33,203 source-backed world facts - each attributed to a named person and a number, linked to the original source. Page 319 of 333.
“We continue to lose biodiversity at a rate never before seen in history - extinction rates may be up to 1,000 times higher than the historical background rate.”
“The global abundance of vertebrates - the group that includes mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians and fish - fell by about one-third between 1970 and 2006, the UN says.”
“The 2010 target of significantly curbing the global rate of biodiversity loss was agreed at the Johannesburg summit in 2002.”
“But GBO-3 concludes that none of the 21 subsidiary targets set at the same time are being met either, at least not on a global basis.”
“Twenty-one percent of all known mammals, 30% of all known amphibians, 12% of all known birds (and)... 27% of reef-building corals assessed... are threatened with extinction”
“The truth is we need it more than ever on a planet of six billion heading to over nine billion people by 2050.”
“The launch of GBO-3 comes as governments begin two weeks of talks in Nairobi aimed at formulating new measures to tackle global biodiversity loss that can be adopted at October's Convention on Biological Diversity summit in Japan.”
“His colleague, Paul Scotney, is a former policeman who for six years has been director of sporting integrity at the BHA.”
“first UK stage appearance for more than 30 years”
“74-year-old star”
“13 years after an operation on her vocal cords”
“Joined by five other singers during King and I tune Getting to Know You”
“one full song, an emotional version of My Funny Valentine”
“Her five supporting singers”
“The Knightsbridge store was rebuilt to its current design after a fire in 1880”
“Harrods has twice experienced bomb attacks by the IRA. In 1983, six people were killed, external and 75 injured after a car exploded in an adjacent street”
“while in 1993, four were injured when a bomb was placed in a litter bin outside.”
“The store controversially introduced a dress code in 1989 which included a ban on wearing high-cut, Bermuda or beach shorts; swimwear; cycling shorts and flip flops or thong sandals.”
“Since January, over 180 trains a week have been rescheduled as "peak-time", a BBC survey found.”
“As a result of the changes, his fare from Telford to London has more than tripled from £45 to £158 for a return journey.”
“South West Trains says only 8% of its services have been redesignated.”
“And in India, the world's largest democracy has been using electronic voting across the entire country since the general election of 2004.”
“He had discussed the idea with Labour and the Conservatives.”
“He said he had conversations with Labour's Lord Adonis and the Conservatives' Michael Gove, who were both supportive.”
“Both parties back an expansion in state boarding places.”
“European leaders are trying to agree the final details of of a 110bn-euro ($139bn; £86bn) loan package to Greece.”
“House prices have gone up by 6.6% in the past year, according to the latest Halifax house price survey. Although this was the fastest annual rate of increase since October 2007, the mortgage lender stressed that the trend in recent months…”
“Prices fell slightly in April by 0.1%, taking the cost of the average UK home to £168,202.”
“The Halifax predicted that prices would be flat over the course of 2010.”
“The annual rate of house price inflation has been picking up steadily since last November, according to the Halifax's monthly surveys.”
“Last week it estimated the current rate of house price inflation to be at a higher rate than the Halifax, at 10.5%.”
“But it also said that price increases had been tailing off, and in the past three months prices had been just 1.1% higher than in the preceding three months.”
“The singer and actress lost custody of her daughter last year”
“The Country Music Association has said it will donate half of the profits from this summer's CMA Music Festival to flood relief.”
“Country star Taylor Swift has pledged $500,000 (£340,750) to the flood relief effort in Nashville, Tennessee.”
“Record weekend storms killed 20 people in Tennessee as well as six in Mississippi and four in Kentucky.”
“The brothers and Durham have a relationship that goes back to 2008”
“Investors were disappointed that earlier today the European Central Bank did not take fresh measures, such as buying Greek bonds, to help stop the Greek debt crisis.”
“Based on a video game, the fantasy film is released in the UK on 21 May.”
“This year's festival, which is held on The Lido, will run from 1-11 September.”
“Tarantino was nominated for an Academy Award in 2010 for best director and screenplay for his hit movie Inglourious Basterds”
“He won a Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994 for Pulp Fiction”
“The contemporary artist opens his first major show in almost three years in London on 6 May.”
“The artist worked for three years on his latest collection”
“By the age of 28, Semple was a millionaire”
“the fact that some of his works sell for up to £100,000 must make it easier to bear”
“The Happy House, An Exhibition Of New Paintings by Stuart Semple is on display at the Morton Metropolis Gallery in London until 28 May.”
“Earlier this year, another exploration company, Desire Petroleum, said its drilling programme had disappointed. It is currently drilling further wells after it decided to abandon its first oil well.”
