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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