Harper’s Index

Chance that a U.S. Gulf War vet has reported a health problem to the government's Gulf War Syndrome programs: 1 in 6¹

Chance that a vet's reported symptoms have yet to be diagnosed: 1 in 6²

Number of the 8 experts most recently appointed to study the syndrome who were medical professionals: 2³

Number of the 8 who were current or former members of the military: 7⁴

Number of times Colin Powell said, “I don't recall” or, “I can't recall” during his 1987 Iran-Contra testimony: 56⁵

Ratio of U.S. spending on the bombing of Serbia in 1999 to U.S. spending on Serbian election aid last fall: 80:1⁶

Hours it took Canadian election workers last year to hand count 13 million ballots cast in their general election: 5⁷

Percentage of Venezuelans voting last December who approved a government-sponsored resolution to oust all union leaders: 62⁸

Percentage of registered Venezuelan voters who voted at all: 23.5⁹

Average number of messages to kidnapped friends and relatives broadcast each week by a Colombian radio show: 90¹⁰

Number of “bonding sessions” organized by Procter & Gamble each week in Monterrey, Mexico, to encourage tampon use: 60¹¹

Percentage of global economic activity accounted for by the world's 200 largest corporations: 27.5¹²

Percentage of the world's population that thesecorporations employ: 0.8¹³

Estimated chance that an Internet firm closed down last year: 1 in 50¹⁴

Amount owed creditors by the touring song-and-dance group Up with People when it went under last December: $7,300,000¹⁵

Annual number of U.S. elementary school students who play The Stock Market Game, a 10-week trading simulation: 200,000¹⁶

Amount of play money the children are given to invest: $100,000¹⁷

Additional amount they may borrow on margin: $100,000¹⁸

Amount a Danish art museum was fined last year for an exhibition inviting visitors to liquefy live goldfish in blenders: $225¹⁹

Price of a designer skirt made of hamster pelts, introduced in Britain last year: $2,200²⁰

Average number of cows destroyed each day in Britain last year in an effort to eliminate mad cow disease: 2,274²¹

Number of European countries in which cases of the diseasemad cow disease have been documented: 13²²

Estimated chance that an African-American man is HIV-positive: 1 in 50²³

Percentage change since 1995 in new drug applications filed with the FDA that include test results from abroad: +300²⁴

Number of players on Spain's gold-winning disabled Olympic basketball team recently found to have faked their disabilities: 10²⁵

Minimum number of mentally retarded Americans who have been executed by the justice system since 1976: 35²⁶

Estimated chance that a U.S. prisoner is mentally retarded: 1 in 14²⁷

Percentage of Washington children who completed an 8-year antismoking program in the 1990s who now smoke regularly: 25.4²⁸

Percentage of children in the program's nonparticipating control group who now smoke: 25.7²⁹

Pounds of marijuana that a private company has been contracted to grow for Canada's health ministry next year: 407³⁰

Pounds of marijuana seized in Chicago last December from a 22-year-old's bedroom: 700³¹

Percentage change since 1996 in U.S. sales of organic foods: +122³²

Percentage change since then in the sales of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts: +110³³

Amount of Montana's total net farm income in 1999 that did not come from government assistance: 0³⁴

Percentage change since 1979 in the number of Montanans engaged in farm work: –0.003³⁵

Number of the last 9 presidential elections in which Montana voted Republican: 8³⁶

Year in which a political candidate first sued Palm Beach County over problems with hanging chads: 1984³⁷

Percentage of life that is “just holding on,” according to Bill Clinton: 90³⁸

Chance that Vice President Cheney will have a “cardiac event” by 2005, according to Duke University cardiologists: 1 in 2³⁹

Days after Time named George W. Bush 2000's man of the year that Russians named Vladimir Lenin man of the century: 4⁴⁰

USERNAME
PASSWORD
Subscriber? · Lost password? Lost username? · More help