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2003-08-23 - 8:20 p.m. Harper's Index July 2003 Hours Alexander Hamilton spent in 1787 arguing at the Constitutional Convention that America should have a king : 5 Source: Prof. P. S. Ruckman, Rock Valley College (Rockford, Ill.) Percentage by which a British flag maker's sales of U.S. flags in March exceeded those a year earlier : 25 Percentage by which its sales of Iraqi flags did : 10,000 Source: United Flag Traders (Swansea, U.K.) Chance that an American lives full-time in an RV : 1 in 290 Source: Recreation Vehicle Industry Association (Reston, Va.) Percentage of Americans who said at the end of April that their nation commanded less respect abroad than a year ago : 41 Percentage who said that the Iraq war will have been worthwhile even if Saddam Hussein is never captured or killed : 53 Source: CBS News poll (N.Y.C.) Percentage who said it will have been worthwhile even if weapons of mass destruction are never found : 60 Source: CBS News poll (N.Y.C.) Minimum number of Latin American residents whose personal data the U.S. government has bought since 2001 : 100,000,000 Source: ChoicePoint (Atlanta) Number of presidents Argentina has had in the past two years : 6 Source: Embassy of Argentina (Washington) Amount by which the number of government jobs in the U.S. exceeds the number of manufacturing jobs : 5,129,000 Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Amount of the $106,185 price of a Hummer H1 that businesses may deduct under the proposed Bush tax plan : $88,722 Source: The White House (Washington)/ Harper's research Number of Wisconsin accounting students given take-home tests to accommodate an Enron whistle-blower's April speech : 78 Number later found to have cheated : 40 Source: Prof. John Eichenseher, University of Wisconsin (Madison) Year in which Washington, D.C., neighbors of a WWI-era chemical-weapons test site were told it was cleaned up : 1995 Tons of toxic soil that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has removed from the site since 2001 : 10,660 Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Baltimore) Gallons of water that Boulder, Colorado, saved last year through a water-conservation program : 1,000,000,000 Source: City of Boulder Planning and Public Works (Boulder, Colo.) Estimated percentage by which the sun's radiation has increased since 1980 : 0.1 Source: Richard Wilson, Columbia University (N.Y.C.) Years by which the 1831 invention of the electric dynamo preceded the first documented use of the word "boredom" : 21 Source: Harper's research/Prof. Patricia M. Spacks, University of Virginia (Charlottesville) Weekly wage above which new federal regulations forbid the payment of overtime in jobs requiring "talent" : $425 Source: U.S. Department of Labor Estimated amount spent on lap dances in Las Vegas each year : $25,000,000 Source: Las Vegas Dancers Alliance Number of years Neil Bush was married before asking his wife for a divorce via email last summer : 22 Source: Elite Model Management (N.Y.C.)/ Harper's research Percentage of married U.S. couples that are raising children : 46 Percentage of unmarried, cohabiting U.S. couples that are : 41 Source: U.S. Census Bureau Vote in April by which the North Dakota Senate upheld the state's 1890 ban on cohabitation by unmarried couples : 26�21 Source: North Dakota Legislative Council Library (Bismarck) Number of American states that have revoked helmet requirements for adult motorcycle riders since 1975 : 30 Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (Washington) Ratio of New York City's minimum fine for smoking tobacco in a bar to its minimum fine for possessing marijuana : 2:1 Source: Office of the Mayor (N.Y.C.)/New York County District Attorney's Office (N.Y.C.) Number of Grateful Dead concerts attended by columnist Ann Coulter : 67 Source: William Morris Agency (N.Y.C) � |