Harper’s Index

Number of bills to reform U.S. election procedures introduced in state legislatures since last November: 1,775¹

Percentage voted down, pending, and passed, respectively: 58, 28, 14²

Percentage of Americans who say "no one" is the leader of the Democratic Party: 10³

Percentage who have no opinion: 51⁴

Members of Congress who voted against this fall's resolution to authorize an armed response to September 11's attack: 1⁵

Members who voted against the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to authorize further U.S. attacks on Vietnam: 2⁶

Chances that a U.S. soldier in the Vietnam War volunteered: 4 in 5⁷

Chance that a U.S. soldier in World War II did so: 1 in 3⁸

Number of deserters from the U.S. military last year: 5,320⁹

Chance that a foreign-born U.S. resident's country of origin has undergone U.S. occupation or attack since 1945: 1 in 6¹⁰

Year in which the French recognized the murder of two thirds of Turkey's Armenians during World War I as "genocide": 2001¹¹

Number of days after Turkey canceled a major order from a French defense contractor: 5¹²

Number of Italian police instructors who were trained for July's Genoa summit by L.A. sheriff's department officers: 32¹³

Percentage change since 1996 in the number of U.S. apprehensions of people trying to cross the Mexican border: +9¹⁴

Percentage change since then in the number of U.S. border guards assigned there: +60¹⁵

Percentage change since 1999 in the number of people who died on U.S. soil while crossing the border illegally: +56¹⁶

Estimated number of Colombians who live in "Bill Clinton," a homeless settlement near Cartagena: 10,000¹⁷

Factor by which the number of West Bank houses demolished by Israel this year exceeds the number demolished last year: 8¹⁸

Weeks before the World Trade Center attack that Ariel Sharon referred to Yasir Arafat as "our bin Laden": 11¹⁹

Hours after the September 11 attack that an Alaska congressman speculated that it may have been committed by "eco-terrorists": 9²⁰

Rank of gas mileage among the 35 things Americans say they look for in buying a new car or truck: 20²¹

Percentage of Americans who live within a half mile of nuclear-waste transport routes to a proposed dump in Nevada: 18²²

Number of business days given Nevada citizens last summer as notice of the only public hearing on the 7,300-square-foot site: 10²³

Prison sentence, in years, received in June by an Oregon activist for setting fire to a car dealership: 23²⁴

Number of cars destroyed in the fire: 3²⁵

Number of days a Quebec protester was jailed in April for allegedly catapulting three stuffed animals at police: 17²⁶

Number of turkeys raised in the United States last year, per American: 0.95²⁷

Percentage change since 1999 in annual sales of Tofurky: +43²⁸

Ratio of New York bird deaths last summer attributed to West Nile virus to those attributed to pollution: 2:3²⁹

Percentage of Manhattan's population killed during the cholera epidemic of 1832: 50³⁰

Minimum number of U.S. food products recalled in the last year due to contamination from StarLink corn: 336³¹

Total cumulative profit earned by the Nasdaq's 4,200 companies since September 1995: 0³²

Amount spent last year on company credit cards issued to federal government employees: $17,300,000,000³³

Number of high-security federal buildings that undercover U.S. agents entered last year using fake I.D.: 19³⁴

Number of years that Osama bin Laden's half-brother owned the Houston Gulf Airport before his death in 1988: 6³⁵

Number of years since then that the airport has been owned by his estate: 13³⁶

Percentage change since 1999 in the annual number of ships worldwide attacked by pirates: +57³⁷

Estimated percentage change since 1997 in the population of two species of vultures in India: –90³⁸

Number of sparrows requested by Chinese farmers in September to help end a plague of locusts: 20,000³⁹

Age, in months, at which an infant can distinguish between a bird and an airplane: 9⁴⁰

Response: January 2002, page 90

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