numbers: ShortFormBlog

16:33 • 1 week ago

Pentagon reveals startling increase in reported sexual assaults by service members

Tags: United States U.S. Military Crime Sexual Assault Statistics Crime Statistics numbers sc 268 • Permalink

37% increase in reported sexual assault cases was revealed by the Pentagon on Tuesday, just 24-hours after it was revealed that the head of the U.S. Air Force’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program was arrested on sexual assault charges. In total, 3,374 sexual assaults were reported by members of the U.S. military last year.
26,000 sexual assaults are estimated to have taken across all branches of the U.S. military last year, with more than 22,000 of them going unreported, according to the official statement from the Pentagon. If accurate, it would mean that the U.S. military is currently facing an average of 71 assaults per day. source

Editor’s Note — We’ve updated the post to include official figures from the Pentagon’s report. — Scott @ SFB

20:09 • 2 weeks ago

Anti-blasphemy protests turn deadly in the heart of Bangladesh

Tags: Bangladesh Dhaka Protests Religion Blasphemy Anti-Blasphemy Law Violence numbers sc 11 • Permalink

15 people were killed by fighting between police forces and protesters in Bangladesh over the weekend, after protests demanding an anti-blasphemy law turned violent. The fighting was centered in and around the capital city of Dhaka, only a few weeks after a garment factory collapse is now being blamed for more than 600 deaths. source

14:07 • 2 weeks ago

It’s neck and neck in the race to represent South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District

Tags: Politics United States South Carolina U.S. House of Representatives 1st Congressional District Mark Sanford Elizabeth Colbert Busch Polling sc numbers 3 • Permalink

47-46 the lead former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford holds over his opponent, Democratic candidate Elizabeth Colbert Busch, one day before the election that will determine which candidate will represent the state’s 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Just two weeks ago, Sanford trailed Colbert Busch by 9 points. Guess that Larry Flynt endorsement went a long way, huh? source

23:29 • 2 weeks ago

Despite explosive potential, Texas fertilizer plant had very little insurance

Tags: es texas west texas west texas explosion insurance liability insurance numbers 55 • Permalink

$100M one estimate of the damages caused by the deadly explosion in West, Texas, which leveled a large portion of the town and registered on the Richter scale. A total of 15 people died from the incident and another 200 were injured.
$1M the amount in insurance the West Fertilizer Co. had for liabilities on the property. According to one estimate from late 2012, 270 tons of ammonium nitrate were sitting on the property. source

18:54 • 2 weeks ago

Utah snake collector fights to buck “exotic pet” laws

Tags: snakes snake collector exotic pets exotic pet laws utah snake collector thomas cobb snakes thomas cobb exotic pets ct numbers 27 • Permalink

29rare boa constrictors kept by Utah man Thomas Cobb, thanks to a reprieve. Cobb had been cited and ordered to remove all but one from his home, as he lacked an exotic pet license. The police noted, however, how clean and well-kept his dedicated room to house the snakes was, and Cobb was subsequently successful in convincing his Cottonwood Heights city council to hold off and examine the case. “We see movies, we see `Snakes on a Plane,’ we see `Anaconda,’ we see these movies where snakes are portrayed as monsters and can eat school buses, and that is not the case,” he said. source

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15:49 • 2 weeks ago

Guantanamo Bay more expensive per detainee than a super-max prison

Tags: guantanamo bay guantanamo guantanamo detainees guantanamo cost guantanamo hunger strike detainee cost numbers obama guantanamo ct 103 • Permalink

$900k+ dollars per year in cost for a detainee at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. The Pentagon estimates that the facility costs about $150 million to run per year (the prison itself, as well as its military court system), which comes to the above amount when averaged across Guantanamo’s 166 remaining prisoners.
$60k+ dollars per year for an inmate at a super-maximum security prison within the United States — less than 10% of the cost of a Guantanamo Bay detainee. President Obama has touted cost in recent days, as part of renewed rhetoric on closing the detention facility, likely spurred by a harrowing hunger strike amongst a majority of those still held there. source

18:29 • 2 weeks ago

Dozens still awaiting transfer as Guantanamo Bay hunger strike continues

Tags: United States Prison U.S. Military Guantanamo Bay Hunger Strike numbers sc 119 • Permalink

