Prospect Magazine, Political and Cultural Essays and Arguments

In Fact:

In Britain, of the 200,000 books on sale last year, only 10,000 sold over 3,500 copies. Of the 1.2m titles sold in the US in 2004, only 2 per cent sold more than 5,000 copies. (The Times, 16th February 2008) - Kabul's population has increased from 300,000 in 2001 to 3m today. (Financial Times, 11th February 2008) - Marlboro cigarettes took their name from Great Marlborough Street—the location of the Philip Morris factory that first produced them. (londonist.com, 18th February 2008) - In 2007, total European stock market capitalisation exceeded that of the US for the first time since 1945. (Paul Kennedy lecture, LSE, 6th February 2008) - Harry S Truman had no middle name—his advisers insisted he insert an initial to gain credibility with voters. (BBC Magazine Monitor, 1st February 2008) - Over the past five years, 2.9m rooms have been "lost" in British homes as a result of open-plan conversions. (Daily Mirror, 29th January 2008) - In 40 per cent of weddings in Britain in 2005, at least one person was getting married for at least the second time. (The Observer, 3rd February 2008) - In Britain, between 1991 and 2005, deaths directly attributed to alcohol almost doubled. (British Medical Journal, December 2007) - As poet laureate, Andrew Motion receives "a butt of sack per annum" in payment—110 gallons of Spanish sherry, or about 630 bottles, each year. (Prospect research) - Worldwide, the number of mobile phone users will overtake the number of non-users this year for the first time. In 2000, only 12 per cent of the global population had a mobile phone. (AP, 6th February 2008) - No British university will offer a women's studies undergraduate course from this summer, when the course at London Metropolitan University closes. (Times Higher Education, 31st January 2008) - Amazon.com's number one reviewer, Harriet Klausner, has averaged 45 reviews a week since 2002. (Slate, 22nd January 2008) - The Arts Council typically spends around 90 per cent of its annual music budget on opera. (Prospect research) - In New York city, January 2008 was the first essentially snowless January in the last 75 years. (LiveScience, 30th January 2008) - Nearly 35,000 nurses—enough to staff the entire health service in Wales—have emigrated from Britain in the past four years. (The Times, 28th January 2008) - Cumbria has the lowest number of homicides in England and Wales—none last year compared to 168 in London. (Home Office) - Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. (BBC online) - 47 per cent of British men and 35 per cent of women would give up sex for six months in exchange for a 50-inch plasma HD television. But only 17 per cent of men would stop watching football for the TV. ( The Register, 11th February 2008) - In 2006, Britain spent £497m on cosmetic surgery—more than any other European country. (BBC News Online, 15th February 2008) - Smoking is responsible for 25 per cent of all male deaths in the developed world. (World Health Organisation) - Brazil has more people of African descent than any country outside Africa. (BBC)