Interesting Facts

31st May World No Tobacco Day

The Theatre Royal, (home to the Bristol Old Vic) is the oldest continuously working theater in the English speaking world. (It first opened its doors on 30th May 1766, the same year that Bonnie Prince Charlie became a claimant to the throne of Great Britain.)

30th May 1766 -  The Theatre Royal, Bristol opened.

Dr Henry Heimlich, the surgeon who gave his name to the simple but dramatic procedure used to rescue people from choking, managed to save someone’s life using the technique himself for the first time since he invented it in 1974. (His technique, called the Heimlich manoeuvre, is used for dislodging food or objects caught in people’s throats, and has been credited with saving thousands of lives around the world: On noticing a fellow resident at the senior assisted living centre where he lives, choking on a piece of meat, Heimlich, a spritely 96-year-old, calmly stepped in. After her brush with death, the resident in question, 87-year-old Patty Ris, wrote Dr Heimlich a note, saying: "God put me in the seat next to you.")

Go shoeless According to a study by Bournemouth University schoolchildren who don't wear shoes in their lessons are likely to obtain better grades and behave better than those who do. (Experts believe that by leaving their shoes outside the classroom pupils feel more at home, and relaxed. An added bonus is that it cuts down on cleaning bills.  No more muddy floors, although holey socks might be an embarrasment.) Next session online, everyone must take their shoes off.

25th May Towel Day

According to research carried out on the 2014 census study 48.8% of the population of England and Wales say they don't identify with any religion. (The number of 'nones' is now above 50 per cent, almost double the figure of 25% recorded in the census just three years earlier. People defining themselves as Christian, including Anglicans, Catholics and other denominations, made up 43.8% of the population. The Church of England expects congregations to continue to fall for another 30 years as the population ages and younger generations shun faith. I just think they should put a reply on the census that says, "Mind your own business". )

According to a study by Pew Research Center, more young Americans are living in their parents home than for the past 130 years. (The most common living arrangement for young adults in America aged 18 to 34 is to live with their parents: 32.1% live with their parents, 31.6% live with a partner, and 14% live alone. So now we have the bank of mum and dad, and the hotel of mum and dad.  I guess it's fine, as long as everyone is happy with the arrangement.)

According to a recent study of around 9,000 British pets by pet insurer Animal Friends, the number of  cats diagnosed with diabetes has skyrocketed by  1,161 percent over the past five years. (The fact is people who feed cats human food are shortening their lives. In addition more than half of the cats kept indoors are dangerously overweight. I've never understood the idea of an indoor cat. Spooky and Moose would never have stood for it.) 

According to a report from Bloomberg, Twitter is going to stop counting photographs and links in its 140-character limit. (There is no official reply from Twitter, but the founder Jack Dorsey has been reported as saying they wanted to allow users to write longer posts.  Don't go too far Twitter, it's your brevity that makes you unique.)

After nearly 25 years, the Carry On film franchise is about to return to British cinema. (The last film to be made was Carry On Columbus in 1992, it was the 31st film made.   Carry on Films are part of British Culture, and they turned actors like Sid James, Kenneth Williams, and Dame Barbara Windsor into household characters. In 2007 the line "Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in for me!" was voted the funniest film one-liner: Kenneth Williams uttered the words as Julius Caesar in the 1964 romp Carry On Cleo. Film company, Hereford Films, are behind the project, and the first 2 films in the pipeline are Carry On Doctors, followed by Carry On Campus. Co-writer Tim Dawson paid respect to the previous writers of the Carry On series: "These films are a part of British culture and to be carrying on the legacy of Norman Hudis and Talbot Rothwell is a thrill and a responsibility. We intend to be sympathetic to the heritage whilst being unafraid to modernise th

A thing of the past? According to a survey conducted by Linda McCartney Foods, 12% of Brits are vegetarian. (Each generation sees more people eschewing meat, 25 years ago only 6% of the popluation were vegetarian. The younger generation is more likely to turn to tofu, in the 18 to 30 age group 20% are veggies, and across the country people are eating less red meat, with "meat free Monday" becoming more popular. It seems there's gold in them there carrots, as the UK vegetarian market is worth an estimated £820m a year.) Soure: The Wright Stuff

