Numbers Gone Wild

2 – the number of grams less you will weigh because of reduced gravitational forces in some parts of Canada. Your weight-loss secret: It’s a geological payback from the compressing forces of the last Ice Age.

8 – percentage of drug users who get treatment for their disease.

10 – percentage increase in urban green spaces needed to drop average city summer temperatures by 4 degrees C.

13 – number of websites that the Pentagon blocked on its computers worldwide, including YouTube and MySpace. They cited lost bandwidth and security worries.

230 – number of U.S. scientists who are opposed to removing wolves from the list of endangered species.

235 – number of patents that Microsoft claims have been violated by open-source systems and software, especially Linux.

3,200 – number of common eastern kangaroos that the Australian government wants to kill because of overcrowding near their buildings in the country’s capital, Canberra.

18,000 – estimated number of dogs and cats rounded up from flea markets and “free-to-good-home” ads that are sold to medical research as “random source” animals very year. Some say it will protect pets. Others say it will just make research impossible.

13.2 billion – age, in years, of a star in our galaxy, almost as old as the universe itself at 13.7 billion years old.