HOBSON'S CHOICE
Number of registered charities in the UK by the end of 1998:
186,248
Of pounds 19.6bn given to charity in 1998, amount received by 0.3 per cent of charities:
pounds 8bn
Chances that a charity earned less than pounds 10,000 in 1998:
2/3
Maximum fee, per hour, that law firms charge charities (at a 20 per cent discount):
pounds 230
Amount that scientists can earn a day as expert witnesses in court cases in the US:
$2,000
Number of people in the US per every one lawyer:
300
Number of people in Japan per every one lawyer:
6,600
Budget of US Department of Health and Human Services' Bioterrorism Initiative last year, up from $14m in 1997:
$158m
Number of hoaxes reported in the US since 1998 in which people have claimed to have been exposed to anthrax:
150
Number of asteroids and comets for which Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's internet service gives orbital data:
25,000
Number of new satellites launched every year:
100
Number of times the sun's diameter is greater than the moon's:
400
Number of times the sun is further away than the moon, thus ensuring the two discs appear identical in size when an eclipse is viewed from Earth:
400
Number of people blinded as a result of the last full eclipse seen in the UK in 1927:
20
Number of nudists holidaying on the north German island of Sylt this year:
200,000
Number of tons of snails eaten in France each year:
40,000
Number of Americans moving house every year, two-thirds of whom do not change county:
42 million
Number of chickens in the US fitted, in a trial, with tinted contact lenses which prevent them from seeing the colour red and pecking one another:
100,000
SOURCES: 'LEGAL WEEK', 'PROSPECT', 'TIMES HIGHER EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT', 'NEW REPUBLIC', 'NEW SCIENTIST', 'THE ECLIPSE' BY J P McEVOY, THE 'TIMES', THE 'GUARDIAN', 'ATLANTIC MONTHLY', 'THE COMPLETE MERDE' BY GENEVIEVE, 'NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC'
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