48 Hours Critical Window

Numb3rs is an American TV show which is better than that aggravating 3 in the title would seem to indicate. It does seem specifically aimed at me - young brilliant maths prodigy is the brother of a young ass-kicking FBI agent[1]; whenever a crime is a bit unusual Don (FBI) calls in Charlie (Maths Professor) as a consultant[2] - but I didn't have anything to say about it that you couldn't get from a close watching of an episode or two[3]. Then on Tuesday, at the start they flashed up 4 numerical factoids that I was familiarish with (from watching Without a Trace):

203,900 CHILD KIDNAPPINGS
90% PARENTS RESPONSIBLE
48 HOURS CRITICAL WINDOW
56% CHILDREN FOUND ALIVE

And I'm putting together 90% Parents responsible and 56% Children found alive and I'm not liking what that adds up, and I'm really not liking those figures combined with 203,900. Even if we include kids being snatched by parents who are split up and then vanish.

So anyway. That was today's depressing moment. Time for something uplifting.

[1] An FBI agent whose team is so flexible they get brought in on any type of crime; either that or the LA office is very short on big crime solving teams
[2] No nepotism going on there
[3] Not that that usually stops me