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Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Culture: Quantifying Civilization

AirCanada's in-flight publication enRoute created "High Five: Five Indices of Civlization" as a tongue-in-cheek measure of just how civilized a place really is. Using the five indices (Soft Drink/Beer Ratio, Signature Carbohydrate Comparison, Babe/Hunk Index, Street Life Indicator, and Public Order Index), 24 cities go to head to head in 12 matches for the title of "most civilized". Pairings include St. Petersburg vs. Havana, San Francisco vs. Shanghai, and London vs. Mumbai. The cities are ultimately ranked in a master list, with Rio taking the top spot and Chicago coming in dead last.

While the site is interesting in and of itself, it just so happens that six of the ten most civilized cities are in countries whose football teams are ranked in FIFA's top ten. So, causation or correlation?

2 comments:

AKI SYSTEMS 2600 said...

This is interesting strange statistical math in the Freakonomics vein.

But it is also fresh and engaging for an in-flight magazine. Cuz really, those things are rather generic with their fake interviews and watered-down perspectives. This is relevant to the service and compelling distraction while you sit on the runway for a 2 hour weather delay.

Lachlan said...

This is cool, I think we should try and apply it to some brands with physical property... or to the content of thei rads).

BUT I can't understand where White Bear Lake is on the list?!?!... it should be up there, alongside Chaska and Bloomington...