Harper’s Index

Ratio of major party presidential primaries to be held before April this year to those held before April in 1984: 3:1¹

Percentage of major party delegates to be chosen by March 21 this year: 70²

Percentage who were chosen by March 21 in 1976: 22³

Factor by which on-line campaign contributions to Al Gore last year exceeded on-line contributions to George W. Bush: 5⁴

Ratio of the combined value of AOL and Time Warner last January 11 to the annual budget of France: 4:3⁵

Number of companies that controlled over half of all U.S. media outlets in 1983: 50⁶

Number that controlled over half of all U.S. media outlets last year: 6⁷

Percentage of committee members advising the U.S. on WTO forest-issues negotiations who are lumber executives: 100⁸

Percentage of the WTO protesters arrested in Seattle last year whose charges were dropped due to a lack of evidence: 92⁹

Damages awarded this year to prisoners who “suffered reprisals” after the 1971 Attica prison uprising, per prisoner: $6,250¹⁰

Damages awarded Pizza Hut last winter after it sued a competitor whose ads claimed it made “better” pizza: $467,620¹¹

Ratio of Kmart's U.S. sales in 1998 to the estimated budget of the Russian military: 1:1¹²

Ratio of the average size of a Tokyo residence to that of a U.S. two-car garage: 4:3¹³

Factor by which average air-pollution levels inside a moving car on an L.A. highway exceed those outside the car: 10¹⁴

Average percentage change in East Coast air pollution between Mondays and Thursdays: +24¹⁵

Average percentage by which the amount of East Coast rainfall on a Saturday exceeds the amount on a Monday: 22¹⁶

Minimum number of miles of West Virginia streams buried by mining waste since 1986: 470¹⁷

Chance that a U.S. nuclear power plant's indoor waste-storage facility is full: 1 in 5¹⁸

Estimated percentage change since 1979 in the number of birds killed annually by U.S. communications towers: +186¹⁹

Percentage of the senior editorial staff of Talk magazine that has resigned since the magazine's debut last summer: 26²⁰

Estimated amount the BBC paid for noise-producing software last year after workers complained of the quiet: $1,600²¹

Percentage change since 1997 in the number of Britons waiting to get on the National Health Service's waiting list: +100²²

Number of Parisians who break bones or are hospitalized each year after slipping on dog feces: 650²³

Percentage of the residents of Northern Ireland who report being happy: 92²⁴

Percentage of the residents of the rest of Ireland who do: 90²⁵

Fine levied on a California man last fall for shooting an owl with a slingshot, then beating it: $10,000²⁶

Percentage of Hawaiian bird species that have become extinct since 1778: 49²⁷

Percentage change since the 1970s in the number of salmon in the Atlantic Ocean: -90²⁸

Number of states that introduced legislation forbidding discrimination against motorcylists last year: 8²⁹

Number of people in North Carolina killed by automobiles since 1998 after lying in the middle of the road: 66³⁰

Number of rented 40-foot refrigerator trailers the LAPD uses to house biological evidence: 4³¹

Percentage change since 1993 in the number of criminal cases dismissed each year in New York City: +132³²

Percentage of “born again” New Yorkers who have said they will vote for Hillary Clinton for senator: 44³³

Number of times Elizabeth Dole mentioned Ronald Reagan in her endorsement of George W. Bush last winter: 5³⁴

Number of federal fraud charges of which former Mouseketeer Darlene Gillespie was found guilty in 1998: 9³⁵

Percentage of major U.S. recording labels that use the parental warning stickers advocated by Tipper Gore in 1985: 100³⁶

Years after Frank Zappa called Gore's campaign to advocate parental warning stickers on albums “extortion” that his daughter recorded a single featuring her on drums: 14³⁷

Rank of Adam Sandler and Bill Gates among the most popular role models with male college freshmen: 1,2³⁸

Number of Playboy centerfold models since 1959 whose bios claimed their favorite book was by Ayn Rand: 12³⁹

Number of British women killed last fall by lightning conducted through their underwire bras: 2⁴⁰

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