NUMBERS: Nov. 12, 2007

PHONE REPAIR

36.5

Average number of hours that Verizon residential-telephone customers spent waiting for repairs last year. In Maryland, the state with the longest wait time, the repair lag averaged 56.1 hr.

$17.5 million

Cost of a proposed state-record fine in Virginia against Verizon for poor service during the first five months of 2006. The company failed to fix approximately 170,000 phone outages within 48 hr., as required

OLDEST ANIMALS

405

Estimated age, in years, of a quahog clam found off the coast of Iceland. It is the longest-lived animal on record, breaking the record previously held by a 374-year-old clam

122

Age, in years, of the oldest human, a Frenchwoman who died in 1997

RACIAL HARASSMENT

$290,000

Cost of the settlement in a racial-harassment lawsuit against a Mississippi oil-rig company. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says nooses were displayed on a rig in the Gulf of Mexico

30

Number of lawsuits involving displays of nooses on the job filed by the EEOC since fiscal year 2001

SLEEPWALKING

400

Number of cases of naked sleepwalkers at the British branch of the budget hotel chain Travelodge in the past year. Almost all of the instances involved men

10%

Percentage of somnambulists who injure themselves at some point during a sleepwalking episode

Sources: USA Today (2); Bloomberg; Alaska Science Forum; USA Today (2); Reuters; Fox News