According to a 2010 survey, the Dalai Lama may just be the most popular religious leader in the world.

Leader of the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama is believed to be the latest incarnation of a succession of tulkus–enlightened Buddhist lamas said to be able to reincarnate themselves to continue their vows–descended from Avalokiteśvara, the embodiment of the compassion of the Buddhas.

The Dalai Lama has, in the past, been the leader of the Tibetan government. In the current day, he is responsible for the Central Tibetan Administration, Tibet’s government-in-exile.

The Dalai Lama placed second, by only two percentage points, behind Barack Obama as the world’s most popular leader. The survey was conducted in six countries between March 31st and April 12th, 2010, by Harris Interactive for France24 and Radio France-Internationale.

Role-playing games in their current form owe their existence to a 15th century form of improvisational theatre called commedia dell’arte, where players were given roles and situations without a script to guide them. It wasn’t until the 1970s, however, that Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson combined this theatrical form with Gygax’s Chainmail wargame to create the world’s first modern role-playing game—Dungeons and Dragons.

Currently in its fourth edition, Dungeons and Dragons remains the most popular tabletop role-playing game. Its future has looked uncertain at times. In the early 1980s, the game was mired in a moral panic centered on the accusation that the game promoted Satanism, witchcraft, murder and other unsavory practices. Later, the game’s original publisher, TSR, approached bankruptcy before its 1997 purchase by Magic: The Gathering publishers Wizards of the Coast. D&D recovered from these setbacks, however, and current estimates place its player base around 1.5 million.

Of course, RPG video games and the explosion of the MMORPG—Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game—have redefined public perception of the RPG. The desktop, rather than the tabletop, is now the preferred venue for role-playing (although staunch advocates of tabletop gaming might argue that this is not, in fact, role-playing).

Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft is now the most popular role-playing game in the world. Based in the setting created for Blizzard’s original Warcraft real-time strategy games, the game was first announced in September 2001. New areas of the world were unveiled in 2007 and 2008 by the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King expansions.

World of Warcraft had 11.5 million subscribers as of December 2008 and holds a Guinness World Record for the most popular RPG by subscribers. It holds over 60% of the MMORPG subscription market.

If you’ve ever seen an “I’d rather be shopping at Nordstrom” bumper sticker, take note: America really would rather be shopping at Nordstrom. According to a recent survey by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI), Nordstrom is the most popular department store in the country.

The upscale department store was founded in 1901 when Swedish immigrant and successful gold prospector John W. Nordstrom returned to Seattle and opened a shoe store with Carl F. Wallin, a local cobbler. It wasn’t until 1963 that Wallin & Nordstrom, then owned by Nordstrom’s three sons, expanded to include apparel and changed their name to Nordstrom Best. That name lasted ten years before being shortened to Nordstrom.

Nordstrom has dominated ASCI almost every year it’s been measured. Target managed to rank first in 2001, however, and Nordstrom’s rank wasn’t measured for the five years following that victory.
This year, Nordstrom ranked first with a score of 83 while Target holds second place at 80. Dollar General, J.C. Penney and Kohl’s all ranked third most popular with scores of 79.

In 2009, there were more than 6,000 robberies, burglaries and larcenies committed in banks across the United States—almost 1,000 fewer than in 2008. Thankfully, only twenty-one people were killed during these incidents and each of those was one of the criminals involved. Of the over $45,000 taken during these robberies, only $8,000 has been recovered.

Most important to those who’d rather avoid being present for a bank robbery, though, is the day most of them occurred. The most popular day of the week to rob a bank was Friday. Twenty percent of the heists occurred on Fridays, with Mondays and Tuesdays being the second and third most popular days at 18% and 17%, respectively.

The least popular days were, unsurprisingly, Saturdays and Sundays.

Twenty-seven percent of the crimes occurred between the hours of 9 and 11 am, while 23% occurred between 11 am and 1 pm and 22% occurred between 3 and 6 pm.

The statistics were compiled in the FBI’s Bank Crime Statistics report for 2009.

“The most important program on your computer is your web browser—and yet most people aren’t sure which web browser they’re using or what a web browser even is.” So begins a video, posted on Google’s official blog, which briefly attempts to remedy that problem.

Given that information, you might expect Microsoft Internet Explorer, Windows’ built-in web browser, to be the most popular browser in the world—and you wouldn’t be far wrong. Between IE6 and IE7, Microsoft’s own browser had a higher market share than any other until January 2009.

According to W3Schools, the current most popular browser is Mozilla Firefox with 46.5% of the market. This is likely due to the good publicity Firefox has received since 2004, when Forbes declared it the best browser. Since then, PC World and CNET.com have both compared it favorably to Internet Explorer. Firefox included tabbed browsing long before it was standard and, in 2006, Mozilla was known to respond more quickly to vulnerabilities in their browser than Microsoft.

The fastest growing browser is also the most recently introduced. Google’s Chrome has, since its release in September 2008, snapped up 11.6% of the market—making it the third most popular browser in the world.

On February 1st, 2009, Boston’s new House of Blues opened its doors for its first public event. After just one year, that club has become the world’s most popular music venue.

