During the 1951 British election, 30 per cent of voters attended a political meeting. In 1997, it was 3 per cent. [McCallum Lecture, David Butler, November 1997]
In Turkey, women were given the right to vote in 1934-before France, Italy or Switzerland. [New Left Review, Nov/Dec 1997]
Thirty-three per cent of all American women use anti-ageing creams. [Shift, January 1998]
Buckingham Palace received 580,000 e-mail messages of sympathy following the death of Princess Diana. [Granta, Winter 1997]
US teachers rank computer skills and media technology more "essential" than European history, biology, chemistry and physics. [Atlantic Monthly, July 1997]
In the US, 25 per cent of toddlers aged two to five, and 40 per cent of those aged six to 11, own their own television sets. [The Globe and Mail, 8th January 1998]
More than 2,500 people in Iran have learnt the entire Quran by heart while in prison. [Index on Censorship, Nov/Dec 1997]
About one third of all Americans think heaven contains harps. [Atlantic Monthly, July 1997]
In the US, stockbrokers suffer the fewest workplace injuries. [Wall Street Journal,
6th January 1998]
Only 1 per cent of the planet's water supply is available as fresh water. [The Globe and Mail, 13th January 1998]
