Weekly Stats for Vital Fans

This week features a random selection of slightly disturbing stats

• Amount of money Americans spent on chocolate in 2004: $15 billion
  Source: NPD Group (reported in The New York Times) , 6/19/2005
  
• Number of brands recognized by the average American 3 year-old: 100
  Source: Albany Times Union, 2/2/2000
  
• Average weight of a mall Santa: 218 pounds
  This number is down from 225 pounds in 1997
  Source: General Growth Properties Santa survey
  
• Last words spoken on the moon: "OK, let's get this mother out of here"
  The words were spoken by Eugene Cernan, an astronaut on Apollo 17. Apollo 17 was the last spaceship to visit the moon, departing on Dec. 14, 1972.
  Source: The Observer, 4/29/2001
  
• Average annual fees and tuition in 2005 at a nonpublic American university: $29,026
  Source: Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/28/2005
  
• Amount the NRA has provided student gun clubs since 1990 to purchase guns to promote "responsible firearms handling" : $61 million
  Source: Spokesman Review, 4/14/2004
  
• Number of Americans without health insurance in 2004: 45.8 million
  Up 800,000 from 2003. Source: Washington Post, 9/4/2005
  
• Number of world's poorest people necessary to match the income of the world's 500 richest individuals: 416 million
  In other words, when added together, the world's poorest 416 million people have the same income as the 500 richest inhabitants of our planet.
  Source: The Guardian (London), 9/8/2005