Live Nation, owners of the House of Blues franchise since 2006, opened the new club in the former location of Avalon, one of Boston’s more popular nightclubs. Concert promoter Don Law hoped to book as many as 300 shows in 2009 and, while he fell short of the mark by some 50 shows, the results are impressive nonetheless—no club in the world sold as many tickets that year as the House of Blues in Boston.

The most popular club in the world may have gotten some of its help from the location, next to Fenway Park, and the nostalgia of former patrons of Avalon. It’s also one of the few midsized venues in the city—most of the other venues in Boston can only host a smaller or much larger crowd.

The New Orleans Saints may have won the game in 2010, but the real Super Bowl XLIV winner was the same as the year before. No, I’m not talking about the Indianapolis Colts—I’m talking about Doritos. Their 4th quarter spot is 2010’s most popular Super Bowl ad.

The ad, featuring a Doritos-clad samurai reclaiming a purloined bag of chips, was part of this year’s “Crash the Super Bowl” campaign of consumer-generated videos. One of six finalists, “Snack Attack Samurai” by CBer was voted into the Top 3 by Doritos fans across America. That alone guaranteed its placement during the Super Bowl. The 116.5 million viewers who, according to The NielsenCompany, tuned in to see the ad made it not only the most popular Super Bowl ad ever but the most popular television program in history—beating the 1983 airing of the M*A*S*H series finale.

This year, the second place went to Audi’s “Green Police” ad with 115.6 million viewers and third went to an ad for Electronic Arts’ “Dante’s Inferno” with 115 million.

Since 1996, Emily has been the most popular girl’s name in the US. In fact, the Social Security Administration, the government organization that tallies babies’ names every year, named its own spokesbaby Emily. It looks like Emily’s going to have to resign now, though, as Emma has become the most popular girl’s name in the US.

Emma wasn’t the only name to outperform Emily in 2008. Isabella ranked second place, knocking Emily down to a humble third place. Following Emily, from most to least popular, were Madison, Ava, Olivia, Sophia, Abigail, Elizabeth and Chloe.

The SSA has also started ranking names by their year-to-year changes in popularity. The rising star among girl’s names this year was Khloe, which rose from 665 in 2007 to 196 in 2008. Miley, in only its sophomore year on the list, rose from 279 to 127.

The most populous city in the US is also the most popular city for college graduates looking to put their degrees to work. New York City topped a list of cities, compiled by job hunting sites CareerCast.com and Going Global, ranked by their popularity as destinations for graduates looking for entry level employment opportunities.

The Big Apple was a top choice on the lists of 83% of those surveyed. Washington, DC, which ranked second, was chosen by only 65% of the surveyed students. Los Angeles, Boston and San Francisco rounded out the top five cities listed by these first time job hunters.

The two sites also found that the United Kingdom is the most popular country for both American students and foreign-born students at US colleges when asked where they’d like to work after graduation. Like the foreign-born students, US students gave the United States third place—despite a drop in the number of US students looking to move abroad after graduation.

In the early days of popular internet culture, your website was on the bleeding edge if it had something as cool as an animated Quake logo. As broadband internet service became de rigueur, though, delivering video content became increasingly feasible. Nowadays, with amateur videos far outnumbering their professional counterparts, internet video is just a fact of life. You could probably guess the most popular video site on the net, but who else reigns in the realm of video?

A recent ComScore survey let us know which sites proved to be the most popular throughout March 2009.

Hulu – 380,102 videos watched

A mere eighteen months old, Hulu is a relative newcomer with its bevy of ad-supported movies and TV shows. Already a joint venture between NBC Universal and the News Corporation, a recent partnership with ABC Enterprises means the site is supported by three of the four major broadcast networks.

Fox Interactive Media – 437,098 videos watched

As the News Corporation’s digital arm, Fox Interactive Media is not only responsible for delivering the popular broadcast network’s shows to the internet; it also oversees sites like IGN and, of course, MySpace. Now, if only Fox would stop cancelling my favorite shows…

YouTube (and other Google properties) – 5,919,530 videos watched

Yeah, that’s right—five million videos. You’re not surprised, are you? The behemoth of video sharing had a bit of a head start; YouTube went live in February 2005 and was purchased by Google, Inc. less than two years later. Add to this the fact that, unlike Hulu or Fox, YouTube is a platform for user-generated (and, in most cases, short) videos and you can see why YouTube holds over 40% of the market share of videos watched in March.

Whether you call it pop, soda, coke or soda pop, if you’re a US citizen it’s likely that you drink soda on a fairly regular basis. In 2007, it was estimated that, on average, Americans drink three quarts of soda per week. So what is it that we’re drinking so much? Well, just take another look at that list of generic names for carbonated soft drinks and it should be pretty obvious; Coke is America’s most popular soft drink.

Coca-Cola was created in 1885 by Georgian druggist John Pemberton and was originally known as Pemberton’s French Wine Coca. You’ve probably heard that the original formula used cocaine, but may not be aware that it was also alcoholic. Of course, that had to change when Atlanta outlawed booze the next year and the resulting drink, which also contained caffeine from Kola nuts, became known as Coca-Cola. It wasn’t until 1903 that the Coca-Cola Company stopped using cocaine in the popular soft drink.

