Skeptical Stats
We started running Skeptical Stats, a feature loosely copied from Harper's, in 1998. Anyone can subscribe to the emailed digest, which includes Skeptical Stats, the news pages (Hits and Misses), and Skeptics in the Pub announcements, by signing up at http://www.skeptic.org.uk/newsnetworks/digest
  1. Number of properties the National Trust advertises as having ghosts: 72
  2. Percentage of the nuclear matter in today's universe that is not hydrogen or helium: less than 2
  3. Educated estimate of the number of slaves, worldwide, in 2002: 27,000,000
  4. Percentage of all people who have ever lived that are alive today: 10
  5. Number of small metal egg-shaped objects Uri Geller claims were given to him by John Lennon, who was given it by aliens: 1
  6. Number of dominoes knocked over after a sparrow inadvertently flew into a world record 'domino toppling' attempt: 23,000 (The sparrow was subsequently cornered and shot by an angry competitor)
  7. Percentage of UK students who say they believe in creationism and intelligent design: 30
  8. Percentage of UK students who say they believe evolutionary theory is true: 56
  9. Number of people in Britain phoning psychic lines every month: 75,000
  10. Number of extra Planet Earths it would take to support every person in the world at present US levels of consumption with existing technology: 4
  11. Percentage by which human DNA differs from that of chimpanzees and bonobos: 1.6
  12. Amount by which global water availability is expected to drop over the next 20 years: a third
  13. Price of sending a message to the dead via the website Afterlife Telegrams via terminally ill volunteers: $5 a word (five-word minimum)
  14. Number of messengers the site currently has available: 1
  15. Number of black rhinos in Africa a century ago: 1 million
  16. Number now, due to the demand for rhino horn in Chinese medicine: 2,500
  17. Percentage of conclusions drawn in papers published in scientific journals that are arguably false: approximately 50
  18. Estimated number of people in Britain who claim to have psychic abilities: 150,000
  19. Proportion of the world's wildlife which has been lost since 1970: approximately 27 percent
  20. Likelihood that God exists, according to calculations carried out by Dr Stephen Unwin, author of The Probability of God: 67 percent
  21. Average number of scientific questions out of 12 answered correctly by tabloid readers: 4.13
  22. Average number of scientific questions out of 12 answered correctly by broadsheet readers: 5.78
  23. Height of a statue of St Anthony of Padua, patron saint of lost and stolen items, that disappeared from a Peterborough church in July 2005: 2 feet
  24. Number of previous driving licence suspensions or revocations Michael Wiley, a one-legged, armless man, had prior to evading Florida police in a 100 mph car chase in the spring of 2007: 18
  25. Cost of a James Randi doll on which to perform voodoo experiments: $24