Harpers Index

I have always found the Harpers Index as being a very interesting read. Here is a sampling from Jan 2005:

Number of American five-year-olds named Lexus : 353 [Cleveland Evans, Bellevue University (Bellevue, Nebr.) ]

Estimated value of a diamond-and-sapphire jewelry set given to Laura Bush in 2003 by the Saudi crown prince : $95,500 [U.S. Department of State ]

Year by which the third and final phase of the 2003 "road map" to a Palestinian state was to have been reached : 2005 [United Nations (N.Y.C.) ]

Estimated number of the twenty-five provisions in the first phase that have yet to be completed : 17 [Harper's research ]

Number of House members in 1979 who voted against making Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday : 133 [Legislative Research Center, U.S. House of Representatives/Harper's research ]

Number who are still in the House : 9 [Legislative Research Center, U.S. House of Representatives/Harper's research ]

Number who are Vice President : 1 [Legislative Research Center, U.S. House of Representatives/Harper's research ]

Percentage of South African farmland owned by whites in 1994 and today, respectively : 87, 84 [International Crisis Group (Washington) ]

Ratio of the number of people in Haiti to the number of permanent full-time jobs there : 80:1 [Haiti Support Group (London) ]

Rank of Wal-Mart among Mexico's largest private employers : 1 [Wal-Mart (Teotihuacan, Mexico) ]

Number of states, provinces, or territories of the United States, Canada, and Mexico that lack a McDonald's : 1 [McDonald's (Oak Brook, Ill.)/McDonald's Canada (Toronto) ]