According to “Beverage Digest,” 17.2% of soda consumed in 2007 was Coke Classic. Pepsi Cola held second place with 10.7% and Diet Coke came in third with 10%.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has been a little busy since earning second place in the 2008 Republican presidential primaries. He’s worked as a political commentator and host for both Fox and ABC, spoken at the 2008 Republican National Convention and published his seventh book. He may even be the most popular Republican in the US.

The former pastor, as well as three other prominent Republicans, was the subject of a survey by Public Policy Polling. Forty-two percent of those surveyed looked favorably on Huckabee while only thirty-four percent disapproved of him. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin also received favorable votes totaling forty-two percent, but had the highest percentage of unfavorable votes of the four—forty-nine percent.

Those surveyed were also asked about former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (36% favorable/44% unfavorable) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (40% favorable/35% unfavorable).

Of course, there are more than four prominent Republicans out there. Notable exclusions include RNC Chairman Michael Steele and former Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

What do you think? Is Mike Huckabee America’s most popular Republican?

Ashton Kutcher

Actor and Hollywood prankster Ashton Kutcher became the most popular dude on Twitter in a recent competition with CNN to see which Twitter account would receive their millionth follower first.

The contest may have seemed like an easy win for CNN when they purchased @cnnbrk, an account set up to tweet CNN’s breaking news and, at the time, the most followed account on the popular microblogging site. With 947,000 followers, they were ahead of Kutcher’s @aplusk account by 30,000 followers.

The contest ended on Friday, April 17th with Kutcher streaming video on the web and Anderson Cooper on CNN, each promoting their accounts. At 2:13 AM ET, Kutcher broke 1,000,000 followers and, a mere minute later, CNN humbly conceded with a congratulatory tweet.

The contest represented a win (or, if you believe some doomsayers, the end) for Twitter as well. Following the highly publicized event, Oprah Winfrey sent out her first tweet under @Oprah. As of this writing (late Sunday night), she’s already garnered over 300,000 followers. Considering @aplusk has gained only 220,000 followers since the contest ended, Oprah may have the most popular Twitter account by the end of the month.

Then again, I’ve been having trouble accessing the site today. Maybe those doomsayers were onto something after all.

Far be it from me to turn the wheels of propaganda, but this wouldn’t be The Most Popular Journal if we ignored a story like this. After a poll of 10,000 people in twenty-two Ibero-American countries, President Barack Obama has been declared the most popular leader in the Americas.

The poll shows a 70% approval rating for President Obama—a bit more than the stateside 63% approval rating he garnered after his first quarter in office. As if that isn’t enough, Canadians really tipped the scales with a phenomenal 82% approval rating for the US President, although that was before he took office.

The Latin American poll was released on the same night of Obama’s nigh unprecedented visit to Mexico City where he received glowing praise from Mexican President Felipe Calderón. Second place on that poll went to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who managed a 59% approval rating.

Of course, it’s still early in the popular President’s term—only time can tell if he’ll remain the Americas’ most popular leader in the years to come.

Apple’s infamous App Store recently hit the 25,000 app milestone, but how many of those are worth downloading? Changes to the store since its debut in July of 2008 have addressed this issue, but users still complain about paying for dud apps that are quickly removed to save space. Luckily, third party market researcher ComScore is around to tell us which are the most popular iPhone apps.

Pac-Man – Namco – $5.99

Namco’s arcade classic has had new life breathed into it with this simple app. Players can not only relive the glory days of sinking a sack of quarters into their latest high score, but can also play in accelerometer mode and tilt their iPhone or iPod touch to make Pac-Man change direction. According to ComScore, Pac-Man is currently installed on 24% of the devices in question, tied for fifth place with iBowl.

iBowl – SGN – Free

This popular app, in Wii-like fashion, has players swinging their iPhones like bowling balls. Considering the phone doesn’t come with a strap, I’m not sure I’d want to try it. Nevertheless, it does have 24% penetration, so maybe it’s just me.

Facebook – Facebook, Inc. – Free

The most popular social network on the most popular phone is not the most popular app—but it’s close. The Facebook app allows users to view and send status updates, receive notifications and friend requests, view profiles and chat. It’s also tied for third place at 26% penetration.

Touch Hockey: FS5 – FlipSide5, Inc. – Free/$1.99

FlipSide5’s air hockey game features a nine-level single player game, 3D graphics and accelerometer-controlled lighting. You can even play against friends on your local WiFi network. The game comes in two flavors: standard and an ad-supported free edition. Touch Hockey: FS5 is currently installed on 26% of iPhones and iPod Touches.

