Harper’s Index

Weeks the Patriot Act allowed the government this year to delay the ACLU's announcement of a suit over the Act itself : 3¹

Seconds it took a Maryland consultant last winter to pick a Diebold voting machine's lock and remove its memory card : 10²

Number of states where a shift of no more than three seats this fall could change party control of a legislative chamber : 23³

Percentage of state legislative seats that Democrats controlled in 1980 and today, respectively : 60, 50⁴

Last year in which deaths due to terrorism in Israel and the Occupied Territories exceeded those in Kashmir : 2001⁵

Percentage of deaths due to terrorism last year that took place in South Asia : 49⁶

Percentage change since 2002 in the annual number of attacks by pirates on ships worldwide : +20⁷

Estimated number of guns that the U.S.-led force in Haiti has confiscated since Aristide's departure last February : 100⁸

Months it took the force to start a program offering cash for tips leading to weapons seizures : 2⁹

Ratio of deaths of U.S. contractors worldwide in the last three months to those between April and September last year : 2:1¹⁰

Value of the "political risk insurance" that the U.S. government is providing two private investors in Iraq : $30,000,000¹¹

Number of U.S. companies whose applications for such insurance are pending : 34¹²

Estimated percentage of U.S. corporations that paid no federal taxes between 1996 and 2000 : 61¹³

Percentage change between 2001 and 2002 in the number of Teamster officials earning six-figure salaries : +20¹⁴

Number of publications on women's rights that the Labor Department has removed from its website since 1999 : 25¹⁵

Number of days this year that the Small Business Administration's largest loan program shut down for lack of funds : 8¹⁶

Percentage increase in the SBA's travel budget requested by the White House last year : +107 (see page 79)¹⁷

Percentage of his salary Minnesota senator Mark Dayton spends on bus trips for seniors buying drugs in Canada : 100¹⁸

Ratio of U.S. and Canadian spending on pharmaceuticals last year to the amount the rest of the world spent : 31:32¹⁹

Average amount an American spent on pharmaceuticals in 2002 : $202.81²⁰

Annual spending on the Marshall Plan, per European it was meant to serve : $96.45²¹

Amount the United States allocated this year for Iraq's reconstruction, per Iraqi : $727.27²²

Minimum number of prisoners under the age of 17 or over the age of 70 held by coalition forces in Iraq last April : 79²³

Minimum portion of Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison destroyed by May 2003 : 4/5²⁴

Amount the U.S. spent partially reconstructing it : $1,900,000²⁵

Number of times after prison-abuse photos aired in April that the President boasted of freeing Iraq of torture chambers : 13²⁶

Amount NBC's parent company, General Electric, stands to earn from Iraq's reconstruction : $600,000,000²⁷

Price of a bleepinator, a device for TV broadcasters that "surgically removes indecent words and phrases" : $9,995²⁸

Number of individual "songs" for sale in Apple's iTunes Music Store that consist of utter silence : 17²⁹

Percentage change in Mattel's first-quarter earnings last winter, when Barbie and Ken's "break-up" was announced : -73³⁰

Percentage by which average earnings of a major U.S. film with no sex in 2003 exceeded those of one with graphic sex : 120³¹

Average number of "smoking incidents" per hour in major U.S. films in 1950 and 2002, respectively : 10.7, 10.9³²

Ratio of ambient fine-particle emissions from gasoline-powered vehicles to those from cooking meat in Houston in summer : 5:4³³

Days after McDonald's CEO died of a heart attack last April that the firm's ex-CEO for Japan did the same : 2³⁴

Years after symptoms of his deranging genetic disorder appeared that King George III held the throne in England : 56³⁵

Average inches by which a British man's height fell short of an American man's in the eighteenth century : 3.1³⁶

Average inches by which an American man's height falls short of a British man's today : 0.4³⁷

Number of fried chocolate sandwiches served at a British hotel chain in April after their debut : 1,256³⁸

Last year in which French frogs were served at the Brotherhood of the Frog Thigh Tasters' annual fair in Vittel, France : 1977³⁹

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