• Just four bouquets of flowers were left outside Kensington Palace this year on the sixth anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. [The Independent, 9th November 2003]

• In the US, black women gain twice as many master’s degrees and 50 per cent more PhDs than black men. On current trends, in 20 years there will be three times as many black women in university as men. [Washington Monthly, March 2002]

• In the 1951 British general election, more than 200 MPs were elected by over 50 per cent of their electorate. In 2001, none were. [The Point of Departure by Robin Cook, Simon and Schuster]

• Men are four times as likely to be struck by lightning as women. [Canadian Geographic, January 2000]

• The richest candidate for the December Duma elections in Russia is a Communist. Sergei Muravlenko is worth more than $50m and has an annual income of $11m. [UPI]

• In the week of national poetry day (9th October), poetry sales fell by 10 per cent from the previous week. [The Guardian, 18th October 2003]

• In Britain, five times as much money is taken from motorists in taxes as is spent on transport. In the US the figures are equal. [BBC Online]

• 44 per cent of California’s budget is devoted to expenditures mandated by “initiatives” – voter-instigated referendums. [New Perspectives Quarterly, Fall 2003]

• Over 3m people visited the Sun’s website in August – more than for any other British newspaper. [ABC Electronic]

• In the second world war, every Italian soldier in north Africa carried his own personal espresso machine. [Essential Militaria by Nicholas Hobbes, Atlantic]

• Japan, pacifist by constitution, has a defence budget of $45bn – the fifth largest in the world. [Prospect research]

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