Backgrounds – Stylem Media – Free

The second most popular app’s name says it all—Backgrounds is stuffed full of, well, backgrounds. With over 5,000 background wallpapers to choose from, you’re not likely to find a better source of wallpapers for the iPhone OS. Backgrounds has 27% penetration, second only to…

Tap Tap Revenge – Tapulous, Inc. – Free

The most popular App in the App store is the closest you can get to playing Guitar Hero or Rock Band on your iPhone and far, far less expensive. The original comes with 50 free songs while the sequel, Tap Tap Revenge 2, features over 150 downloadable songs. Players of the sequel can even play in tournaments and other contests. Aside from the original game and sequel, both of which are free, players looking for more Tap Tap Revenge can purchase Tap Tap Dance, Tap Tap Coldplay or even Nine Inch Nails Revenge ($4.99 each).

If email seems a little clunky and outdated to you, there’s a good reason for that—it actually predates the internet. Originating out of MIT in the 1960s, email addresses are now as common as telephones. Someone has to provide those email addresses, though, and they’re usually doing it free of charge.

The two most popular email services are Yahoo Mail and Microsoft’s Windows Live Hotmail. According to a ComScore Media Metrix report published in early 2008, Yahoo had a slight lead with 256.2 million accounts to Microsoft’s 254.6 million.

Surprisingly, at least to me, Google’s Gmail service falls far behind the big two with only 91.6 million accounts. This could be attributed to the fact that Gmail, unlike Yahoo Mail or Hotmail, has been accessible by the general public for only two years. That’s considerably more than AOL who, despite their seniority in the email market, have only 48.9 million users.

It’s no wonder the Musée du Louvre is the most popular museum in the world. The historic Parisian fortress became the first museum accessible by even the lowest caste when the royal collection of King Louis XVI was opened to the public one year after his imprisonment during the French Revolution. Under the auspices of such rulers as Napoleon, Louis XVIII and Charles X, the Louvre’s collections only grew.

The Louvre holds over 380,000 objects, including famous works such as the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa. Only a fraction of them is on display at any given time in the Louvre’s eight curatorial departments—Egyptian antiquities; Near Eastern antiquities; Greek, Etruscan and Roman; sculpture; painting; decorative arts and, most recently, Islamic art.

The most popular museum ranked first place with 8.3 million visitors when The Art Newspaper compiled its first list based on admissions data collected throughout 2007. It retained its place as the final tally for 2008 came to 8.5 million patrons.

I’m sure this won’t shock or amaze you, but Apple pretty much has the MP3 player market cornered with the omnipresent iPod. Since you already know that, I’ll just get it out of the way first. You might want to skip past the first few entries on our list if you’d like to know about the most popular MP3 player without an Apple logo.

Apple iPod Touch – $229-$399

“The funnest iPod ever”—a slogan that, had I heard it before making my decision, might have convinced me not to buy one. Having most of the features of the iPhone, including the accelerometer that allows the Touch to register simple movement, the most popular MP3 player is more like a PDA that happens to play music better than it does anything else. Three different models of the 2nd Generation iPod Touch are currently available, from 8 GB (the most popular) to 32 GB (which falls somewhat below the iPod Nano).

Apple iPod Classic – $249

The iPod Classic has a few intriguing features—Genius playlists and Cover Flow presentation, most notably—but its real selling point is its capacity. At 120 GB, the 6th generation of iPod Classic is a digital music player for users who think more is more and the most is even better. In fact, given no options with more memory, users have only one choice to make when purchasing an iPod Classic—black or silver.

Apple iPod Nano – $149 or $199

For those users who can’t stand having some great lump of technological wizardry bulging from their pockets, the iPod Nano is a popular compromise. Already possessing all of the features of the iPod Classic in a smaller package with less memory, the 4th generation iPod Nano also has an accelerometer that, as with the Touch, allows users to view their music collection or videos using the screen in either portrait or landscape mode. The iPod Nano comes in nine different colors, the most popular being black and blue, and two different sizes—8 GB or 16 GB.

SanDisk Sansa Fuze – $79.99-$119.99

See? I told you there’d be a non-Apple product eventually.

SanDisk’s Sansa Fuze may owe its popularity to its price—it is, after all, the cheapest MP3 player on the list that also plays videos. The Fuze has a few other features that make it stand out, though. It comes with a 30-day trial subscription to Rhapsody which, unlike Apple’s iTunes Store, doesn’t require users to pay per track. It also has a built-in microphone, a feature that even the vaunted iPod Touch doesn’t have. The Sansa Fuze can be purchased in 2 GB, 4 GB or 8 GB and five different colors.

Apple iPod Shuffle – $49-79

Much controversy surrounds the 3rd generation of the smallest iPod, which could see it lose its place to the Sansa Clip once stores run out of the 2nd generation model. The first and second generation Shuffles cater to users who want to fiddle with their music as little as possible—going so far as to lack a screen with which to navigate your music selection. The third generation takes the minimalist approach one step further and offers no controls on the device itself. Instead, Shuffle owners must use a remote included as part of the headphones that come with the shuffle. This has the unfortunate effect of requiring users to purchase new Apple headphones should the included pair ever become lost or broken. While the 2nd generation Shuffle came in a plethora of colors and a couple of different memory sizes, the 4th generation is only available in 4 GB and in two different colors—black or silver.

A recent poll has allowed ordinary Americans to vote on their own favorite actors and actresses. The poll was conducted jointly between Parade magazine and Entertainment Tonight. Participants were allowed to vote on previous Academy Awards winners in various Oscar-like categories.