According to a story in the Daily Mail, primary school children in Dundee are having to sign a 17-clause contract before they can play football in the playground. (The 17 clauses are as follows:- I will not deliberate foul tackles I will not carry issues off the pitch to class or after school I will not argue an agreed out or an agreed foul I will not hog the ball  (They actually wrote hogg here.) I will not name call or tease I will not chant, use banter or wahoys! I will not gloat or boast I will not, if scorekeeping be a sore loser and will congratulate the other team I will not elbow or shoulder barge I will not deliberately chase on the pitch or swipe the ball from people I will not cheat I will keep up with my school work I will demonstrate sportsmanlike conduct and apologising I will use timeouts for myself as individual players if needed I will use supportive and encouraging language I will take turns in position I will ensure teams are fair and no swapping

A Norwegian city, Trondheim, has banned adverts that show semi-naked models, male or female, in public spaces. (The new policy says: “No advertising that conveys a false image of the model/models’ appearance and contributes to a negative body image will be permitted. As a minimum, advertisements in which body shapes have been retouched should be marked as such.” This is seemingly an attempt to reduce the impact such adverts could have on people with body image issues. It reminds me of the "Beach Ready" controversy on London Underground.)

According to a survey conducted by uSwitch.com, 7 out of 10 Brits say they are middle-class, with a strong belief that middle-class people are more likely to be successful. (Only 53% think their parents were white-collar workers, and 6 out of 10 say their grandparents were working class. Fewer than a third of those who called themselves middle class were in a profession — such as lawyer or doctor, even though 3/4 of people believe being a professional is the top reason for being middle-class. The poll also showed that less than a 1/3of us believe our parents’ class or family wealth determines our status, which is just as well in my case, I'd have to go back down t' mine.) Search for "Class" if you want to learn more about the Class system in the UK.

4th May Is Star Wars Day. Why? Well - May the fourth be with you.

Hundreds of parents in the UK are expected to keep their children out of school today in protest over too stressful tests. (The first ever "kids' strike" in the UK is in protest at what parents claim is "over-testing" at the expense of children’s happiness.  Key Stage 1 testing (SATS) for six and seven-year-olds, have been made tougher this year in an attempt to drive up standards, but the Let Our Kids Be Kids campaign, which is coordinating the kids’ strike, says that nearly 40,000 people have signed up in support of the action, and has written to Education Secretary Nicky Morgan calling for an "end to SATs now". The letter says: "Please take a long, hard look at this. "Do you want your legacy to be the confident cancellation of unneeded and unnecessary SATS, showing you are listening to your electorate and the teachers you claim to support ... or the overseeing of a shambolic testing regime desperately unwanted by millions of peop

The odds of Leicester City winning the Premier League at the start of the 2015/16 football season were 5000:1. This means that gamblers thought the following things were more likely to happen:- 2,500:1 - David Moyes to be an X Factor judge 2,500:1 - Arsenal would sack Arsene Wenger and install Piers Morgan as boss 2,000:1 - Kim Kardashian will become US President by 2020 1,000:1 - Sir Alex Ferguson would win Strictly Come Dancing 1,000:1 - Hugh Hefner would admit he's a virgin 1,000:1 - Robbie Savage will be named the next James Bond 1,000:1 - Bono will become the next Pope 500:1 - Simon Cowell will become the next Prime Minister of the UK 500:1 - Andy Murray would name his first born Novak You might need to look up some of these names to see how unlikely they are, apart from Kim Kardasian: As Trump is a contender, I don't see why this couldn't happen.) Update -  The people of Leicester must be very, very happy today.

The next English £5, £10 and £20 banknotes will be printed on plastic. (The fiver will be issued first in September 2016, followed by the tenner, which will be issued in 2017, but the £20 note will have to wait until 2020. Their appearance will change too. Sir Winston Churchill will feature on the £5 banknote, replacing Elizabeth Fry, ​​Jane Austen will replace Charles Darwin on the £10 banknote, and artist J.M.W. Turner will feature on the £20 not, replacing economist Adam Smith. Nothing has been said about the £50 note, which features the engineers Matthew Boulton and James Watt. Historical characters have only appeared on bank notes since 1970.  Other people depicted on previous notes have been: Sir Edward Elgar (composer) Michael Faraday (scientist) Sir John Houblon (first Governor of the Bank of England) Sir Isaac Newton (scientist) Florence Nightingale (nursing) William Shakespeare (poet/playwright) George Stephenson (engineer) 1st Duke of Wellington (general/s