Points To Ponder

Some surprising and alarming footnotes:

1) Kabul’s population has increased from 300,000 in 2001 to 3m today.

2) Ireland was the second richest country in the OECD, behind Japan before the current economic recession.

3) In Britain, between 1991 and 2008, deaths directly attributed to alcohol almost doubled.

4) In 2007, total European stock market capitalization exceeded that of the US for the first time since 1945.

5) Isaac Newton invented the cat flap.

6) Windscreen wipers, laser printers and bulletproof vests were all invented by women.

7) Worldwide, the number of mobile phone users will overtake the number of non users this year for the first time.

8) Mao Zedong had a hair dresser called Big Beard Wang.

9) Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

10) There are five people under 18 in custody in Finland. In Britain, there are roughly 3,000.

11) Spammers usually need to send a million emails to get 15 positive responses.

12) Cumbria has the lowest number of homicides in England and Wales- none last year compared to 168 in London.

13) Brazil has more people of African descent than any other country outside Africa.

14) The production of a kilogram of beef omits the same amount of Carbon dioxide as the average European car driving 250 kilometers.

15) 11 out of 12 men to have walked on the moon were in the Boy Scouts.

Source: in fact, Prospect