Oddly Informative

Matters of fact that amaze and delight

Tom Standage

• Publisher: Economist Books
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9781800812109
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

The more we ponder, the odder the world can seem.

How do footballers get their shirt numbers?

Why does having daughters make couples more likely to divorce?

How do you move a horse from one country to another?

What counts as a journey into space?

The keen minds at The Economist contemplate all these questions and more in their quest for the globe's most extraordinary quandaries and conundrums, with bizarre facts and headscratchers that show the world is even stranger than we might have thought. From plant-based milk and supermoons to the next Dalai Lama and what really happened at the storming of the Bastille, this collection of the oddest and most mindboggling explanations will amaze and delight in equal measure.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction: why unusual explanations can be oddly informative
• Oddly informative: matters of fact that amaze and delight
• How do they do that? Good and bad deeds explained
• Diplomatic niceties: oddities of international relations
• A load of ballots: local politics around the world
• Climate matters: environmental concerns and curiosities
• Healthy interest: medical mysteries explained
• Follow the money: assessing assets, old and new
• It’s all geek to me: science and technology decoded
• Game theory: unexpected results in sport
• Cultural questions: arts, media and language
• Contributors
• Index
• About the Author
• Copyright