the tallest people in the world are the Tutsi from Rwanda and Burundi, in central Africa, with the men averaging 6ft (1.8m) in height.
• At 12,000ft (3,658m) above sea level, there is barely enough oxygen in La Paz, Bolivia, to support combustion. The city is nearly fireproof.
• Of the 15,000-odd known species of orchids in the world, 3,000 of them can be found in Brazil.
• Given one square metre per person, all the people in the world could fit on the Indonesian island of Bali, if they stood shoulder to shoulder.
• In a recent five-year period, twenty-four residents of Tokyo died while bowing to other people.
• Australia is home to 500 species of coral.
• A Chinese soap hit it big with consumers in Asia, with the bold claim that users would lose weight by washing with it. The soap was promptly banned.
• One in five people in the world’s population live in China.
• In Wales, there are more sheep than people. The human population for Wales is 2,921,000, while there are approximately 5,000,000 sheep.
• The country with the most post offices is India, with over 152,792.
• In Switzerland, when a male reaches 20 years of age he is required to undergo fifteen weeks of military training. Over the next few decades, he has to attend training camps until he has accrued 300 to 1,300 days of active service. Swiss men who live abroad don’t have to serve in the Swiss military, but they are required to pay 2 per cent of their income in the form of a military exemption tax. Men who don’t qualify for military service also pay the tax, but women aren’t required to pay the tax, nor are they expected to serve in the Swiss army.
• Ireland boasts the highest per capita consumption of cereal in the world – 15lb (6.8kg) per person annually.
• The popular American comic strip ‘Peanuts’ is known as ‘Radishes’ in Denmark.
• In Cupar, Scotland, in June of 1842, women hanging clothing on clothes-lines in an open area heard a sudden detonation, after which the clothes shot upwards into the air. Eventually, some of the clothing did fall back to the ground, but the rest kept ascending until it disappeared. Even odder, the clothes were carried off to the north, but chimney smoke in that area indicated that the wind was moving to the south.
• The country of Togo has the lowest crime rate in the world, with an average of just eleven reported crimes annually for every 100,000 of the population.
• The state bird of Texas is the mockingbird.
• Contrary to many reports, the Eisenhower Interstate System does not require that one mile in every five must be straight in the United States. The claim that these straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies does not exist in any federal legislation. Korea and Sweden do use some of their roads as military airstrips, though.
• There are more than 100 offences that carry the death penalty in Iran.
• Airborne sand from the Sahara desert has been picked up 2,000 miles (3,216km) over the ocean.
• With an exchange rate running at an average of 177,000 Ukrainian karbovanets to the US dollar, total assets of just $6 will qualify a person as a Ukrainian millionaire.
• The tallest, longest, fastest and greatest drop roller coaster in the world is the Daidarasaurus in Nagashima Spa Land, Japan. It is 8,133ft (2.479m) long, 318ft (97m) high, has a drop of 307ft (93.5m) and a top speed of 95mph (153km/h).
• Close to 72 per cent of Australia’s Aboriginals live in towns and cities.
• Over many centuries of living in the Arctic, Eskimos’ bodies have adapted to the cold. Eskimos tend to be short and squat, which brings their arms and legs closer to the heart, so there is less danger of freezing. Extra fat around the torso protects their internal organs from the cold. The metabolism of Eskimos is also set a little higher than that of other peoples. As a result, they burn their food faster to stay warm. Their veins and arteries are also arranged to carry more warming blood to their hands.
• The full name for Britain, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is the third longest country name in the world.
• Greenland ranks as the country with the highest percentage of smoking teenagers, with 56 per cent of 15-year-old boys and 45 per cent of 15-year-old girls smoking a cigarette daily.
• The country of Yemen has the world’s highest fertility rate (average number of births per woman), at 7.6, while Switzerland has the world’s lowest, at 1.5.
• Studies show that Chinese babies cry less and are more easily consoled than American babies.
• The Gulf Stream carries about 30 billion gallons (136 billion litres) of water every second – six times as much water as all the rivers in the world.
• Roughly 40 per cent of the population of the underdeveloped world is under 15 years old.
• London Heathrow Airport is the busiest international airport in the world, typically handling over 68 million international passengers a year.
• In terms of beer consumption, Britain is ranked seventh in the world, with the average Brit drinking 180 pints a year. The heaviest drinkers are in the Czech Republic, each consuming 281 pints a year on average.
• Japan overtook Sweden as the world’s most geriatric nation in 2005.
• Japan is also the largest harvester of seafood in the world, taking 15 per cent of the world’s total catch.
• When T.E. Lawrence returned from Arabia, he tried to become anonymous, often using the false names Ross and Shaw.
• In Thailand, the bodies of monks are preserved, once deceased, and placed on public display. However, thanks to an atmosphere of smog, humidity and heat, these corpses still retain teeth, hair and skin decades after their deaths, even though no special techniques are used to preserve the bodies.
• Throughout the South Pacific, no building is taller than the tallest palm tree.
• According to legend, visitors who wish to return to Rome must throw a coin into the city’s Trevi fountain.
• Per capita, the Irish eat more chocolate than Americans, Swedes, Danes, French and Italians.
• Portugal was the first European country to start building its overseas empire.
• There are castles on the River Rhine in Germany called the Cat and Mouse castles.
• Munich has a chiming clock on its medieval town hall with two tiers of dancing and jousting figures that emerge twice daily.
• The Parthenon, in Athens, is built in the Doric style of architecture.
• Stockholm is known as the ‘Venice of the North’.
• More than 1,000 languages are spoken in Africa.
• Shanghai, China, is sometimes
