Number of U.S. retail jobs Doritos Locos tacos created in the past year, according to Taco Bell : 15,000

Number of retail jobs created worldwide by Apple in that same period : 400

Portion of U.S. factory workers who have a college degree : 1/4

Portion of university teaching positions that are filled by graduate students or adjunct faculty : 3/4

Percentage of college professors teaching online courses who do not believe students should receive credit for them : 72

Number of U.S. states whose highest-paid public employee is a sports coach : 37

Number of U.S. educators who have signed up for the Armed Teacher Training Program : 1,475

Date on which Nelson, Georgia, passed the Family Protection Ordinance, mandating gun ownership : 4/1/2013

Chance that a U.S. gun owner has ever called or written a member of Congress about gun-control legislation : 1 in 5

That someone living in a household without a gun has : 1 in 10

Number of bills strengthening gun control that have been signed into law since the Sandy Hook shooting : 14

Number weakening gun control : 37

Portion of Americans who envision “occasional acts of terrorism” as part of future life in the United States : 3/4

Estimated pounds of unreported ammonium nitrate held at a Texas fertilizer plant that exploded in April : 540,000

Factor by which this amount exceeds the threshold for reporting to the Department of Homeland Security : 270

Number of publicly traded companies at which directors lost shareholder elections in the past three years : 175

Number of those directors who subsequently stepped down : 9

Factor by which a conservative is less likely to buy a fluorescent bulb if it is advertised as good for the environment : 2

Years it took for the western margin of the Quelccaya ice cap in the Peruvian Andes to form : 1,600

Years it took this area to melt : 25

Portion of Arab youth who say they are “more proud to be an Arab” since the Arab Spring : 9/10

Who think their own governments have become more transparent in that time : 1/2

Portion of the Syrian population that will require humanitarian aid by the end of the year : 1/2

Estimated number of political assassinations in the Philippines since 2001 : 589

Chance that a Russian supports changing St. Petersburg’s name back to Leningrad : 1 in 3

Portion of Americans who are unaware that Obamacare is law : 2/5

Percentage change in the expected profits to a hospital if a patient experiences surgical complications : +107

Minimum number of immigrants who have been involuntarily repatriated by U.S. hospitals in the past five years : 600

Inflation-adjusted amount an average single man who turned sixty-five in 2010 contributed to Medicare : $61,000

Amount he can expect to receive in benefits : $180,000

Portion of U.S. stock-market activity that is made up of computer-assisted “microtrades” : 1/2

Projected cost of the transatlantic fiber-optic cable being laid on the ocean floor this year : $300,000,000

Estimated number of seconds by which it will reduce the time to make a trade between New York and London : 0.0049

Estimated number of Beijing residents who live underground : 2,000,000

Number of early deaths in China in 2010 that have been attributed to air pollution : 1,200,000

Amount the Chinese government has budgeted for national defense this year : $117,000,000

For domestic security : $125,000,000

Volts of electricity delivered by anti-rape lingerie developed by three students in India : 3,800,000

Percentage of criminal suspects asked to waive their Miranda rights and speak to police who do so : 84

Number of female prison guards impregnated by a single Baltimore City Detention Center inmate in the past year : 4

July Index Sources

1 Taco Bell Corp. (Irvine, Calif.); 2 Apple Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.); 3 Economics & Statistics Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce; 4 American Association of University Professors (Washington); 5 Chronicle of Higher Education (Washington); 6 Reuben Fischer-Baum, Deadspin (N.Y.C.)/Harper’s research; 7 Buckeye Firearms Foundation (Delaware, Ohio); 8 Nelson City Council (Nelson, Ga.); 9,10 Capital Insight, Washington Post Media; 11,12 Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence (San Francisco); 13 Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (Washington); 14 Texas Department of State Health Services (Austin); 15 U.S. Department of Homeland Security; 16,17 Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute (N.Y.C.); 18 Dena M. Gromet, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia); 19,20 Lonnie Thompson, The Ohio State University (Columbus); 21,22 ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller (Dubai); 23 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Beirut); 24 Amnesty International USA (San Francisco); 25 Levada Center (Moscow); 26 Kaiser Family Foundation (Washington); 27 Sunil Eappen, Harvard Medical School (Boston); 28 Center for Social Justice (Newark, N.J.); 29,30 Urban Institute (Washington); 31 Tabb Group (N.Y.C.); 32,33 TeleGeography (Bratislava); 34 Annette M. Kim, MIT (Cambridge); 35 Health Effects Institute (Boston); 36,37 Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (New Delhi); 38 Manisha Mohan (Chennai, India); 39 Paul G. Cassell, University of Utah (Salt Lake City); 40 Federal Bureau of Investigation (Baltimore).