5/97Rank of China among the least effective lobbyists in Washington, according to U.S. Ambassador Jim Sasser: 1

U.S. Department of State

5/97Number of “active” dissidents in China at the end of last year, according to the State Department: 0

U.S. Department of State

5/97Amount by which U.S. exports to China last year fell short of U.S. exports to Belgium: $542,000,000

U.S. Bureau of the Census

5/97Amount the World Bank will finish spending this year on an expansion of its Washington headquarters: $314,000,000

World Bank (Washington)

    Ratio of the project’s cost overruns to overdue debt the Bank’s client countries cannot exceed without penalty: 5,150:1

World Bank (Washington)

5/97Contributions to the DNC made by White House overnight guests, per square foot of the Lincoln bedroom: $14,442.50

White House Curator’s Office/New York Times

5/97Amount the Cheyenne-Arapaho tribe took from its welfare fund last year to donate to the DNC: $107,000

Cheyenne-Arapaho Indians of Oklahoma (Oklahoma City)

5/97Chance that an African-American man was ineligible to vote last year due to former or current imprisonment: 1 in 7

The Sentencing Project (Washington)

5/97Percentage of female prison inmates who are mothers: 78

Chicago Legal Aid to Incarcerated Mothers

5/97Average number of hours per week of public service performed last year by each Ohio prisoner who volunteered for it: 4.3

Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (Columbus)

    Average number of hours per week of public service performed last year by a free American: 4.2

Independent Sector (Washington)

5/97Percentage of law students who default on their loans within three years of graduation: 17

Access Group (Washington)

5/97Median jury award made against a U.S. news media company last year: $2,380,000

Libel Defense Resource Center (N.Y.C.)

    Median award in 1990: $550,000

Libel Defense Resource Center (N.Y.C.)

5/97Rank of Food Lion among U.S. employers that have paid the largest fines for overtime- and minimum-wage violations: 1

U.S. Department of Labor

5/97Rank of the Manpower temporary agency among U.S. companies employing the largest number of workers: 1

Manpower International Inc. (Milwaukee)/Ward’s Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies

5/97Chance that a U.S. psychotherapist has a second job: 1 in 3

American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (Washington)

5/97Chance that a San Francisco AIDS doctor has helped at least one patient commit suicide: 1 in 2

New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 336, No.6

5/97Number of the 133 U.S. polio cases reported between 1980 and 1994 that were caused by the vaccine: 125

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta)

5/97Average number of toxic spills that take place each day in the U.S.: 21

National Environmental Law Center (Boston)

5/97Percentage of Minnesota counties reporting a “highly unusual number” of deformed frogs last year: 62

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (St. Paul)

5/97Number of times Kermit the Frog has delivered a college graduation commencement address: 2

Jim Henson Productions (N.Y.C.)

5/97Percentage change since 1980 in the number of college freshmen who say they feel “overwhelmed”: +100

Higher Education Research Institute (Los Angeles)

5/97Ratio of decibels emitted by an airplane jet engine to those emitted by “the Trap,” a new car alarm: 1:1

Ampro Electronics Inc. (Santa Monica, Calif.)

5/97Number of microphones installed in Redwood City, California, last August as part of its “Urban Gunfire Location System”: 8

Redwood City Police Department (Calif.)

    Number of town residents killed by random gunfire before the program was instituted: 0

Redwood City Police Department (Calif.)

5/97Percentage change since 1993 in the number of licensed U.S. gun dealers: -57

U.S. Department of the Treasury

5/97Percentage change in Wyoming auto fatalities since the state raised the highway speed limit to 75 mph in 1995: -16

Wyoming Department of Transportation (Cheyenne)

5/97Blood-alcohol level a driver would need in order to be as dangerous as a driver using a cellular phone: 0.1

New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 336, No. 7

5/97Chance that a human being alive today has never made a telephone call: 2 in 3

Federal Communications Commission

5/97Ratio of the number of telephone lines in sub-Saharan Africa to the number in Manhattan: 2:3

American Association for the Advancement of Science (Washington)/NYNEX (N.Y.C.)/U.S. Bureau of the Census

5/97Ratio of the number of New Yorkers bitten by rats in 1995 to the number bitten by other New Yorkers: 1:3

N.Y.C. Department of Health

5/97Amount Americans spent last year on golf clubs: $1,370,000,000

National Sporting Goods Association (Mount Prospect, Ill.)

5/97Price of a packet of Diet Dirt, sterilized soil to be sprinkled over food to make it repugnant: $9.95

Diet Dirt Excavations (Northbrook, III.)

5/97Number of bulletproof Bibles manufactured last year by California’s Innovative Marketing Alliance: 1,000

Innovative Marketing Alliance (Dana Point, Calif.)

5/97Number of temporary tattoos sported by Pat Boone while promoting his new album, In a Metal Mood: 12

Pat Boone Enterprises (Los Angeles)

5/97Hourly rate charged by Mighty Moms, a Minnesota group that confronts rowdy mall teens with “verbal judo”: $20

Mall of America (Bloomington, Minn.)

5/97Number of days before winning the U.S. Figure Skating Championship last winter that Tara Lipinski lost a baby tooth: 5

Edge Marketing (Charlotte, N.C.)

5/97Percentage change since 1995 in the average tooth-fairy payment, per tooth: +10

Delta Dental Plan of Minnesota (Minneapolis)

5/97Amount Burt Reynolds owes his toupee maker: $121,796.62

Greenberg Traurig Attorneys at Law (Miami)