Sunday, Jul. 30, 2006

Numbers

36% Percentage of Americans surveyed last year who said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded in 2003

50% Percentage of Americans surveyed this year who say that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded in 2003

$10 Hourly minimum wage required of big retailers--such as Target and Wal-Mart--in Chicago under an ordinance passed by the city council last week

$5.15 Federal minimum wage, which has not been increased since 1997

$7.63 Minimum wage in Washington, the highest of any state

1,000 Estimated age, in years, of a leatherbound Irish book of psalms, written in Latin in medieval times and found in a bog in Ireland by a construction worker

200 Years since a text from that era was last discovered in Ireland, home of great medieval documents like the Book of Kells

61 Age, in days, of Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt--daughter of Angelina and Brad--when her wax figure was presented at Madame Tussauds in New York, making her the youngest subject, at the time of a figure's unveiling, in the museum's history

81 Age, in years, of the oldest subject--Madame Tussaud, who did her self-portrait in wax in 1842

Sources: Washington Times (2); Chicago Tribune (2); U.S. Department of Labor; National Geographic (2); Madame Tussauds (2)