first rubber bands were made from vulcanized rubber. Interesting. But let us put it in context, that is, a few years after Samuel Slocum patents the stapler (1841) and a few years before Walter Hunt invents the safety pin in 1849. Does this mean anything? I doth not know...but I do knowth that neither stapler, rubber band nor safety pin should make it onto my list of new discoveries...