Harper's Index for March 2006

Posted on Monday, April 24, 2006. Originally from March 2006.

Sources indicated in brackets.

Number of U.S. counties where more than a fifth of “residents” are prison inmates: 21 [Prison Policy Initiative (Northampton, Mass.)]

Number of these that are in Texas: 10 [Prison Policy Initiative (Northampton, Mass.)]

Portion of New York Senate districts that would not meet the minimum population level without their inmates: 1/9 [Prison Policy Initiative (Northampton, Mass.)]

Percentage of U.S. House contests in 2004 that were decided by fewer than 10 percentage points: 5 [Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives]

Percentage of districts in 1972 that chose one party for President and another for the House: 44 [The Brookings Institution (Washington)]

Percentage that did in 2004: 14 [American Enterprise Institute (Washington)]

Percentage of Democrats and Republicans, respectively, who say the Iraq war was “worth fighting”: 4, 84 [M.I.T. Public Opinion Research Training Lab (Cambridge, Mass.)]

Total projected cost of the war per U.S. household, based on a January estimate: $19,600 [Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University (N.Y.C.)]

Amount that one of Saddam Hussein’s military uniforms sold for at auction in December: $16,000 [Manion's International Auction House (Kansas City, Kans.) ]

Monthly fee that Court TV is charging for live Internet coverage of his trial: $5.95 [Court TV (N.Y.C.)]

Number of suicide bombings known to have been carried out by Iranians: 0 [Robert Pape, University of Chicago]

Minimum number of times that Frederick Douglass was beaten in what is now Donald Rumsfeld’s vacation home: 25 [Harper's research]

Percentage of African-American families that have zero or negative net worth: 31 [Edward N. Wolff, New York University]

Chance that the family of an African-American child is too poor to qualify for the full U.S. child tax credit: 1 in 2 [Tax Policy Center (Washington)]

Percentage change in the amount of housework done by women after they marry for the first time: +17 [Sanjiv Gupta, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)]

Percentage change in the amount done by men: ‒33 [Sanjiv Gupta, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)]

Rank of 2004 among years when the most U.S. babies were born out of wedlock: 1 [National Center for Health Statistics (Hyattsville, Md.)]

Number of half-siblings who have found each other on a website for children of anonymous sperm donors: 1,316 [Donor Sibling Registry (Nederland, Colo.)]

Greatest number of them who have the same father: 21 [Donor Sibling Registry (Nederland, Colo.)]

Minimum number of registered sex offenders who evacuated during Hurricane Katrina and cannot be accounted for: 2,000 [U.S. Administration for Children and Families]

Miles from Berlin’s World Cup stadium that a four-story brothel has recently opened: 2 [FKK-Saunaclub Artemis (Berlin)]

Percentage change since 1992 in the number of civil wars worldwide claiming more than a thousand lives: ‒80 [Human Security Centre (Vancouver)]

Chance that a nation lacking resource wealth will have a civil war in any given five-year span: 1 in 100 [Paul Collier, Centre for the Study of African Economies (Oxford, England)]

Chance that a nation with resource wealth will: 1 in 5 [Paul Collier, Centre for the Study of African Economies (Oxford, England)]

Number of weapons that have been turned into tools for African farmers by a British nonprofit since 2001: 2,200 [APT Enterprise Development (Moreton-in-Marsh, England)]

Number of farm implements that a rocket launcher yields: 5 [APT Enterprise Development (Moreton-in-Marsh, England)]

Average percentage decline in U.K. child injuries during weekends when a new Harry Potter book is released: ‒46 [Stephen Gwilym, John Radcliffe Hospital (Oxford, England)]

Number of books published in Britain since 2004 that have “shit,” “shite,” or “crap” in their titles: 23 [Harper's research]

Percentage change since 1995 in the number of U.S. fantasy books about dragons: +91 [Locus Magazine (Oakland)]

Percentage of Americans who believe that China will be stronger than the U.S. in a decade: 42 [Harris Interactive (Rochester, N.Y.)]

Number of copies sold in Japan since last summer of a comic book about the worthlessness of China: 180,000 [Asuka Shinsha (Tokyo)]

Number of copies sold of a similar comic book about Korea: 370,000 [Shinyusha (Tokyo)]

Chances that a Japanese person will make eye contact during conversation with another Japanese person: 2 in 5 [Karl MacDorman, Indiana University School of Informatics (Indianapolis)]

Chances that he or she will make eye contact during conversation with a robot: 3 in 5 [Karl MacDorman, Indiana University School of Informatics (Indianapolis)]

Amount paid in January for one of William Shatner’s kidney stones: $25,000 [GoldenPalace.com (Kahnawake, Quebec)]

Amount paid last fall for a Ford Escort driven by Pope John Paul II: $680,000 [Kruse International (Auburn, Ind.)]

Number of U.S. states whose constitutions require that public officials believe in a supreme being: 4 [Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance (Kingston)]

Number of the 193 “laughing episodes” during Supreme Court arguments last term that were caused by Antonin Scalia: 77 [Jay D. Wexler, Boston University School of Law]

Number caused by Clarence Thomas: 0[Jay D. Wexler, Boston University School of Law]
This is Harper's Index for March 2006, a Harper's Index, originally from March 2006, published Monday, April 24, 2006. It is part of Harper's Index for 2006, which is part of The Harper's Index, which is part of Harpers.org.