Harper’s Index

Estimated number of U.S. lives saved per month by $4 gasoline, through reduced driving nationwide: 1,000

Number of additional road deaths that would have been caused by a “gas-tax holiday” this summer: 66

Number of U.S. gas stations where the group Pray at the Pump has gathered to ask God to lower the price: 12

Amount by which the per-gallon price declined the day they prayed at one Alabama station: 3¢

Total donations that John McCain received from the oil and gas industry in June: $1,100,000

Portion of this that came after he endorsed new offshore drilling on June 16: 3/4

Estimated total cost, over ten years, of the official tax policies laid out by McCain’s campaign: $4,200,000,000,000

Estimated total cost of the tax policies proposed by McCain in his public speeches: $7,000,000,000,000

Number of Senate votes McCain has cast since May: 0

Number cast by Ted Kennedy since he was diagnosed with brain cancer that month: 1

Portion of the laws passed by the current Congress that have involved the renaming of post offices: 1/4

Rank of Obama’s primary victory among the greatest events in U.S. history, according to Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. in May: 1

Number of extra books of the Bible he said could be written to “chronicle its significance”: 1

Percentage change since 2003 in the amount of money invested in U.S. faith-based mutual funds: +32

Average annualized percentage return since then in the Christian and Muslim funds, respectively: +7, +11

Number of Middle Eastern nations that have announced plans to pursue nuclear power since January 2007: 13

Number of graves Iran’s army claims it is digging at the nation’s borders, for the burial of invading soldiers: 320,000

Number of Palestinian women who gave birth while detained at Israeli checkpoints last year: 4

Average number of names added to the U.S. terrorist watch list each month: 20,000

Date on which Nelson Mandela’s name was removed: 7/1/2008

Annual salary of the Bush Administration’s director of fact checking: $60,000

Amount of loose change recovered at U.S. airport-security checkpoints since 2005: $1,050,371.78

Percentage of Citigroup profits in 2006 that came from credit cards: 18

Percentage last year: 79

Amount that the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae loan companies have spent on lobbying since 1998: $174,000,000

Chance that an American lives within four miles of an EPA Superfund site: 1 in 4

Chance that he or she lives within ten miles of one: 1 in 2

Year in which the U.S. housing market will hit bottom, based on current futures-market trading: 2010

Number of the sixteen lots in The Shire, a “place of enchantment” in Oregon, that sold before the project failed in July: 1

Average percentage change in median home values when the proportion of same-sex couples nearby goes up by 1 percent: +9

Percentage of Americans today who support gays serving openly in the military: 75

Number of states that have refused to accept federal grants for pro-abstinence sex education this year: 24

Estimated number of prostatectomies that will be performed by robots this year: 77,000

Estimated revenue from ethanol that a quarter acre of Iowa farmland can earn per year: $300

Amount it could earn each year with a wind turbine on it: $10,000

Estimated number of different chemical compounds that could be used as the basis of a more efficient battery: 10,000

Number that have been “virtually tested” by computer models so far: 1,700

Percentage by which the average incidence of fires and traffic accidents on Fridays the 13th differs from that of other Fridays: –4

Percentage change since 2005, due to helium costs, in the price to rent a floating twenty-foot Halloween “scary pumpkin”: +54

Percentage change since last year in the prices of eggs and toilet paper, respectively: +34, +9