The news behind the numbers

3.55 -- that's how many dollars it takes to buy a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in McCook this morning. It takes 103 dollars to buy the barrel of crude oil to refine that fuel.

2.5 million people are following Charlie Sheen on Twitter, and 14 Democratic senators were missing from the Wisconsin Senate before Republicans found a way to do their deed without a quorum.

11,984.61 -- that was the closing Dow Jones average on Thursday.

Obama's approval rating is 46 percent, the most recent national unemployment rate is 9 percent, 4.2 percent in Nebraska and 3.8 in Red Willow and Hitchcock counties.

14,228,502,000,000 and counting too fast to copy down -- that's the number of dollars in national debt, or $45,757 per citizen and $128,219 per taxpayer.

943,000,000 -- that's how much savings the Nebraska Legislature has to find to balance the budget, according to the latest forecasts.

Some numbers are more sobering than others, of course, but none more so than today's 8.9 -- the magnitude of the earthquake near Japan, the 200-300 fatalities already counted with many more expected, the 23-foot tsunami wave that struck the shoreline and the 21 hours the wave is expected to take to hit South America.

It's difficult to maintain an even keel when it comes to numbers, a balance between obsession and ignorance.

But as today's disaster in Japan points out, numbers have profound meaning when they represent people's lives.

Many thoughts and prayers are going out to people around the Pacific Rim.