Thursday, September 22, 2005
Harper's Index: August 2005
Harper's Index for August 2005
Posted on Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Number of new U.S. soldiers the Army would need in 2006 to replenish ranks abroad : 80,000 [U.S. Army Recruiting Command (Fort Knox, Ky.)]
Percentage of this goal it expects to meet : 9.9 [U.S. Army Recruiting Command (Fort Knox, Ky.)]
Percentage change since 1996 in the average recruitment cost per new U.S. soldier : +84 [U.S. Army Recruiting Command (Fort Knox, Ky.)]
Number of killed or captured suspects reported so far by U.S. media to be Al Qaeda’s “number 3” man : 4 [Harper's research]
Minimum number of people convicted on “terrorism-related charges” since 2001, according to Alberto Gonzales in April : 200 [U.S. Department of Justice]
Actual number convicted on charges related to terrorism or national security : 39 (see page 48) [Dan Eggen, Washington Post]
Number of Iraqi troops that have been “trained and equipped,” according to President Bush in April : 150,000 [White House (Washington)]
Number that the U.S. military considers ready to deploy independently : 1,500 [U.S. Military Combined Press Information Center (Baghdad)]
Number of members of the Iraqi parliament who worship not only Muhammad but a fallen angel named Lucifer : 3 [Verlag Denge Ezidiyan (Oldenburg, Germany)]
Acres in Israel to which a born-again Christian from Texas bought oil-exploration rights in 2000 : 96,000 [Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. (Dallas)]
Chapter and verse of Deuteronomy that he says predicts his success, because of the phrase, “let him dip his foot in oil” : 33:24 [Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. (Dallas)]
Number of Palestinian communities that will be surrounded by the new Israel security fence on at least three sides : 53 [B'Tselem (Jerusalem)]
Chance that a German says Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is the same “in principle” as how Nazis treated Jews : 1 in 2 [Wilhelm Heitmeyer, Institut ferdisziplin Konflikt und Gewaltforschung (Bielefeld, Germany)]
Factor by which the unemployment rate among Jewish immigrants to Germany exceeds the national average : 3.5 [Moses Mendelssohn Zentrum (Potsdam, Germany)]
Percentage of Germans who say, about the Nazi era, that “one should not always poke around in old wounds” : 60 [TNS Emnid (Bielefeld, Germany)]
Selling price in June for a bar of soap allegedly made from the liposuctioned fat of Silvio Berlusconi : $18,000 [Galerie Nicola von Senger (Zurich)]
Number of Pepsi products plainly visible in a May TV ad for Arnold Schwarzenegger : 5 [Harper's research]
Ratio of the projected U.S. ad revenue of Google and Yahoo! this year to that of NBC, CBS, and ABC in primetime : 1:1 [eMarketer (N.Y.C.)/"Jack Myers Report"(N.Y.C.)]
Amount that the Catholic Church spent in Britain this summer advertising for new priests on bar coasters : $1,100 [National Office for Vocation (London)]
Number of New Orleans bars visited this spring by an undercover team investigating racial discrimination : 40 [Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (New Orleans)]
Percentage of the bars that charged black customers more than white customers : 40 [Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (New Orleans)]
Amount recouped by the U.S. government in institutional fraud cases since 1986 : $8,000,000,000[U.S. Department of Justice]
Amount that whistleblowers received as a cut of this : $1,300,000,000 [U.S. Department of Justice]
Chance that a U.S. company monitors the emails of at least some employees : 1 in 3 [Proofpoint, Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.)]
Chance that it has fired an employee for violation of email policies : 1 in 4 [Proofpoint, Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.)]
Factor by which the expulsion rate in U.S. preschools last year exceeded the rate in grades K-12 : 3 [Walter Gilliam, Yale Child Study Center (New Haven, Conn.)]
Average amount of sugar consumed each year by a U.S. preschooler, expressed as a percentage of body weight : 149 [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta)/U.S. Department of Agriculture]
Estimated total number of tons by which American adults are overweight : 1,180,000 [Harper's research]
Total weight, in tons, of the population of the Los Angeles metropolitan area : 883,000 [Harper's research]
Number of U.S. cities that have agreed to meet the Kyoto Protocols on global warming : 166 [Office of the Mayor (Seattle)]
Average number of times each day that aircrafts intrude into D.C.-area restricted flight zones : 2 [Federal Aviation Administration (Washington)]
Days it took a Nepali Sherpa in May to crawl the length of Manhattan : 6 [L. G. Khambache Sherpa (Brooklyn)]
Fine levied last year on a restaurant in southwest China for serving sushi atop naked women : $242 [Kunming Xishan District Bureau of Health]
Percentage of the world’s cell phone users who say they have interrupted sex to answer a call : 14 [BBDO Worldwide (N.Y.C.)]
Percentage of newlywed couples who report having had a physically violent fight in the year before marriage : 37 [Kenneth Leonard and Julie Schumacher, Research Institute on Addictions (Buffalo)]
Number of Viagra users who have reported becoming blind from the drug : 38 [U.S. Food and Drug Administration (Rockville, Md.)]
Number of corpses shipped on Delta Air Lines last year : 42,175 [Delta Air Lines (Atlanta)]
Amount that Northwest Airlines expects to save each year by eliminating free magazines on flights : $565,000 [Northwest Airlines (Minneapolis)]
Amount by eliminating free pretzels : $2,000,000 [Northwest Airlines (Minneapolis)]
Posted on Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Number of new U.S. soldiers the Army would need in 2006 to replenish ranks abroad : 80,000 [U.S. Army Recruiting Command (Fort Knox, Ky.)]
