Interesting Facts

In the UK, Britons buy about one million pumpkins for Halloween, 99% of which are used for lanterns rather than for eating. (I'm certain they make soup too.)

Rats are good swimmers. One this week was caught after it staged an escape across 400m of open ocean. (All that swimming around in open sewers obviously paid off.)

EBay can become an addiction - the Priory clinic is now admitting people with an online auction habit. (My name is Lynne and I shop!)

The Osedax mucofloris, or "bone-eating snot-flower" is a marine worm so-called because it lives off whale bones, looks like a flower, and is covered in mucus. (Pet of the week?)

Human fingerprints can be worn down, particularly among manual labourers, typists and musicians. (What about bloggers?)

Every winter influenza kills about 12,000 people in the UK. (Guess what?   I just had my flu jab.)

Thirsty whalers (what you call people who kill whales) in the 19th Century used to kill tortoises for their urine. (Eeeeeew!  Which is most disgusting though?)

The average pillow contains up to 16 types of fungus. (Interestingly feather pillows have fewer species than synthetic ones - particularly in the case of a fungus which sets of asthma. The fungi feed off human skin scales and dust mite faeces. Eeeeew!)

Three-quarters of the salt in our diets comes from processed foods. (The recommended daily intake of salt for is 6g for adults, which is about a teaspoon, in fact in the UK there is no need to add any salt to your food.)

Smokers spend on average £91,832 on cigarettes during their lifetime. (I wonder if they would be so happy to set fire to that much actual money.)

According to an archaeological find in China, noodles have been around for at least 4,000 years. (You just need to use your noodle really.)

Magdalena Laue, from Halle in Germany, devised a one-piece waterproof nappy made from India rubber in the 1890s. (And landfill has never been the same again.) !Note - A nappy is BrE, it is called a diaper in AmE .

The price of every DVD disc sold includes a small royalty to Philips, the company that developed the format. (I wonder what their shares are worth?)

In the UK a giveaway DVD in a newspaper costs as little as 16p to produce, including rights, materials and manufacture. (These things are often given away in the Sunday newspaper. Recent titles have included East is East, Cabaret and even episodes of Fireman Sam.)

Croydon has more CCTV cameras than New York. (CCTV = Closed Circuit Television - Big brother is watching you!)

Women often put on weight as a result of moving in with a man. (Research shows that women tend to gain weight once they cohabit and begin to share meals with men who intrinsically have higher energy needs and therefore appetites. Well that's my excuse anyway, maybe I could make the "No man diet" an internet hit.)

The average ballpoint pen can produce between two and three kilometers (up to two miles) of writing. (Not that anyone writes any more - we're all blogging!)

New measures to protect animals against abuse and to make owners legally liable for their pets' welfare in England and Wales have been published. (At last!)

International safety standards state that pen tops should have a hole in the top to minimize the risk involved when children accidently inhale them. I think the idea is that you could continue to breathe throught the hole. (Anyone who knows me knows that they shouldn't just worry about children.)

Britons take home 430,000 gallons (1.95m litres) of shampoo from hotels every year, a survey has found. (Seemingly this amount of shampoo would fill more than 14,000 bathtubs.)

Belarus has the highest ratio of police to people, of any country in the world. (Must be really safe there then...)

Scientists say that a single "mother" spud from southern Peru gave rise to all the varieties of potato eaten today. (I would like to thank her from the bottom of my crisp packet.)

No-one knows exactly when the new moon appears as it changes in different parts of the world. (Scientists are looking into this now, but as of today it's still a fact.)

Spanish Flu, the influenza epidemic that killed 50 million people in 1918/9, was known as French Flu in Spain. (Now we just blame birds and piggies.)

The Spanish flu virus that killed 50 million people in 1918-19 was probably a strain that originated in birds. (I became worried about this when my doctor asked me if I would like a flu jab for the first time. Then I realised it's probably because of my age - sigh.)

The UK alcohol industry is worth £30 billion a year. (With all those binge drinkers (see earlier factoid), this is not a surprise.)

Cities consume about 75% of global energy production. (Switch that light off!)

Nearly 6 million people in the UK are binge drinkers. Some people go out 'on a binge' twice or three times a week. (Binge drinking is classed as more then eight units (four pints of beer) in one session for men and more than six units (six small glasses of wine) for women. The recommended levels are two to three units of alcohol per day for women and three to four units for men and it's a good idea to have 2-3 alcohol free days each week. This of course will go up and down like the proverbial yoyo depending on who is paying for the research.)

In the UK you can be prosecuted for showing someone an inappropriate film on a mobile phone. (Personally I think you should be prosecuted for having a mobile phone.)

At its current rate of shrinkage, the Arctic ice cap might disappear altogether during the summer of 2060. (Global warming seems to be a reality at the poles.  I've decided not to buy a pretty cottage by the sea anytime soon.)

A diastema is a gap between the teeth. (And I always thought it was just a gap.)

Habitual liars' brains differ from those of honest people. (Seemingly pathological liars have up to 26% more white matter than people who don't lie. This white matter transmits information and grey matter processes it. Having more white matter in the prefrontal cortex may aid lying. Hmmm - I shall refrain from looking.)