11/84Number of times Ronald Reagan has seen his 17-month-old granddaughter: 0
4/85Number of weeks, since April 1981, that Danielle Steele has not had a book on a national best-seller list: 0
12/85Number of White House requests for arms sales to a foreign country that Congress has rejected: 0
3/97Portion of the $2 million in arms-demolition aid the country was promised by the U.S. last year that has been delivered: 0
2/87Copies of Duarte: My Story, the recent autobiography of El Salvador’s president, published in Spanish: 0
6/87Number of colleges that invited Vanna White to give their commencement address this spring: 0
10/87Number of Betty Rubble tablets in a bottle of Flintstone Chewable Vitamins: 0
4/88Number of times the word “Christian” appears in Pat Robertson’s campaign brochure: 0
6/88Number of presidential elections since 1964 in which the Democratic candidate won a majority of the white vote: 0
11/88Number of government programs the Republican party platform proposes to eliminate: 0
4/90Number of years since the balanced-budget bill became law in 1985 that its deficit-reduction targets have been met: 0
9/90Number of times Ronald Reagan has publicly mentioned the savings and loan crisis: 0
4/91Number of courses on the Vietnam War required for graduation from West Point: 0
5/91Number of the solar panels installed on the White House roof by President Carter that are still there: 0
9/91Number of Southerners in positions of leadership in the Democratic House caucus: 0
11/91Number of times CBS interrupted Miss Teen USA on the first night of the Soviet coup with bulletins on the crisis: 0
1/92Average annual percentage change in the U.S. standard of living since George Bush took office: -0.3
Number of the previous eight presidencies during which the standard of living fell: 0
8/92Number of the 32 sitting federal appellate judges appointed by President Bush who are black: 0
9/92Number of times the word “union” appears in the text of the Democratic platform: 0
9/92Number of the 10 TV shows watched most often by blacks that are among the 10 watched most often by whites: 0
5/93Amount President Clinton has proposed cutting from the budget of the CIA: 0
8/93Number of Democratic House members whose percentage of the vote in November was lower than Bill Clinton’s: 0
5/94Number of Dan Rostenkowski’s 1993 campaign contributions of more than $200 that came from Illinois residents: 0
11/94Number of the 16 countries with universal health care in which private insurers cover a majority of citizens: 0
2/95Number of special-interest tax breaks the new House Ways and Means Committee chairman says he plans to eliminate: 0
4/95Number of the 4 states with the highest illegitimacy rate that are also among the top 4 in welfare recipients per capita: 0
6/95Number of bills passed by Congress that Bill Clinton has vetoed: 0
6/95Number of U.S. presidents in this century who left office without having issued a single veto: 0
11/95Number of strikes bowled at Rob & Carol’s Frozen-Turkey Bowl, held last November in Modesto, California: 0
12/95Number of stories about Hillary Clinton’s attendance of the U.N.’s women’s conference that appeared on Chinese TV: 0
6/96Number of last year’s newsweekly magazine covers featuring women who are not princesses, murderers, or models: 0
7/96Number of class-action suits that the federally funded Legal Services Corporation will be allowed to represent next year: 0
10/96Percentage of Dan Rostenkowski’s congressional pension benefits he will forfeit during his stay in prison this year: 0
10/96Number of the five Senate Republican leaders who have run for president in Bob Dole’s lifetime who have won: 0
12/96Number of the 550 computer-science faculty members at the nation’s 25 highest-ranked universities who are black: 0
3/97Number of questions Justice Clarence Thomas asked last January during oral arguments of the Paula Jones case: 0
3/97Number of wars ever fought between countries that both had at least one McDonald’s franchise: 0
3/97Number of EPA studies ever conducted on how commercially used toxic chemicals react in combination: 0
3/97Number of foreign lobbyists convicted since 1963 of failing to comply with U.S. financial-disclosure laws: 0
5/97Number of “active” dissidents in China at the end of last year, according to the State Department: 0
9/97Number of the 327 eligible voters who voted in the Rock Creek, Kansas, school board election last April: 0
