The more we ponder, the odder the world can seem. Why are coups making a comeback? What counts as a journey into space? Which countries cheat the most in athletics? Is the tale of the difficult second novel fact or fiction? The keen minds at The Economist contemplate all these and more in their quest for the globe's most extraordinary and up-to-date quandaries and conundrums, brought together in this latest annual compilation of the oddest and the most mind-boggling. Amaze and delight everyone you know with bizarre facts and headscratchers that show the world is even stranger than we might have thought.