Everyday Life in Real Time – “Our site is a “real-time” visualization of the relative scale of different life events and natural phenomena (details on what real-time means below). You can select from various categories, time periods, and some unique units of measure that we created in the dropdowns to modify the counter lists.  Each counter counts up in sync with the event listed unless the pause button is selected. You can also click each counter to get sources as well as thought provoking articles and videos that explore the topic in depth. Some important tidbits: All statistics are based on worldwide data unless otherwise indicated Examples where “otherwise indicated” would apply are: “in the US”, “in your body”, etc. Any general terms like “Births” or “Steel manufactured” would be worldwide data. The counters should be considered “edutainment” and are not 100% accurate  While we do provide sources for each statistic (click the counter box to view), and generally try to select from higher quality sources, the numbers presented should be assumed to have an unknown margin of error. Even with the best scientific knowledge, new discoveries can take place and estimating worldwide events (especially human ones) is not an exact science. Take, for example, this new research on trees that now shows earth is home to 3 trillion trees. Previously, the “gold-standard” study from 10 years before showed 8 times fewer trees, a bit of a difference… However, this is also a fairly extreme example as estimating the total number of the trees on the planet isn’t quite as simple as counting the number of X widgets produced…”