Harper’s Index

Age by which Russian president Vladimir Putin tried to volunteer for the KGB: 15¹

Number of presidential decrees Putin issued within two months of taking office last December: 491²

Estimated percentage of people living in Russia's Ingushetia province last February who were Chechen war refugees: 57³

Percentage increase in NATO troops required to seal Kosovo's border, according to a Pentagon official last March: 150⁴

Chance that a U.N. member country other than the U.S. or Israel did not vote for a 1999 ban on “an arms race in space”: 0⁵

Number of days of Israeli bombing it took last winter to disable a Lebanon power grid for a year: 1⁶

Portion of Iran's current population that was under the age of ten at the outset of the 1979 hostage crisis: 7/10⁷

Ratio of the average price of oil in the fall of 1979 to the price last February: 1:1⁸

Rank of the 47,000 acres of U.S. land sold to Occidental Petroleum in 1997 among the largest federal land sales ever: 1⁹

Number of acres of Brazil's Panambizinho region that the country's government promised to return to its Indians in 1995: 3,063¹⁰

Number of acres returned so far: 0¹¹

Years before Indonesia hired Henry Kissinger last winter that he was the U.S. adviser on its invasion of East Timor: 23.5¹²

Percentage by which India has announced that it will increase its military budget next year: 28¹³

Rank of Bangladesh and Poland among countries accounting for the largest number of U.N. peacekeepers deployed last fall: 2,1¹⁴

Ratio of the number of people worldwide who are underfed to those who are overfed: 1:1¹⁵

Percentage change since 1997 in direct government payments to U.S. farmers: +200¹⁶

Percentage change since then in total farm income, government payments included: -1¹⁷

Average amount of revenue per acre generated by a U.S. farm of fewer than ten acres: $1,902.50¹⁸

Average revenue per acre generated by a farm of more than 2,000 acres: $21.40¹⁹

Ratio of U.S. corn exports to Europe last year to such exports in 1996: 1:220²⁰

Factor by which a shipment of Ukrainian mushrooms seized by French customs last year exceeded legal radiation limits: 12²¹

Percentage of all aquatic life in a Danube tributary killed last winter when a mine's tailings dam overflowed: 95²²

Percentage change since 1988 in the amount of seafood eaten worldwide that is cultivated rather than caught: +146²³

Chance that a U.S. fisherman died on the job in 1998: 1 in 718²⁴

Chance that a U.S. police officer did: 1 in 4,613²⁵

Rank of traffic accidents among the leading causes of death for on-duty U.S. police officers last year: 1²⁶

Chance that a police officer in South Africa is not licensed to drive: 1 in 10²⁷

Price of an AK-47 on Uganda's black market, in chickens: 1²⁸

Number of endangered tortoises that U.S. Customs agents discovered in a man's trousers last December in Miami: 55²⁹

Price of a sautéed lobster gilded with 24-carat gold at Boston's Biba restaurant last New Year's Eve: $44³⁰

Price of a night in Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's “special suite” equipped with antiques and a living room: $2,800³¹

Chances that a crib provided by a U.S. hotel or motel is deemed unsafe by the Consumer Products Safety Commission: 4 in 5³²

Estimated number of American men who suffer from compulsive bodybuilding: 669,000³³

Points by which the percentage of U.S. college students who are “frequent binge drinkers” has changed since 1993: +3³⁴

Points by which the percentage who are abstainers has changed: +4³⁵

Chance that a college student expects to be a millionaire by the age of 40: 1 in 2³⁶

Percentage of Americans earning $50,000 or less who have watched Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: 57³⁷

Percentage earning at least $75,000 who have watched it: 81³⁸

Number of TV game shows hosted by Mike Wallace before beginning his full-time journalism career: 7³⁹

Ratio of the number of hotel rooms planned for Las Vegas's Venetian Hotel to all the hotel rooms in Venice: 1:1⁴⁰

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