86%: Proportion of Japanese girls reading keitai shosetsu (mobile-phone novels). Patrick Galbraith “Screen Dreams“

93.7%: Proportion of the 2,390 executions recorded worldwide last year that took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the US and Pakistan. Amnesty International

109: Journeys between central London Tube stations that are quicker on foot than by underground. Transport for London press release

8,413: Applicants fulfilling the initial criteria in the European Space Agency’s search for new astronauts. European Space Agency

fourteen: Percentage of an average 14 – to 24 year old’s CD collection that has been ripped or copied. British music rights; “music experience” spring 2008

100M: Lines of code in the systems of a high end car. Robert N Charette; “This car runs on code”

3 months: Annual increase in female life expectancy in Japan; it’s now just under 85 the worlds higest. JW Vaupel, J Oeppen; “Broken limits to life expectancy”

$19.95: Deathswitch.com’s yearly fee. It sends 30 people your secret info (passwords etc) when you die. Deathswitch.com

twenty seven: Samples taken from a sofa to determine if it was the one on which Alexander Pushkin died on. Irina Titova: “experts test blood stains in search of Pushkin” St Petersburg Times 10-2-09

£500: Compensation offered to a student by Leeds University, following a technician’s disposal of 35kg of research critical lizard faeces. Daniel Bennet; THES 05-02-09