Every two hours …

Some things happen so often we don’t pay attention. Instead, such events become the background noise to a world that only notices the big “boom” of major events. Nonetheless, these little things add up to big things:

In a single 24-hour period last week, 11 U.S. service members died in Iraq—a rate of roughly one every two hours. If soldiers were killed at that rate for a year, the total loss would be a loss of 4,015 service members.

The All-Sky Monitor, operated by the National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory, surveys the entire sky about once every two hours.

The BBC reports that, according to Pakistan’s independent Human Rights Commission, a woman is raped every two hours in Pakistan. A woman is gang-raped every eight hours.

On the brighter side, a toddler learns a new word every two hours. It only seems like the only word they know is “no.”

According to Iran Focus, a nonprofit news service that covers Iran and the Middle East, one person dies every two hours in Iran from drug addiction-related illnesses. Drug smuggling and sales amount to a $10 billion annual business, with an estimated 7 million addicts.

Dolphins and porpoises undergoing rehabilitation at Sausalito’s Marine Mammal Center are fed once every two hours.

Sources: Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, the BBC, Cognitive Daily, Iran Focus, the Marine Mammal Center.