Butterflies taste with their feet. [Toronto Star, 28th May 2002]
Henry David Thoreau once burnt down 300 acres of forest trying to cook a fish he had caught for supper. [The Times, 17th April 2003]
Only 10 per cent of an average classical music concert audience in Britain is under 34. [The Guardian, 8th May 2003]
In 2002, only 14 foreign refugees were granted permission to live in Japan. [BBC]
China ($325bn a year) now exports more goods than Britain ($275.9bn). [The Times, 24th April 2003]
In 1950, 22 per cent of the world's population lived in Europe. By 1999, that figure had fallen to 12 per cent. [United Nations Population Division]
Between 1995 and 2000 in South Africa, incomes in black households fell by 19 per cent while white household incomes rose by 15 per cent. [id21]
One fifth of the members of Pakistan's parliament are women-compared to 14 per cent of members of the US Congress. [Inter Parliamentary Union]
The Finnish language has no future tense. [Helsingin Sanomat]
The Germans spend as much on books as the British, Dutch and French combined. [Wilson Quarterly, Autumn 2002]
A typical man is 50-70 per cent water; a typical woman is 40-60 per cent. [Rocky Mountain News, 15th April 2003]
Since 1980, the population of the "greater middle east" (30 mainly Muslim countries from Morocco in the west to Bangladesh in the east) has nearly doubled, from 350m to 600m, while its share of world exports has fallen from 13.5 per cent to 4 per cent. [Progressive Policy Institute]
12 per cent of office workers use the word "password" as their computer password. [The Register, 17th April 2003]
