Numbers

By Melissa August, Beau Briese, Rhett Butler, Anne Hartshorn, Christina Lewis, Valerie Marchant, Ellin Martens, Ryan Schick, Sora Song, Heather Won Tesoriero, Kadesha Thomas

31,000 Tech-job cuts announced last Thursday

777,000 Job cuts announced in the U.S. in the first six months of 2001

614,000 Job cuts in the U.S. in all of 2000

$499.99 Price of a BlackBerry wireless-communication device

$1,473.37 Intern's airfare to bring NBC president Andy Lack's forgotten BlackBerry from D.C. to Los Angeles

4 Number of canine-waste-removal firms in the U.S. in 1988

340 Number of such firms in 2001

14,000 Under-18s who take up smoking each day in affluent countries

68,000 Under-18s who do so in nonaffluent countries

$1.50 Lemonade at roadside stand in East Hampton, N.Y.

25[cents] Lemonade at stand in Elkhorn, Neb.

Sources: L.A. Times, Challenger, Gray and Christmas; Washington Post, NBC; L.A. Times; World Bank; TIME reporting, Omaha World-Herald