The Scope

Swine flu by numbers

Names of the known human influenza viruses currently circulating among humans:
H1N1, H1N2, H3N2

Year in which the first licensed flu vaccine appeared:
1944

Approximate number of months it takes to develop and test the seasonal influenza vaccine each year:
6

Month in which GlaxoSmithKline, the company which is supplying the H1N1 vaccine to Canada, officially announced that they had begun work on the vaccine:
May

Page number in the November 1st Globe and Mail of an article featuring a survey of various Canadian celebrities’ opinions of the H1N1 vaccine :
1

Page number of an article featuring analysis and/or explanation of the H1N1 vaccine from reputed medical sources:
n/a

Number of results in a Google News search for “H1N1 death” as of November 3rd :
16,711

Number of results for “H1N1 doctor”:
10,233

Number of waves of H1N1 that are anticipated:
3

Number of waves that we have left to put up with:
1

Sources are linked.

The Index

Photo by bjornmeansbear

Birth year of Saint Augustine of Hippo, who famously wrote “Nothing is so powerful in drawing the spirit of a man downwards as the caresses of a woman” :
354

Century in which the Catholic Church began insisting upon a celibate clergy:
12th

Minimum number of times a week that having sex will decrease a man’s risk of heart attack or stroke by half, according to researchers at Queens University in Belfast:
3

Percent by which the levels of immunoglobulin A, an immune system aid, are increased in those who have sex once or twice a week, according to a University of Pennsylvania study:
30

Year in which neuropsychologist James W. Prescott published Body Pleasure and The Origins of Violence, an article which argues that sexual repression leads to increased violent behaviours:
1975

Number of credible accusations of sexual abuse against Catholic Clerics since 1950, as of 2007, according to the Roman Catholic Church:
13,000

Amount, in Canadian dollars, of the deficit ran by the St. John’s Roman Catholic archdiocese, partly due to compensation fees for victims of sexual abuse:
1.3 million

Amount, in Canadian dollars, of Bishop Raymond Lahey’s posted bail following allegations of possessing child pornography:
9,000

Sources are linked.

The Index

Photo by scazon.

Percentage change of non-residents visiting the province in the past year:
+0.7

Percentage change of camping units registered at provincial parks in Newfoundland and Labrador:
+18

Percentage change in non-resident traffic on Marine Atlantic:
+4.4

Percentage change in residents exiting the province on Marine Atlantic:
-1

Percentage change of visits to the provincial government tourism website:
+29

Number of cruise ship passengers scheduled to visit St. John’s in October:
7305

Percentage change in Airport traffic into and out of airports in Newfoundland and Labrador as of July 2009
-2.9

Sources are linked.

The Index

Employment numbers

Percentage change in population of Newfoundland and Labrador in the past year:
0.7 per cent

National unemployment rate as of August, 2009:
8.7 per cent

Newfoundland and Labrador unemployment rate as of August, 2009:
15.6 per cent

Number of Canadian job losses since the beginning of the recession in October:
387,000

National change in full-time employment from August 2008 to 2009:
3.2 per cent decrease

National change in part-time employment in August 2008 to 2009:
4.7 per cent increase

Change in employment among Canadian students aged 15 to 24 from August 2008 to 2009:
9.5 per cent decrease

Source: StatCan

The Index

Local recycling numbers.

Number of used beverage containers collected at recycling depots in 2008-2009:
149 million (293 containers per person living in the province)

Number of containers collected from schools in the province and recycled in 2008-2009:
14.4 million (199 containers for every student in the K-12 system)

Amount of money schools raised in recycling refunds from those containers, including matching grants from MMSB:
$1.4 million ($20 for every student in the K-12 system)

Amount of hazardous waste the MMSB collected in 2008-2009:
120,000 litres

Number of used tires diverted from the province’s landfills in 2008-2009:

340,000

Amount of waste dumped in Robin Hood Bay landfill in 2007-2008:
144,000 tonnes

Total number of containers collected by curbside recycling in St. John’s:
0 (check back in 2010)

Facts from
http://www.ed.gov.nl.ca/edu/k12/statistics/fastfacts.html
MMSB by email
City of St. John’s Public Works Department by email

The Index

Photo by Peter Haynes

Number of rooms sold at local hotels in first six months of 2009:
258,752
(up 1.5 per cent from last year)

Average occupancy percentage rate of St. John’s hotels:
61.4
(up from 60.5 per cent in 2008)

Number of airline passengers flying into and out of St. John’s International Airport in the first six months of 2009:
554,203
(down 1.4 per cent from 2008)

The number of out-of-province residents visiting Newfoundland and Labrador via Marine Atlantic during the first five months of 2009:
18,859
(down 1.3 per cent from 2008)

Number of cruise ship passengers scheduled to visit St. John’s in 2009:
32,370
(up 45 per cent from 2008)

Number of visitors to the province in 2008:
480,100

Average annual influx of money to the province from tourism:
$800,000,000

Sources are linked.

The Index

Names, residence and time period of the first same-sex couple in recorded history:
Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum, Egypt, circa 2400 B.C.

