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2004-01-31 - 8:35 p.m.

Harper's Index for December 2003

Chance that a civilian federal worker is employed by the Department of Homeland Security: 1 in 12[Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (Syracuse, N.Y.)]

Number of new government jobs created since 2000: 721,000 [U.S. Department of Labor]

Date on which Arnold Schwarzenegger met with Enron CEO Kenneth Lay to discuss California�s energy policy: 5/17/01 [The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (Santa Monica, Calif.)]

Chances that a participant in California�s September 24 gubernatorial debate grew up speaking English at home: 2 in 5

Rank of 2002 among fiscal years since 1980 in which the fewest refugees entered the United States: 1 [U.S. Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (Washington)]

Percentage of U.S. Muslims who said in 2000 that they would vote for George Bush: 40 [Council on American-Islamic Relations (Washington)]

Percentage who say this today: 2 [Council on American-Islamic Relations (Washington)]

Year in which a terrorist threat against �S. Claus,� the �Prime Minister� of the North Pole, was declassified by the CIA: 1997 [National Security Archive (Washington)]

Days after a 1961 meeting with Khrushchev that President Kennedy leaked claims of U.S. nuclear-missile superiority: 29 [History News Network (Seattle)/Fred Greenstein, Princeton University (Princeton, N.J.)/Timothy McKeown, University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)]

Months after those leaks that nuclear missiles were assembled in Cuba under Khrushchev�s order: 10[History News Network (Seattle)/Fred Greenstein, Princeton University (Princeton, N.J.)/Timothy McKeown, University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)]

Spending Winston Churchill approved in 1943 to research making an aircraft carrier out of ice and wood pulp: $136,000 [International Glaciological Society (Cambridge, England)]

Percentage change between 2001 and 2002 in G.I. Joe sales: +46 [Hasbro (Pawtucket, R.I.)]

Percentage change since 1999 in the number of desertions from the U.S. Army: +36 [U.S. Army (Washington)]

Average number of U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq each day since the invasion began: 9.2 [U.S. Department of Defense]

Average number killed: 1.6 [U.S. Department of Defense]

Average number of Iraqi civilians killed by gunfire in Baghdad each day last August: 17 [Iraqbodycount.net (London)]

Percentage of Iraq�s urban areas with access to potable water a year ago and today, respectively: 92, 60 [Coalition Provisional Authority (Baghdad)/World Health Organization (Geneva)]

Percentage of Baghdad�s citizens asked to participate in a Gallup poll last September who agreed to do so: 98 [The Gallup Organization (Princeton, N.J.)]

Average percentage of Americans asked to participate in Gallup polls who do: 40 [The Gallup Organization (Princeton, N.J.)]

Percentage change since last year in the number of U.S. millionaires: -3 [Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (N.Y.C.)]

Percentage change since 2001 in the number of U.S. families in poverty: +6 [U.S. Department of Commerce]

Amount by which the number of U.S. deaths in 2000 from lack of medical insurance exceeded those from AIDS: 967 [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta)/Institute of Medicine (Washington)]

Factor by which antibiotic treatment before the age of 6 months increases the chance of developing asthma by age 7: 2.6 [Henry Ford Health System (Detroit)]

Number of New York City eighth-graders deemed �proficient� on last year�s end-of-summer-school reading exam: 0 [New York City Department of Education]

Percentage of those who took the test who were promoted to the ninth grade: 78 [New York City Department of Education]

Number of candidates who ran for a school-board seat in the South Mississippi County School District last fall: 1 [South Mississippi County School District (Wilson, Ark.)]

Number of votes he won: 0 [South Mississippi County School District (Wilson, Ark.)]

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