Ames Progressive

The last meals of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s executed inmates: 7 out of 17 death-row inmates who protested their innocence ordered no meals. 30 out of 33 inmates who admitted guilt ordered last meals.

Inmate #33, of the 33 who admitted guilt, was later found to be innocent. He didn’t order a last meal.

(Kitchen Sink, Issue 14: “The Executioner’s Special”)

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The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), recently vetoed by President Bush, would cost the government the expenses of one week in Iraq and provide 800,000 kids with insurance for a year.

(Democracy Now!, October 17, 2007)

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The record for the largest collection of playing cards belongs to Liu Fuchang of China, with 11,087 different sets of playing cards, as of 1 November 2007.

(Guinness World Records)

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77 percent of the world’s oil is controlled by state-owned companies.

(The New York Times Magazine, November 4, 2007: “The New Nationalization”)

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An estimated 320,000 Christian music fans attended The Lifelight Festival in Sioux Falls, South Dakota from August 31 to September 2nd. No tickets were sold. The population of South Dakota is 782,000.

(Pollstar, Volume 27 Issue 37)

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On its first day of trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, PetroChina’s stocks almost tripled from 16.70 yuan ($2.24) to 48.62 yuan. The combined value of the company closed above $1 trillon. This is the highest market capitalization in corporate history.

(The New York Times, November 6, 2007: “In a Debut Day, PetroChina Becomes a Global No. 1″)

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3,838 deaths of American service members have been confirmed by the U.S Department of Defense since the beginning of the Iraq War.

(The New York Times, November 7, 2007)

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6 of the 11 robotic cars entered in the DARPA Urban Challenge completed the 60-mile race on November 3rd. The race was sponsored by the research wing of the U.S. Department of Defense.

(http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/11/darpa-names-win.html)

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There are 9.8 million registered accounts in the Second Life virtual community. That is equivalent to 1.5 percent of the world’s total population, or the entire population of Serbia.

(Wikipedia)

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There are approximately 100,000,000,000 galaxies in the observable universe.

There are approximately 5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 individual bacteria in and on Earth.

(Wikipedia)

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Number of nuclear weapons in the U.S.’s arsenal: 10,240.

Number of nuclear weapons in Iran’s arsenal: 0.

Number of Iran’s nuclear weapons that President Bush considers sufficient to start WW3: 1.

(The Natural Resorces Defense Council)

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Since the beginning of space exploration more than 400 human beings have traveled into outer space. Iowa State graduate Clayton Anderson recently returned to the planet after spending 152 days there.

(http://www.nasa.gov; http://www.iastate.edu)

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Estimated number of Pakistani lawyers arrested and jailed during protests since November 5th: 700.

(The New York Times, November 7, 2007: “Pakistani Lawyers’ Anger Grew As Hope for Changes Withered”)