I always look forward to receiving my Harpers Magazine when it arrives snuggly stuffed in my narrow apartment mailbox, and when it does, I usually go straight to the Index. The Harper’s Index, for those not in the know, is a list of fun and fascinating figures and statistics that will make you seem really smart and interesting if you can rattle a few off at cocktail parties. Today’s featured fact: the estimated amount by which per-gallon gas prices would change if the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge were drilled is a whopping 4 cents (some figures are as low as 2 cents). In other words, if we let oil companies have free reign to scourge one of America’s most important onshore habitats for millions of species, I’ll spend $67.40 instead of $68.00 to fill my gas tank. Worth it? I don’t think so.

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Forget working on your interview skills and slaving over your resume. Want an internship at one of your favorite magazines? Buy it! Charitybuzz.com hosts live, online auctions for internships at high-profile companies and publications like Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, O, Merrill Lynch, and the Rainforest Foundation. How does it work? Not on merit, credentials, or experience, but rather on what’s in your bank account. The highest bidder gets the internship and the money is donated to a charity of the company’s choosing.

Bids are steep, and the internship opportunities don’t just benefit students. Several folks have saved up to purchase these internships to help facilitate career changes too. Critics point to the fact that it creates an uneven playing field in the job market. People who can’t afford to pay $5,000 for the opportunity to answer phones and fax paperwork over the summer are excluded from the process. Still, the money IS going to charity. My two cents? The companies should auction off an additional internship for low-income participants as well. by learning more about Charitybuzz and their online auctions. You can also contact your favorite magazines and encourage them to offer internships to low-income applicants.

Hillary Clinton has declined to appear in a photo shoot for Vogue Magazine for fear of appearing too feminine, but will appear in the February edition of Harper’s Bazaar. Editor in chief of Vogue, Anna Wintour, was disgruntled enough to write an open editor’s letter about Clinton’s pull-out. In the Harper’s spread titled “The Politics of Fashion,” which also features other high-profile Republican and Democratic candidates, Clinton appears next to a model wearing high heels and a miniskirt. What to learn more about young women, the “maturation” of feminism, and Hillary Clinton? and read Michael Barone’s take at US News & World Report.