“"Current indications are that we have made the first oil discovery in the North Falkland Basin."”
“Duncan Holley claims he was fired with immediate effect because he took time off work before Christmas to carry out his union duties. Mr Holley, who has been secretary of the branch of Unite which represents cabin crew for 12 years, descri…”
“Unite and BA are in dispute over pay and working conditions and in March cabin crew went on strike.”
“Passenger numbers were down by 24.5% on the same month last year at 2.1 million passengers.”
“Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the first countries to have so-called 'country codes' written in Arabic scripts.”
“with three bank employees killed.”
“Her mother, who worked as a cleaner at the Treasury, had to leave home at 3.30am because she could not afford to travel there by tube.”
“If they were paying a living wage, my mum could afford the tube and I would see her for three hours more every day”
“Since then it has been deployed in South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Haiti, where it helped to plot thousands of reports...”
“It was used in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake to co-ordinate relief.”
“Newsweek was launched in 1933”
“and was bought by the Post in 1961”
“Seats for the famous First Night, Sir Simon Rattle's first concert with the Berlin Philharmonic and Placido Domingo's Simon Boccanegra have already sold out.”
“there's only one track on his forthcoming solo album that is shorter than four minutes long.”
“his last solo album, 2008's The Cross-Eyed Rambler”
“Heaton, who on Wednesday will begin a 900-mile, 20-day cycling tour of England, performing at a different pub most nights.”
“47-year-old Heaton”
“On average, you will find colonies made up of 80-100 individuals, but sometimes they can grow to a 300-strong group.”
“Throw in on top of this the fact that naked mole rats also live for an unfeasibly long time for a small rodent - 30 years in captivity”
“And she mates with one or two, or sometimes three, breeding males.”
“We found that the naked mole rats and the Cape mole rats had substantially different patterns.”
“a recent study that suggested men who inhaled oxytocin became as empathetic as women.”
“It is thought that the FSA wanted a solvency ratio of more than 200%.”
“The FSA telephoned Prudential at about 1930 BST on Tuesday, just as the insurer and its advisers were pricing the rights issue and finalising plans for a series of presentations to investors.”
“less than two million people”
“three new stadiums and upgrades to two more”
“27 degrees”
“40 degrees centigrade”
“within an hour”
“third largest gas reserves”
“Over-fishing means UK trawlers have to work 17 times as hard for the same fish catch as 120 years ago, a study shows.”
“Four times more fish were being landed in UK ports 100 years ago than today, and catches peaked in 1938.”
“the amount of fish caught for each unit of effort has gone drastically down, with 17 times more effort required now to catch the same amount of fish as compared with the late 1800s.”
“If you get a 50% increase from 2% of a species' former abundance, you get to 3% of its former abundance, so you shouldn't celebrate too hard," he said.”
“a phenomenon that took off after 1918.”
“In the late 1880s, the government set up inspectorates in major fishing ports in an attempt to monitor what fish were being landed.”
“Fifteen years ago we started understanding how badly management was working, and 10 years ago we started doing something about it.”
“about 5.5km (18,000ft)”
“a 60-nautical-mile buffer zone”
“Airspace over Europe was closed down for six days last month”
“It is reaching heights of about 5km”
“Measurements showed that the most concentrated part of the cloud was only about 100km wide”
“Experts have warned that the total cost of clearing up the spill, including compensation claims, could run into billions of dollars. Some estimates are as high as $15bn.”
“Dexter Dalwood, Angela de la Cruz, Susan Philipsz and The Otolith Group are on the 2010 Turner Prize shortlist.”
“The winner will be announced on 6 December after an exhibition of works.”
“Pieces by the shortlisted artists will be shown at Tate Britain from 4 October.”
“The Otolith Group - Anjalika Sagar, 42, and Kodwo Eshun, 44, who both live and work in London - have worked on projects including a film which depicts sweatshop workers in Mumbai (Bombay) producing goods in extreme conditions.”
“Glaswegian Susan Philipsz, 44, meanwhile, is best known for replaying recordings of herself, singing well-known songs, over the public address systems of venues including a supermarket and underneath bridges.”
“In 1998's Filter, she played recordings of her versions of songs by artists including Nirvana, Radiohead and the Velvet Underground on the speakers of a busy bus station.”
“Irish airspace reopened from 1300 BST.”
“it was important to ensure that "millions of people and businesses never have to re-live the crisis of the last few weeks"”
“Mr Polman said: "In the developed markets there is a huge amount of deleveraging that needs to go on... the effects on public spending, the increases in taxes, the continuously high, and, in many places increasing, unemployment and low con…”
