Harper’s Index

Annual cost of all sixteen U.N. peacekeeping missions currently underway: $3,870,000,000

Monthly cost of the U.S. occupation of Iraq: $4,100,000,000

Revenue from Iraqi oil sales that the CPA could not account for, according to a 2005 audit: $8,800,000,000

Estimated number of U.S. intelligence reports on Iraq that were based on a single defector: 100

Number of times the defector had ever been interviewed by U.S. intelligence agents: 0

Minimum number of newspapers in which Denmark posted ads this year seeking antiterrorist spies: 3

Percentage of Iceland residents who took out an ad this winter apologizing for Icelandic support of the Iraq war: 1.5

Number of books published last year in Iceland and the United States, respectively, per 100,000 residents: 212, 63

Number of books registered at BookCrossing.com, so the books can be left in public places and found by others: 1,935,000

Number of the books left behind that have been from the Left Behind series: 2,047

Rank, on the Turkish bestseller list in March, of a thriller depicting a U.S. invasion of Turkey: 1

Rank of Mein Kampf: 2

Chance that a resident of the former East Germany wants the Berlin Wall back: 1 in 8

Number of lines that Italy's largest cellular operator has set aside for government eavesdropping: 5,000

Number of these that were in use in March: 5,000

Chance that a Russian scientist says he or she would consider working for North Korea: 1 in 7

Year by which every U.S. nuclear weapon will have reached the end of its original design life: 2014 (see page 56)

Number of merit badges in Safety awarded to Boy Scouts since 2001: 15,417

Number in Shotgun Shooting: 65,249

Percentage of the world's Anglican bishops that have condemned the U.S. Episcopal Church's ordination of a gay bishop: 34

Number of U.S. Episcopal churches that are now affiliated with dioceses in Rwanda or Uganda: 38

Number of federal benefits in the United States that are tied directly to marriage: 1,138

Factor by which the average viral load in “socially inhibited” HIV+ men exceeds that in “outgoing” men, in a UCLA study: 8

Average percentage by which the power of the male heart declines between the ages of 18 and 75: 20

Average percentage by which the female heart does: 0

Ratio of women to men killed in last December's tsunami, in a survey of eight Indonesian villages: 3:1

Number of times that major U.S. newspapers have used the term “feeding tube” since January: 647

Number of times they had used the term in the previous five years: 483

Years after Bob Marley's death that the BBC, in April, requested an interview with him: 24

Average number of hours it takes to read a weekday Washington Post out loud: 28

Projected year by which U.S. Treasury bonds will sink to junk status, on current fiscal policy: 2026 (see page 39)

Amount for which George W. Bush successfully sued Enterprise Rent-A-Car in 1999: $2,500

Percentage of Americans who say that driving a fuel-efficient car is an act of patriotism: 66

Percentage of NASCAR fans who say this: 67

Portion of the world's motor vehicles that are in China: 1/17

Portion of the world's annual traffic fatalities that are: 1/5

Percentage change since 1994 in treatment for male infertility and erectile dysfunction in Shanghai: +100

Amount a Chinese online gamer made last year by selling a virtual sword he had borrowed from a friend: $850

Months later that the friend retaliated by stabbing him to death with a real knife: 6

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