So it goes

Farewell Kurt Vonnegut. Plainspokenness never sounded so good. Bob Harris observes:

I also think somebody should be comparing the amount of airtime Vonnegut’s passing is getting compared to the death of Anna Nicole Smith. I believe the ratio might provide an exact, scientific, numerical measure on our misplaced priorities.

Hm, well, Google can serve as a standin here for "airtime". We'll limit it hits in the past day, which is reasonably fair, since Kurt's only been gone about that long, and yesterday was a big news day for Anna Nicole. If anything, this is probably giving Kurt an unfair advantage, as is the use of the internet over broadcast media.

Google news hits for Kurt Vonnegut in the last day: 995
for Anna Nicole Smith: 6,354

So our cultural misplacement index can be rated as 6.4.