Harper’s Index

Chance that a NATO member country faces its own ongoing secessionist movement: 1 in 3¹

Chance that the leader of a NATO member country was once an antiwar or antinuclear activist: 1 in 3²

Minimum amount that six defense contractors each paid last April to “sponsor” NATO's 50th anniversary summit: $250,000³

Number of NATO bombs that have fallen on Bulgaria since the war in Kosovo began: 2⁴

Hours after NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade last May that the U.S. apologized to China: 23⁵

Number of days before China's state-run media printed the U.S. apology: 2⁶

Ratio of people killed this year in the Kosovo war to those killed in the Ethiopian-Eritrean war: 1:10⁷

Number of ongoing civil and border wars in Africa: 13⁸

Cost of the 105 bomb-proof boundary posts placed on the Iraq-Kuwait border after the Gulf War: $7,000,000⁹

Ratio of “major” U.S. Army deployments abroad between 1946 and 1989 to those since 1990: 1:3¹⁰

Number of years that the U.S. military has been using video games to train soldiers to kill: 10¹¹

Average number of murders a U.S. child sees on television by the end of elementary school: 8,000¹²

Percentage change since 1990 in the number of network evening news stories on homicide: +474¹³

Bags of potpourri that the Littleton, Colorado, fire department made from flowers placed at Columbine High School: 3,000¹⁴

Amount that an average U.S. consumer spends on clothes each year: $1,508¹⁵

Amount that an average inner-city African American spends: $2,440¹⁶

Fee that Nike offered Ralph Nader to say “another shameless attempt by Nike to sell shoes” in a TV ad: $25,000¹⁷

Chance that a pair of women's shoes sold in the U.S. is sold by Nine West: 1 in 5¹⁸

Chances that a sunscreen labeled SPF 30 delivers an SPF below 30: 4 in 5¹⁹

Percentage by which the incidence of skin cancer rises for every 1 percent decrease in the size of the ozone layer: 2²⁰

Factor by which the size of the ozone hole over Antarctica now exceeds the size of the continental U.S.: 3²¹

Maximum portion of buttocks that one may legally bare next year in Manatee County, Florida: 2/3²²

Number of academic chairs worldwide devoted to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence: 1²³

Amount that the head of Chinese military intelligence gave Clinton fund-raiser Johnny Chung in 1996: $300,000²⁴

Ratio of the amount that Chung spent on himself to the amount that he gave to the Democratic National Committee: 14:1²⁵

Amount that Gary Bauer's presidential campaign spent on coffee in the first quarter of this year: $6,297.39²⁶

Chances that a U.S. Catholic hospital does not provide emergency contraception to rape victims: 4 in 5²⁷

Number of male witnesses that Pakistan requires for a rape prosecution: 4²⁸

Chances that a Pepsi drinker has been sexually unfaithful: 3 in 5²⁹

Height, in feet, of a scarlet “A” a Sunnyside, Wash., woman put in her family's yard last fall to protest her father's adultery: 7³⁰

Chance that a man's method of breaking off a relationship is to “just stop calling”: 1 in 10³¹

Number to which rats have been trained to count: 45³²

Number of voice commands a Jaguar S-Type sedan understands: 44³³

Percentage of the people living in France during the French Revolution who spoke French: 50³⁴

Percentage of the people living in Italy who spoke Italian when the country was unified in 1861: 2.5³⁵

Fine levied against a Singapore political-opposition leader last winter for publicly reading the nation's constitution: $1,452³⁶

Chances that an American adult can't identify the source of the phrase “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”: 7 in 10³⁷

Amount spent last year by Mount Vernon's directors to give George Washington's reputation more “sizzle”: $3,000,000³⁸

Percentage of Americans who describe “barbecue” as the aroma that best defines America: 39³⁹

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