• When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, his army used more horses, and more horses per soldier, than did Napoleon’s over 100 years earlier. [Prospect, p17]

• Rents in central Manchester are 40 per cent higher than in central Manhattan. [Centre for Cities]

• Adjusting for inflation, the most expensive film ever made is the 1963 Cleopatra, which cost almost $300m in 2006 dollars. [New Yorker, 8th January 2007]

• Neither the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal or the Washington Post has an Australian correspondent. [Down Under by Bill Bryson]

• In India, unlike most advanced democracies, electoral participation is positively correlated with poverty. [Maximum City by Suketu Mehta]

• The Life of Brian was marketed in Sweden with the slogan, “The film that is so funny, it was banned in Norway.” [Internet Movie Database]

• Donald Rumsfeld, who served in both the Nixon and George W Bush cabinets, is the youngest and the oldest defence secretary in US history. [BBC News Online, 28th December 2006]

• 47 per cent of under-fives in India are malnourished—more than in sub-Saharan Africa. [The Economist, 6th January 2007]

• The law allows you to kill or give away a bullfinch—but not to sell or barter it. [How to Label a Goat, by Ross Clark]

• 35 per cent of Turks say they believe their country is “governed according to the will of the people,” more than Britain (30 per cent), France (26) or Germany (18). [“Voice of the People survey,” 2006]

• Only 0.4 per cent of households in Lagos have a toilet connected to a sewage system. [New Yorker, 13th November 2006]

• Since decentralising its energy in 1992, Woking has cut its CO2 emissions by 77 per cent. [The Times, 2nd November 2006]

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