Databases of footprints found at crimes reveal that Reebok Classics recently displaced Nike Air Max as the favourite footwear of British criminals. [The Sunday Times]
New York City collects more in municipal taxes than Russia collects in federal taxes. [Boris Fyodorov, former finance minister of Russia]
The removal of half a ton of droppings from Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square costs the city of London about ?35,000 per year. [Merde, Ralph A Lewin]
In Britain, of a total of 400,000 badgers, roughly 50,000 are killed every year on the roads. [Resurgence, March/April 1999]
Since 1992, aid from G7 countries to the third world has decreased by 30 per cent in real terms. [The Economist]
In Libya, to mark the death of Jordan's King Hussein, all state television stations transmitted their programmes in black and white for three days. [Al Quds al-Arabi]
In San Francisco, 25 overweight people picketed a health club to protest against an advertisement saying that when space aliens encounter humans, "they will eat the fat ones first." [International Herald Tribune, 17th February 1999]
Women are estimated to buy 80 per cent of everything that is sold. [Germaine Greer, the whole woman]
In 1998, 50 journalists were killed, more than during the entire second world war, when 39 journalists were killed. [The Journalist, March/April 1999]
According to palaeontologists, about 99 per cent of all species that have ever inhabited Earth are now extinct. [Nature, 25th February 1999]
Predominantly English-speaking countries account for approximately 40 per cent of the world's total gross domestic product. [Foreign Policy, Winter 1998-99]
In Britain, there are 11,000 sets of traffic lights; 3,500 of which are in London. [Granta, issue 65]
