Fresh Loaf

Estimated years it will take to complete 22-mile Atlanta Beltline project: 25

Years it took to build the Great Pyramid at Giza: 20-30

Years it took to build a 31-mile tunnel and railway under the English Channel connecting England and France: 8

Years between the U.S.S.R. putting Laika the dog in space and Neil Armstrong walking on the moon: 12

Years it took to build the 5,600 mile-long Trans-Siberian Railroad: 12

Years it took to build the Hoover Dam: 5

Years it took to build first 88 miles of metro D.C.’s 106-mile Metrorail system: 25

Sources: Eurotunnel, PBS Online, NASA, BBC, Trans-Siberian Web Encyclopedia, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority

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People living with HIV/AIDS in Georgia as of Dec. 31, 2006: 29,254

Georgia’s ranking in number of AIDS cases per 100,000 cases in the United States: 8

Number of persons newly diagnosed with AIDS in Georgia in 2005: 932

Number of persons newly diagnosed with HIV in Georgia in 2005: 1,267

Percentage of Georgians diagnosed with AIDS in 2005 who are African-Americans: 77

Percentage of Georgians who are African-American: 29

Percentage of new HIV infections occurring in people under 25: 50

Number of promising HIV vaccine candidates in testing: 20

Sources: Georgia Department of Human Resources, Georgia AIDS Coalition, AID Atlanta

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Gallons of water consumed by average Cobb County household in
October: 6,510

Gallons of water used by Cobb resident Chris G. Carlos in October:
440,000

Swimming pools that much water could fill: 58

Gallons of water power plants Atkinson and McDonough consume daily from the Chattahoochee River: 862 million

Number of power plants located along the Chattahoochee River: 10

New jobs that proposed coal-fired power plant Longleaf could
bring to Early County, Georgia’s sixth poorest county: 100

Gallons of water Longleaf is expected to draw from the Chattahoochee each day, according to the AJC: 20 million

“Drops” of water Longleaf will “normally” draw from the Chattahoochee daily, according to plant project manager: 0

Sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The New Republic, Southern
Environmental Law Center, Greenlaw

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Pounds of trash the average American generates daily: 3.3

Pounds of trash the average Georgian generates daily: 6.6

Tons of solid waste disposed of in Atlanta in 2003: 192,363

Tons of recycling collected in 2003: 27,910

Cost of disposing Georgia’s trash in 2004: $90 million

Value of raw materials made if that trash would have been recycled: $250 million

Amount of greenhouse gases, in million metric tons, kept out of the air in 2000 because of recycling: 32.9

Tons of garbage a StarTech Plasma Converter could annihilate in one day and convert into energy: 2,000

Cost of a StarTech Plasma Converter: $250 million

Sources: Atlanta Business Chronicle, Atlanta Department of Public Works, Popular Science, National Recycling Coalition, “Georgia Statewide Waste Characterization Study,” Georgia Department of Community Affairs

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Enrollment in Georgia’s PeachCare for Kids health-care program for uninsured children in 2003: 181,172

Enrollment in PeachCare for Kids in 2007: 274,440

Number of states with more children enrolled in state health-care programs for uninsured kids: 3

Percentage of PeachCare for Kids funding that comes from the federal government legislation known as SCHIP: 73

Amount PeachCare for Kids received from SCHIP for 2007: $165.9 million

Cost over five years of SCHIP funding proposal vetoed by President Bush last month: $60 billion

Average amount PeachCare for Kids would have received annually over next five years from SCHIP funding bill vetoed by President Bush: $200 million

Iraq war’s estimated daily cost to U.S. treasury: $280 million

Sources: American Friends Service Committee, Families USA, Georgia Department of Community Health

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If the City of Atlanta runs out of water, I say we stink - and we would be the first large American city to allow it to happen.

– Ashley at Random Atlanta, in a post titled “This lack of water thing is freaking me out”

I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna start referring to the drought as “this lack of water thing.”

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Imagine an ice cream cone upside down lined with rooms and squashed a little so its cross section is more oval than round… Then make it 500 feet tall and take the elevators up to the 41st floor (higher ones need keys).

– Chris at Food, Travel And Exercise is impressed by the Marriott Marquis Downtown, designed by Atlanta architect John Portman. The atrium he describes is the supposedly the world’s tallest.

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The pushback here-the claim that those of us who dare to suggest that Marshall support this legislation are just short of being socialists-is a classic Roverian technique, and in this instance has strong overtones of race-baiting. It’s not working.

Do the right thing, Jim. Vote to override.

– Amy Morton at Georgia Women Vote wants Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Ga., to vote to override President Bush’s veto of legislation funding health care for uninsured children.

What a coincidence. So do I.

