Harper’s Index

Amount by which last year's WTO accord is projected to increase annual U.S. grain sales to China: $1,000,000,000¹

Percentage of last year's U.S. grain sales to the European Union this represents: 96²

Percentage of national forestland unprotected under the President's proposed ban on forest-road construction: 78³

Miles of new roads that the ban would allow in Alaska's Tongass National Forest: 500⁴

Acres of redwoods saved by Julia “Butterfly” Hill, after her two-year residence in a treetop: 3⁵

Amount her foundation paid Pacific Lumber to spare the trees: $50,000⁶

Maximum suggested donation for a week's course in civil disobedience at Canada's clandestine Co-Motion Action Camp: $125⁷

Price of a two-week stay at California's Entrepreneurship Camp, for ages 9 through 16: $1,950⁸

Chance that a contestant who's appeared on ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire has won a million dollars: 1 in 67⁹

Chance that a contestant who appeared on the show's British precursor ever won a million pounds: 0¹⁰

Number of entertainment award ceremonies scheduled to be held in the U.S. this year: 332¹¹

Number of states that declared last August 8 “National Admit You're Happy Day”: 19¹²

Average number of seconds it takes to complete a transaction at a Wendy's drive-through: 150.29¹³

Rank of a Starbucks store locator among the most commonly downloaded non-email Palm Pilot applications: 1¹⁴

Number of months last spring that a Louisiana town's sewage lines were connected to its fresh water supply: 3¹⁵

Gallons of bourbon that flowed into the Kentucky River last May during a fire at a Wild Turkey warehouse: 200,000¹⁶

Percentage of the trailers provided North Carolina's Hurricane Floyd victims last fall that were still in use in May: 56¹⁷

Percentage of refugees from the Bosnian war who have not returned to their homes since 1995's peace accord: 39¹⁸

Estimated number of years it will take to remove the 600,000 active mines in Bosnia-Herzegovina: 30¹⁹

Minimum number of Haitian politicians assassinated since 1994's U.S. military intervention: 8²⁰

Bounty placed on the head of any U.S. DEA agent last January by Mexico's Juárez drug cartel: $200,000²¹

Percentage change since 1995 in the number of assaults against federal officers patrolling the California border: +617²²

Number of semiautomatic paint-ball rifles ordered by the LAPD in preparation for this month's Democratic convention: 40²³

Amount New Jersey's Camden police spent on riot gear in preparation for Philadelphia's GOP convention: $47,775²⁴

Number of years remaining in Pat Buchanan's “political life,” according to Buchanan: 10²⁵

Minimum amount President Clinton's pension and staff will cost U.S. taxpayers if his life span is average: $6,072,000²⁶

Ratio of the number of corporate mergers signed under the Clinton Administration to those signed under Reagan: 3:1²⁷

Number of prizes in economics ever funded by the Nobel Foundation: 0²⁸

Number funded “in memory of Alfred Nobel” by the Bank of Sweden: 31²⁹

Percentage of public relations executives who say they have “had to lie” in the course of their jobs: 25³⁰

Distance that the silver-spotted skipper caterpillar can propel its own feces, in feet: 5³¹

Number of leaf-cutter ants required to lift a 10-pound picnic basket: 60,133³²

Number of hours at 95°F it takes for egg salad to go bad: 4.6³³

Percentage change in the gonorrhea rate among teens and young adults when the beer tax is raised by 20 cents: -9³⁴

Percentage of U.S. teenagers who say they have engaged in oral sex: 55³⁵

Percentage who consider the practice “gross”: 55³⁶

Average number of words in the written vocabulary of a 6- to 14-year-old American child in 1945: 25,000³⁷

Average number today: 10,000³⁸

Ratio of the number of words for the color blue in Maya to the number in Spanish: 3:1 ³⁹

Estimated number of fireflies it would take to generate the visible brightness of the sun: 14,286,000,000⁴⁰

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