10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Cell Phones

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Just when we feel comfortable enough to say "wow, cell phones have really changed the way we operate," things get even weirder. Here are 10 facts about cells from around the world that show the scale and style of our contemporary global use; sometimes for bad, but sometimes for real, cool, innovative good. 1. There Are LOTS of Them There are half as many active cell phones on the planet as there are people. When you think of the general wealth distribution across the planet, it's pretty remarkable to have over 3.3 billion active mobiles. Then again, Luxembourg's mobile phone penetration rate is 158%. Yep - that's 158 active cell phones for every 100 people. Source 2. And They Make a Mess 125+ million phones are discarded every year. Given the rate at which people go through cell phones (Koreans replace on average every 11 months), it's easy to see how the environmental side can get out of control. At least there's gold in the garbage! Yarr. Source 3. M-Voting in Estonia While the 2008 US election is abuzz with web penetration, E-stonia's been leading the global technopolitical charge. As Lithuania books a seat on the e-voting (online voting) train, Estonia's letting mobile phones both act as a convenient vote delivery platform, but also a personal identity confirmation, ushering in a new era of what is being called "m-voting".