Harper’s Index

Average number of minutes devoted to President Bush on network evening news during each of his first 50 days in office: 9.24¹

Average number of minutes devoted to President Clinton during each of his first 50 days in office: 18.04²

Years after the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance-reform bill was first introduced that it passed the Senate in April: 5³

Total amount raised at the two major-party fund-raisers held in the week before its passage: $9,500,000⁴

Number of members of Congress or their staffers who failed to file a tax return or pay back taxes in 1999: 856⁵

Amount Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill earned last year as CEO of Alcoa: $56,400,000⁶

Rank of Alcoa among the worst U.S. polluters during O'Neill's tenure, according to the National Wildlife Federation: 1⁷

Minimum number of accidental releases of chemicals or oil leading to deaths or injuries at U.S. work sites last year: 230⁸

Percentage change since 1995 in carbon emissions by the United States and China, respectively: +6, –15⁹

Ratio of the amount of insecticides used in the U.S. in 1945 to the amount used last year: 1:10¹⁰

Estimated percentage of U.S. pre-harvest crops lost to insects in 1945 and last year, respectively: 7, 13¹¹

Average number of food-poisoning incidents in the United States each day: 208,000¹²

Percentage increase since last spring in European meat orders from OstrichesOnline.com: +200¹³

Estimated number of people who tried to cross illegally into England via the Channel Tunnel each night last year: 125¹⁴

Estimated number of Bosnians who have been identified from the 4,000 bags of remains from the 1995 Srebrenica massacre: 80¹⁵

Amount that the U.S. has given El Salvador for earthquake relief since January: $14,500,000¹⁶

Estimated amount that Salvadorans living in the U.S. sent home last year: $1,800,000,000¹⁷

Number of medical scholarships that Cuba announced it would offer U.S. minorities next year: 500¹⁸

Annual amount spent since 1995 to maintain a former U.S. congressional nuclear shelter as a tourist site: $500,000¹⁹

Holes of golf that Japan's prime minister played after learning of February's fatal collision of a fishing boat and a U.S. sub: 3²⁰

Average duration of a Japanese prime minister's tenure since August 1993, in months: 16²¹

Estimated number of blank ballots cast in protest during Israel's national election in February: 56,000²²

Days before the election that the Israeli supreme court rejected a request that blank ballots be counted: 4²³

Amount Iraq pledged last December to support the Palestinian Intifada: $930,000,000²⁴

Amount Iraq pledged in January to aid "poor Americans": $93,000,000²⁵

Estimated number of Americans who are eligible for food stamps but have not applied: 12,400,000²⁶

Average number of pounds gained by an international student during his or her first ten weeks in the U.S.: 2²⁷

Ratio of the weight of a croissant at an Au Bon Pain to that of a typical croissant at a Parisian bakery: 2:1²⁸

Ratio of per capita Ritalin use in Vermont to per capita use in California: 3:1²⁹

Concentration of over-the-counter painkillers, in parts per billion, detected in Missouri's Blue River last February: 0.98³⁰

Percentage of the electrical supply of the U.S. and Canada, respectively, that is produced by dams: 10, 62³¹

Percentage of the United States' 77,000 dams that are equipped with hydroelectric generating stations: 3³²

Performance of the Panama Canal Authority last year, on a scale of one to ten, according to its advisory board's chair: 12³³

Performance of Ricky Martin in bed, on a scale of one to ten, according to his new girlfriend: 20³⁴

Age range in which a heterosexual U.S. man is most likely to acknowledge having once had a homosexual experience: 50–65³⁵

Age range in which a heterosexual U.S. woman is most likely to acknowledge this: 18–29³⁶

Percentage change since 1989 in the annual number of paternity tests conducted at U.S. blood-bank-accredited labs: +262³⁷

Number of U.S. states whose laws still refer to children born out of wedlock as "bastards": 13³⁸

Number of PBS stations that aired a program called "Magnificent Lovemaking" during March fund-raising: 88³⁹

Chance that a Catholic saint named in the last 400 years was canonized by Pope John Paul II: 1 in 2⁴⁰

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