Saturday, October 4, 2008

News by the Numbers - October 2008


  • Less than 1 degree - the amount that global temperatures will have cooled by the end of the century, according to geologist Don J. Easterbrook, a professor emeritus at Western Washington University. The first half of 2008 was the coolest for at least five years and the rest of the year almost will certainly be cooler than recent years, according to columnist Phil Brennan, citing an article by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). “…This cooling exactly fits the pattern of timing of warm/cool cycles over the past 400 years,” writes. Easterbrook.

  • 1 to 7 years - the amount smoking shortens life expectancy, according to studies.

  • Early 40s - the average age at which homosexuals die if AIDS is the cause of death, according to a report on Health24.com

  • Early 50s - the average age at which homosexuals die, according to the Health24.com report.

  • 66 infants - had been left to die after abortions in Great Britain in the past year, according to the Daily Mail.

  • 66 percent - of the time during the last 50 years, Democrats have controlled both houses of Congress, according to Gary Bauer. In case any Democrats are reading this, that means Republicans had control of Congress just 24% of the time, and there were a few years when the parties split control during the Reagan Administration.

  • Mid to upper 70s - the average lifespan of heterosexuals, according to the Health24.com report.

  • 77 percent - of ads from Obama’s campaign during the week following the GOP convention were negative compared to 56 percent negative ads from McCain, according to a study by the University of Wisconsin’s Wisconsin Advertising Project.

  • 190 - the Senate Bill sponsored by Senator John McCain in 2005 which called for immediate action on the pending Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac crisis. Three Democrats, Dodd, Clinton and Obama himself led the charge to kill it. They subsequently became the three largest recipients of political contributions from Fannie and Freddie.

  • 200 percent - the amount the risk of suicide increases among individuals who have engaged in a homosexual lifestyle, according to a study published in the medical journal BMC Psychiatry. Homosexuals are also about 50% more likely to suffer from depression and engage in substance abuse than the rest of the population, according to the new study from the United Kingdom.

  • 270 - the number of electoral votes a candidate must amass to win the presidency.

  • 2018 - the approximate year when the earth will enter ““little ice age” for up to 80 years because of a decrease in solar activity, according to Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics at Mexico’s National Autonomous University. Satellite data indicate that a period of global cooling may have begun in 2005, Herrera stated.

  • 41 to 43 million - the estimated state population of Texas in 2050 if current legal and illegal immigration is left unchecked, according to Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Texas currently has about 23 million residents.

  • $4.7 billion - the annual combined costs of education ($4 billion), medical care ($520 million) and incarceration ($150 million) of illegal aliens in Texas, according to estimates by (FAIR).

  • $10 billion - the amount Saddam Hussein's government owed to communist China, a debt which the new Iraqi government has been forced to repay in full.

  • $100 billion - the amount owed to American citizens by The People’s Republic of China; a debt inherited when the communists took over in 1949, according to Congressman Elton Gallegly, (R-CA). The Chinese have not paid one red cent in the last 59 years.