Harper’s Index

Ratio of Iran's military budget to the amount spent by the Pentagon since last fall for "increased worldwide posture": 1:1¹

Amount the Defense Department has lost track of, according to a 2000 report by its inspector general: $1,100,000,000,000²

This amount to the rest of the world's military budgets combined: 2:1³

Approximate number of accounting systems in use at the Defense Department: 2,300⁴

Percentage change since 2001 in the median annual compensation of CEOs of major U.S. defense contractors: +79⁵

Change since March 2001 in the number of working-age Americans who are neither working nor looking for work: +3,600,000⁶

Average salary of a state legislator last year: $30,300⁷

Average amount spent lobbying one: $130,000⁸

Number of years that the new increase in the federal child tax credit is scheduled to last: 1⁹

Number of students who have earned Emory University's joint M.B.A./divinity degree since it was first offered in 1990: 3¹⁰

Estimated percentage change since 2002 in applications requested for a "homeland security" camp in Pennsylvania: +100¹¹

Number of candy-bar wrappers that Cadbury's new anti-obesity campaign offers to exchange for a basketball: 90¹²

Minimum hours of basketball required for an 85-pound child to burn off the calories from that many candy bars: 100¹³

Average number of micrograms by which replicas of the international reference-kilogram cylinder now exceed it in mass: 50¹⁴

Number of years since Mars was as close to Earth as it will be on August 27: 50,000¹⁵

Number of years San Francisco has given itself to realize the goal of recycling all of its trash: 17¹⁶

Rank of California governor Gray Davis's approval rating in May among the lowest in the 55-year history of the state poll: 1¹⁷

Number of U.S. commercial sites besides Disneyland and Disney World that have been granted no-fly-zone protection: 0¹⁸

Number of industry-funded trips that FCC officials have taken since 1995: 2,514¹⁹

Rank of Las Vegas among the top destinations of such trips : 1²⁰

Number of consecutive 7s in the serial number of a $20 bill sold on eBay in April: 5²¹

Price paid for the bill : $18.50²²

Percentage of Americans who say they have "always had credit card debt": 11²³

Percentage change since last year in the number of U.S. Christian adults who tithe at least 10 percent of their income: -62²⁴

Rank of Detroit among major U.S. cities whose residents give the largest portion of their income to charity: 1²⁵

Percentage of South Carolinians prosecuted under the state's "anti-lynching" law since 1998 who are black: 63²⁶

Amount a judge ordered the Anti-Defamation League to pay in April for calling a Colorado couple anti-Semitic: $10,500,000²⁷

Number of magicians who won damages from Brazil's largest TV network in May after their tricks were revealed on the air: 22²⁸

Percentage by which the amount of drugs stolen by Guatemalan police last year exceeded the amount officially seized: 100²⁹

Number of books by Henry Kissinger found in Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz's mansion in April: 2³⁰

Number by New York Times reporter Judith Miller : 1³¹

Number of countries to which the U.S. sent troops between 1900 and 1993 for the purpose of establishing democracy: 14³²

Number that were democracies ten years after the withdrawal of U.S. forces: 4³³

Ratio of Kosovo residents to Western peacekeepers there in 1999: 40:1 ³⁴

Ratio of Afghanistan residents to Western peacekeepers there now: 5,000:1³⁵

Ratio of the estimated number of people killed worldwide by war last year to the number killed by traffic: 1:4³⁶

Number of states where it is legal to drive while drinking: 3³⁷

Percentage of pedestrian fatalities on U.S. roadways last year in which the driver was drunk: 18

Percentage in which the pedestrian was : 37³⁸

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