Tom Hanks was voted Best Actor in the poll, proving that the two-time Oscar winner is America’s most popular actor. He has won awards for his performance in Philadelphia (1999) and Forrest Gump (1994) while competing with Russel Crowe and the late Paul Newman.

The most popular actress was Julia Roberts, who won an Oscar for Erin Brokovich in 2000. Her competitors that year were Reese Witherspoon and Jodie Foster.

America’s favorite supporting actors were Morgan Freeman, who took home an Oscar for Million Dollar Baby in 2004, and Angelina Jolie, who won her award for Girl, Interrupted (1999).

Participants were also allowed to vote on the Best Film, which turned out to be 1997’s Titanic.

Super Bowl is about more than football, snacks and camaraderie—it’s also about watching the most extravagant ads of the year. The most popular Super Bowl ads this year, however, weren’t the most expensive to make.

Doritos’ “Crash the Super Bowl” contest allowed aspiring filmmakers and amateur marketers to submit their own ads to, well, crash the Super Bowl. Two finalists—“Free Doritos” and “Power of the Crunch”—were chosen to be aired during the Super Bowl. “Free Doritos,” as it happens, became not only the best of nearly 2,000 “Crash the Super Bowl” submissions but also managed to be the most popular ad of Super Bowl XLIII.

“Free Doritos” features an office worker throwing his snow globe “crystal ball” at a break room vending machine in order to get free Doritos for the whole office. It was created by Joe and David Herbert of Batesville, Indiana.

While everyone seems to agree that this was the most popular ad during the Super Bowl, the number two spot is still contested.

According to YouTube’s AdBlitz program, second through fourth place are held by E*Trade’s “Singing Baby” ad, Careerbuilder.com’s list of reasons you need a new job and Pepsi Max’s “I’m Good” commercial.

USA Today, on the other hand, gives second and third place to Budweiser’s Clydesdale ads and fourth place to Bridgestone’s Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head ad.

Both lists agree that Doritos’ other user-generated add, “Power of the Crunch,” hit fifth place.

“Free Doritos” and “Power of the Crunch” aren’t the only Doritos winners that will see the light of day. In fact, the two popular ads merely kicked off Doritos’ latest campaign wherein the five best user-generated ads will all get some TV time.

One of the most important questions facing NBA fans today is “Whose jersey is the most popular?” Last year, the answer would have been Kevin Garnett’s No. 5 Boston Celtics jersey. This year the answer is the jersey worn by none other than the Los Angeles Lakers’ 11-time All-Star—Kobe Bryant.

Bryant’s No. 24 jersey dominated sales in the 2008-09 season, regaining the popularity they held before Garnett’s jerseys overtook them last year. One reason for their popularity may be Bryant’s switch, two seasons ago, from No. 8 to No. 24. Another possible factor is that people just like him.

Third and fourth place were held by LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets. Fifth place was held by Allen Iverson of the Detroit Pistons

NBA jerseys are made by Adidas AG.

This may come as a surprise for you but, back in the old days, people used to read books. They were made out of paper and cardboard or something. Sometimes they had pictures, but people would make fun of you for reading those. More often they were just words on paper.

Of course, in the old days we also fought dinosaurs with sharpened rocks.

Basically, people who read books are savages.

Now that we got that out of the way, take a look at the most popular books of all time.

5. Charles Dickens – A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

Copies sold: 200 million

Victorians, were known for pioneering, the usage of, the comma—and the dash. Dickens was known for his humor but, strangely enough, nobody thought this book about the years leading up to the French Revolution was funny.

4. Allah (featuring Muhammed and the Angel Gabriel) – The Qur’an (around 610-632)

Copies sold: 200 million

The rich and powerful never have to do anything for themselves. This is just as true for the omnipotent as the fabulously wealthy. That’s why, when Allah wanted to write his book, he had his people talk to our people. They had lunch. Then they wrote the third most popular book of all time.

3. Various Artists – The Xinhua Dictionary (1957)

Copies sold: 400 million

Why is a dictionary the third most popular book of all time? It might have something to do with the fact that Chinese has about as many characters as China has people—and China has a lot of
people.

2. Chairman Mao – Quotations from Chairman Mao (1964)

Copies sold: Somewhere between 800 million and 6.5 billion

Distributed during the Chinese Cultural Revolution in which Chinese citizens were all but officially required to carry a copy of the book at all times, the book sometimes acted as a Get Out of a Beating Free card. Mao Zedong was also responsible for Chairman Mao’s Poems (400 million copies) and Selected Articles of Mao Zedong (another 400 million).

1. God (featuring a bunch of other guys) – Bible (1 BC – 1 CE)

Copies sold: 2.5 – 6 billion

The most popular book of all time (unless you actually believed that Quotations sold 6 billion copies), Bible is the tale of a ragtag group of holy men and their scrappy leader taking on the world in the name of God. At least, part of it is. There’s also a bit about the apocalypse and seals and horsemen. Being over 2,000 years old, it had a head start on all the other books on the list. Some might call that an unfair advantage, but those people are all losers.

