Got to Love Harper's Index!

[dutchdemocrat]

August 2003

Ratio of Iran's military budget to the amount spent by the Pentagon since last fall for "increased worldwide posture" : 1:1


Amount the Defense Department has lost track of, according to a 2000 report by its inspector general : $1,100,000,000,000


Ratio of this amount to the rest of the world's military budgets combined : 2:1


Approximate number of accounting systems in use at the Defense Department : 2,300


Percentage change since 2001 in the median annual compensation of CEOs of major U.S. defense contractors : +79


Change since March 2001 in the number of working-age Americans who are neither working nor looking for work : +3,600,000


Average salary of a state legislator last year : $30,300


Average amount spent lobbying one : $130,000


Number of years that the new increase in the federal child tax credit is scheduled to last : 1


Number of students who have earned Emory University's joint M.B.A./divinity degree since it was first offered in 1990 : 3


Estimated percentage change since 2002 in applications requested for a "homeland security" camp in Pennsylvania : +100


Number of candy-bar wrappers that Cadbury's new anti-obesity campaign offers to exchange for a basketball : 90


Minimum hours of basketball required for an 85-pound child to burn off the calories from that many candy bars : 100


Average number of micrograms by which replicas of the international reference-kilogram cylinder now exceed it in mass : 50


Number of years since Mars was as close to Earth as it will be on August 27 : 50,000


Number of years San Francisco has given itself to realize the goal of recycling all of its trash : 17


Rank of California governor Gray Davis's approval rating in May among the lowest in the 55-year history of the state poll : 1


Number of U.S. commercial sites besides Disneyland and Disney World that have been granted no-fly-zone protection : 0


Number of industry-funded trips that FCC officials have taken since 1995 : 2,514

Rank of Las Vegas among the top destinations of such trips : 1

Number of consecutive 7s in the serial number of a $20 bill sold on eBay in April : 5

Price paid for the bill : $18.50

Percentage of Americans who say they have "always had credit card debt" : 11


Percentage change since last year in the number of U.S. Christian adults who tithe at least 10 percent of their income : –62


Rank of Detroit among major U.S. cities whose residents give the largest portion of their income to charity : 1


Percentage of South Carolinians prosecuted under the state's "anti-lynching" law since 1998 who are black : 63


Amount a judge ordered the Anti-Defamation League to pay in April for calling a Colorado couple anti-Semitic : $10,500,000


Number of magicians who won damages from Brazil's largest TV network in May after their tricks were revealed on the air : 22


Percentage by which the amount of drugs stolen by Guatemalan police last year exceeded the amount officially seized : 100


Number of books by Henry Kissinger found in Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz's mansion in April : 2

Number by New York Times reporter Judith Miller : 1

Number of countries to which the U.S. sent troops between 1900 and 1993 for the purpose of establishing democracy : 14

Number that were democracies ten years after the withdrawal of U.S. forces : 4

Ratio of Kosovo residents to Western peacekeepers there in 1999 : 40:1

Ratio of Afghanistan residents to Western peacekeepers there now : 5,000:1

Ratio of the estimated number of people killed worldwide by war last year to the number killed by traffic : 1:4


Number of states where it is legal to drive while drinking : 3


Percentage of pedestrian fatalities on U.S. roadways last year in which the driver was drunk : 18

Percentage in which the pedestrian was : 37


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