Harper’s Index

Chance that a civilian federal worker is employed by the Department of Homeland Security: 1 in 12¹

Number of new government jobs created since 2000: 721,000 ²

Number of times Democratic presidential candidates used the word “jobs” in their first four debates after Labor Day: 111 ³

Number of times they mentioned Bill Clinton: 36 ⁴

Chance that a mention of Clinton was made by Wesley Clark: 0 ⁵

Date on which Arnold Schwarzenegger met with Enron CEO Kenneth Lay to discuss California’s energy policy: 5/17/01 ⁶

Chances that a participant in California’s September 24 gubernatorial debate grew up speaking English at home: 2 in 5 ⁷

Percentage change last year in the number of applications for the most common U.S. professional-worker visas: -40 ⁸

Percentage change since last year in the annual U.S. cap on such visas: -66 ⁹

Number of refugees the United States accepted in the last year, expressed as a percentage of the legal maximum: 40 ¹⁰

Rank of 2002 among fiscal years since 1980 in which the fewest refugees entered the United States: 1 ¹¹

Percentage of U.S. Muslims who said in 2000 that they would vote for George Bush: 40 ¹²

Percentage who say this today: 2 ¹³

Year in which a terrorist threat against “S. Claus,” the “Prime Minister” of the North Pole, was declassified by the CIA: 1997 ¹⁴

Days after a 1961 meeting with Khrushchev that President Kennedy leaked claims of U.S. nuclear-missile superiority: 29 ¹⁵

Months after those leaks that nuclear missiles were assembled in Cuba under Khrushchev’s order: 10 ¹⁶

Spending Winston Churchill approved in 1943 to research making an aircraft carrier out of ice and wood pulp: $136,000 ¹⁷

Estimated number of artificial Christmas trees displayed in U.S. homes each year for every real one: 2.6 ¹⁸

Percentage change between 2001 and 2002 in G.I. Joe sales: +46 ¹⁹

Percentage change since 1999 in the number of desertions from the U.S. Army: +36 ²⁰

Average number of U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq each day since the invasion began: 9.2 ²¹

Average number killed: 1.6 ²²

Average number of Iraqi civilians killed by gunfire in Baghdad each day last August: 17 ²³

Percentage of Iraq’s urban areas with access to potable water a year ago and today, respectively: 92, 60 ²⁴

Percentage of Baghdad’s citizens asked to participate in a Gallup poll last September who agreed to do so: 98 ²⁵

Average percentage of Americans asked to participate in Gallup polls who do: 40 ²⁶

Number of citizen reports on file at the North American Reporting Center for Amphibian Malformations: 2,240 ²⁷

Average number of gallons of blood spilled to produce one mink coat: 1.65 ²⁸

Percentage change since last year in the number of U.S. millionaires: -3 ²⁹

Percentage change since 2001 in the number of U.S. families in poverty: +6 ³⁰

Amount by which the number of U.S. deaths in 2000 from lack of medical insurance exceeded those from AIDS: 967 ³¹

Factor by which antibiotic treatment before the age of 6 months increases the chance of developing asthma by age 7: 2.6 ³²

Average price paid per metric ton last September at the first U.S. auction of carbon-emission allowances: 98¢ ³³

Factor by which the average price paid on Europe’s open market exceeds this: 11 ³⁴

Percentage change in the price of a share of Edison Schools stock since February 2001: -95 ³⁵

Number of New York City eighth-graders deemed “proficient” on last year’s end-of-summer-school reading exam: 0 ³⁶

Percentage of those who took the test who were promoted to the ninth grade: 78 ³⁷

Number of candidates who ran for a school-board seat in the South Mississippi County School District last fall: 1 ³⁸

Number of votes he won: 0 ³⁹

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