In the 7 years since its release, iTunes has become one of the most used media players in the world. This is in no small part due to iTunes’ proprietary relationship with the iPod. Another factor is the iTunes store, one of the first retail sources of downloadable media.

A recent Soundscan report has revealed the first track to exceed 2 million sales through iTunes. Of course, such a track would need to be a timeless classic, but not too timeless—old people don’t have iPods, right? It would need to be something released within the last ten years or so with both the musical acumen and lyrical genius to appeal to both teenage girls and aging hipsters.

Of course, it could also be Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.”

I can only attribute this phenomenon to the Sopranos series finale in which the song was featured. It certainly isn’t so popular based on its own merit.

Right?

Right?

Condoms are one of the oldest of prophylactics with usage (debatably) dating back to ancient civilizations. Prior to the fifteenth century, glans condoms, which covered only the head of the penis, were used in Asia. They were usually made of oiled silk or lamb intestines.

That’s right—lamb intestines. History is disgusting.

Of course, the oldest method of birth control isn’t the most popular. Today, the pill is the most popular form of birth control in the US.

There are two different kinds of birth control pills in widespread use. Combined Oral Contraceptive Pills (COCP) contain both progestin and estrogen while Progestin Only Pills (POP) only have… I forget which one. Ask me again later.

POP pills are less likely than their more robust cousins to cause weight gain and they’re not associated with DVT or heart disease. However, they do tend to cause regular “light spotting,” mastalgia and mood swings.

Okay, maybe history wasn’t so bad after all.

The most popular birth control is used by 28% of women, according to a recent study, with condoms only being used by 24%. All things considered, I feel that these statistics are better than those in a 2000 study that found that the most popular form of birth control was the surgical approach.

The Joker

Halloween is just around the corner and costume shop owners couldn’t be happier as this year’s blockbusters drive costume sales. So what are this year’s most popular Halloween costumes?

“Sexy” Rainbow Brite

For men, the most popular costume is from the hit movie Dark Knight—but it isn’t Batman. Instead, the late Heath Ledger’s ghoulish portrayal of the Joker has inspired many of this year’s costumed partygoers. His henchmen from the movie’s opening sequence are also a popular choice.

The most popular costume for women is somewhat more retro (and surprising to this particular writer). It’s Rainbow Brite. Apparently, Playmates and United Media have decided to relaunch the popular girls’ cartoon and the costumiers were ready for it.

Of course, there are always the old standbys. Couples costumes will always be popular. Then, of course, there’s my personal favorite costume concept—anything that starts with “Sexy.”

Social networking sites have come a long way since they were first introduced to the internet. Sites like The makers of Classmates.com and SixDegrees.com were pioneers in a field that eventually exploded onto the mainstream. Of course, no one remembers those sites now, but most readers will be intimately familiar with the most popular social networking sites in the world.

The most popular social networking site in the world is Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg’s notorious social networking site was exclusive to Harvard students until 2004. Gradually, the site expanded to service most universities in the US and Canada. The site was later opened to high school students, employees of large companies and, finally, anyone over the age of thirteen.

Until recently, the world’s most popular social networking site was MySpace, a site well known for its music scene. As recently as May 2008, however, Facebook overtook MySpace for the first time with 123.9 million unique visitors and 50.6 billion page views. MySpace, for its part, had only 114.6 million unique visitors and 45.4 billion page views. If we’re to believe MySpace owner Rupert Murdoch, however, that won’t last.

In general, Americans aren’t a particularly worldly people. In fact, most estimates place the number of US citizens with passports somewhere around 20%. It should be no surprise, then, that according to a recent survey of our most popular international destinations we generally stick close to home.

TNS, a respected market research organization, recently conducted their American Traveler Study, asking 8,000 respondents where they had vacationed in the past year and which they liked best among those places they’d been in the last three years.

The results indicate that the most popular destination for Americans is Canada. Of course, the price of gas and other economic factors are a likely reason both for Canada’s popularity as a vacation spot and an overall decrease in international travel. Other popular destinations include the Caribbean and Bermuda, Mexico, the British Isles and France.

The TNS Traveler Satisfaction Index tells another tale. According to the survey, American travelers found Australia to be the best vacation spot. Australia was followed on the Index by London, Ireland, Scotland and British Columbia.

If you’ve seen the movie Hackers (1995), you may remember that it used to be plausible that the most popular password was, simply, “god.” Try to set a password like that nowadays and see how far it gets you. So what are the world’s most popular passwords in this security conscious day and age? A number of lists have been made.

We’ll start off with a list published by the University of Maryland in early 2007. According to the university’s Michel Cukier, these are the most popular passwords—if you’re a hacker. The following list of passwords are the most commonly-guessed passwords used by hackers to gain access where they’re not allowed.

1. [username]
2. [username]123
3. 123456
4. password
5. 1234
6. 12345
7. passwd
8. 123
9. Test
10. 1

The following list was generated by PC Magazine in 2007. Supposedly, these are the most popular passwords on the internet today. Luckily, according to security expert Bruce Schneier, these passwords are used by a small number of users—only 0.22%, in fact. Apparently, it doesn’t take much to be one of the most popular passwords.

