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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