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Percentage increase in number of robberies reported in Atlanta during first half of 2007 compared with same period in 2006: 25

Percentage increase in number of burglaries reported in Atlanta during first half of 2007 compared with same period in 2006: 16

Percentage decrease in number of rapes reported in Atlanta during first half of 2007 compared with same period in 2006: 8

Percentage increase in pickpocketings reported in Atlanta during first half of 2007 compared with same period in 2006: 69

Number of men in recently arrested gang described as “driving the crime rate” in Atlanta by police Chief Richard Pennington: 8

Number of murders for which they’ve been charged or are considered “viable suspects”: 6

Percentage increase in number of murders in Atlanta during first half of 2007 compared with same period in 2006: 48

Sources: Atlanta Police Department, WSB-TV

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Percentage of high school males and females, respectively, in Georgia who graduated high school in 2004: 48.3, 58.7

Percentage of high school students nationwide who graduated high school in 2004: 69.9

Georgia’s 2005 national ranking for average SAT score: 50

Georgia’s 2006 national ranking for average SAT score: 46

Number of students who earned the HOPE scholarship for the 2004-2005 school year: 236,368

Number of students who earned the HOPE scholarship for the 2005-2006 school year: 212,940

Number of freshmen in public colleges who earned the HOPE scholarship in 2006: 38,660

Number of seniors in public colleges who earned the HOPE scholarship in 2006: 19,997

Sources: The Graduation Project, “2007 Diplomas Count,” Georgia Department of Education, Georgia College 411, Georgia Student Finance Commission, College Board

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Number of murders in Atlanta in 2006 and 2005, respectively: 110, 90

Percentage increase of homicides in the past year in Atlanta: 2

Percentage the murder rate increased nationwide in the last year: 0.3

Percentage the murder rate increased in large cities with 1 million people or more in the last year: 6.7

Overall violent-crime percentage increase in Atlanta in the past year: 4.6

Overall violent-crime percentage decrease in New York in the past year: 5.3

Number of years that crime has declined in Atlanta, according to a Georgia State criminologist: 10

Number of murders in the first quarters of 2006 and 2007, respectively: 21, 21

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Amount of money Grady Health System lost in 2006 and 2005, respectively: $20 million, $13 million

Amount consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal recommended Grady cut from its budget: $48.5 million

Total amount, over six months, Alvarez & Marsal was paid for its services: $2 million

Amount Alvarez & Marsal hoped Grady would save by offering early retirement packages to senior employees in March: $15 million

Number of Grady-operated neighborhood clinics Alvarez & Marsal recommended Grady sell: 9

Number of outpatient visits to those clinics in 2005: 888,594

Number of counties in Georgia that fly trauma patients to Grady: 14

Number of counties that contribute to Grady’s operating budget: 2

Sources: Georgia Watch, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Business Chronicle, Grady Health System

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Number of men arrested since December for engaging in sex acts in Hartsfield-Jackson International’s restroom stalls, prompting airport General Manager Ben DeCosta to say, “Get a room”: 50

Minimum number of posts on CraigsList.com’s “casual encounters” page since mid-April by men trying to hook up with other men during a layover at Hartsfield-Jackson: 4

Number of registered sex offenders Wired magazine found on social-networking site MySpace.com, as of October 2006: 744

Estimated number of registered sex offenders MySpace claims to have purged from its membership rolls since December: 7,000

Number of state attorneys general, including Georgia’s Thurbert Baker, who signed a letter requesting the identities of the sex offenders MySpace identified: 8

Days after the May 14 letter was sent that MySpace agreed to grant the request: 7

Of the 744 MySpace sex offenders discovered by Wired, the number the magazine rechecked after MySpace claimed to have purged the majority of offenders: 9

Of those nine, the number who were still active on the site: 6

Sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Wired, the Associated Press, state attorney general’s office

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Number of Georgia juveniles aged 13 to 17 who’ve been sentenced to adult prison since fall 1994 for committing one of “seven deadly sins”: 809

Minimum number of years that juveniles convicted of a “deadly sin” must be imprisoned, according to 1994 legislation: 10

Number of those years that can be paroled: 0

Percentage of juveniles in adult prison serving time for the “deadly sin” of armed robbery: 57

Number of “deadly sins” juveniles convicted of armed robbery for sticking up a convenience store with a BB gun: 1

Months that the 16-year-old BB-gun robber spent in adult prison before his 10-year prison sentence was reduced to five years: 10

Number of “deadly sins” juveniles to be murdered by an adult inmate: 1

Number of “deadly sins” juveniles released, from fall 2004 to spring 2007, after serving minimum 10-year sentences: 78

Number to be released in the next three years: 118

Percentage of “deadly sins” juveniles who are African-American: 80

Percentage of Georgia’s prison population that is African-American: 61

Sources: Georgia Department of Corrections, U.S. Census Bureau

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