Harper’s Index

Minimum U.S. spending on missile defense each year since President Reagan's 1983 "Star Wars" speech : $2,700,000,000¹

Number of the ten missile-defense components to be deployed this fall that have been field-tested as a system : 0 ²

Amount that next year's Defense Department budget proposal requests for researching low-yield nuclear weapons : $9,000,000³

Number of years that such research was illegal before Congress repealed the ban last November : 10⁴

Number of countries given weapons-grade uranium since the 1950s under the U.S. Atoms for Peace program : 51⁵

Minimum amount, per kilogram, that the U.S. charges "high income" countries to return spent nuclear fuel : $3,500⁶

Number of actors, musicians, and clowns in a U.N. troupe touring Liberia to convince citizens to disarm : 101⁷

Number of members of the Iraqi Communist Party who belong to the Governing Council : 1⁸

Number of times that none-of-the-above won a Duma seat last winter in Ulyanovsk, Russia, Lenin's birthplace : 2⁹

Chance that a Western European has a positive opinion of George W. Bush : 1 in 10¹⁰

Average price per gallon Americans would have paid for gasoline in March if U.S. gas taxes were as high as Europe's : $2.31¹¹

Amount by which total Social Security contributions since 1983 exceed total benefit payments since then : $999,059,000,000¹²

Year in which the Medicare hospital trust fund will be "completely exhausted," according to the trustees : 2019¹³

Year in which trustees predicted in 1991 that the fund would be exhausted : 2005¹⁴

Minimum number of U.S. surgical patients sewn up each year with sponges, clamps, or other tools left inside them : 1,500¹⁵

Number of Americans who died in 2002 from infections they contracted while hospitalized for other ailments : 90,000¹⁶

Number of accidents on Florida highways in 2002 caused by cars parked on the side of the road : 4,220¹⁷

Ratio of the average number of vehicles to the number of children per U.S. household : 5:2¹⁸

Ratio of the average number of television sets to the number of children : 7:2¹⁹

Estimated revenue lost by an Oregon county since it suspended granting heterosexuals marriage licenses last March : $2,000²⁰

Minimum number of times a Houston woman stabbed her husband last year : 193²¹

Estimated percentage of women in Pakistani prisons whose crime was fornication : 80²²

Average number of people who die every day in Bombay commuter-train accidents : 10²³

Percentage of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip who lack regular access to food : 40²⁴

Percentage who are at risk of losing regular access to food if conditions there persist or deteriorate : 31²⁵

Number of countries in which the average life expectancy was less than 40 in 2002 : 6²⁶

Number of African countries in which the average life expectancy has declined since 1978 : 22²⁷

Estimated percentage change since 1970 in sub-Saharan Africa's share of world trade : -57²⁸

Rank of Venice and Kuwait City among cities where hotels generate the most revenue per room : 1, 2²⁹

Estimated value of a painting that the Saudi ambassador has given George W. Bush for his future presidential library : $1,000,000³⁰

Value of the solid-gold model of a Saudi fortress on display in his father's presidential library : $1,000,000³¹

Minimum number of the brand names mentioned in James Joyce's Ulysses that are still extant : 28³²

Number of the brand holders that are sponsoring Dublin's centennial Bloomsday celebration this month : 2³³

Number of Library of Congress book collections it would take to hold the data created worldwide in 2002 : 36,764³⁴

Chances that a sixth-grader at one Oklahoma City school was suspended for being disruptive during lunch last March 24 : 4 in 5³⁵

Chance that a British infantry recruit's reading and writing skills are no better than the average 11-year-old's : 1 in 2³⁶

Decimal places to which Japanese scientists have estimated pi : 1,241,100,000,000³⁷

Chances that God exists, according to a British physicist working as a risk analyst in Ohio : 2 in 3³⁸

Weight in carats of the 2,500-mile-diameter diamond resulting from the crystallization of the star BPM 37093 : 1 x 1034³⁹

Street value of a rock of crack cocaine the size of the sun : $5.6 x 1034⁴⁰

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