Daily Kos

Open Thread for Night Owls & Early Birds

Fri May 16, 2008 at 09:45:53 PM PDT

I've been a big fan of Harper's Index since forever. Footnoted statistics, often grouped in pairs, triplets or foursomes, guaranteed to spark a chuckle or a discussion. Like, for instance, this item from back in January:

Percentage of NYU students who say they would "permanently forfeit" their vote for $1 million: 50

Or from March 1994:

Chances that a fatal accident involving a Corvette will involve no other vehicle: 4 in 5

Or from June 1986:

Amount the Reagan Administration has budgeted for military bands in 1987: $154,200,000

Amount it has budgeted for the National Endowment for the Arts:$144,900,000

The current (June) issue has this relevant grouping:

Portion of Barack Obama supporters who said in April they would not vote for Hillary Clinton if she became the nominee: 1 in 5

Portion of Clinton supporters who said this about Obama: 1/4

Percentage of John McCain supporters in March 2000 who said they would not vote for George W. Bush: 51

Percentage who still said this in October 2000: 39

The Overnight News Digest is posted and includes this item from Eric Schmitt and Tim Golden in Saturday's The New York Times: U.S. Planning Big New Prison in Afghanistan.

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Poll

Would you permanently forfeit your vote for $1 million?

35%4923 votes
37%5207 votes
25%3540 votes
0%98 votes

| 13768 votes | Vote | Results

Tags: Open Thread for Night Owls & Early Birds, Harper's (all tags) :: Previous Tag Versions

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