The Page That Counts :: Spring 2010
The average American’s debt on credit cards, auto loans, and other fixed payments in 2008: $16,600 [1]
Amount of gross federal, state, and local debt per capita in the United States for the 2009 Fiscal Year: $51,548.30 [2]
Amount owed by Corey Taylor of Chicago in 2007, when he faked his own death to avoid paying his Verizon phone bill: $175 [3]
Internal temperature, in degrees Celsius, a popcorn kernel must reach before it pops: 180 [4]
Estimated number of reported U.S. home structure fires involving clothes dryers or washing machines in 2006: 17,700
Amount of direct property damage that ensued from those fires: $194 million [5]
Percentage of Australian and New Zealand population that air-dries its laundry: 90 [6]
Total minutes spent on Facebook in the U.S. in April 2008: 1.7 billion
In April 2009: 13.9 billion [7]
Estimated number of TVs sent to U.S. recyclers following the June 2009 conversion to digital broadcasting: 27,790,564
Estimated tons of lead from those TVs that will be dumped in developing countries by purported U.S. “recyclers”: 56,000 [8]
Percentage of regional GDP spent on transportation in car-based cities: 12–15
Percentage of regional GDP spent on transportation in mass transit-based cities: 5–8 [9]
Federal government transportation expenditures on highways in fiscal year 2006: $2.3 billion
Federal government transportation expenditures on mass transit in fiscal year 2006 : $0.1 billion [10]
As of 2008, number of Emmy Awards won by Sesame Street: 122 [11]
Number of individuals who self-identified as living with a committed same-sex partner in the 2000 U.S. Census: 594,391
Percentage of same-sex couples between the ages of 22 and 55 raising children in the U.S.: 39 [12]
Number of significant differences identified in peer-group relationships, sexual identity, or relationships with fathers or other males in a study comparing the children of lesbian mothers to those of straight mothers: 0 [13]
Percentage of U.S. seniors who take five or more prescription drugs daily: 51
Percentage of those who do not feel knowledgeable enough about the drugs they’re prescribed or their potential side effects: 34 [14]
More Page That Counts |
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Fall 2009 Percentage of land protected worldwide as parks: 12.1 |
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Winter 2010 Number of Boeing 747 jets that could be built with the aluminum cans thrown away by airlines in a year: 58 ... Read more... |
SOURCES
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“Credit Card Debt: The Average American's Debt, Fraud, Credit Companies.” Brown, Jamie, Associated Content: Business and Finance, January 6, 2009.
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“Time Series Chart of U.S Government Spending,” Chantrill, Christopher, October 2009.
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“Cellphone Contracts: Hard to Get off the Hook,” Kim Hart, The Washington Post, August 18, 2007.
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Clothes Dryer and Washing Machine Fact Sheet, National Fire Protection Association, Hall Jr., John R., March 2009.
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“Time Spent on Facebook up 700 Percent, but MySpace.com Still Tops for Video, According to Nielsen,” Nielsen Online, June 2, 2009.
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Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence, P. Newman and J. Kenworthy, Washington, D.C., Island Press, 1999.
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Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Transportation Statistics Annual Report, United States Department of Transportation, 2008.
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"Same-sex Couples and Same-sex Couples Raising Children in the United States,” The Williams Project on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, UCLA School of Law, September 2005.