Percentage change since 2000 in the number of Americans living at less than half the federal poverty line: +32Factor by which uninsured children in U.S. hospitals are more likely to die of their injuries than are insured children: 2
Chances that a large U.S. metropolitan area has seen its homicide rate increase since 2004 : 7 in 10Rank of New Orleans among cities with the highest per-capita murder rate last year: 1Rank of Houston and Atlanta, respectively, among U.S. cities with the most Fortune 500 headquarters: 2, 3Number of the sixteen states of the South where more than 25 percent of adults are clinically obese: 12Number of all other states where this is true: 5Number of states in 1990 and 2005, respectively, where more than 14 percent of adults were clinically obese: 0, 50Ratio in 1985 of the number of new homes with two or fewer bedrooms to the number with four or more: 4:3Ratio today: 1:3Minimum number of copies sold of Flipping Houses for Dummies since its publication last year: 17,000Chance that the buyer of a U.S. home in 2006 now has "negative equity," i.e., the debt on the home exceeds its value: 1 in 6Percentage of CEOs of S&P 500 companies whose homes are at least 10,000 square feet or sit on more than ten acres: 13Average percentage by which growth in their companies' stock prices lagged behind that of CEOs with smaller homes: 7Percentage of white-collar Americans who brought work with them on vacation in 1995 : 23Percentage last year: 43Percentage change since 1900 in Americans' average amount of leisure time: 0Percentage of U.S. households that will have a Nintendo Wii by 2011, according to Merrill Lynch: 30Portion of all Internet traffic today that is file sharing of music, films, and videos: 2/3Percentage change since 1990 in worldwide demand for newsprint: +18Percentage change in North America: -26Minimum number of different books sold in the U.S. last year, as tracked by Nielsen BookScan: 1,446,000Number of these that sold fewer than 99 copies: 1,123,000Number that sold more than 100,000: 483Days after the DVD release of Borat that it became the top item shipped to Kazakhstan by Amazon.co.uk : 4Percentage of British Muslims aged 16 to 24 who advocate death for Muslims who convert to another faith: 36Percentage who say they "admire organizations like al-Qaeda that are prepared to fight the West" : 13Number of months that mud has been erupting from the ground in eastern Java, Indonesia: 10Amount that is currently emerging per day, in gallons: 36,900,000Number of recent computer models that a team of climate experts studied to assess Arctic warming: 15Number of the models that showed the North Pole having ice-free summers by 2100: 7Grant that NASA has given an Arizona astronomer to study how to block solar rays with a cloud of small spacecraft: $70,000Number of two-foot-wide spacecraft he says would be required: 16,000,000,000,000Chance that a watt of U.S. nuclear energy is generated in part by material from former Soviet warheads: 1 in 2Number of UFO sightings in France since 1950, according to newly released French government documents: 1,650Portion of these sightings that F~ance has classified as inexplicable: 1/4Cost, from a California company, for a headset that can control a video game with brain waves: $50
Number of different moods it can read, in order to select an appropriate MP3 plavlist : 3Amount that Lockheed Martin has spent so far on Polecat, a new unmanned stealth aircraft: $27,000,000Date on which the only prototype crashed when the self-destruct mode was accidentally activated: 12/18/06
Number of U.S. prisoners freed through DNA evidence since 1989: 201Percentage who had been mistakenly identified by eyewitnesses: 77Chances that a judge in a 2003 study deemed a taped confession to be voluntary if only the suspect appeared on camera: 4 in 5Chances if both the suspect and interrogator were filmed: 2 in 3Number of days a Japanese arrestee can be interrogated without a lawyer: 23Percentage of Japanese arrestees who confess to crimes: 92
Percentage brought to trial who are convicted: 99.9Amount that a Colorado state prisoner is paid to work a day as a field hand at a local farm: 60ยขAmount the prisons are paid by farmers for each inmate's daily work: $77.20Amount the USDA's Rural Development program has given in aid to distressed rural areas since 2001 : $8,600,000,000Amount the program has given to metropolitan areas, retirement communities, and resorts: $39,100,000,000Percentage of every dollar spent at a locally owned Chicago store that is retained or recirculated in the city: 68Percentage of every dollar spent at a chain store in Chicago that is : 43Estimated amount in state taxes Wal-Mart avoided last year by renting stores from shell companies it created: $403,000,000
Portion of the worldwide revenue from food retailing accounted for by ten corporations: 1/4Percentage of workers at Russia's retail markets that can be foreign-born, according to a law that took effect in April: 0Portion of the stalls at these markets that are now empty: 1/4Percentage of national news at Russia's largest independent radio network that management says must now be "positive" : 50Number of postings by the U.S. State Department's "digital outreach team" on Arabic websites this year: 490 (see page 18)Number of U.S.-run Iraqi reconstruction projects declared successfully "complete" that inspectors visited this year: 8
Number from this sample that were found not to be functioning: 7Chance that an inmate at any of the U.S.-run prisons in Iraq has been identified as a "foreign fighter": 1 in 195Percentage of Baghdad residents who have a family member or friend who has been wounded or killed since 2003 : 77Number of U.S. soldiers who have died in combat or non-combat situations while on duty since 2001: 9,185Number who died on duty during the Clinton years: 7,500Percentage of U.S. soldiers who say they "know for certain" that someone in their unit is gay or lesbian: 23Minimum number ofWiccans currently serving in the military: 1,870
Price from an Illinois company to turn the cremated ashes of a loved one into a 1.5-carat diamond: $24,999Number of smaller diamonds the company offers in its "Family Plan" : 4Rank of Nevaeh, "heaven" spelled backward, among the fastest growing names given to American newborns since 2000 : 1Percentage change in the number of Louisiana and Mississippi newborns named Katrina in the year after the hurricane: +153Percentage of West Virginia public schools that will use the video game Dance Dance Revolution in P.E. classes next year: 100Rank of golf and basketball, respectively, among the ten pro sports Americans view as the most "ethical" and "upstanding": 1, 10Percentage change since 1994 in Barry Bonds's shoe and jersey size, respectively: +24, +18Percentage increase since 1980 in a male action figure's relative bicep, chest, and calf size, respectively: 64, 55, 70Donation Arnold Schwarzenegger was given by Donald Trump after appearing on The Apprentice in March: $10,000Amount paid on eBay in May for an unsalaried summer internship at GQ magazine: $30,200Estimated value of the "style/grooming makeover" the intern will receive: $1,500Amount Uncle Ben's rice spent this year to rebrand the "iconic character" of its fictional namesake: $20,000,000Date on which he was "elevated" to "Uncle Ben, Chairman" : 3/30/07
Formed in 1943, the Sugar Association was an industry trade gropu "dedicated to the role of scientific study of sugar in food and communication of that role to the public". Here's an example of their selfless quest for truth via a "Sugar Information, Inc." promotional poster.
Is truth scarier than fiction? Well, when it comes to Michael Jackson, arguabley so! If your little ghoul is aching to scare the dickens out of their schoolmates on Halloween, steer 'em away from that nasty ol' Deatheater or Slipknot mask. For you can get this Wack Jacko mask ($30) - definitely not sold at the Neverland giftshop!