Magic Statistics

My favourite segment on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is "Headlines", which features bloopers and other unintentionally funny articles that have been printed in newspapers or magazines.  In September 2004, I think it was, The Yukon News made an appearance.  (I'm not sure of the exact date.)  I took screen shots of the relevant bits posted at the show's website a few days later.

The front page of The Yukon News, said Jay, displayed “probably the most disgusting photograph” he’d ever seen.  It’s hard to disagree with that assessment.

Click on Jay to see the offending image.

A new currency note with a face value of 100,000 Zimbabwean dollars was introduced today. With inflation now running at over 1000% per annum, this is the second high-denomination note issued this year.  The Z$50,000 note, issued only four months ago, is already insufficient to purchase a loaf of bread.  In fact, the Z$100,000 note is virtually worthless on the day it appears.

Zimbabwe's latest highest denomination note, being launched today, (thurs) will buy one apple, or one small yoghurt, or the state-controlled daily Herald newspaper.

It won't buy two of anything except matches.

It won't buy a small bar of bath soap, or even the smallest pack of margarine.

Supermarket queues in affluent suburbs became unbearable as till operators struggle to count piles of the pretend notes. A week's groceries for a small middle class family will cost at least Z$15 million.

At the present inflation rate, the new note will lose half its purchasing power in just 29 days.

The black-market exchange rate for Zimbabwean dollars hit a new all-time low this week: US$1 buys $Z300,000.

Previous related post: Zimbabwe impoverished by hyper-inflation