Interesting Facts

France, India and Italy all have laws banning the publication of opinion polls in the run-up to an election. (In France newspapers and media can't publish opinion polls up to 24 hours before an election. In India that is 48 hours, and in Italy, 15 days. Of course the opinion polls published in the UK were so wrong, it would be funny, if they didn't charge £8,000 to £12,000 for the privilege of using them.  The pollsters are blaming the public - for lying.)

The highly successful travel website Trip Advisor was founded in February 2000 in a small office above a pizza shop called Kosta’s in Needham, Massachusetts, USA. (15 years later and the reviews on the site now have more than 10 billion words, that's nearly 12,000 times the number of words in the complete works of Shakespeare. The most reviewed city is London – with over 1.8 million reviews of the city’s hotels, restaurants and attractions.)

Olympic swimmers can consume more than 12,000 calories a day while training - and not get fat. (Michael Phelp's diet consists of the following:- Breakfast: Three fried egg sandwiches; cheese; tomatoes; lettuce; fried onions; mayonnaise; three chocolate-chip pancakes; five-egg omelette; three sugar-coated slices of French toast; bowl of grits; two cups of coffee Lunch: Half a kilo (one pound) of enriched pasta; two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayonnaise on white bread; energy drinks Dinner: Half a kilo of pasta, with carbonara sauce; large pizza; energy drinks. I think I just put on a couple of pounds just reading this list.)