Interesting Facts

Christina Estrada, a former model, is claiming nearly £200million in her divorce from Sheikh Walid Juffali, a Saudi multi-billionaire. (In a divorce settlement case that has more twists and turns than a game of snakes and ladders, he actually tried to prevent her claim in the British courts on the grounds that he was entitled to legal immunity because of his diplomatic status as permanent representative to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) of the Caribbean island of St Lucia, she is demanding such a huge sum as it "reflects the standard of living she enjoyed during her marriage to the Sheikh". She is trying to justify her rather large claim for the following expenses:- £55million for a new London home with annual staff costs of £335,558, which would cover a live-in butler, housekeeper, chauffeur, a nanny for the London home together with two cleaners, a chef, a reserve nanny and an office manager. £4.4million for a second house at Henley. £2.1million ann...

30th June Social Media Day Celebrate by sharing. 

An advert for Nurofen painkillers, has been banned in the UK for falsely claiming it targets specific types of pain. (The Advertising Standards Authority received complaints about TV adverts that suggested that Nurofen could target back pain. In one ad which showed a woman experiencing back pain, a voiceover said: “Just a single dose of Nurofen Joint and Back provides you with constant targeted pain relief for up to eight hours.” In an interesting use of language RB UK Commercial, which owns the Nurofen brand, said the advert did not state or imply specific pain could be targeted and that it was “disappointed” with the ruling. A spokesperson said: “Nurofen pain-specific products were introduced to provide easy navigation of pain-relief options for consumers experiencing a specific type of pain ." Please note, they didn't use the word "targeted pain relief". Actually the term painkiller is misleading.)

A couple of shopping centres in the UK are going to trial the removal of mirrors in the changing rooms. (Their rather twisted logic for a mirror-free shopping experience is that 71% of women in the UK decide not to buy an outfit after they see themselves in the mirror! What? That's because the outfit either doesn't fit them, or doesn't suit them! I can see a big #fail coming here.)

According to a Freedom of Information request from the BBC, since the introduction of UK legislation in October 2015 that bans anyone from smoking in cars with children present, no fines have been issued. (Of course this does not mean that people have suddenly stopped blowing smoke into their children's lungs, it simply means this is yet another unenforceable piece of legislation.)

Brits are spending more more than £900 million a year simply keeping our smartphones and tablets charged. (If that's not bad enough, we waste £134 million a year by overcharging them: According to research commissioned by insurance provider Row.co.uk, part of the problem is overcharging which happens when users plug in their devices overnight. A massive nine in ten owners keep gadgets on permanent charge, often unaware that overcharging batteries can reduce their lifespan, and under certain conditions lithium-ion batteries can pose a safety hazard. The figures suggest that around 85,000 tonnes of CO2 could be saved if people disconnected as soon as charging was complete.) Average charging times:- Mobile Phone - 2 hours Laptop, with Express Charge - 2 hours Hand-held vacuum cleaner - 3.5 hours Mp3 player - 4 hours Digital Camera - 2 hours

The UK voted to leave the European Union.  (It wasn't announced until 24th June, but it was on this day that the polls closed and the seal was set on the breakup of the UK. Watch this space.)

According to the Professor Nigel Hunt at the Royal College of Surgeons, “cake culture” in the UK workplace is fuelling the obesity epidemic and contributing to poor dental health. (As a healthy alternative they are suggesting that workers should bring fruit platters into the office instead of doughnuts, cookies and biscuits. He said, “Cake culture poses difficulties for those who are trying their hardest to lose weight or become healthier - how many of us have begun such diets only to cave in to the temptation of the doughnuts, cookies or the triple chocolate biscuits?” I agree in principal, but I wouldn't want to be the one to bring a box of apples to work on my birthday, I don't want to be known as Lynney no friends.)

23rd June 1314 – The Battle of Bannockburn began. 1532 – Henry VIII and François I signed a secret treaty against Emperor Charles V. 1713 – The French residents of Acadia were given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia, Canada. 1757 – 3,000 British troops under Robert Clive defeated a 50,000 strong Indian army under Siraj Ud Daulah at Plassey. 1758 – British forces defeated French troops at Krefeld in Germany. 1794 – Empress Catherine II of Russia granted Jews permission to settle in Kiev. 1845 - The Congress of the Republic of Texas agreed to annexation by the United States. 1860 - The U.S. Secret Service was created. 1868 – Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for Type-Writer. 1894 – The International Olympic Committee was founded at the Sorbonne, Paris, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin. 1942 – The first selections for the gas chamber at Auschwitz took place on a train load of people from Paris. 1955 - The Queen ...

According to research company Mintel, Britons spend around £ 510 million on Mother's Day gifts in 2015, but only £ 350 million on Father's Day gifts. (Poor dads!)

