Running Numbers

A scholarly look at the digits that matter.

by Nick Norlen

2 Minimum number of Rolling Stones songs that WMMR DJ Randy Kotz claims he's able to play at one time. Running Numbers sends out a special thanks to Kotz for heeding my request for "Gimme Shelter" after airing a sound bite of me mentioning its effective use in The Departed. My media savvy is intimidating, no?

7 Number of missile batteries that surrounded the greater Philadelphia area until 1974 as part of the Nike missile defense system, which consisted of "240 key urban, military and industrial locations across the continental United States," according to House Resolution 861. The legislation was introduced in the Pa. House of Representatives Oct. 3 to honor "the men and women of Pennsylvania who offered their service at missile sites ... during the Cold War." Play it again, Kotz: "If I don't get some shelter/ Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away/ War, children, it's just a shot away/ It's just a shot away."

16 Number of CBS television stations, including Philadelphia's KYW-TV CBS 3, that became the exclusive providers of local news video content for news.yahoo.com on Oct. 17. According to PhillyAdClub.com, the deal is "the very first video agreement between a network-owned television station group and an Internet news provider." I can't tell if this is good news or not. What's that, CBS? It's good news? Can I get a second opinion? Oh, right. Sorry.

30x60x24 Maximum dimensions, in inches, allowable for physical scale models of hypothetical sections of Philadelphia designed with SimCity 3000 as part of the Delaware Valley Engineers Week Council's Future City Philadelphia Competition. Visit www.futurecityphilly.org to sign up before the last day for school registration, Oct. 31.

80 Percentage of vegetable oil — along with 20 percent methanol or ethanol alcohol — that will make up a biodiesel fuel that students at Philadelphia's Wissahickon Charter School will produce to power their school's buses as part of the William James Foundation's SmartFuel project, according to an EPA press release. I've seen Real Genius, and I don't like where this is going. Then again, maybe these kids will be honored by a future House of Representatives for causing an end to the period that will eventually be known as The Oil War. And they didn't even have to use missiles.