Harper’s Index

Last year in which Americans' confidence in the federal government "to do what is right" was as high as it is today: 1968¹

Last day on which a total tally of those detained in U.S. terrorism investigations was released to the public: 11/2²

Number of the ten amendments in the Bill of Rights that are violated by the USA PATRIOT Act, according to the ACLU: 5³

Number of U.S. colleges and universities that were asked by law enforcement to release student information last fall: 220⁴

Percentage that released the students' information without informing them: 90⁵

Amount the Pentagon paid a private company last fall for exclusive access to satellite pictures of Afghanistan: $3,800,000⁶

Estimated number of U.S. sorties flown in Iraqi no-fly zones last year: 10,000⁷

Gallons of concentrated anthrax that Iraq has admitted to producing as a biological weapon: 2,245⁸

Number of biological materials with military potential sent to Iraq by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in the 1980s: 14⁹

Minimum number of the ten biological materials suspected in Iraqi warfare research that were supplied by U.S. firms: 9¹⁰

Number of mock biological attacks with live bacteria carried out domestically by the U.S. Army between 1949 and 1969: 199¹¹

Year in which the Army released bacteria into New York City's subway system: 1966¹²

Percentage of Navy recruits from the New York City area last year who were green-card holders: 40¹³

Change since 2000 in the percentage of Latin Americans who say they prefer democracy to other forms of government: -12¹⁴

Change since then in the percentage who feel "confident" in the Catholic Church: -5¹⁵

Percentage of U.S. Jews who rank the separation of church and state among the top reasons for the country's success: 86¹⁶

Percentage of the total U.S. population who believe this: 61¹⁷

Percentage of Americans who believe that the theory of human evolution is "probably" or "definitely" not true: 47¹⁸

Percentage of Americanswho believe that the tenets of astrology "probably" or "definitely" have some scientific truth: 48¹⁹

Number of years after being executed as witches that six Massachusetts women were exonerated last fall: 309²⁰

Months after Element 118 was added to a textbook's periodic table last year that its discovery was invalidated: 4²¹

Rank of "serendipity" among words most often queried on Cambridge Dictionaries Online last October: 1²²

Year in which the word was coined from the Persian fairy tale "The Three Princes of Serendip": 1754²³

Percentage of U.S. college students who say they intend to pursue a foreign language: 57²⁴

Percentage who are actually enrolled in a foreign-language course: 8²⁵

Number of nations that got less than ten minutes' coverage on U.S. network evening news in the 1990s: 88²⁶

Ratio of minutes devoted to Afghanistan in the 1990s to those devoted to it in three weeks last fall: 1:1²⁷

Minimum number of Saudis who have been trained in Al Qaeda camps: 5,000²⁸

Ratio of the number of U.S. soldiers killed by hostile fire since 1990 to the number who have committed suicide: 1:5²⁹

Percentage change since 1999 in the number of bankruptcies of companies with liabilities of more than $1 billion: +106³⁰

Amount of debt carried by New York City's government, per resident, before September 11: $5,066³¹

Ratio of natural disasters worldwide necessitating help from outside the immediate region in the 1990s to those in the 1970s: 2:1³²

Pounds of dust blown into the air each year worldwide, per capita: 769³³

Number of days that E. coli bacteria can survive on polyurethane plastic: 15³⁴

Last year for which General Accounting Office data on U.S. baggage screeners was not classified as "sensitive": 1987³⁵

Chance that a potentially dangerous item was missed by screeners that year, according to the GAO: 1 in 5³⁶

Minimum number of Winter Olympics volunteers who were rejected last fall after a criminal background check: 273³⁷

Number of cases of Polygamy Porter sold by a Utah brewery since October: 1,000³⁸

Number of Pop-Tarts dropped on Afghanistan as part of U.S. airborne food aid in the first month of bombing: 2,400,000³⁹

Number of knee bends that a 59-year-old Ukrainian woman performed last fall to protest U.S. attacks on Afghanistan: 1,101⁴⁰

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