12/97Number of the four bombs aboard an Air Force jet lost in the Colorado Rockies last spring that have been found: 0
12/97Number of options besides negotiation with them that Colombian president Ernesto Samper says he has left: 0
1/98Number of questions asked of Inspector General Valerie Lau during her 1994 Senate confirmation hearing: 0
1/98Number of Super Bowl winners whose home stadium was domed: 0
3/98Pairs of jeans that Frank Sinatra has ever owned in his life: 0
6/98Number of people besides Al Gore who called the Washington Post last March to point out an “upside-down” Earth photo: 0
9/98Number of months since January that have not broken a record for average global heat: 0
11/98Number of pages of the Watergate special prosecutor’s report that have been released to the public: 0
11/98Number of candidates besides Kim Jong Il nominated this year for each of the 687 seats in North Korea’s legislature: 0
11/98Number of Sudanese factories besides the one the U.S. bombed last August that had U.N. approval to export drugs to Iraq: 0
1/99Change since 1916 in the percentage of U.S. scientists who say they believe in a god: 0
2/99Number of “real ideological differences” within the Democratic Party, according to Senator Robert Torricelli: 0
5/99Number of times that a white man has been executed for killing a black man in Texas since 1860: 0
9/99Number of U.S. presidents besides Bill Clinton who have made an official visit to an Indian reservation since 1937: 0
10/99Number of years since 1997’s Balanced Budget Act set discretionary spending caps that spending has not exceeded them: 0
10/99Number of the 10 billion plastic Coke bottles distributed in the U.S. each year that are made from recycled material: 0
12/99Number of countries besides Australia that have ever formally recognized Indonesia’s sovereignty over East Timor: 0
4/00Number of the eight Zapatista demands to which the Mexican government agreed in 1996 that have yet to be met: 0
5/00Chance that a U.N. member country other than the U.S. or Israel did not vote for a 1999 ban on “an arms race in space ”: 0
6/00Number of times that U.S. president Zachary Taylor had ever voted in a presidential election before taking office in 1849: 0
7/00Number of U.S. counties in which a full-time minimum-wage earner can afford a one-bedroom apartment: 0
9/00Number of incumbent Republican governors who have won the presidency since 1898: 0
9/00Number of incumbent vice presidents elected to the presidency between 1836 and 1988: 0
11/00Number of Americans, aside from Wen Ho Lee, who have ever been prosecuted under the 1948 Atomic Energy Act: 0
Number of Los Alamos documents Lee was accused of downloading that were classified at the time he did so: 0
11/00Number of former Soviet republics whose per capita GDP was higher in 1997 than in 1990: 0
11/00Number of words for boredom in the Mohegan language, according to an ad for the Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino: 0
12/00Number of the one hundred countries with the world’s highest birthrates that have approved the abortion pill RU-486: 0
1/01Number of studies showing that the death penalty is a deterrent, according to Attorney General Janet Reno: 0
1/01Number of laws or provisions that require U.S. oil companies to produce more heating oil in response to a shortage: 0
3/01Amount of Montana’s total net farm income in 1999 that did not come from government assistance: 0
10/01Number of “weapons of mass destruction” allowed in space, according to a 1967 treaty ratified by the United States: 0
Number of abstentions to reaffirming the treaty last year besides those of the United States, Israel, and Micronesia: 0
12/01Number of minutes of network news coverage devoted to Colombia in the month following September 11: 0
3/02Number of journalists and U.S. soldiers, respectively, killed by hostile fire in Afghanistan last year: 7, 1
Number of these journalists who were American: 0
4/02Percentage by which genetically modified seeds increase a farm’s economic yield, according to a study of 300 Iowa farms: 0
5/02Number of Amtrak’s 41 routes other than the Boston-Washington, D.C., Metroliner that turn a profit: 0
Percentage change in Metroliner ridership since Amtrak added a new high-speed train to the route two years ago: -9
6/02Number of times Israel has formally recognized the right of a Palestinian state to exist anywhere: 0
