June 15, 2005

The Harper's Index (1998-2005)
posted by Jerry Junior 18 years ago
  • i love the index
  • I'd never seen it online; thanks for this.
  • Jerry Junior: thanks for the reminder.
  • And here I was thinking harpists... ;]
  • I really like the links; becausee sometimes it's pretty hard to believe the figures on the Index.
  • Just sent this tidbit to my wife, from the February '05 list: Average total cost for a U.S. eighty-year-old to live out the rest of his or her days on a luxury cruise ship: $230,497 Average cost to live them out in an assisted-living facility: $228,075 We were just talking about this phenomenon the other day (seniors retiring onto cruise ships), and she had been wondering how much more it woulod cost than a retirement home. Well, looks like it's about 2 grand. Hell, for two grand, I'd take the boat in the Caribbean over the Sunset Acres Senior Center any day of the week.
  • I picked April 1998 at random, and was greeted by this: Minimum number of the 10 biological materials suspected in Iraqi warfare research that were supplied by U.S. firms: 9 [Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs] Number of biological materials with military potential sent to Iraq by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in the 1980s: 14 [Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs] Ratio of Iraqi chemical-warfare agents destroyed in the Gulf War to those since destroyed under U.N. pressure: 2:5 [U.N. Security Council (N.Y.C.)] Estimated ratio of veterans reporting Gulf War syndrome symptoms to total U.S. Vietnam War combat deaths: 4:1 That would have been useful info to have on hand during a lot of conversations I had a few years later.
  • Lots of facts, and poignantly presented. However, I would venture to say this is nice territory for oversimplification of cause and effect. Oh sorry, I forgot. This is media.