Well, I never!

I am a big fan of QI, a trivia quiz show on BBC presented by Stephen Fry. In fact, I am a big fan of trivia in general; useless knowledge is important to me for reasons I could not possibly explain, as I do not understand them, but knowing that (for example) submarines are classed as boats and not ships because they have no through decks gives me immense and inexplicable satisfaction.

QI is invaluable to me as a worthy source of new trivia, and I feel the need to share with my reader two amazing factoids that surfaced during last night's episode, which I recorded and have just now watched. The first of these concerns carbon footprints, those banes of the dinner-party attending classes, the wonderful truth being that the carbon footprint of owning an average size dog is greater than that of owning two Toyota Landcruisers. Depending on your viewpoint this is either disastrous or wonderful news. It was stated that even owning a cat is equivalent in that regard to owning a VW Golf, and I own two (cats, not VW Golfs. Or is it Golves...). This will hopefully go some way towards deflating my sense of moral superiority and general irritating smugness among road users as I cycle along. Before you all condemn my profligrate lifestyle and justify your own, however, it is worth mentioning that the carbon footprint of even a large dog such as an alsatian is considerably less than that of a child. Therefore it is morally more acceptable to own two Toyota Landcruisers than to create a human life.

The second of these delightful gems is the fact that the ownership of slaves in the UK was not made illegal until April this year, 2010. Everything else about slavery, buying or selling them, transporting them, capturing them for the purpose of enslaving them, has been made illegal in the UK during the first half of the 19th century, but the legislation never addressed the issue of owning slaves. This part of the programme included the disturbing fact that, according to the UN, 17 million people are nowadays living in slavery, sex slavery, or work bondage worldwide, a figure higher than at any time in history. That isn't trivia, just something that every human being on the planet should be ashamed of.