Statistics can lie, not because they are incorrect but because they are partial, incomplete, so that sometimes what is unreported is the real fact that’s needed to see things realistically. Still, they can be interesting—and revealing. As these are, I think:

Amount of money spent per capita on lottery tickets annually:

            MI: $239

            CT: $265

            NJ: $271

            MD: $275

            GA: $319

            NY: $348

            WV: $438

            RI: $468

            DE: $482

            MA: $628

“Worldwide, snakebites cause about 100,000 deaths and 400,000 limb amputations each year.”

FDA Guidelines on acceptable levels of ‘Insect Fragments’ per gram:

            Peanut butter: 0.3

            Chocolate: 0.6

            Cornmeal: 1

            Macaroni: 1

            Wheat flour: 1.5

            Ground allspice: 3

            Ground paprika: 3

            Ground cinnamon: 8

            Ground pepper: 9.5

            Ground nutmeg: 10

            Ground oregano: 125

Sources: Lottery from “Datastream” in Wired (September 2011) p. 44; snakebite from “Salve buys time after snakebite” by Nadia Drake in Science News (July 30, 2011) p. 11; Insect fragments from “Datastream” in  Wired (August 2011) p. 36.