It seems that as we move towards an increasingly “happening” society, our sentivity to numbers is decreasing. The 6-billion strong mankind doesn’t really notice numbers in millions anymore. Check out these news stories:
* [[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060810/ap_on_re_as/asia_typhoon|1.5 million displaced in China typhoon]]
* [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/08/03/day-22-bloodiest-day-for_n_26468.html|Millions displaced in Lebanon]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Abramoff|The lobbyist Jack Abramoff was involved in millions of dollars worth of bribes and scandals]]
* [[http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-08-14-voa10.cfm|Millions get displaced in China water projects]]
* [[http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/3377|Dell recalls millions of laptop batteries]]
Are we just overwhelmed with information? Do we just not know what to care about? Or do we just don’t care anymore?
ps: I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who care about these things and probably read these stories. But I’m also sure that even //they// could find other stories involving big numbers that they didn’t notice. The only stories that gain mainstream attention are typically those that involve **really** large numbers.