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 für interdisziplinäre 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)]
From http://harpers.org/HarpersIndex2005-08.html