Sunday, Mar. 06, 2005

Numbers

67 hr. 2 min. 38 sec. Time it took millionaire pilot Steve Fossett to fly around the world without stopping to refuel

82% Percentage of the plane's weight that was fuel when it took off from Salina, Kans.

2,600 lbs. Approximate amount of fuel that unaccountably disappeared after takeoff

77.6 years U.S. life expectancy in 2003, a record high, up from 77.3 years in 2002

5.3 years Length of time by which U.S. women outlived men in 2003, a decrease from 5.4 years in 2002

14 Number of black professors hired for tenure-track jobs at Ivy League universities in 2003

2% Percentage of tenured Ivy League professors in 2003 who were black, the same percentage as a decade earlier

$3 billion Amount a group of investors has offered to buy all 30 franchises in the National Hockey League, now shut down in a labor dispute

$497 million Amount the league says it has lost in operations the past two seasons

Sources: Los Angeles Times (3); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2); New York Times (4)