in fact...

Of India's 1.1 billion population, only 35 million pay tax (around 3%).

A penny dropped from the top of the Empire State building would do no more than sting a pedestrian at ground level.

Bill Gates gets 4 million e-mails every day.

1 person in 10 in the world relies on the river Ganges for water.

Before World War I the Home Office employed 28 people. It now employs 70,000.

In the Eskimo language Inuktitut, there is a single word meaning "I should try not to become an alcoholic" - Imminngernaveersaartunngortussaavunga.

(Prospect magazine, March 2007)