- Americans drove 11bn fewer miles in March 2008 than in March 2007. (US department of transportation)
- The US think tank the Heritage Foundation has 335,000 individual donors. (The Spectator, 15th May 2008)
- 57 per cent of British parents say they would send their child to a private school if they could afford it, up from 51 per cent in 1997. (The Guardian, 5th June 2008)
- In England and Wales in 2005-06, there were at least 1,300 victims of fatal occupational injuries, compared with 765 homicide victims. (Centre for Crime and Justice Studies)
- Red Bull is illegal in Norway, Denmark and Iceland. (Prospect research)
- Britain's dogs lose up to 17,600 pints of blood every summer day to fleas. (Which?, May 2007)
- In the US in 2005, one third of wives outearned their husbands. (The Hindu, 25th February 2007)
- Cuba will lift its toaster ban in 2010. (NY Times, 14th March 2008)
- Italy needs to increase its foreign aid by 179 per cent by 2010 to meet its EU pledge. (Overseas development institute)
- 56 per cent of the world's female suicides are in China. (China shakes the world, by James Kynge)
- Britain has the fifth largest Jewish population in the world. (BBC News online, 21st July 2008)
- More Rolex Oyster watches have been reported stolen on the Costa del Sol than have ever been manufactured. (Money Week)
- 86 per cent of British fathers attend the birth of their children. (Fatherhood Institute)
- Children are almost twice as likely to die before adulthood if they are born to a father aged over 45. (Daily Telegraph, 2nd June 2008)
- In Britain, 46 per cent of 16 to 24-year-old girls have a body piercing (other than to the earlobe). (BBC news online, 12th June 2008)
- In the US, 83 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions caused by food can be accounted for by growth and production and only 11 per cent by transportation, of which 4 per cent are due to transportation between grower and seller. (Environmental Science and Technology, 16th April 2008)
- The QE2 has one full-time resident, an 87-year-old American widow who has lived in a modest, windowless cabin for seven years at a rent of £3,500 a month. (The Times, 2nd June 2008)
- The 13 members of Opec produce around 36m barrels of oil per day. Non-Opec nations account for around 50m. (BBC)
- Napoleon often masturbated before going into battle. (The Guardian, 31st May 2008)
- There are nearly 200,000 students at Cairo University. (New Yorker, 2nd June 2008)
- Hull City is the only team name in the entire football league that contains no letters with enclosed spaces. (Prospect research)
- Denmark has 0.55 troops stationed in Afghanistan per 1,000 population of military age (20-39), more than any other country with troops in Afghanistan. It also heads the table of troop fatalities per 1,000 people of military age. (Preeti Aroon)
- The oldest man in Europe and the oldest man in the US were both born on 6th June 1896. (The Observer, 1st June 2008)