Percentage of this goal it expects to meet : 9.9 [U.S. Army Recruiting Command (Fort Knox, Ky.)]
Percentage change since 1996 in the average recruitment cost per new U.S. soldier : +84 [U.S. Army Recruiting Command (Fort Knox, Ky.)]
Number of killed or captured suspects reported so far by U.S. media to be Al Qaeda’s “number 3” man : 4 [Harper's research]
Minimum number of people convicted on “terrorism-related charges” since 2001, according to Alberto Gonzales in April : 200 [U.S. Department of Justice]
Actual number convicted on charges related to terrorism or national security : 39 (see page 48) [Dan Eggen, Washington Post]
Number of Iraqi troops that have been “trained and equipped,” according to President Bush in April : 150,000 [White House (Washington)]
Number that the U.S. military considers ready to deploy independently : 1,500 [U.S. Military Combined Press Information Center (Baghdad)]
Number of members of the Iraqi parliament who worship not only Muhammad but a fallen angel named Lucifer : 3 [Verlag Denge Ezidiyan (Oldenburg, Germany)]
Acres in Israel to which a born-again Christian from Texas bought oil-exploration rights in 2000 : 96,000 [Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. (Dallas)]
Chapter and verse of Deuteronomy that he says predicts his success, because of the phrase, “let him dip his foot in oil” : 33:24 [Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. (Dallas)]
Number of Palestinian communities that will be surrounded by the new Israel security fence on at least three sides : 53 [B'Tselem (Jerusalem)]
Chance that a German says Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is the same “in principle” as how Nazis treated Jews : 1 in 2 [Wilhelm Heitmeyer, Institut ferdisziplin Konflikt und Gewaltforschung (Bielefeld, Germany)]
Factor by which the unemployment rate among Jewish immigrants to Germany exceeds the national average : 3.5 [Moses Mendelssohn Zentrum (Potsdam, Germany)]
Percentage of Germans who say, about the Nazi era, that “one should not always poke around in old wounds” : 60 [TNS Emnid (Bielefeld, Germany)]
Selling price in June for a bar of soap allegedly made from the liposuctioned fat of Silvio Berlusconi : $18,000 [Galerie Nicola von Senger (Zurich)]
Number of Pepsi products plainly visible in a May TV ad for Arnold Schwarzenegger : 5 [Harper's research]
Ratio of the projected U.S. ad revenue of Google and Yahoo! this year to that of NBC, CBS, and ABC in primetime : 1:1 [eMarketer (N.Y.C.)/"Jack Myers Report"(N.Y.C.)]
Amount that the Catholic Church spent in Britain this summer advertising for new priests on bar coasters : $1,100 [National Office for Vocation (London)]
Number of New Orleans bars visited this spring by an undercover team investigating racial discrimination : 40 [Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (New Orleans)]
Percentage of the bars that charged black customers more than white customers : 40 [Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (New Orleans)]
Amount recouped by the U.S. government in institutional fraud cases since 1986 : $8,000,000,000[U.S. Department of Justice]
Amount that whistleblowers received as a cut of this : $1,300,000,000 [U.S. Department of Justice]
Chance that a U.S. company monitors the emails of at least some employees : 1 in 3 [Proofpoint, Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.)]
Chance that it has fired an employee for violation of email policies : 1 in 4 [Proofpoint, Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.)]
Factor by which the expulsion rate in U.S. preschools last year exceeded the rate in grades K-12 : 3 [Walter Gilliam, Yale Child Study Center (New Haven, Conn.)]
Average amount of sugar consumed each year by a U.S. preschooler, expressed as a percentage of body weight : 149 [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta)/U.S. Department of Agriculture]
Estimated total number of tons by which American adults are overweight : 1,180,000 [Harper's research]
Total weight, in tons, of the population of the Los Angeles metropolitan area : 883,000 [Harper's research]
Number of U.S. cities that have agreed to meet the Kyoto Protocols on global warming : 166 [Office of the Mayor (Seattle)]
Average number of times each day that aircrafts intrude into D.C.-area restricted flight zones : 2 [Federal Aviation Administration (Washington)]
Days it took a Nepali Sherpa in May to crawl the length of Manhattan : 6 [L. G. Khambache Sherpa (Brooklyn)]
Fine levied last year on a restaurant in southwest China for serving sushi atop naked women : $242 [Kunming Xishan District Bureau of Health]
Percentage of the world’s cell phone users who say they have interrupted sex to answer a call : 14 [BBDO Worldwide (N.Y.C.)]
Percentage of newlywed couples who report having had a physically violent fight in the year before marriage : 37 [Kenneth Leonard and Julie Schumacher, Research Institute on Addictions (Buffalo)]
Number of Viagra users who have reported becoming blind from the drug : 38 [U.S. Food and Drug Administration (Rockville, Md.)]
Number of corpses shipped on Delta Air Lines last year : 42,175 [Delta Air Lines (Atlanta)]
Amount that Northwest Airlines expects to save each year by eliminating free magazines on flights : $565,000 [Northwest Airlines (Minneapolis)]
Amount by eliminating free pretzels : $2,000,000 [Northwest Airlines (Minneapolis)]
