Harper’s Index

Increase in the total value of U.S. residential property since 2000, expressed as a percentage of GDP : 60¹

Increase in the value of all U.S. stocks between 1995 and 2000, as a percentage of GDP : 59²

Chances that a U.S. job created since 2001 has been in a housing-related field : 2 in 5³

Number of consecutive years that the value of housing in Japan has dropped since its housing bubble burst : 14⁴

Number of years that the world's tallest hotel has stood uncompleted in North Korea : 13⁵

Number of consecutive years that China has jailed more reporters than any other nation : 6⁶

Percentage of Asian Americans whose primary source of news is not in English : 25⁷

Percentage of Arab Americans for whom this is true : 40⁸

Rank of “time to buy” in the futures markets, among the first thoughts Brit Hume said he had after the London bombings : 1⁹

Months after his 2004 defeat that Ralph Nader said the Democratic Party had made him feel “like a nigger” : 7¹⁰

Number of anti-globalization protesters who were tortured last year by Mexican officials : 19¹¹

Total paid by U.S. catastrophe insurers since 1984 for claims due to “civil disorders” : $1,100,000,000¹²

Total annual spending controlled by functionally illiterate U.S. consumers : $414,000,000,000¹³

Chance that a teacher in a U.S. public school is a man : 1 in 5¹⁴

Average percentage of students in New York State's majority-white school districts who graduate in four years : 79¹⁵

Average percentage who do so in districts where a majority of students are black or Latino : 40¹⁶

Minimum number of American universities with their own student-run erotic magazine : 6¹⁷

Stipend that a CIA scholarship program gives annually to undisclosed undergraduates for overseas “fieldwork” : $25,000¹⁸

Ratio of the world's reconstruction aid given to postwar Kosovo, per capita, to that given postwar Afghanistan : 23:1¹⁹

Ratio of the number of peacekeeping troops in Kosovo, per capita, to that in Afghanistan : 24:1²⁰

Number of times that the U.N. has extended its peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone : 11²¹

Amount the U.S. spent last year on mosquito nets to fight malaria in Africa : $4,000,000²²

Amount it paid a consultancy to conduct “social marketing” of mosquito nets : $7,600,000²³

Year in which perfluorochemicals, used in Teflon and other nonstick products, were first introduced : 1956²⁴

Percentage of U.S. children who now have one of these nonbiodegradable chemicals in their bloodstreams : 96²⁵

Amount that pharmaceutical companies spent on R&D in 1997 per new drug they launched : $868,000,000²⁶

Amount last year : $1,430,000,000²⁷

Amount allocated for investigating health-care fraud in 2003 that the FBI cannot account for : $114,000,000²⁸

Minimum number of prescription drugs currently under investigation for Medicaid price-gouging or marketing fraud : 500²⁹

Percentage markup that Abbott Laboratories charged in 2001 on solutions of sodium chloride, i.e., salt water : 20,735³⁰

Year by which Brazil's government will have switched its computers entirely to open-source software : 2010³¹

Amount they expect the switch will save each year : $48,000,000³²

Number of Danish graduate students who last December released a copyright-free recipe for an “open-source beer” : 15³³

Number of times the website has been accessed so far : 133,000³⁴

Average amount an Ohio man paid children to berate him for being obese, until he was arrested in April : $30³⁵

Average number of $75 anal bleachings that an L.A.-area salon performs each day : 5³⁶

Number of chickens trained by European scientists to choose between photos of human faces by pecking : 6³⁷

Chances that college students select as “most desirable” the same face chosen by the chickens : 49 in 50³⁸

Numeral whose underlying concept has been partially understood by a Massachusetts parrot, according to scientists : 0³⁹

Response: December 2005, page 6

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