Quotes of the Day

'Wimbledon is the world's most boring tournament. There's hardly anything to do apart from tennis. You constantly find yourself yawning.'
NIKOLAY DAVYDENKO, Russian tennis star, criticizing the lack of off-court entertainment at Britain's storied tennis competition in an interview with Russia's Sovietsky Sport newspaper

'I ordered my bodyguards to take over because I got tired of beating them myself.'
KIM SEUNG YOUN, one of South Korea's wealthiest businessmen, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison for abducting and assaulting Seoul karaoke-bar workers who had fought with his son, a student at Yale

'I have things inflicted on me every day that I don't like. I happen to be allergic to dogs, I'm not screaming for a total dog ban.'
JOE JACKSON, pop singer and opponent of Britain's new ban on smoking in public places. Jackson recently moved back to Britain from New York City after lighting up in bars and restaurants was banned there

'I'm more of a man than any liberal.'
ANN COULTER, controversial conservative commentator, on her aggressive stance toward U.S. politicians like John Edwards

'I understand the [atomic] bombings brought the war to its end. I think it was something that couldn't be helped.'
FUMIO KYUMA, Japanese Defense Minister, in a June 30 speech at a university in Chiba, outside Tokyo. Kyuma was forced to resign after his remarks—which suggested the U.S. had no alternative but to drop nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945—drew widespread criticism from outraged politicians and the Japanese public, who consider the bombings unjustified

'In politics, as in sports, there is always competition.'
VLADIMIR PUTIN, President of Russia, on shaky U.S.-Russia relations. Putin was the first foreign leader invited by U.S. President George W. Bush to his family's compound in Kennebunkport, Maine

Numbers

OCEANOGRAPHY
29,000 Number of rubber ducks expected to wash up on beaches in Cornwall, England, late this summer. The ducks, which fell off a cargo ship in 1992 and have since floated 27,400 km, are being studied by scientists investigating ocean currents
$1,000 Amount some collectors are expected to pay for the well-traveled bathtub toys

POLLUTION
750,000 Number of Chinese who die prematurely each year due to the effects of pollution, according to data that was deleted from a World Bank study at the request of the Chinese government and was recently published in the Financial Times
16 Number of the world's 20 most polluted cities that are in China

UNWED MOTHERS
37% Percentage of U.S. births in 2005 that were out of wedlock. In 1960 the rate was 5.3%. Today 47% of adults in their 30s and 40s have lived with a partner who was not their spouse
71% Percentage of people surveyed in a Pew Research study who believe that having children out of wedlock is a "big problem" for the U.S.; 44% believe it is "always or almost always wrong" for unmarried women to have children

NIGERIA
$5 million Estimated fortune of the new President of Nigeria, Umaru Yar'Adua. Most of his wealth was inherited. He publicly declared his assets—an unusual move—in an effort to increase transparency
70% Percentage of Nigerians who live on less than $1 a day