Running the Numbers looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 32,000 breast augmentation surgeries in the U.S. every month.

This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. Employing themes such as the near versus the far, and the one versus the many, I hope to raise some questions about the roles and responsibilities we each play as individuals in a collective that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.

• Packing Peanuts

Depicts 166,000 packing peanuts, equal to the number of overnight packages shipped by air in the U.S. every hour.

• Oil Barrels

Depicts 28,000 42-gallon barrels, the amount of oil consumed in the United States every two minutes (equal to the flow of a medium-sized river).

• Toothpicks

Depicts one hundred million toothpicks, equal to the number of trees cut in the U.S. yearly to make the paper for junk mail.

• Barbie Dolls

Depicts 32,000 Barbies, equal to the number of elective breast augmentation surgeries performed monthly in the US in 2006.

Intel debuted and demonstrated its Single-chip Cloud Computer (SCC) processor Wednesday. The processor has 48 cores–24 dual-core “tiles”–connected with a high-speed mesh network. Intel wants the experimental chip, at least 100 of which it’ll distribute to researchers in 2010, to lead to new attempts to tackle multicore system and software design. Ultimately, Intel believes its aggressive multicore approach will be the way computers get enough power for tasks such as vision and speech comparable to what humans have.

Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner showed off the SCC chip. Here he holds a silicon wafer of the processors at a press event in San Francisco. The processor consumes between 25 and 125 watts of power-the numbers from Rattner’s slide presentation projected on the wafer.

Intel had two SCC prototype computers on display. Because the SCC chips use ordinary x86 processor cores, regular software such as Windows and Linux can run on them. The SCC systems can accommodate up to 64GB of memory, but this machine had 16GB.

Intel’s SCC chip’s x86 cores each are comparable in power to the lower-end Atom line used in Netbooks today. Intel expects programmers eventually will have to reckon with many more cores. That’s an issue that the computing industry is struggling to adjust to because most PC software is geared to perform a single sequence of instructions, not many things in parallel.

Each node on the SCC chip includes two x86 cores with its own memory cache. Linking them to the outside world is router circuitry that handles networking on the chip. The network lets processors exchange information and communicate with any of four DDR3 memory banks.

Here is what the description says: “Battle Mug starts as a 13.5 pound solid block of 6061 T6 billet aluminium before it enters a state of the art CNC facility which produces specialized parts and equipment for the U.S. Department of Defense, major weapons manufacturers, NASA…etc. Built to military specifications, Battle Mug features a M1913 rail interface system which allows the operator to mount a standard issue M4 carry handle, tactical light, laser device…” Each unit costs $279.

The whole truth about the attack on Silvio Berlusconi.

Scientists believe that common sexually transmitted diseases like chlamydia and the herpes virus could increase the chances of someone having a stroke. They believe that the common pathogens could accelerate arterial disease, which itself increases the chances of someone having a stroke.

The study, published in the online edition of the Archives of Neurology, tracked 1,625 adults in Manhatten from a multi-ethnic communition over a period of 7.6 years. Over the study time, 67 of them suffered a stroke and even when risk factors like diabetes or smoking were taken into account, the team discovered that the majority of them were positive in tests for one of the pathogens.

The results further showed that people with a history of several of the infections, which also included the bacteria that cause stomach viruses and cytomegalovirus, were 40% more likely to experience a stroke.

However the team are unsure how the pathogens harm arterial function. The leader of the study, Dr. Mitchell Elkind, said that possibly the pathogens disrupt the normal functioning of the arterial walls, or that chronic infection leads to the blood vessels becoming inflamed.

If it is definitely proved that herpes and chlamydia, as well as other pathogens, can increase the chance of stroke it could result in a dramatic change in the government’s approach to encouraging people to go for a chlamydia test or practice safe sex.

Herpes has become an increasingly common sexually transmitted infection in Britain and the government are eager to make people more aware of the need to have safe sex to prevent it. Though it was not thought to have any serious consequences for health, it is a chronic infection for which there is no cure, meaning that even if a herpes test is positive herpes treatment can only manage it rather than eradicate it. It can be embarrassing and painful (though herpes treatment shortens the outbreaks), with sufferers developing weeping blisters around their genital area.

