Monday, August 01, 2005
Harper's Index
Harper's Index for June 2005
Posted on Wednesday, July 6, 2005
Annual cost of all sixteen U.N. peacekeeping missions currently underway: $3,870,000,000[United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (N.Y.C.)]
Monthly cost of the U.S. occupation of Iraq: $4,100,000,000[U.S. Department of Defense]
Revenue from Iraqi oil sales that the CPA could not account for, according to a 2005 audit: $8,800,000,000[Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (Arlington, Va.)]
Estimated number of U.S. intelligence reports on Iraq that were based on a single defector: 100[Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the U.S. Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction (Washington)]
Number of times the defector had ever been interviewed by U.S. intelligence agents: 0[Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the U.S. Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction (Washington)]
Minimum number of newspapers in which Denmark posted ads this year seeking antiterrorist spies: 3[Danish Defense Intelligence Service (Copenhagen)]
Percentage of Iceland residents who took out an ad this winter apologizing for Icelandic support of the Iraq war: 1.5[The Movement for Active Democracy in Iceland (Reykjavik)/Statistics Iceland (Reykjavik)]
Number of books published last year in Iceland and the United States, respectively, per 100,000 residents: 212, 63[Icelandic Publishers Association (Reykjavik)/R. R. Bowker LLC (New Providence, N.J.)]
Number of books registered at BookCrossing.com, so the books can be left in public places and found by others: 1,935,000[BookCrossing.com (Lake Winnebago, Mo.)]
Number of the books left behind that have been from the Left Behind series: 2,047[BookCrossing.com (Lake Winnebago, Mo.)]
Rank, on the Turkish bestseller list in March, of a thriller depicting a U.S. invasion of Turkey: 1[D&R (Istanbul)]
Rank of Mein Kampf: 2[D&R (Istanbul)]
Chance that a resident of the former East Germany wants the Berlin Wall back: 1 in 8[Forsa (Berlin)]
Number of lines that Italy's largest cellular operator has set aside for government eavesdropping: 5,000[Telecom Italia Mobile (Rome)]
Number of these that were in use in March: 5,000[Telecom Italia Mobile (Rome)]
Chance that a Russian scientist says he or she would consider working for North Korea: 1 in 7[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore, Calif.)]
Year by which every U.S. nuclear weapon will have reached the end of its original design life: 2014 (see page 56)[Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Energy]
Number of merit badges in Safety awarded to Boy Scouts since 2001: 15,417[Boy Scouts of America (Irving, Tex.)]
Number in Shotgun Shooting: 65,249[Boy Scouts of America (Irving, Tex.)]
Percentage of the world's Anglican bishops that have condemned the U.S. Episcopal Church's ordination of a gay bishop: 34[Anglican Communion Network (Pittsburgh)]
Number of U.S. Episcopal churches that are now affiliated with dioceses in Rwanda or Uganda: 38[Anglican Mission in America (Pawleys Island, S.C.)/Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles]
Number of federal benefits in the United States that are tied directly to marriage: 1,138[U.S. General Accounting Office]
Factor by which the average viral load in “socially inhibited” HIV+ men exceeds that in “outgoing” men, in a UCLA study: 8[Steve Cole, UCLA School of Medicine (Los Angeles)]
Average percentage by which the power of the male heart declines between the ages of 18 and 75: 20[David Goldspink, Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences (Liverpool, U.K.)]
Average percentage by which the female heart does: 0[David Goldspink, Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences (Liverpool, U.K.)]
Ratio of women to men killed in last December's tsunami, in a survey of eight Indonesian villages: 3:1[Oxfam International (Oxford, U.K.)]
Number of times that major U.S. newspapers have used the term “feeding tube” since January: 647[Harper's research]
Number of times they had used the term in the previous five years: 483[Harper's research]
Years after Bob Marley's death that the BBC, in April, requested an interview with him: 24[Bob Marley Foundation (Kingston, Jamaica)]
Average number of hours it takes to read a weekday Washington Post out loud: 28[The Metropolitan Washington Ear, Inc. (Silver Springs, Md.)]
Projected year by which U.S. Treasury bonds will sink to junk status, on current fiscal policy: 2026 (see page 39)[Standard & Poor's (N.Y.C.)]
Amount for which George W. Bush successfully sued Enterprise Rent-A-Car in 1999: $2,500[Enterprise Rent-A-Car (St. Louis)]
Percentage of Americans who say that driving a fuel-efficient car is an act of patriotism: 66[Civil Society Institute (Newton Centre, Mass.)]
Percentage of NASCAR fans who say this: 67[Civil Society Institute (Newton Centre, Mass.)]
Portion of the world's motor vehicles that are in China: 1/17[World Business Council for Sustainable Development (Geneva)]
Portion of the world's annual traffic fatalities that are: 1/5[World Health Organization (Geneva)]
Percentage change since 1994 in treatment for male infertility and erectile dysfunction in Shanghai: +100[Shanghai Institute of Andrology]
Amount a Chinese online gamer made last year by selling a virtual sword he had borrowed from a friend: $850[Shanghai Zhen Xing Law Firm]
Months later that the friend retaliated by stabbing him to death with a real knife: 6[Shanghai Zhen Xing Law Firm]
Posted on Wednesday, July 6, 2005
Annual cost of all sixteen U.N. peacekeeping missions currently underway: $3,870,000,000[United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (N.Y.C.)]
