Ames Progressive

Total acreage of all Wal-Mart stores worldwide: 18,810
Total acreage of the island of Manhattan: 15,000
(Good, Issue 7, November/December 2007)

Salary of Boston Celtics’ Kevin Garnett, the highest paid player in the NBA: $23,750,000
Total team payroll of the Boston Celtics: $74,626,104
(http://www.hoopshype.com/salaries.htm)

Lap dancers tracked in a University of New Mexico study comparing tips and menstrual cycles: 18
Percentage by which tips during fertile days exceeded those during menstruation: 92
Estimated number of stripper poles sold last year for home or gym use: 59,000
(Harpers, Volume 315, No. 1891, December 2007)

Number of authorized court issued wiretaps in 2006: 1,839
Average cost in dollars for each wiretap ordered: 52,551
Number of persons incriminated from info gathered during wiretaps: 547
Number of these wiretaps issued for narcotics investigations: 1,473
Number of these issued for homicide or assault: 119
(2006 Wiretap Report, http://www.uscourts.gov/wiretap06/contents.html)

An American’s average daily consumption of meat in ounces: 8*
Total hog slaughter for the week ending December 22, 2007, the largest in American history: 2,449,000**
Total chicken slaughter in the same week, also the largest in history: 175,791,000**
Number of animals Americans consume per year: 10,000,000,000*
Percentage of the world’s meat that Americans consume: 15*
Amount of fossil fuel energy needed to produce 320 calories of meat compared to 320 calories of vegtables: 16*
(* The New York Times, “Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler,” Sunday, January 27, 2008)
(** Feedstuffs Newspaper, December 31, 2007)

U.S. soldier death count, as of January 28, 2008, in Operation Iraqi Freedom: 3,855
(http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_casualties.htm)