Where do babies come from? We may be unqualified to answer that one, but we can tell you with confidence that there’s a sucker born every minute.
Consider that worldwide 384,000 new babies are born each day, equal to the size of Wichita, Kan. Of course, some people die each day — about 153,000, equal to Sioux Falls, S.D. So that leaves a net daily gain of 231,000 humans, about the size of Lubbock, Texas.
Spin the musical wheel
In some cases maternity has made it onto the music charts. Around 1980 Loretta Lynn revealed this shocker:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTwa8dGaSRU
It took us awhile to realize that this was a music video and not a home movie, here’s Sandy Posey from 1966-ish:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVYyKtWUgjA
And here’s a song from Steppenwolf that gave birth to the phrase “heavy metal:"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm5DPlNCmtk
There is a fascinating website called Worldomoters with up-to-the-second counters on all kinds of global statistics, including population, energy consumption, economics and health.
So where do babies come from? Go ask your mother.
Every week on “Record bin Roulette,” KPLU’s John Kessler and John Maynard put an insightful and fun spin on a century's worth of discarded vinyl. The feature is published here and airs on KPLU 88.5 every Thursday during Morning Edition, All Things Considered and on Weekend Saturday Edition.