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Last Month’s Index
[ February 2010 ]

Harper’s Index

Last Month’s Index
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Number acquitted

: 2
February 2010 • Source: Harper's research

Chance that he or she is rejected because of physical unfitness

: 1 in 3
February 2010 • Source: U.S. Department of Defense

Chance that a would-be enlistee to the U.S. military aged 17 to 24 is rejected because of a criminal record

: 1 in 20
February 2010 • Source: U.S. Department of Defense

Percentage today

: 12, 10
February 2010 • Source: California Department of Finance (Sacramento)

Percentage of the California state budget in 1979 that went to higher education and prisons, respectively

: 15, 3
February 2010 • Source: California Department of Finance (Sacramento)

Number of the ten states most heavily backing Obama that have G.O.P. governors

: 5
February 2010 • Source: FairVote (Takoma Park, Md.)

Number of the thirteen states most heavily backing John McCain in 2008 that have Democratic governors

: 7
February 2010 • Source: FairVote (Takoma Park, Md.)

Percentage of Fox News viewers who say the network is “mostly liberal”

: 17
February 2010 • Source: Pew Research Center for the People & the Press (Washington)

Percentage of Republicans who believe President Obama was “legitimately” elected

: 27
February 2010 • Source: Public Policy Polling (Raleigh, N.C.)

Percentage who think she is qualified for the job

: 58
February 2010 • Source: Gallup Poll (Princeton, N.J.)

Percentage of Republican voters who say they would seriously consider voting for Palin for president

: 65
February 2010 • Source: Gallup Poll (Princeton, N.J.)

Number of two-, three-, and four-star reviews combined

: 65
February 2010 • Source: Amazon.com (Seattle)

Number of five-star and one-star reviews, respectively, given to Sarah Palin’s memoir on Amazon.com

: 355, 213
February 2010 • Source: Amazon.com (Seattle)

Portion of men whose attractiveness is judged by U.S. women to be “worse than average”

: 4/5
February 2010 • Source: OkCupid (N.Y.C.)

Portion of women about whom U.S. men say this

: 2/5
February 2010 • Source: OkCupid (N.Y.C.)

Number of executives at Wall Street banks so far who have been tried on criminal charges related to the financial crisis

: 2
February 2010 • Source: Harper's research

Percentage tax rate that Goldman Sachs paid on its profits for year 2008

: 0.6
February 2010 • Source: Goldman Sachs (N.Y.C.)

Average profit that films with budgets over $100 million have generated since 2007

: $348,000,000
February 2010 • Source: SNL Kagan (Monterey, Calif.)

Estimated percentage change since 2007 in the average tabloid payout for a celebrity photograph

: ???30
February 2010 • Source: The Daily Beast (Los Angeles)

Number of architects nominated to design the 2010 “New American Home” for an annual home-builders’ convention

: 3
February 2010 • Source: Builder (Washington)

Portion of the home completed by November, when the builder ran out of money

: 3/4
February 2010 • Source: Domanico Custom Homes (Las Vegas)

Chance that a child in the United States will be on food stamps at some point during his or her upbringing

: 1 in 2
February 2010 • Source: Mark Rank, Washington University (St. Louis)

Price last fall for which a North Carolina middle school allowed students to buy extra credit points on any test

: $20
February 2010 • Source: Wayne County Public Schools (Goldsboro, N.C.)

Factor by which the average time a 15-to-19-year-old U.S. girl spends doing housework each day exceeds that of a boy

: 2
February 2010 • Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Percentage of Americans who think that women are more “intelligent” and “honest” than men, respectively

: 38, 50
February 2010 • Source: Pew Social & Demographic Trends (Washington)

Percentage who think they make better political leaders

: 6
February 2010 • Source: Pew Social & Demographic Trends (Washington)

Chance that she will have sex with a police officer

: 1 in 33
February 2010 • Source: Sudhir Venkatesh, Columbia University (N.Y.C.)

Chance that a female U.S. street prostitute during any given week will be arrested by a police officer

: 1 in 67
February 2010 • Source: Sudhir Venkatesh, Columbia University (N.Y.C.)

Percentage of women who will if their partners use condoms

: 2
February 2010 • Source: Guttmacher Institute (N.Y.C.)

Percentage of women using the “withdrawal” method of contraception who will get pregnant within a year

: 4
February 2010 • Source: Guttmacher Institute (N.Y.C.)

Percentage of Americans under 35 who say they text, tweet, or check their Facebook pages right after sex

: 36
February 2010 • Source: Retrevo, Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.)

Ratio of the minimum number of medical-marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles to the number of Starbucks

: 4:1
February 2010 • Source: Harper's research

Percentage of all food in the U.S. supply chain that is wasted

: 40
February 2010 • Source: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (Bethesda, Md.)

Portion of all U.S. freshwater used each year that goes toward making food Americans waste

: 1/4
February 2010 • Source: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (Bethesda, Md.)

Length, in minutes, to which Hugo Ch?vez called upon Venezuelans last fall to limit their morning showers

: 3
February 2010 • Source: Harper's research

Number of Cubans convicted in Guantánamo province last February of being in an unemployed “state of dangerousness”

: 35
February 2010 • Source: Human Rights Watch (N.Y.C.)

Chance that an Afghan reports having been tortured during his or her lifetime

: 1 in 5
February 2010 • Source: Oxfam (Kabul)

Estimated percentage change in U.S. GDP by 2011 that would be caused by ending the Afghan war today

: ???0.4
February 2010 • Source: Barry Bosworth, The Brookings Institution (Washington)

Factor by which this exceeds the number of U.S. soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan last year

: 5
February 2010 • Source: U.S. Department of Defense

Estimated number of U.S. veterans under 65 who died in 2008 because they lacked health insurance

: 2,266
February 2010 • Source: Physicians for a National Health Program (Chicago)
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