8/02Number of nations besides Somalia and the United States that have yet to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child: 0
9/02Number of NATO member nations besides the United States with a civilian oath of loyalty: 0
9/02Number of bills vetoed by George W. Bush during his first 18 months in office: 0
Number of other U.S. presidents who have done this since 1850 besides Bill Clinton and Millard T. Fillmore: 0
10/02Amount of Iraq’s oil revenue since 1996 spent on anything but humanitarian programs, Kuwaiti reparations, or U.N. costs: 0
12/02Number of times George W. Bush has said Osama bin Laden’s name in public since July 8: 0
6/03Number of motor vehicles owned by Tom Magliozzi, co-host of NPR’s Car Talk: 0
7/03Number of NATO countries besides the United States and Canada that use no form of proportional representation: 0
8/03Number of U.S. commercial sites besides Disneyland and Disney World that have been granted no-fly-zone protection: 0
9/03Amount of evidence, according to the New York Times in June, that Bush “did not believe” his own statements on Iraq: 0
9/03Number of officials who ever suggested that Iraq had nuclear weapons, according to Donald Rumsfeld in June: 0
9/03Number of times Democrat Howard Dean mentioned Iraq in announcing his candidacy for president this year: 0
2/04Percentage points by which George W. Bush’s rating changed last year: 0
3/04Number of times Osama bin Laden used the term “Al Qaeda” publicly before September 11, 2001: 0
4/04Number of articles in major U.S. newspapers that have called any White House statement on Iraq a lie: 0
4/04Number of the five tax-cut questions asked the president on Meet the Press last winter that concerned the cuts’ inequity: 0
9/04Number of the 50 airstrikes targeting Iraq’s leadership during the invasion last year that hit their target: 0
9/04Number of Congress members present at the June transfer of power from Coalition military forces to the Iraqi government: 0
9/04Secret access code to the computer controls of the U.S. nuclear-tipped missile arsenal between 1968 and 1976: 00000000
2/05Estimated change since 1999 in the number of civil-rights complaints reported to the Justice Department: 0
Percentage change since then in the number of civil-rights criminal charges brought by the department: -47
9/05Numeral whose underlying concept has been partially understood by a Massachusetts parrot, according to scientists: 0
3/06Number of suicide bombings known to have been carried out by Iranians: 0
5/07Total donations that Barack Obama has received from tobacco companies since 2000: $0
12/07Percentage of Americans this year who say they are Democrat-leaning and Republican-leaning, respectively: 50, 36
Number of years since this poll began in 1990 in which the gap favoring either party was so large: 0
3/08Projected number of enclosed shopping malls that will be built in the United States this year: 0
5/08Number of U.S. presidential elections so far in which the two major-party nominees were both sitting Senators: 0
9/08Number of full-time correspondents that U.S. TV networks have posted in Afghanistan: 0
1/09Date on which the GAO sued Dick Cheney to force the release of documents related to current U.S. energy policy: 2/22/02
1/09Days since the federal government first placed the nation under an “elevated terror alert” that the level has been relaxed: 0
3/09Number of months since record keeping began in 1947 that U.S. consumer prices declined as steeply as in November 2008: 0
10/00Ratio of destructiveness to the ozone layer of a molecule of carbon dioxide to that of a molecule of SF5CF3: 1:18,000
6/02Chance of contracting a “fairly common” form of colon cancer reported on in the New York Times April 4: 1 in 8,000
Chance of a child contracting the “rare disease” neuroblastoma, as cited by another Times article the same day: 1 in 7,000
2/89Chances that a space shuttle will collide with orbital debris during a seven-day mission: 1 in 3,500
7/00Chances that a drug offense by a black U.S. juvenile with no prior jail time will result in imprisonment: 48 in 100,000
Chance that a drug offense by a white juvenile with no prior jail time will do so: 1 in 100,000
1/01Ratio of the record distance for human space flight to the maximum distance depicted in 2001: A Space Odyssey: 1:1,642
4/00Ratio of April showers to plants producing May flowers at the Springfield, Illinois, Park District last year: 1:1,571
