USERNAME 
PASSWORD 
Subscriber? · Lost password?
Lost username? · More help
Archive > 2006 > Jan · Feb · Mar · Apr · May · Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep · Oct · Nov · Dec
July 2006 · Harper's index · Previous · Next   PDFPDF

Harper’s Index

Estimated change since 2001 in the total number of U.S. private-sector jobs: +1,900,0001

Estimated number of new private-sector jobs created by government spending during that time: 2,800,0002

Percentage of U.S. workers who say they are confident that they will be able to live comfortably after retirement: 683

Percentage who have saved less than $25,000 toward retirement: 534

Percentage of Americans who believe that most Americans are too fat: 905

Percentage who believe that they themselves are too fat: 396

Average number of extra calories children consume for every hour of television they watch: 1677

Size, in inches, of Panasonic’s new top-of-the-line plasma TV: 1038

Factor by which Hummer sales in April exceeded those a year earlier: 39

Percentage change in average U.S. gas prices over that year: +8010

Volume of new reserves added by major oil companies in 2005, expressed as a percentage of oil pumped that year: 5111

Ratio of the amount of energy used in producing corn ethanol to the amount yielded when it is burned in gasoline: 1:112

Ratio of the amount of energy used in producing gasoline itself to the amount yielded when it is burned: 6:513

Amount it costs the U.S. Treasury to manufacture and distribute a penny: 1.4¢14

Amount that insects add to the U.S. economy each year, according to one invertebrate advocacy group: $57,000,000,00015

Percentage of this total attributed to insects’ value as a food source for larger animals: 8816

Ratio of the average U.S. import of Mexican lettuce each year to the average Mexican import of U.S. lettuce: 1:117

Number of players that Brazilian soccer teams have sold to teams overseas since 1993: 6,70018

Amount the Brazilian teams have earned from these sales: $918,819,90019

Percentage of Peruvians who say their nation needs leaders who “impose order” and “authority”: 7420

Number of U.S. residents the FBI investigated last year using Patriot Act powers that waive the need for a warrant: 3,50121

Number of times that President Bush’s “signing statements” have exempted his administration from provisions of new laws: 75022

Total number of times for all other presidents since Washington: 56823

Minimum number of close-up photographs of President Bush’s hands owned by his new chief of staff, Josh Bolten: 424

Percentage of Republicans who viewed “Hillary Clinton” favorably in an April poll: 1625

Percentage who viewed “Hillary Rodham Clinton” favorably: 2326

Rank of atheists among minorities whom Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry: 127

Rank of Muslims and African Americans, respectively: 2, 328

Number of “peace walls” that divided Protestant and Catholic communities in Belfast at the time of the 1994 ceasefire: 3029

Number today: 4130

Percentage of Irish Catholics who think that priests should not have to be celibate: 7631

Percentage by which Britain’s The Independent outsold its daily average on May 16, the day U2’s Bono was guest editor: 3032

Last date on which the newspaper sold as many copies: 9/12/0133

Number of books that Art Garfunkel has read since June 1968, according to a comprehensive list on his website: 94834

Length, in hours, of a book appearance that author Lawrence Lessig made in January inside an online fantasy world: 235

Minimum number of different characters who showed up: 10036

Number of MySpace.com users featured by Playboy in its June “Girls of MySpace” photo spread: 937

Minimum number who sent pictures to try out: 2,00038

Estimated number of hot dogs that will be eaten in the United States over the Fourth of July weekend: 150,000,00039

Tons of mud a Mongolian girl has eaten since 1994, because she finds it “delicious”: 1.740



11
SEE ALSO: Brazil; Great Britain; Bush Administration; Business; Children; Economics; Federal Bureau of Investigation; Folly; Food; Bush, George W.; Insects; Ireland; Mexico; Obesity; Oil; Peru; The Republican Party; Sport; Superstition; Telecommunications; Television; Transportation
Previous · Next
As little as $16.97 for 12 months of Harper's—
plus access to our 158-year archive.

JULY 2009

BARACK HOOVER OBAMA
The Best and the Brightest Blow It Again
By Kevin Baker

LABOR’S LAST STAND
The Corporate Campaign to Kill the Employee Free Choice Act
By Ken Silverstein

WAIT TILL YOU SEE ME DANCE
A story by Deb Olin Unferth

Also: Mark Slouka and Paul West

Subscribe to the Weekly Review:


We will not sell your email address.