First place in the world to pass jurisdiction prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation: Quebec, 1977

Year in which Glen Murray, former mayor of Winnipeg and first openly gay mayor of a large North American city, was elected:
1998

Date on which Newfoundland and Labrador issued its first marriage license to a same-sex couple:
December 21st, 2004

Year in which same-sex marriage was legalized in Canada, under a Liberal government:
2005

Year in which Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper made an unsuccessful motion to re-evaluate that legalization, as per one of his campaign promises:
2006

Number of countries which grant full legal marriage rights:
6

Minimum number of countries in which homosexuality is still punishable by death:
5

Sources are linked.

The Index

Average number of hours of sunlight per year in Canada:
1989

Average number of hours of sunlight per year in Newfoundland:
1563

Minimum percentage of Canadian who suffer from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), a depressive reaction to the lack of sunlight in winter:
2

Date which Wales psychologist Cliff Arnall calculated to be the most depressing day fo the year, using a formula which integrated the weather, lack of sunlight, and proximity to Christmas: January 24th

Rank of Katrina and the Waves’ 1985 hit “Walking On Sunshine” in VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of the 80’s:
91

Minimum temperature, in degrees Celsius, of the surface of the sun:
5,500

Number of estimated galaxies in the universe, according to results collected from the Hubble Space Telescope:
125 billion

Number of people worldwide who have actually been abducted by aliens:
Unknown

Amount by which Mayor Dennis O’Keefe was found to be ahead of Deputy Mayor Ron Ellsworth in a recent O’Keefe-commissioned poll asking who citizens favoured for mayor:
Unknown

Sources are linked.

The Index

Minimum number of different sounds that an average house cat can make:
100

Minimum number of different sounds that an average domesticated dog makes:
10

Rank of the Beach Boys’ 1966 album Pet Sounds, produced by Brian Wilson, in Rolling Stone’s 2003 ranking of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time:
2

Number of months and dollars, respectively, that it took the Beach Boys and an increasingly mentally ill Brian Wilson to record their 1966 hit single “Good Vibrations”:
7; 50,000

Number of eggs that Brian Wilson ate each morning when he became a shut-in for three years in the 70s:
12

Amount in US dollars that Eugene Landy charged Brian Wilson’s family per month to treat Wilson with his unorthodox 24-hour surveillance-style therapy:
$35,000

Year in which Landy was forced to surrender his license by the California Board of Medical Quality Assurance after accusations that he had brainwashed and controlled Wilson:
1989

Year in which child psychologist Boris Levinson discovered that animal assisted therapy, or pet therapy, could help withdrawn and mentally disturbed patients:
1962

Sources are linked.

Brian Wilson action figure by www.controlindustry.com

The Index

Number of rural communities in Newfoundland and Labrador at the time of Confederation:
approximately 1450

Number of rural communities in Newfoundland and Labrador today:
less than 700

Percentage change in population of rural Canada from 1991 to 2001:
-0.5

Percentage change in population of rural Newfoundland from 1991 to 2001:
-18

Percentage change in population of Placentia from 2001 to 2006:
-11.9

Percentage change in population of Paradise over the same time period:
31.1

Rank of Marystown in the 2007 ranking of Canada’s 25 fastest-shrinking communities, as determined by the 2006 census:
2

Percentage of residents of Grand Bruit who, in February, voted in favour of government assistance with relocating the town:
87

Number of rural Newfoundland communities in which researchers have recently found a homeless problem:
5

The Index

Happy Earth Day to Mount Pearl mayor Randy Simms!

Sources are linked.

—

“…the people who build and sell cars should give me one that doesn’t produce greenhouse gas in the first place.”

Cost, in US dollars, of the FCX Clarity, Honda’s new hydrogen fuel cell car which emits only water as a waste product:
$21,600

Number of hydrogen fueling stations in Newfoundland and Labrador:
0

Cost, in Canadian dollars, of the ZENN (Zero Emissions, No Noise) electric car:
$14,000

Number of Canadian municipalities that allow such vehicles to drive on all their roads:
2 (Vancouver and Oak Bay, a suburb near Victoria)

—

“The gasoline makers can just shag off.”

Percentage of each barrel of crude oil which is used for gasoline:
45.5

Percentage of Newfoundland and Labrador’s 2007 GDP for which the oil industry was responsible:
35

Number of Canadian provinces who experienced greater economic growth than Newfoundland and Labrador in that year:
0

—

“It seems to me the challenge is to provide a plastic bag that is biodegradable, much like paper.”

Percentage of biodegradable matter that requires oxygen in order to break down:
100

Percentage of this required oxygen that typically reaches paper, and biodegradable bags, in an average landfill:
Approximately 0

Age, in years, of still readable newspaper dug out of a U.S. landfill in a University of Arizona landfill study:
50

Photo by Craig Richmond/yorkyowl.

