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January 2005 · Harper's index · Previous · Next   PDFPDF

Harper’s Index

Years since the Justice Department last released the number of U.S. terror suspects taken into "preventive detention" : 31

Estimated number of people who have been taken into such detention since then : 4,0002

Minimum number of Al Qaeda suspects from overseas whom the United States has now "disappeared," by legal standards : 113

Percentage "more intelligence" given up by prisoners in Iraq since coercion of them was banned, according to a U.S. general : 254

Factor by which an Iraqi is more likely to die today than in the last year of the Hussein regime : 2.55

Factor by which the cause of death is more likely to be violence : 586

Average number of Americans injured every year by air rifles, paintball weapons, and BB guns : 22,0007

Phone number of The G.I. Rights Hotline, a nongovernmental service for U.S. military personnel : 800-394-95448

Estimated number of calls the line received last year from soldiers seeking a way out of the military : 34,8009

Percentage of Pentagon contracts since 1998 that have been awarded on a no-bid basis : 4410

Percentage change since 2002 in the average U.S. price of gasoline : +35.211

Change since then in the amount of gasoline Americans consume per capita : 012

Number of American five-year-olds named Lexus : 35313

Estimated value of a diamond-and-sapphire jewelry set given to Laura Bush in 2003 by the Saudi crown prince : $95,50014

Year by which the third and final phase of the 2003 "road map" to a Palestinian state was to have been reached : 200515

Estimated number of the twenty-five provisions in the first phase that have yet to be completed : 1716

Number of House members in 1979 who voted against making Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday : 13317

Number who are still in the House : 918

Number who are Vice President : 119

Percentage of South African farmland owned by whites in 1994 and today, respectively : 87, 8420

Ratio of the number of people in Haiti to the number of permanent full-time jobs there : 80:121

Rank of Wal-Mart among Mexico's largest private employers : 122

Number of states, provinces, or territories of the United States, Canada, and Mexico that lack a McDonald's : 1 23

Population per square mile of that territory, the Nunavut region of Canada : 0.0324

Estimated number of different languages spoken at home by Alaskan schoolchildren : 11025

Chance that a Japanese grade-school student reports never having seen a sunrise or sunset : 1 in 226

Percentage by which British university graduates are less likely than non-graduates to phone their mothers regularly : 2027

Percentage by which they are less likely to make regular visits : 5028

Portion of British trash that ends up in landfills : 4/529

Portion of German trash that does : 2/530

Meters of the Berlin Wall rebuilt by an entrepreneur last year as a "monument to peace" : 20031

Minimum number of wild boar living in Berlin : 3,00032

Total number of cats that entered the Cat Fanciers' Association 2004 "Best Cat in Championship" competition : 31,89933

Points by which a cat named Colin Powell defeated the runner-up : 114.3534

Average number of suicides per 100,000 residents in states carried by President Bush in November : 13.535

Average number of suicides in states carried by John Kerry : 9.936

Hours after Kerry conceded that a New Yorker posted a personal ad seeking a Bush supporter for a "fair, physical fight" : 537

Number of people who volunteered within twenty-four hours : 338

Number who asked to watch : 939



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SEE ALSO: Al Qaeda; Alaska ; Animal; Great Britain; Business; Canada; Children; Powell, Colin; United States Congress; Corruption; Death; Bush, George W.; Germany; Haiti; Human Rights; Iraq; Japan; Kerry, John; Department of Justice; McDonalds; Mexico; Oil; Palestine; U.S. Department of Defense; Race; Saudi Arabia; South Africa; Suicide; Terrorism; Torture; United States of America; Violence
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December 2009

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Also: Dave Hickey and Wendell Berry

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