Thursday, January 26, 2006

Fun with Numbers

[[M E D I A]] * There are plenty of good reasons for picking up the February 2006 Harper’s magazine. That issue contains not only JoAnn Wypijewski’s reporting from the Abu Ghraib courts-martial, but also an article about the recent Dover, Pennsylvania, “intelligent design” trial, written by Matthew Chapman, a great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin. However, there are some fascinating finds, too, on the “Harper’s Index” page. To wit:

Margin by which total votes for Democrats in the last three Senate elections cxceeded those for Republicans: 2,900,000

Number of seats won by Democrats and Republicans, respectively: 46, 56

Percentage of U.S. conservatives who report having experienced déjà vu: 63

Percentage of liberals: 74

Number of people whom Coalition forces have imprisoned in Iraq at some point since March 2003: 48, 526

Percentage of those who have been convicted: 1.5

Number of dominoes that a wayward sparrow toppled just before a Dutch world-record attempt in November: 23,000

Hours later that the sparrow was executed: 1.5

Price for a vibrator that plugs into an iPod and “stimulates you in time with your favorite music”: ₤29.99

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