Prospect
In China, women can only marry at age 20 and men at age 22.
The Times, 28th August 2009
“Definitely” is the most commonly misspelt word in the English language, with Britons regularly writing it as “definately.”
Daily Mail, 15th June 2009
Sales of extra-large condoms in Tesco are higher in Glasgow than anywhere else in Britain.
Daily Express, 2nd September 2009
Britain produced 91,723 scientific papers in 2009—just under 8 per cent of the world’s total, and third only to the US and China.
BBC News website, 2nd October 2009
While a cub reporter in Essex, Ruth Rendell wrote up a tennis club dinner without attending it. As this meant she missed the after-dinner speaker dying mid-speech, she resigned before she could be fired.
The Guardian, 7th September 2009
Greenland has the world’s highest suicide rate—each year 100 people per 100,000 take their own lives.
Slate, 9th October 2009
According to in-house estimates at the Times, Jeremy Clarkson is responsible for 25 per cent of timesonline.co.uk traffic.
Vanity Fair, November 2009
The annual retail spend of Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street is £5.5bn—more than Manchester and Birmingham combined.
The Times, 3rd November 2009
22 per cent of men “regularly include a kiss on texts to their male mates.”
The Register, 4th November 2009
Prospect
Abraham Lincoln was a bankrupt, as was Ulysses S Grant, Thomas Jefferson (several times) and William McKinley (three years before becoming president).
Mental Floss blog, 18th November 2008
The World Health Organisation has a Women’s Orgasm Committee.
“Why Women Have Sex,” by Cindy M Meston and David M Buss
In Detroit, the average sale price of a house is $7,100.
Wall Street Journal, 26th September 2009
The Conservatives have lost nearly a quarter of their members since December 2005. They have 145,000 party members, compared with 1.5m in 1975. In 1996, Labour had 400,000 members; now it has 150,000.
The Guardian, 22nd September 2009
News of the battle of Trafalgar took 17 days to travel the 1,100 miles to London—a speed of 2.7 mph.
A Farewell to Alms by Gregory Clark
In the US, 12 per cent of postmen have college degrees.
NPR, 1st September 2009
In England, 22 of the 25 areas with the highest rate for antidepressant prescriptions are in the north; 23 of the 25 areas with the lowest rates are in the London area. Blackpool has the highest rate and Kensington and Chelsea the lowest.
Mental Health Foundation
Dan Brown’s first four novels are now the first, second, third and fourth bestselling adult paperback novels in British history.
The Times, 15th September 2009
Didier Drogba studied accountancy.
Didier Drogba’s Facebook website
Prospect
UFO sightings in Britain peaked in 1978, the year after Close Encounters of the Third Kind was released, with over 750 reports. The three years after 9/11 saw the fewest sightings (100 or less) since the mid-1960s.
The Guardian Datablog, 18th August 2009
Next year, Britain’s annual payment to the EU will rise from £4.1bn to £6.4bn.
The Sun, 24th August 2009
Martha Stewart, Snoop Dogg, Pablo Neruda and Dimitri Shostakovich have all been banned from entering Britain.
Mental Floss website, 6th May 2009
The average weight of new members to WeightWatchers has risen from 12.3 stone in 1989 to 13.7 stone today.
Daily Mail, 24th August 2009
Americans are giving up their landlines at a rate of 700,000 per month. If this continues, the last cord will be cut in 2025.
The Economist, 13th August 2009
The Times and Sunday Times lost £51.3m in the year to 29th June 2008.
The Independent, 24th August 2009
The number of people killed at work has fallen to a record low. There were 180 deaths in the year to March 2009, the lowest number since records began in 1974.
BBC News, 24th June 2009
General Electric is the only company remaining from the Dow Jones index of 1896. It has had fewer leaders since then (eight) than the Vatican has had popes.
Fortune, 5th April 2004
The New York Times magazine’s cover story on 30th August, about a hospital during Hurricane Katrina, cost around $400,000.
New York Times, 24th August 2009
Post a comment »