12/02Percentage by which the speed of light has decreased in the last 20 billion years, according to Australian scientists: 0.0007
12/93Value of the one-million dinar note issued by the Yugoslav National Bank last summer, in dollars: $0.0013
Chance that a U.S. police officer did: 1 in 4,613
2/99Percentage of his wealth that Bill Gates has pledged to donate this year for children’s vaccines in poor countries: 0.0016
1/01Ratio of New York City residents who died of West Nile virus in 1999 to those who died of pneumonia or influenza: 1:619
8/01Chance that a member of the European Parliament voted in January to support E.U. participation in Plan Colombia: 1 in 508
4/98Portion of IRS audits that are conducted on large corporations: 1/500
3/07Month when the total value of euros in circulation worldwide surpassed that of U.S. dollars: 6/2006
12/89Percentage of the insecticide used in the United States each year that actually reaches a targeted insect: .003
12/94Ratio of the price of an ounce of gold to that of an ounce of Zofran, a new anti-nausea drug: 1:292
11/84Ratio of physicians to inhabitants in the Soviet Union: 1:270
Ratio of physicians to inhabitants in the United States: 1:520
5/00Ratio of U.S. corn exports to Europe last year to such exports in 1996: 1:220
1/98Chance that an American declared bankruptcy during the Depression: 1 in 215
Chance that an American declared bankruptcy last year: 1 in 225
1/94Chances that hospital care will save the life of a heart-attack victim who does not respond to on-site care: 1 in 200
Chances that a native-born American with a high school diploma has a doctorate: 1 in 1,000
6/96Chances a Californian lives or works in a prison: 1 in 200
5/98Chance that an American believes Madeleine Albright has alleged a sexual relationship with the President: 1 in 200
Percentage of U.S. coastal waters where this is true: 0.005
5/03Chance that a male human worldwide is a direct patrilineal descendant of Genghis Khan: 1 in 200
7/07Chance that an inmate at any of the U.S.-run prisons in Iraq has been identified as a “foreign fighter”: 1 in 195
2/05Ratio last year of the amount spent declassifying former U.S. secrets to the amount spent safeguarding others: 1:120
6/94Chances that a gallon of milk consumed in the United States last year was delivered by a milkman: 1 in 100
12/96Chance that an American executed since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty was a white who killed a black: 1 in 100
7/95Chances that an act of terrorism committed worldwide in the last year killed an American: 1 in 80
6/95Chances that a U.N. peacekeeper deployed last year was an American: 1 in 77
Chance that a civilian who died in a 20th-century war was American: 1 in 62,000
8/98Chance that a work of art on display in the Capitol includes a depiction of an African American: 1 in 70
3/85Chances that an adult in the San Francisco Bay Area has completed est training: 1 in 69
1/89Chances that a corporate merger in 1980 was challenged by the federal government: 1 in 68
Chances that a corporate merger today will be challenged: 1 in 328
8/00Chance that a contestant who’s appeared on ABC ‘s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire has won a million dollars: 1 in 67
10/05Chances that a user of Pfizer ’s new Parkinson’s disease drug will become a pathological gambler as a result: 3 in 200
5/84Odds that a taxpayer’s return will be audited: 1 in 66
1/96Chances that a black American adult attended Martin Luther King’s March on Washington in 1963: 1 in 60
3/94Chances that a fatal accident involving a passenger car and a large truck will kill the truck driver: 1 in 50
3/01Estimated chance that an African-American man is HIV-positive: 1 in 50
5/04Estimated percentage of French schoolgirls who wore an Islamic head scarf to school last fall: 0.02
10/06Estimated chance, according to new fossil research, that a Tyrannosaurus rex lived to full maturity: 1 in 50
9/97Chance that an American knows that direct corporate contributions to political campaigns are illegal: 1 in 25
6/86Chances that a resident of Washington, D.C., is a lawyer: 1 in 25
9/91Chances that a patient admitted to a hospital will leave with a disabling injury as a direct result of treatment: 1 in 25
5/96Chances that a southern Republican primary voter who says Pat Buchanan is “too extreme” also voted for him: 1 in 25
6/98Milliseconds by which El Niño’s drag on the Earth’s rotation last year extended each day’s average length: .04