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July 2001 · Harper's index · Previous · Next   PDFPDF

Harper’s Index

Estimated cost of fuel consumed in 1999 by U.S. drivers caught in traffic delays: $8,600,000,0001

Amount by which the combined profits of the world's top ten oil companies in 2000 exceeded those in 1999: $29,000,000,0002

"Signing bonus" that two oil companies paid Chad in April 2000 in order to join an oil-exploration project: $25,000,0003

Amount of this bonus that Chad spent on weapons, violating an International Monetary Fund agreement: $4,500,0004

Minimum number of people who have been trampled to death at soccer matches in Africa since April: 1775

Number of U.S. major-league baseball players this year who are natives of the Dominican Republic: 796

Ratio of their combined salaries to the Dominican Republic's military expenditures last year: 2:37

Factor by which the number of Catholics in Latin America exceeds the number in Italy: 88

Number of Catholic cardinals from Latin America and Italy, respectively: 32, 409

Percentage of Americans who would allow "churches and other houses of worship" to seek federal funds for charitable work: 7510

Percentage who would allow "Muslim mosques" to do so: 3811

Chances that an episode of The Simpsons contains at least one religious reference: 7 in 1012

Percentage of CPR attempts depicted on television that save the patient's life: 6713

Percentage in real life that do: 1514

Percentage of Americans who believe they have never eaten genetically modified food: 7015

Chance that a processed food in a U.S. grocery store contains genetically modified ingredients: 1 in 216

Chance that a commercial multivitamin does not contain the vitamin levels promised on its packaging: 1 in 317

Estimated percentage of Tibetan children whose growth has been stunted by malnutrition: 5018

Change, in inches, in the average height of a Japanese eleven-year-old since 1950: +619

Rank of cancer and suicide, respectively, among the top causes of death of Japanese bureaucrats last year: 1, 220

Chance that a case of cancer diagnosed in the U.S. last year was a skin cancer: 1 in 221

Chance that an American will develop skin cancer in his or her lifetime: 1 in 522

Number of nudist clubs, resorts, and campgrounds in the U.S.: 23323

Average monthly viewership of NakedNews.com, a Canadian website whose anchors strip while reading the news: 6,000,00024

Number of Russian news organizations that were sent a press release in February touting a fake company: 2125

Number that offered to run an article about a fake company for a fee: 1326

Estimated percentage of Mexico's thirty major newspapers that would fold without government subsidies: 9027

Chances that a body of water in Mexico is too contaminated to swim in: 3 in 428

Factor by which radiation-dose levels found in the Library of Congress exceed typical levels outside a nuclear plant: 26029

Number of Coca-Cola commercials that the company contributed to the Library of Congress last November: 20,00030

Percentage change in the size of Colombia's coca crop since its "Plan Colombia" coca-eradication campaign began in 1999: +1131

Ratio of the total amount the U.S. spent on the Gulf War to the amount it spent last year on the drug war: 2:532

Percentage of George W. Bush's first 189 appointees who also served in his father's administration: 4233

Number of the sixteen previous Republican presidents who experienced a recession during their first term in office: 1534

Days after Dow Jones laid off 202 workers that its CEO published a scathing review of his Caribbean vacation: 135

Number of General Electric employees who have the title "chief executive officer": 5136

Average amount that workers in one El Salvador factory are paid for each $12.99 Gap T-shirt they sew: 11.6¢37

Percentage of Americans living below the poverty line who believe that "poor people today have it easy": 3138

Percentage change, since January, in the stock price of 99¢ Only Stores: +6539



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SEE ALSO: Africa; Business; Canada; Cancer; The Catholic Church; Chad; Charity; Colombia; Corporations; Death; Diet; Drugs; El Salvador; Energy; Entertainment; Finance; Food; Bush, George W. (George Walker); The Gulf War; International Monetary Fund; Internet; Italy; Japan; The Media; Mendacity; Mexico; Nuclear Energy; Oil; Pollution; Poverty; Religion; Republican Party; Russia; Sport; Suicide; Television; Tibet; Transportation
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Archive > 2009 > Jan · Feb · Mar · Apr · May · Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep · Oct · Nov · Dec

December 2009

THE GENERAL ELECTRIC SUPERFRAUD
Why the Hudson River Will Never Run Clean
By David Gargill

THE MASTER OF SPIN BOLDAK
Undercover with Afghanistan’s Drug-Trafficking Border Police
By Matthieu Aikins

MERMAID FEVER
A story by Steven Millhauser

UNDERSTANDING OBAMACARE
By Luke Mitchell

Also: Dave Hickey and Wendell Berry

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