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Previously, the biggest concern about chlamydia has been the possibility of it leading to infertility, as it can cause the fallopian tubes to become blocked. The possibility of infertility has been a key message health authorities have sought to get across to encourage people to have a chlamydia test.

Over the past couple of years, research has increasingly suggested that pathogens like chlamydia and herpes could be associated with coronary heart disease. There was previously a study that showed that untreated gum disease and other infections in the mouth could be spread throughout the body and result in cardiovascular problems.

Dr. Elkind and his team concluded, “Each individual infection was positively, though not significantly, associated with stroke risk after adjusting for other risk factors. The infectious burden index was associated with an increased risk of all strokes after adjusting for demographics and risk factors.“

Strutting down the catwalk in supersize six-inch heels can be a perilous sport – just ask the clumsy clothes horse who came a cropper, at Milan Fashion Week. Let’s face it, we girls are head over heels about shoes, but put one foot wrong and those sexy skyscrapers can become a girl’s worst nightmare.

Now if this isn’t the worse thing that can happen on the runway, tell me what is?

In 1993, a giggling Campbell falls off 10-inch platform boots at Vivienne Westwood’s runway show in Paris. The lace-up boots go on display in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, and Campbell uses another pair as a doorstopper in her London flat.

The picture is not what it appears to be. Alas, it is not photographic evidence of an exciting new trend in audience servicing. Rather, it’s a model falling off the catwalk. But a fellow can fantasize, can’t he?

Famous people fall, too. It’s just surprising how rarely we catch them doing so. You’ll especially love the part where Electra blows a kiss to the crowd, sashays backstage and then bites it. But wait, there’s more: A would-be rescuer makes her own trip to the ground.

Right dress, right sunglasses, wrong shoes! This model takes a fall after walking onto the catwalk at the Dior 2008 show, with extremely uncomfortable high inch heels.

In a case of subpar infrastructure, the stage of the Sha Dang show during L.A. Fashion Week 2007 couldn’t quite withstand the pressure of an acrobatic martial arts display before the fashion walks began. Now former TV Bachelor Sarah Welch is sueing the company responsable for the event.

A model trips on the runway during Sass & Bide’s Spring Collections 2007.

There are basic moves to do this dance: Pinwheel both arms, sending the right arm up and the left arm down as you dip towards the ground. Freeze. Smile like you know what you’re doing. Push out your chest as if you’re on the verge of a nip-slip. On tiptoe, spread your legs slightly, but do not flash your panties. Stand up. Do it again. Try it and good luck!

Alexandra Tomlinson took a spill on the Chanel Couture runway in Paris on 1/27/09. Grazia reports that a member of the front row helped her up. A play-by-play of the fall hasn’t yet surfaced, since, sadly, they don’t broadcast the couture shows like hockey games. But the shoes are pretty high so perhaps they’re to blame.

When the only skill required to be a runway model is walking, you’d think they’d excel at it. Guess not.

Two models fell down during a fashion event. According to Miuccia Prada, “these falls made my show at Milan Fashion Week (2009 Spring Collection) last September memorable”. But one beauty said: “I was having a panic attack, my hands were shaking. The heels were so high.” Some of the girls were so scared they were crying backstage. While Miuccia was enjoying the success, her models were terrified about walking out in those skyscraper-heels.

She literally bites the dust! Poor girl!

Everyone knew this brunette girl was going to make a big splash in the world of fashion someday…

Karen Elson falls for Zac Posen. His shows are normally perfectly orchestrated, but he couldn’t have foreseen this twist in the finale of his Fall 2008 collection: Karen Elson, wearing Posen’s last look, took tumble on the industrial-carpeted runway.

Sydney, Australia. Visitors to the shopping center Pitt Street Mall were shocked by the appearance of a naked girl, whose body was decorated with numerous tattoos which covered a small plate with the slogan “Ink, Not Mink“.

Ink, Not Mink – the motto of the International Society for the Protection of Animal Rights PETA, means being ready to cover his body with tattoos, but never to wear products made from mink.