1. password
2. 123456
3. qwerty
4. abc123
5. letmein
6. monkey
7. myspace1
8. password1
9. blink182
10. [user’s first name]

If you happen to be using one of the world’s most popular passwords, you may want to think again. This is one area where popularity hurts.

If the most popular magazines are anything to judge by, then there are a couple of rules to abide by if you want to make your own successful magazine. First, your magazine should be family-safe. Second, it should appeal to women.

Don’t believe me? Check out the list of America’s most popular magazines.

Family Circle

Published by the Meredith Corporation, Family Circle has been called the most popular women’s magazine in America at times. It was originally published in 1932 by the New York Times and now reaches 20 million readers monthly. It’s considered one of the “seven sisters,” a group of women’s magazines also consisting of Ladies’ Home Journal, McCall’s, Good Housekeeping, Better Homes and Garden, Woman’s Day and Redbook.

Good Housekeeping

Another of the “sisters,” currently owned by the Hearst Corporation, Good Housekeeping was originally published in 1885 by Clark W. Bryan in Holyoke, Massachussetts. It was acquired by the Hearst Corporation, still run by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, in 1911. The popular women’s magazine is well known for the “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.”

National Geographic

The National Geographic Society first convened in Washington, DC’s Cosmos Club in 1888. At the time, it consisted of thirty-three explorers and scientists. Now, the society is 8 million members strong. The magazine was first published nine months after that initial meeting and has been published monthly ever since. It is now delivered to 9 million readers every month and read by over 50 million. Its popularity most likely doesn’t stem from the occasional booby that graces its pages.

Better Homes and Gardens

The third, and most popular “sister” on the list, this monthly magazine needs no introduction—the name kind of says it all anyway. Better Homes and Garden has spawned numerous home economics books, including the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book.

Reader’s Digest

Co-founded in 1922 by Lila Bell and DeWitt Wallace, America’s most popular magazine is available monthly in thirty-five languages. Published in a pocket-sized format, Reader’s Digest bore the tag “America in your pocket” from 2005 to 2008. The magazine’s popularity is no doubt due to both its general-interest nature and the fifty-two editions that are available worldwide. The publication even goes through a rigorous “localization” process to make sure that international readers aren’t threatened by our dirty American memes. All told, the magazine is read by 100 million people globally, which also makes it the world’s most popular magazine.

Parker Brothers’ famous game of economics, Monopoly, has been called “the most played board game in the world.” It’s certainly a believable title when you consider that, according to Hasbro, the game has been played by over 750 million people since Parker Brothers originally published it in 1935.

Monopoly is actually based on a game patented by Elizabeth J. Magie in 1906. The Quaker woman hoped to use The Landlord’s Game to explain Henry George’s single tax theory. Despite Magie’s original and renewed patents of the world’s most popular game, several versions of the game were created in the years before it was published by Parker Brothers. The name “Monopoly” was first applied to the game in 1910 when a shortened version called “Auction Monopoly,” which had eliminated the Georgist elements of the game, became popular.

In 1933, Charles Darrow copyrighted his own version of the game, simply called “Monopoly,” and began shopping for publishers. Despite having rejected Magie’s original Landlord’s Game twice and Darrow’s Monopoly once, Parker Brothers eventually elected to publish the game in 1935. Officially, neither Parker Brothers nor Hasbro, their parent company, acknowledge the history of the game prior to Charles Darrow’s version. They have, however, acquired Magie’s original patent.

The board as most players know it features locations in and around Atlantic City, New Jersey. A multitude of alternate editions, however, replace these properties with others more appropriate to the theme. Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition, for instance, replaces the two utilities in the game with solar and wind energy. Localized versions also exist for countries outside of the US.

Then, of course, there’s the game’s official mascot, Mr. Monopoly—known as Rich Uncle Pennybags until he was renamed by Hasbro in 1998. The character is loosely based on John Pierpont Morgan, billionaire and founder of J. P. Morgan & Co.

After many painstaking hours of research, we have compiled a list of what we believe to be the most popular languages in the world. Be warned; the results may surprise you. Esperanto is nowhere on the list.

Spanish (español) – 417 million speakers

Spanish may only be the fifth most popular language in the world, but it ranks significantly better in native speakers. Its 322 million native speakers make it the third most spoken language in the world by native speakers.

Arabic (al-ʿarabiyyah) – 452 million speakers

Spoken in over twenty Middle Eastern countries, Arabic is one of the oldest living languages in the world. While it is the language used in the Qur’an, most Muslims are not native Arabic speakers.

Attempts to speak this language on planes may be met with irrational fear, incarceration or bullets. Use at your own risk.

Hindustani (हिन्दुस्तानी) – 650 million speakers

Also known as Hindi-Urdu, Hindustani is an official language in Pakistan, India and Fiji. It encompasses a number of dialects, the two most prominent being Standard Hindi and Urdu. In fact, the conquering British in the late 1700s used Hindustani and Urdu interchangeably.

Hindustani is the “neutral” language used in Bollywood films and is the second most spoken language in the world by native speakers.

