21.   Demographics and hard data, some say.

22.   Despite the lack of hard data, many doctors and patients became convinced that a bone-marrow transplant was the last hope for women with aggressive breast cancer.

23.   Earl Sweeney, the director of the New Hampshire Police Standards and Training Council, said hard data on drag racing deaths this year and last were not available.

24.   Economists have bemoaned the lack of hard data available measuring the effects of the quake on employment and business.

25.   Even without hard data, some school security experts and students said that since the Littleton shootings, they have observed several useful trends on the local level.

26.   Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, meeting with House and Senate leaders Wednesday, urged them to stand back and wait for hard data, lawmakers said.

27.   Gertler said the lack of hard data on the effectiveness of Web visits has tempered their being accepted.

28.   Gathering hard demographic data on Web users is difficult.

29.   Given the lack of hard data, few experts would dispute that the sharp increase in prescriptions for toddlers is disturbing, particularly over so brief a period.

30.   Hard data is skimpy, but the anecdotal evidence is frightening.