Numbers

MILITARY $16,000 Estimated cost to the U.S. military per new recruit--spent on bonuses and expenses such as advertising, college funds and other incentive programs--in 2005

$2.8 billion Current budget shortfall for meeting the needs of U.S. veterans, according to the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee

OLYMPICS $1 Price of a student ticket for next year's Olympic Games in Beijing; 58% of all tickets will cost $13 or less

$55 Average ticket price for the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000

INTERNET DATING

4 minutes Time it took Englishman Carl Dockings to propose to an American woman he met on the Internet, after flying 4,000 miles from Newport, Wales, to Chicago to see her for the first time

$649 million Estimated revenue of U.S. online dating sites in 2006. Match.com is the biggest of those sites in the U.S. by subscriptions, with 1.3 million members

KNOWLEDGE

69% Percentage of Americans who could name current Vice President Dick Cheney; 74% could name the Vice President in 1989

21% Percentage of people ages 18 to 29 who cited The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live as regular sources of their election news

Sources: Christian Science Monitor; Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee; China Daily; Financial Times; BBC; Jupiter Research; Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (2)