What happened to the Rishi Sunak I knew at school?
In 2015…
— 142m people were born and 56m people died, making for population growth of 83m.
— 2,030m tonnes of grain were harvested.
— 1,989m tonnes were consumed.
— 26bn barrels of oil were consumed.
— Atmospheric CO2 concentration grew from 397 parts per million to 400 p.p.m. Sources: worldometers.com, International Grains Council, Joint Oil Data Initiative, NOAA
Cities of death
Attacks in London and California have forced authorities to question what is the difference between terrorism and ordinary murder. Which are the world’s most dangerous cities in each case?
Murder rate per 100,000 residents
Caracas
110
Guatemala City
109
San Salvador
90
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
75
Terrorism death rate per 100,000
Baghdad
43
Maiduguri
39
Mosul
29
Peshawar
25
Source: Institute for Economics and Peace
Caucus race
The first caucus of the 2016 US presidential election is four weeks away. But where did the idea of a caucus come from? The first documentation of the word comes from the diary of future US president John Adams in 1763. He referred to attending the Caucus Clubb in the town of Braintree, Massachusetts, where men met to smoke and discuss politics. Suggestions as to how the club got its name include:
— From an Algonquian word for ‘counsel’.
— From the Greek kaukus, ‘drinking cup’.
— From caulkers, the people who tarred the decks of ships, who were leaders of political activism in 18th-century Boston.
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