I think it's interesting, definition-wise. "Statistics" seems to imply that it's high-level information; but real-time implies the opposite to me. You don't have a "fuel level statistics" meter in your car, you have a fuel gauge that you expect to reflect the current fuel level.
From the FAQ on the site, they use various intra- and extrapolations based on what their sources tell you, based on your computer's current clock. They suggest setting your time to December 31st, 23:59 to see the total for the yearly values, for instance.
I don't think it's "real-time". It's displaying statistical information "smeared" out over the entire year, and updating the current value as time passes several times a second.
But if I were to buy a cigarette, or become overweight, you wouldn't see the number change directly to reflect that.
Its an interesting, but ultimately pointless site. I would assume they take various statistics like "1 child is born every 6 seconds" or what have you, and then start counting from there, with some sort of timer running to update all the counts.
It seems like someone decided they wanted to learn... some sort of javascript. They decided to obfuscate large portions of it, but it looks to my rather un-educated guessing to be jQuery. I do have a question though, it has several "today" counts. When does the day start? Is it based off of your computer's time, or off their server's?
Thats a fair point and it depends. . but my guess is that on-load the server sends a timestamp (+ other various parameters) to the javascript and count is then initiated, or rather continued. . .
Here is a question that has to do with the environmental statistic of tons of CO2:
If we have "only" produced 20 billion tons of C02 and the total C02 in the atmosphere is 3.5 trillion wouldn't the half life of C02 (38 years) completely swallow our production of CO2, since it would be a 95 billion to 20 billion ratio? Or are there much larger sources of CO2 that I'm unaware of (for example the ocean, or volcanoes).
I'm not 100% sure this is the answer to your question, but it's worth beating in mind in any case:
Burning fossil fuel adds carbon to the ecosystem. At any one time some of that carbon exists as CO2, but much of it exists in other forms, e.g. in biomass. This is a cycle, but with a constant addition of carbon that had previously been locked away deep underground, essentially uninvolved. Even if certain specific molecules of CO2 only last however long, the overall carbon content, and thus the overall CO2 level, are going up.
"Carbon dioxide has a variable atmospheric lifetime, and cannot be specified precisely. Recent work indicates that recovery from a large input of atmospheric CO2 from burning fossil fuels will result in an effective lifetime of tens of thousands of years."
The usual disclaimer about the accuracy of information on Wikipedia applies of course ;-)
