Harper's Index

Estimated number of news stories published worldwide this year on India's imminent nuclear-test plans: 500
Number of CIA analysts who predicted the country's nuclear test last May: 0
Percentage by which India expects to increase the budget of its Department of Atomic Energy in the next year: 59
Percentage change since 1993 in the annual number of American tourists visiting India: +55
Number of years the U.S. trained Pakistani nuclear-research scientists as part of the "Atoms for Peace" program: 19
Ratio of average worldwide military spending per conflict during the 1980s to spending per conflict in the 1990s: 7:5
Estimated number of firebomb-wielding live bats that the U.S. considered dropping on Japan in early 1944: 1,000,000
Truckloads of nuclear waste the Department of Energy plans to begin driving to New Mexico for storage this year: 37,000
Number of highway accidents the DOE estimates these shipments will be involved in through the year 2033: 50
Chance that an American fell asleep at the wheel last year: 1 in 4
Chance that a Detroit household has no access to a car: 1 in 3
Rank of Detroit, among the 20 largest U.S. cities, in municipal spending on public transportation: 20
Minimum number of times per year that a car's engine should be steam-cleaned, according to Martha Stewart: 1
Total number of marriages experienced by the co-authors of Staying Married and Loving It: 5
Number of months one co-author spent married to the original Bozo the Clown: 18
Percentage of Americans who would rather vacation with O.J. Simpson than with Jack Kevorikan: 16
MINIMUM PRICE OF AN AUTOPSY: 1-800-AUTOPSY: $3,000
Estimated number of undocumented migrants who have died since 1993 while trying to cross the U.S.-Mexican border: 1,185
Factor by which Cuba's percentage GDP growth last year exceeded that of Russia: 12
Estimated portion of the value of the currency circulating in Russian that is in U.S. dollars: 1/2
Number of bids received by the Russian government last May when it put is remaining national oil company up for sale: 0
Percentage by which the asking price was reduced a month later: 24
Amount British Nuclear Fuels paid the British Scouts last year to add its logo to their scientist badge: $49,776
Fuel mileage of the QEII, in feet per gallon: 29
Chances that a Briton believes that Britain did more good than harm to its colonies: 3 in 5
Number of days after July 4, 1776, that the majority of signatures were appended to the Declaration of Independence: 29
Year in which Tennessee legislature approved the Fifteenth Amendment, granting blacks the right to vote: 1997
Chance that a work of art on display in the Capitol includes a depiction of an African American: 1 in 70
Ratio of the number of raises Congress has granted itself since 1938 to those it has granted minimum-wage workers: 21:19
Ratio of highway spending Congress passed last May to the cost of gold-plating one lane of the U.S. interstate system: 2:1
Attendance last June at Oklahoma Congressman Tom Coburn's annual safe-sex slide show: 170
Acres of blue netting with which the Washington Monument will be draped for renovation this summer: 1.3
Acres of U.S. farmland lost to "development" between 1982 and 1992, per hour: 50
Number of credit-cards solicitations mailed to Americans last year: 3,000,000,000 (see page 38)
Number of $530 monogrammed Louis Vuitton World Cup soccer balls sold in the U.S. since last April: 87
Percentage of Americans who have watched Seinfeld who say they will miss it "not very much" or "not at all": 51
Amount by which the decibel level of the scream of the new Godzilla exceeds that of a jackhammer: 18
Factor by which the 1915 birth weight of Frank Sinatra exceeds the average weight of a baby born in New Jersey today: 2
Ratio of the number of Sinatra's gold records to those of Kiss: 1:1