Mandarin (官話) – 1.05 billion speakers

With well over 800 million native speakers, Mandarin Chinese tops the list of languages by native speakers. Considering China is the most populous country in the world, that’s not exactly surprising. Mandarin, like Hindustani, actually consists of several dialects spoken across most of China.

English (English) – 1.5 billion speakers

It’s no surprise that English is the most popular language on the planet—after all, it’s the language spoken by two of the most formidable global powers in recent history. Will English continue to be the most spoken language on the planet? We’ll see.

Because I don’t value my sanity at all, I have decided to watch and tell you about the most popular YouTube videos of all time. After all, I have no better way to spend my time than sifting through the internet’s landfill.

Rihanna – Don’t Stop The Music

68.4 million views

Judging by the video, this song is about Rihanna adjusting her boobs in the bathroom. Also, she claps. I like to think that, had the video continued another 10 minutes or so, we would see Rihanna getting the clap in a dingy bathroom.

Best Comment: hello AMANDA what ups AMANDA YOU SEEL MAD AT ME IF YOU SEEL MAD AT BECAUSE YOU WANT TO TALK TO ME ON THE WEEKEND.AND MY DAD SAID YES IF TO HUNG OUT WITH YOU TONIGHT. BEST FRIENDS FOREVER.

Leona Lewis – Bleeding Love

68.5 million views

Leona Lewis and her crack team of multiracial stripper neighbors have terrible luck with men. This is probably why Leona likes to make out with walls, floors and radiators. Luckily for them and us, African-American Stripper set the building on fire and they won’t be whining anymore.

Best Comment: This song describes wat im going threw.My FAVOURITE SONG. Every word she says is so TRU

Lo que tú Quieras Oír

76.2 million views

I think the title means “Daddy Left Because Mommy Never Gets Off The Phone.” I’m not sure—I used a screwdriver to forcefully remove any Spanish I didn’t forget immediately after high school.

Best Comment: WHAT IS THIS??

Evolution of Dance

98.9 million views

The video is described as “The funniest 6 minutes you will ever see!” Honestly, I think it’s more likely that 98.9 million people are hot for the balding comedian in the pink shirt.

Best Comment: hey plz come watch my video so i can win a bet for $100.00!!!! i need 1000 views my next monday

Avril Lavigne – Girlfriend

101.6 million vides

Whoever decided to mix punk rock and cheerleading is a marketing genius who needs to be shot, strangled and tried for crimes against humanity. I’m going to go throw up what’s left of my brain and then maybe I’ll spend the rest of my days in a monastery where I’ll never, ever have to see anything like this again.

I hate you, The Internet.

Best Comment: It enchants this song to me !

“Popular newspapers” may seem like an oxymoron in this post-paper-and-ink era, but you may be surprised by the number of copies of printed news publications in circulation. While newspaper readership is in decline, the world’s most popular newspapers report circulation in the tens of millions.

Surprisingly, the top newspaper is Northern India’s Dainik Jagran. With thirty-two editions and 200 sub-editions, this popular daily is read by over 21.2 million people. Following closely behind is Rajasthan Patrika at 21 million.

The remaining three of the five most popular newspapers come from Japan. Yomiuri Shimbun dominates the island with 14.2 million readers. Asahi Shimbun follows with a circulation of 8 million and the world’s fifth most popular newspaper is Mainichi Shimbun with just under 4 million readers.

The most popular newspaper in the English language is The Times of India with 3.1 million readers. The most popular newspaper in the United States is USA Today with 2.3 million copies circulated.

El Instituto Nacional de Estadística published their list of the most popular baby names in Mexico in 2006. Mexican children usually have one or two given names followed by two apellidos. The first appellido is that of the father while the second is that of the mother. This naming system allows a father’s name to last two generations even through a daughter—a level of male superiority unparalleled by our own patronymic system.

The most popular baby names for boys in Mexico are Alejandro, Juan Carlos, Miguel Angel, Eduardo and Fernando. For girls, the most popular names are Gabriela, María Carmen, Adriana, Alejandra and María Guadalupe

In an effort to prove everyone from the Greatest Generation to the last of the Cold Warriors wrong, the Rooskies have carried out their most dastardly scheme yet—naming their kids something other than Ivan. Ivan has taken second place to Alexander in Moscow, no doubt in hopes that their children may one day replace their surnames with “the Great II.” Shockingly, Ivan didn’t even place among the top ten on any of the lists of the most popular female baby names.

Take that, capitalist imperialist pigdogs.

In order, the top names for Russian boys in Moscow are Alexander, Ivan, Maxim, Artyom and Mikhail. For girls, the most popular baby names are Anastasiya, Mariya, Dariya, Inna and Polina.

In St. Petersburg, popular boys’ names are Alexander, Alexei, Anatoly, Andrei and Dmitry. Popular girls’ names are Yekatarina, Yelena, Anastasiya, Natalya and Darya.

Among the general population, popular Russian boys’ names are Aleksandr, Sergey, Vladimir, Andrey and Aleksey. Popular girls’ names are Elena, Olga, Tatiana, Irina and Natalia.