The Index

Number of months into development that a baby in the womb begins to show preferences for certain notes and melodies:

4

Average percentage of neurons in the brains of awake patients undergoing surgery for epilepsy which exhibited increased activity when the patients were played a song by Mozart:
20

Average percentage of neurons which exhibited increased activity when the patients were played the theme song for Miami Vice:
74

Percentage by which a Brunel University student found carefully selected music to enhance the endurance of exercisers:
15

Percentage, three months after a stroke, by which verbal memory had improved in stroke victims in a Finland study who listened to music daily:
60

Percentage by which verbal memory had improved by those who did not listen to music:
29

Number of months of music therapy needed to accelerate language development in some children with developmental disorders such as Asperger’s and autism by up to three years:
1

Minimum number of songs written and recorded in St. John’s during this February’s RPM Challenge:
710

Sources linked.

The Index

Number of jobs lost across Canada since October:
213,000
tinyurl.com/cm5hsw

Minimum number of full-time employees in the Canadian media who lost their jobs in October, November and December 2008:
1,200
tinyurl.com/8gamz6

Minimum percentage of Globe and Mail staff who will be laid off:
10
tinyurl.com/dc347b

Number of jobs lost in Newfoundland between December 2008 and Januaray 2009:
1,300
tinyurl.com/cm5hsw

Percentage of editorial staff at Halifax’s Chronicle-Herald who were laid off this February:
25
tinyurl.com/c23b6g

Number of times that the Chronicle-Herald has had to lay off staff since it was founded in 1875:
0
tinyurl.com/c23b6g

Number of jobs cut across North America by international printer Transcontinental Media, who owns the Telegram and the Western Star, both of which have laid off reporters recently:
1,500
tinyurl.com/df9tlr

Percentage by which average newsprint consumption fell last year, according to Jean Majeau, spokesman for Kruger Incorporated:
15
tinyurl.com/b97svs

Number of workers at Kruger’s Corner Brook pulp and paper mill who will be temporarily laid off this spring in order to account for this drop:
30
tinyurl.com/b97svs

Sources linked.

The index

$347 million

Amount Ontario has contributed to the equalization program over the past 50 years:

roughly $100 billion

Percentage increase of charitable donations in Canada between 2005-2006:

8.3

Percentage decrease of donors:

1.4

Median donation from Newfoundland and Labrador charity donors in 2006:

$330

…in Toronto:

$360

…in Nunavut:

$450

The Index

Estimated number of years until healthcare spending will amount more than half of total provincial revenue in…

Quebec:
86 years

New Brunswick:
11 years

Newfoundland & Labrador:
17 years

Median wait time for surgical/therapeutic treatment in 2008 in…

Ontario:
13.3 weeks

Saskatchewan:
28.8 weeks

Newfoundland & Labrador:
24.4 weeks

Sources are linked.

The Index

Average number of children per woman in 2006:
1.59

Average age of women giving birth in 2006:
29.3

Average age of women giving birth in 1986:
27

First births among women aged 30-34:
26%

Number of children per family needed to maintain population in Canada (before immigration):
2.1

Sources linked online at thescope.ca

The Index

Average number of hours Canadians spent listening to radio in 2006: 20.5 hours per week

Average in 2007: 18.3 hours per week

Average number of hours for teenagers in 2007: 7.2 hours per week

Hours Newfoundlanders spent listening to radio in 2007: 18.6 hours per week

Number of cellphone-only homes in Canada in 2006: 5.1%

Cellphone-only homes in Canada in n 2007: 6.4%

Cellphone-only homes 34-years-old or younger: 68%

Cellphone-only homes in Newfoundland in 2007: 3.9%

Sources are linked.

The Index

Average hourly wage for Canadians over 24 in August 2008: $21.13

For men: $22.90

Women: $19.27

Ages 15-24: $12.39

Average price of a resale home in Canada in July 2008: $302,298

Average hourly wage for Newfoundlanders over 24 in August 2008: $18.37

For men: $20.44

Women: $16.22

Ages 15-24: $11.34

Average price of a resale home in Newfoundland in July 2008: $181,269
 

Source: Statistics Canada

The Index

Number of degrees colder world temperatures have been this year compared to the average for 2000-2008:
Greater than 0.1°C

2008’s ranking on the “Warmest Years Since 1850″ scale:
10th

Coldest year on record:
1862

Average temperature that year:
-0.616°C

Average world temperature so far for 2008:
+0.281°C

Warmest year on record:
1998

Average temperature that year:
+0.515°C

Sources are linked.

The Index

The Index

Population growth in Newfoundland and Labrador over first three months of 2008: 200 people

Population growth in the second quarter: 171 people

Population growth in Newfoundland and Labrador over first three months of 2007: -1,800 people

Total population of Newfoundland and Labrador: 508,270

Number of fish caught recreationally in Canada in 1995: 196 million

Number in 2005: 156 million

Rise in sports fishermen in Newfoundland and Labrador between 1995 and 2005: 7%

Sources are linked.

The index

Amount spent on air travel by federal MPs last year:
$26 million

Number of votes cast for Ron Ellsworth in the recent municipal byelection:
19,509

Number of votes cast Paul Sears (runner up for deputy-mayor):
7,558

Number of cod allowed to be caught per person per day in the upcoming food fishery:
5

Number of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who qualified for this year’s Canadian Idol:
2

Number of obstetricians on call this summer in central Newfoundland :
1

Sources are linked