Numbers

AFGHANISTAN

236 Number of Afghan civilians killed by NATO and U.S.-led forces so far this year--mainly in air strikes and artillery fire targeting the Taliban--according to an AP tally

178 Number of Afghan civilians killed by the Taliban this year, according to the AP .The U.N. counted slightly more civilians killed by insurgents than by multinational troops

HURRICANE SEASON

1/100 The chance, despite the reconstruction of New Orleans' levees, that certain parts of the city will be flooded with as much as 6 ft. of water in a big storm this year

$1billion Amount of money spent shoring up New Orleans' defenses since Hurricane Katrina in 2005

ANTITERRORISM FUNDING

31% Percentage of the $16 billion in post-9/11 security grants to states and the District of Columbia that hasn't been spent. Almost $5 billion remains stalled in federal coffers

$2.2 billion Amount of new spending requested by the Bush Administration for antiterrorism programs in its 2008 budget

COLLECTIBLES

$18,000 Winning bid for a first edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the first of the Potter series. There were between 500 and 1,000 copies of the book's first run

$22 Price of the first-edition Harry Potter book when it came out in 1997. The six Potter titles have sold more than 325 million copies worldwide

Sources: AP (2); Washington Post (2); USA Today (2); BusinessWeek; Huffington Post