Sinking feelings
Some conspiracy theories on the sinking of the Titanic:
— The disaster was planned by a bunch of Jesuits, Captain Smith of the Titanic included, intent on bumping off Benjamin Guggenheim, Isa Strauss and Jacob Astor, who opposed the establishment of the US Federal Reserve and therefore impeded Jesuit efforts to control the global economy.
— The ship that sank was really the Olympic, which had been damaged in a collision with a naval ship. When the Navy refused to pay compensation, the White Star Line scuttled it in an insurance scam.
— The ship was sunk by the curse of Amen-ra, an Egyptian high priestess whose mummy was supposedly on board.
— It was torpedoed by the German navy, to test the effectiveness of its new U-boats in preparation for the first world war.
Filling up the jam jar
Motorists panicked to stock up on petrol before a proposed fuel-tanker drivers’ strike. How far will a Ford Focus 1.6 travel on various hoarded quantities of petrol?
Jam jar 3.5 miles
Wine bottle 8 miles
Standard five-litre petrol can 52 miles
20-litre jerry can, as recommended by Francis Maude 210 miles
Bath tub 1,440 miles
The big snoop
The government announced plans to give police and security services the power to monitor all our online activities. How much data could they potentially analyse?
Volume every day in UK
Emails 3bn (80% spam)
Text messages 350m
Minutes of fixed-line phone calls 350m
Minutes of mobile phone calls 340m
Internet data downloads 20m GB
Source: Radicati Group/Ofcom/Cisco
Buyers’ market
The government raised the discount available for right-to-buy council housing to £75,000. How has the number of council housing sales changed since 2001?
Number of sales (England):
2001/02 52,460
2002/03 64,150
2003/04 69,990
2004/05 50,370
2005/06 26,940
2006/07 17,390
2007/08 12,250
2008/09 3,150
2009/10 2,730
2010/11 3,090
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