1; Lives Saved by Fetal Tissue Research - Based on pre-vaccine averages, it can be said that millions of lives have been saved:
Worldwide:
1.6 Million deaths prevented each year by the measles vaccine.
550,000 cases of permanent paralysis or death prevented each year by the polio vaccine.
In the United States:
400,000 deaths prevented each year by the hepatitis-B vaccine.
3.9 Million deaths prevented each year, on average, by the varicella (chicken pox and shingles) vaccine.
160,000 deaths prevented each year, on average, by the mumps vaccine.
48,000 deaths prevented each year, on average, by the rubella vaccine.
114,000 deaths prevented each year, on average, by the hepatitis-A vaccine.
Fetal tissue research has been legal since the 1930s. The three men who shared the Nobel Prize for their work on the polio virus that brought about the Salk and Sabin vaccines used fetal tissue. When Congress lifted President Reagan's ban on federal funding for fetal tissue research in 1993, a number of Republicans voted yes.
Nebraska and Wyoming ban the transfer of fetal tissue; New Jersey and California are considering laws that would limit suppliers' ability to recover costs; Arizona's governor Doug Ducey has issued a temporary order requiring abortion clinics to report the destination of fetal tissue to state health officials; and North Carolina recently passed a bill criminalizing the sale of tissue from aborted fetuses (already illegal under federal law.) The Wisconsin state legislature is debating not just banning the sale of fetal tissue but making research using tissue from any fetus aborted after January 1, 2015, a felony. (Source: The Nation, October 26, 2015.)
2. Rape in Areas of Armed Conflict
50,000 - Highest estimated number of women to have been raped during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990s.
64,000 - Highest estimated number of internally displaced women in Sierra Leone who suffered sexual violence at the hands of armed combatants.
40 - Average number of women raped daily in South Kivu due to armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Source: The Nation, October 26, 2015.)
3. Steve Jobs's Jobs
$44,888.16 - Average yearly wage in the United States.
$5,155 - Average annual salary of a worker in Chins's private sector.
$3,200 - Yearly base wage of a Foxconn worker at the start of 2012.
$4,200 - Yearly base wage of a Foxconn worker at the end of 2012, following reports of labor practices.
64% - Percentage of Foxconn workers who say their pay doesn't meet their basic needs, as of 2012.
3,000 - Apple logos carved by a Foxconn iPad worker per shift.
14 - Foxconn employees who committed suicide in 2010.
9% - Wage increase for Foxconn workers after the wave of suicides at the company.
25% - Quota increase for Foxconn workers after the wave of suicides.
"In December 2014, the BBC documentary series Panomara secretly filmed inside a number of Chinese facilities where employees were assembling the newest Apple iPhones. As the documentary noted: 'The team found Apple's promises to protect workers were routinely broken. It found standards on workers' hours, ID cards, dormitories, work meetings and juvenile workers were being breached.' "
Apple's labor costs are a tiny fraction of its profits. In 2011 and 2012, the top nine members of Apple's executive team received compensation packages equal to that of fully 90,000 Chinese factory workers. (Source: The Nation, November 2, 2015.)
4.) Immigration By the Numbers
41.3M - Number of immigrants living in the United States.
13% - Percentage of the US population who are immigrants.
31% - Percentage of children living with poor families who have immigrant parents.
414K - People deported from the United States in fiscal year 2014.
4.7M - People who would be spared from deportation under an Obama executive order blocked by federal courts.
M stands for million and K stands for thousand.
5.) Some Solar Energy Factoids
*Enough sunlight strikes Earth every 104 minutes to power the entire world for a year.
* The United States has the space and sunlight to provide 100 times its annual power demand with solar.
*Rooftop solar panels alone could meet 1/5 of US electricity demand.
*Carbon savings from existing US solar panels offset the equivalent of 3.5 million cars.
*Since the mid-2000s, the power generated by new solar installations has grown, on average, 66% a year, far outpacing any other energy source.
*Venture capital funding for solar in the first quarter of 2013: $126 million. In the first quarter of 2014: $251 million.
*Average cost of solar panels in 1972: $75/watt.
*Average cost today: Less than $1/watt.
*Expected cost of Chinese panels in 2015: 42C/watt. C stands for cent.
( Source for above: Mother Jones, September/October 2014.)
New electricity generating capacity installed in the United States, first quarter of 2014: solar - 74%; wind - 20%; natural gas - 4%. (Source: Solar Energy Industries Association.)
Total installed photovoltaic capacity (in gigawatts): the USA - about 12; China - about 18; Germany - about 36. (Source: International Energy Agency.)
6.) Ex-Felon Right to Vote in Florida
3.35% - Proportion of voting-age African Americans who can't vote because they're ex-felons, nationally.
19.39% - Proportion of voting-age African Americans who can't vote because they're ex-felons, in Florida.
50% - Florida's share of America's disenfranchised ex-felons.
(Source for Above: The Sentencing Project.)
7.) Among the Petty Crimes That Can Cost Floridians Their Right to Vote
*Alter an odometer to reflect a lower mileage.
*Tamper with someone else's fishing gear.
*Forge a certificate to fish for spiny lobster.
*Possess excess trout, snook, or redfish during the community harvest.
*Kill, injure, or possess an alligator egg without the proper authority.
*Present a forged lottery ticket.
*Sell illegally hunted deer or turkey.
*Sell cigarettes marked "for export only."
*Let a student midwife practice without a supervisor.
*Disclose a confidential car crash report to an unauthorized person.
*Maliciously disseminate information about another person's sexually transmitted disease.
(Source for above: Mother Jones, November/December 2015.)
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