The Page That Counts :: Summer 2009

Approximate number of languages spoken in the world: 6,000

Number of these that are indigenous languages: 5,000

Number of languages that go extinct every year: 26 [1]

 

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Percentage of Americans who spent time volunteering last year: 26.4

Median hours they donated: 52 [2]

Percent increase in adult volunteerism since 1989: 32

Percent increase in teen volunteerism since 1989: 200 [3]

Percent lower mortality rate found in older Californians who volunteered, compared to those who did not: 44 [4]

 

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Number of cigarettes consumed in the United States in 1997: 480.5 billion

Number of cigarettes consumed in the United States in 2007: 360.5 billion [5]

Percentage of worldwide litter made up by cigarette butts: 28 [6]

Hours it takes two cigarette butts to kill 100% of the microorganisms in one liter of fresh water: 48 [7]

 

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Percentage of games the Detroit Lions lost in the 2008 season: 100 [8]

Percentage of population African lions lost in the past two decades: 30 [9]

Percentage of habitat eastern U.S. mountain lions lost since European colonization: 95 [10]

 

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Average hours per week married American mothers spent on child care in 1965: 10

In 2003: 14

Average hours per week married American fathers spent on child care in 1965: 2.5

In 2003: 7 [11]

 

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Average hours per day American youth spend watching television: 3.9

Engaging in physical activity: 1.4

Reading: 0.7 [12]

 

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Percentage of automobile passengers in America who wore their seatbelts in 1988: 45

In 2008: 83 [13]

 

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Percentage of time wild chimpanzees spend feeding: 32

Playing: 6

Picking their noses: 14 [14]

 

More Page That Counts
		Spring 2009 Percentage of teenagers who say their social life would end or suffer without text messaging: 47 Percentage of teenagers who can text blindfolded: 42 Read more...				Winter 2009 Decrease in miles Americans drove in May 2008 compared to May 2007: 9.6 billion Read more...

 

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1. An Indigenous Language Dies ‘Once Every Two Weeks', Survival International, February 20, 2008.
   www.survival-international.org/news/3086
   
   
2. Volunteering in the United States, 2008, Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 23, 2009.
   www.bls.gov/news.release/volun.nr0.htm
   
   
3. Volunteer Growth in America: A Review of Trends Since 1974, Corporation for National and Community Service, December 2006.
   www.cns.gov/pdf/06_1203_volunteer_growth.pdf
   
   
4. Volunteerism and Mortality among the Community-dwelling Elderly, Doug Oman, Carl E. Thoresen, and Kay Mcmahon, Journal of Health Psychology, Vol. 4, No. 3, 301-316, July 1999
   
   
5. America Reaches Major Anti-Smoking Milestone, American Legacy Foundation, November 19, 2008.
   www.americanlegacy.org/2820.aspx
   
   
6. A Rising Tide of Ocean Debris and What We Can Do About It, International Coastal Cleanup Report, The Ocean Conservancy, 2009.
   
   
7. Cigarette Butts as Litter: Toxic as Well as Ugly?, Kathleen M. Register, Underwater Naturalist: Bulletin of the American Littoral Society, August 2000. www.cigarettelitter.org/index.asp?pagename=UN
   
   
8. 2008 Regular Season Standings, National Football League, 2009.
   www.nfl.com/standings?category=league&season=2008-REG&split=Overall
   
   
9. Panthera Leo: Assessment Information, IUCN Red List of Endangered Species, 2008.
   www.iucnredlist.org/details/15951
   
   
10. Florida Panther Recovery Plan: 3rd Revision, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, November 1, 2008.
    http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/081218.pdf
    
    
11. Changing Rhythms of Family Life, Susanne M. Bianchi, Time Use and Gender Seminar, Department of Sociology and Maryland Population Research Center, University of Maryland, June 14, 2006.
    www.sprc.unsw.edu.au/Time%20Use%20and%20Gender%20Seminar/Bianchi.pdf
    


12. Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-Olds, The Kaiser Family Foundation, March 2005.
    www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/Executive-Summary-Generation-M-Media-in-the-Lives-of-8-18-Year-olds.pdf
    
    
13. Traffic Safety Facts, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Data for 2008 from Seat Belt Use in 2008: Use Rates in the States and Territories, April 2009
    www.nhtsa.dot.gov/staticfiles/DOT/NHTSA/NCSA/Content/RNotes/2009/811106.pdf
    Data for 1988 from Belt Use Regression Model- 2003 Update, May 2003.
    www.nhtsa.dot.gov/staticfiles/DOT/NHTSA/NCSA/Content/RNotes/2003/809639.pdf
    
    
14. Nose-Picking in the Pongidae and Its Implication for Human Evolution, Dr. Thomas L. Harrison, American Journal of Nasal Anatomy #17, 1987. www.calflora.net/primatenooz/nosepicking.html