56 Yemeni nationals are still incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay after being cleared for transfer back home, thanks to a suspension of transfer to Yemen following the failed 2009 Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253.
86 detainees currently await transfer out of Guantanamo Bay in total, leaving just 80 detainees which the government believes deserve to remain incarcerated in the facility. The U.S. military blames the back-up on congressional bickering, though WashPo notes the department responsible for organizing transfers has been noticeably declining in quality for more than a year.
100 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have been taking part in a hunger strike which began in February, protesting the continued detention of dozens of those cleared for transfer as well as alleged mistreatment by guards and other prison personnel. 23 are now being force-fed, with doctors prescribing “enteral feeds” for any inmate that drops below 85 percent of their healthy body weight. source

16:08 • 2 weeks ago

Latest bombing leaves more than ten dead in Damascus

Tags: Syria Syrian Conflict Syrian Civil War Damascus Bombing numbers sc 26 • Permalink

13 people were killed when a bomb detonated in front of the country’s former Interior Ministry building on Tuesday, blowing out windows and heavily damaging vehicles in the area as well.
70 were also injured by the blast, according to state-run Syria Television, which exploded inside a Damascus neighbor currently held by the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Both the rebels and regime forces also continue to accuse one another of an apparent chemical attack on Monday. sources

16:39 • 3 weeks ago

Multiple dead following assassination attempt on high-ranking Syrian official

Tags: Syria Syrian Conflict Syrian Civil War Dr. Wael al-Halki Assassination Attempt Bombing Car Bomb numbers sc 12 • Permalink

6 people died following an assassination attempt on the Syrian prime minister, according to early reports from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. A car bomb was used to target the convoy transporting Dr. Wael al-Halki; however, only a single member of his entourage was among the dead. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack at this time. source

So Zach Braff raised a ton of money for his movie, and of course people on the internet are upset

Tags: zach braff garden state movies es film kickstarter crowdfunding fundraising numbers 38 • Permalink

$2.14M the amount that Zach Braff raised on Kickstarter for the follow-up to his popular 2004 film “Garden State”—doing so in just a couple of days. Braff’s new film, “Wish I Was Here,” was going to go with a traditional financing plan, but Braff decided at the last second to take a cue from “Veronica Mars” creator Rob Thomas and fund his film partly through Kickstarter. There are haters out there because of this move, because there are always haters out there, but in his defense, Braff is trying to keep creative control and is actually putting down a bunch of his own money to create the project. Are you one of the more than 30,000 people to donate to Braff’s latest film? Let us know what you think in the reblogs. source

18:08 • 3 weeks ago

NATO servicemembers killed in Afghanistan plane crash

Tags: afghanistan NATO NATO servicemembers NATO killed NATO plane crash afghanisatn plane crash ct numbers 5 • Permalink

4NATO servicemembers killed in a plane crash in southern Afghanistan today, the cause of which is still unknown (though this does come a day before the start of a Taliban claimed “spring offensive”). A NATO statement confirming the crash suggested they initially didn’t believe there was Taliban activity in the area where the plane went down, and that an investigation is ongoing. The identities of those killed aren’t yet known, either, beyond that they were of international backgrounds. source

09:09 • 3 weeks ago

Does Politico have gender issues? Let’s look at the numbers.

Tags: politico erik wemple journalism es sexism gender issues Jim VandeHei John F. Harris numbers 71 • Permalink

25 the number of female reporters and editors that have left Politico since January 2011, a turnover rate over 70 percent, according to Washington Post media commentator Erik Wemple. During that same period, 17 men left the paper, a turnover rate of just 34 percent.
three the number of co-bylines top editor Jim VandeHei has shared with women since the paper launched. This is a particularly low number, considering that nearly all of his pieces—156 in total since Politico launched five years ago—are co-bylined pieces. Fellow editor John F. Harris has a similar track record, with 120 of his pieces co-bylined and just nine calling on female reporters. Be sure to read Wemple’s piece on the matter: It exposes the cultural problems the publication, which recently called out female New York Times editor Jill Abramson for her “brusque” manner, has with women. source

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