According to researchers at Kyoto University cats have a rudimentary understanding of physics. (The researchers showed how cats would react differently when they shook boxes with something in them, than when they shook empty boxes. Amazing! Cats reacted to a rattling sound? I don't suppose it occured to them that the shake of a cat  treats container has preconditioned cats to this.)  

The term flip-flop is an onomatopoeiac word based on the sound made by the sandals when walking in them. (Flip flops are no heel strap sandals, and although this style of sandal has been worn for centuries, the modern day flip flops have been worn in America and Britain since the 1970s. Sometimes the word is written flip-flops, and flipflops. They are called thongs in Australia, jandals (originally a trademarked name derived from "Japanese sandals") in New Zealand, slops in South Africa, and tsinelas in the Philippines.)

17th June Flip flop day. (This one is for +april sis ,  +Im Bubbly ,   +Marianne Heredge , Natasha, Shiny et al.) 

Anyone who was attended the sessions on food waste in Kitely will not be surprised to learn that supermarket giant Tesco has revealed that it generated 59,400 tonnes of food waste in 2015. (To put this into perspective this is the equivalent of nearly 119 million meals. In their defense, they are the only supermarket to publish the figures, and they have pledged to redistribute all edible food waste from stores to charities by the end of 2017.)

June 15th Happy Beer Day Britain

According to a survey by the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) 1 in 10 Brits are walking from home - in bed! (19% work from the sofa on their laptop, but now chiropractors are warning against the impact this could be having on the health of their back. Now, as some of you know, I work from home, but I get up and go into the office when I'm running sessions.  PS - I am writing this on the sofa.) The BCA have put together a video on computer posture: http://www.chiropractic-uk.co.uk/For-You-89-Computer-Posture-119-ms.aspx

According to the Sleep Council, the average Brit goes to bed at 11:15pm and gets just 6 hours and 35 minutes sleep per night. (Yes, not all Brits are lightweights like me.)

According to research published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, fish can remember faces. (By training archerfish with food pellets as a reward,  with a random sequence of 44 faces, scientists were able to teach them to spit at a particular face, with an average accuracy of between 81 and 86 percent.  A researcher Cait Newport said "Obviously the first takeaway is that they could do it. They were distinguishing something really complicated. This also shows that the fish have surprisingly good memories. It certainly challenges the whole idea of a fish with a 30-second memory." Did she really use the word takeaway?  I hope she hasn't trained her fish to recognise English.) Source

According to wine expert Jancis Robinson, author of The 24 Hour Wine Expert, any open bottle of wine – even a red – should be kept in the fridge. (Seemingly the old adage of serving red wine at "room temperature" was coined before the advent of central heating. Nowadays room temperature tends to be too warm, and we are drinking tepid red wine. According to the experts, refrigerating lighter reds such as beaujolais and pinot noir brings out all their fresh fruit flavours, and full-bodied reds such as cabernet sauvignon, shiraz and malbec benefit from being served cooler (around 17 or 18°C). Of course, it's unlikely we have any left in the bottle to store, but I'm going to try out this advice this weekend. ) 

In a survey that examines the good each country does for humanity as well as what it takes away, Britain has ranked 4th. (The Good Country Index placed Sweden first, Denmark second, and the Netherlands third, but the UK came above France and Germany because Britain does more “good” and less harm than more than 150 countries around the world. Britain came top for its global contribution to science and technology, thanks to the high number of journal exports, Nobel prizes and international publications it has produced,  was ranked 2nd on its global contribution to health and wellbeing, but it scored poorly on international security and peace, coming 64th out of 163 countries. Simon Anholt, who created the Good Country Index, said that while countries must serve the interests of their people it should not be at the expense of other populations.  I think we could apply that to ourselves as individuals too.)

Maybe the title of this should be boring people, as Ms Scott, an English teacher, has been struck off the teaching register in Scotland for two years after pupils and parents complained about her “boring” lessons. (She has been removed following a seven-day hearing in Edinburgh where it was reported that she had spent three lessons reading a novel to one class without allowing them to ask questions, set the same essay task - titled "what I did in activities week" - for several different year groups, and shown one class a clip of Jurassic Park before making them copy what she said about characterisation in relation to the film. Pupils at the school dubbed the lessons the "puni class" due to the disproportionate number of punishment exercises handed out. To be fair, her lesson plans sound very similar to the ones I had to sit through in English literature.) !Note - if you are struck off you are removed, from a position of power or responsibility after havin...

According to the British Coffee Association around 2,000,000,000 cups of coffee are consumed worldwide every day. (According to market researchers, Mintel, in the UK we drink over 70 million cups a day, but 3/4 (74%) of all UK adults drink instant coffee, compared to around 1/2 (48%) who drink fresh coffee. I stopped drinking instant when I left England, and I've never wanted to go back to the brown sludge.)