Thursday, Feb. 15, 2007

Numbers

1,594% Estimated annual inflation rate in trouble-racked Zimbabwe in January--the highest in the world

4,000% Inflation rate predicted by the International Monetary Fund for Zimbabwe by year's end if prices continue to soar and the government doesn't devalue the currency

$25 million Prize that Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson will pay the first scientist who comes up with a system for extracting greenhouse gases from the atmosphere

$975,000 Fine that companies would pay for causing environmental disasters, under a new law proposed in the European Parliament

3 The number of half-hour naps a person should take at work each week in order to lower the risk of heart- related death, according to a new study

$150 billion Estimated amount, due to lost productivity, that fatigue costs U.S. businesses each year

800 Perfect score earned by 10-year-old Darryl Wu of Bellevue, Wash., on the math SAT--an outcome he says he "half-expected"

518 Average score, nationwide, for a high school senior on the math section of the SAT

Sources: BBC; International Monetary Fund; USA Today; AP (2); Institute of Medicine; CNN (2)