Monthly cost of the U.S. occupation of Iraq: $4,100,000,000[U.S. Department of Defense]
Revenue from Iraqi oil sales that the CPA could not account for, according to a 2005 audit: $8,800,000,000[Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (Arlington, Va.)]
Estimated number of U.S. intelligence reports on Iraq that were based on a single defector: 100[Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the U.S. Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction (Washington)]
Number of times the defector had ever been interviewed by U.S. intelligence agents: 0[Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the U.S. Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction (Washington)]
Minimum number of newspapers in which Denmark posted ads this year seeking antiterrorist spies: 3[Danish Defense Intelligence Service (Copenhagen)]
Percentage of Iceland residents who took out an ad this winter apologizing for Icelandic support of the Iraq war: 1.5[The Movement for Active Democracy in Iceland (Reykjavik)/Statistics Iceland (Reykjavik)]
Number of books published last year in Iceland and the United States, respectively, per 100,000 residents: 212, 63[Icelandic Publishers Association (Reykjavik)/R. R. Bowker LLC (New Providence, N.J.)]
Number of books registered at BookCrossing.com, so the books can be left in public places and found by others: 1,935,000[BookCrossing.com (Lake Winnebago, Mo.)]
Number of the books left behind that have been from the Left Behind series: 2,047[BookCrossing.com (Lake Winnebago, Mo.)]
Rank, on the Turkish bestseller list in March, of a thriller depicting a U.S. invasion of Turkey: 1[D&R (Istanbul)]
Rank of Mein Kampf: 2[D&R (Istanbul)]
Chance that a resident of the former East Germany wants the Berlin Wall back: 1 in 8[Forsa (Berlin)]
Number of lines that Italy's largest cellular operator has set aside for government eavesdropping: 5,000[Telecom Italia Mobile (Rome)]
Number of these that were in use in March: 5,000[Telecom Italia Mobile (Rome)]
Chance that a Russian scientist says he or she would consider working for North Korea: 1 in 7[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore, Calif.)]
Year by which every U.S. nuclear weapon will have reached the end of its original design life: 2014 (see page 56)[Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Energy]
Number of merit badges in Safety awarded to Boy Scouts since 2001: 15,417[Boy Scouts of America (Irving, Tex.)]
Number in Shotgun Shooting: 65,249[Boy Scouts of America (Irving, Tex.)]
Percentage of the world's Anglican bishops that have condemned the U.S. Episcopal Church's ordination of a gay bishop: 34[Anglican Communion Network (Pittsburgh)]
Number of U.S. Episcopal churches that are now affiliated with dioceses in Rwanda or Uganda: 38[Anglican Mission in America (Pawleys Island, S.C.)/Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles]
Number of federal benefits in the United States that are tied directly to marriage: 1,138[U.S. General Accounting Office]
Factor by which the average viral load in “socially inhibited” HIV+ men exceeds that in “outgoing” men, in a UCLA study: 8[Steve Cole, UCLA School of Medicine (Los Angeles)]
Average percentage by which the power of the male heart declines between the ages of 18 and 75: 20[David Goldspink, Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences (Liverpool, U.K.)]
Average percentage by which the female heart does: 0[David Goldspink, Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences (Liverpool, U.K.)]
Ratio of women to men killed in last December's tsunami, in a survey of eight Indonesian villages: 3:1[Oxfam International (Oxford, U.K.)]
Number of times that major U.S. newspapers have used the term “feeding tube” since January: 647[Harper's research]
Number of times they had used the term in the previous five years: 483[Harper's research]
Years after Bob Marley's death that the BBC, in April, requested an interview with him: 24[Bob Marley Foundation (Kingston, Jamaica)]
Average number of hours it takes to read a weekday Washington Post out loud: 28[The Metropolitan Washington Ear, Inc. (Silver Springs, Md.)]
Projected year by which U.S. Treasury bonds will sink to junk status, on current fiscal policy: 2026 (see page 39)[Standard & Poor's (N.Y.C.)]
Amount for which George W. Bush successfully sued Enterprise Rent-A-Car in 1999: $2,500[Enterprise Rent-A-Car (St. Louis)]
Percentage of Americans who say that driving a fuel-efficient car is an act of patriotism: 66[Civil Society Institute (Newton Centre, Mass.)]
Percentage of NASCAR fans who say this: 67[Civil Society Institute (Newton Centre, Mass.)]
Portion of the world's motor vehicles that are in China: 1/17[World Business Council for Sustainable Development (Geneva)]
Portion of the world's annual traffic fatalities that are: 1/5[World Health Organization (Geneva)]
Percentage change since 1994 in treatment for male infertility and erectile dysfunction in Shanghai: +100[Shanghai Institute of Andrology]
Amount a Chinese online gamer made last year by selling a virtual sword he had borrowed from a friend: $850[Shanghai Zhen Xing Law Firm]
Months later that the friend retaliated by stabbing him to death with a real knife: 6[Shanghai Zhen Xing Law Firm]
