5/08Number of U.S. presidential elections so far in which the two major-party nominees were both sitting Senators: 0
5/08Number of Senate bills that John McCain, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton have co-sponsored together since 2005: 86
5/08Rank that the age gap between McCain and Obama would hold among the largest ever between nominees: 1
5/08Ratio of the total donations Obama received from U.S. military personnel last year to those McCain received: 10:9
5/08Date on which the Ku Klux Klan released a statement denying it had endorsed Obama for president: 2/25/08
5/08Chances that an African American thinks his or her “life will improve” in the future: 9 in 20
Chances that a white American thinks conditions will improve for African Americans in the future: 11 in 20
5/08Percentage of the population of Los Angeles County in 1990 and 2006, respectively, that was African American: 14, 9
5/08Percentage change since then in the African-American population of nearby exurban Riverside County: +29
5/08Number of Silicon Valley workers earning between $30,000 and $80,000 who have lost their jobs since 2002: 62,000
5/08Estimated number of 1950s suburban homes that Arizona has added to the National Register of Historic Places: 670
5/08Percentage, in a recent study, by which the average weight gain of rats eating saccharin exceeded that of rats eating sugar: 25
5/08Percentage of Britons who believe that Winston Churchill is a mythical figure: 23
5/08Percentage of all articles about Muslims in national British newspapers last year that were negative: 91
5/08Minimum number of world nations that had government websites taken over by cybersquatters last year: 3
5/08Current annual deficit of the International Monetary Fund: $140,000,000
5/08Ratio of the estimated number of fake doctors practicing in Delhi, India, to the number of real ones: 1:1
5/08Percentage change between 1997 and 2003 in deaths from treatable causes in the developed world: –17
Percentage change in the United States: –4
5/08Factor by which an uninsured American is more likely than an insured one to be diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer: 3
5/08Portion of all Chinese cancer deaths that are pollution-related, according to the government: 7/10
5/08Length, in miles, of Beijing’s newest airport terminal: 2
5/08Average number of passengers on Big Sky Airlines’ daily flight from Lewistown, Montana, to Billings last year: 2
Subsidy that the federal government paid the airline per flight: $770
5/08Minimum number of U.S. therapists who offer “eco-psychology” treatment for those anxious about the environment: 102
5/08Estimated percentage of the world’s oceanic waters that have not been damaged by human activity: 4
5/08Estimated percentage change since 2001 in the amount of oil at the site of the Exxon Valdez spill: –9
5/08Amount a businessman in the United Arab Emirates paid this year for the nation’s license-plate number “1”: $14,000,000
5/08Portion of all sex-change surgery costs for the poor that the government of Iran now covers: 1/3
5/08Factor by which a gay U.S. college student is more likely to attempt suicide than a straight one: 2
5/08Average amount that a sad person was willing to pay for “a sporty, insulated water bottle” in a recent study: $2.11
Average amount that a happy person was willing to pay for the same item: $0.56
5/08Days of “heartache leave” that employees of one Japanese cosmetics company are allowed to take each year: 3
5/08Number of different e-cards that a nonprofit website offers for informing sexual partners of their exposure to an STD: 7
Ratio of the number of scabies cards sent so far to the number of chlamydia cards: 2:1