Interesting Facts

According to research presented at the Sociolinguistics Symposium, children start swearing at a much earlier age than they did a few decades ago. (Seemingly in the UK kids start swearing at the age of 4! In the 1980s most children didn't start to swear until they were 13.  (I don't think I swore until I was about 21). They also swear more often nowadays, and they have lots of choice: T here are over 70 different common swear words in the English language (some of which also vary from English-speaking country to country), 10 frequently used words account for over 80 percent of common swearing.   Of course I am far too polite to tell you what they are, but they include the "F" word, and sh1t (which isn't even a swear word in Germany). You can learn more here. )

According to a report by Sainsbury's bank, daughters are more expensive than sons. (This isn't due to any costs of getting married, dowries etc., it's purely on the basis of raising the children. Girls cost thousands of pounds more than boys to bring up 0 to 5 boys cost £5,475 a year, and girls £5,767 6 to 13 boys cost £6,414 a year, and girls £7,794 14 to 18 boys cost £7,172 a year, and girls £7,747  The biggest issue is that clothing costs more for girls, so I would say from the ages 0 to 13, it's the parent's fault.  Pink stuff probably costs more than blue stuff.)

It looks as if black tea is no longer our cup of tea in the UK.  According to consumer analysts Mintel, retail sales of all brands of tea have sunk from 97 million kilos in 2010 to an estimated 76 million this year. (Sales of ordinary tea bags feel 13%, whilst sales of green tea were up 50%. Seemingly people are moving towards healthier alternatives such as fruit and herbal teas.  They estimate that sales will fall to 69 million kilos by 2020. I drink herbal tea, and green tea, but I still need my mug of good old Tetley to kickstart the day.) Source: Mintel

According to research by the social mobility and child poverty commission, old-fashioned snobbery is alive and kicking in the UK. (Elite British companies are thwarting the career prospects of talented working-class applicants and recruiting applicants from public schools because of their accents and mannerisms. The commission examined recruitment at 13 elite law, accountancy and financial companies who between them appoint 45,000 of the top jobs in the country. It found that 70% of jobs offered by those firms in 2014 went to applicants from public or selective schools, even though such schools only educate around 11% of the population. I'm not in the least surprised, but it's their loss. If you are talented, but turned down for a job because you aren't "posh" enough, open your own company, and put them out of business in a few years.) !Note - A public school is a private school in the UK.  I went to a state school. Source

Over the last 50 years short-sightedness amongst children in the UK has doubled. ( In the 1960s just 10% of British 12 and 13-year-olds had myopia, today that is 23%. Experts are blaming this increase on our increasingly indoor lifestyles and use of computers.   And it's not just happening in the UK, in the US in the 1970s 25% of children were diagnosed myopic, by the year 2000 this had risen to over 40%.  In China The journal Nature reported that around 90% of China's teenage and young adult population are short-sighted, up from 10 to 20% of the total population 60 years ago. One Chinese city is so worried, they are experimenting with transparent classrooms to expose children to more sunlight. How about giving them more time and space to play outside?)

It seem that we Brits don't like to be kept waiting. According to research by Interparcel we get grumpy very quickly if we are forced to wait for any length of time. (It seems we will only wait 5 minutes at a bar before walking off, 13 minutes for a delayed train and no more than 10 seconds for a web page to load. It seems strange for a nation renowned for its ability to form an orderly queue, but if you read this, I applaud your patience in waiting for it to load.)

According to a study by the Department for Education, British teens are going out less and shunning cigarettes and alcohol to stay at home on their computers. (The so called 'Laptop generation' of teenagers are now more likely to be surfing the web and playing games than hanging out in the park. 13-year-olds today are more 'sober and responsible' than 10 years ago. Only 32 per cent had tried alcohol compared with 52 per cent in 2004, and it's the rise of social media sites such as Facebook that is thought to be behind the change. They are probably more sober and responsible than I am too.)

The Pack O' Cards is an inn in Devon.  It has  52 windows spread over 4 floors (think suits), each with 13 doors. ( According to locals, the inn was built during the 18th century with the proceeds of the winnings of a card game. It even looks like a house of cards, with the four floors stacked on top of one another in a higgledy piggledy way.) Photo by  Ian Roberts

A lot of people believe that the number 13 is unlucky, but research by online insurance comparison company confused.com has shown that in Britain 21.9 per cent of insurance policy holders living at a house number 166 have made a claim in the last five years. (The unluckiest house numbers in England for 2012 are:- House Number 166 % of customers making a claim 21.9% 227 21.5% 249 20.8% 239 20.0% 240 19.7% 169 19.4% 193 19.3% 253 19.2% 173 18.7% 243 18.3% Number 13?  Well maybe they aren't lucky enough to have insurance, or if you notice 166 adds up to 13.  Spooky.)

Today is the first Friday the 13th of the year, and it's got the inter web thingy in a spin, but not everyone thinks the number 13 is unlucky. Triskaidekaphobia, is the phobia of the number 13, and there are a number of theories behind the cause of this association between thirteen and bad luck, but none of them have been accepted as universally true. (13 Lucky or Unlucky? Unlucky 13 The number 13 is considered to be an unlucky number in some countries. The end of the Mayan calendar's 13th Baktun is superstitiously feared as a harbinger of the apocalyptic 2012 phenomenon. Fear of the number 13 has a specifically recognized phobia, Triskaidekaphobia, a word which was coined in 1911. The superstitious sufferers of triskaidekaphobia try to avoid bad luck by keeping away from anything numbered or labelled thirteen. As a result, companies and manufacturers use another way of numbering or labeling to avoid the number, with hotels and tall buildings being conspicuous examp...

Child benefit costs UK taxpayers £12 billion a year. (Anyone with children can claim child benefit, regardless of their personal circumstances. About 7.7 million families currently get it, but that could be about to change as Chancellor George Osborne has announced it will be axed for higher-rate taxpayers from 2013. Unlucky 13 for some then.)

In the first "official" world cup held in Uraguay, only 13 nations took part. (7 from South America, 4 from Europe and 2 from North America. Times have changed though. 200 teams entered the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds; 198 attempted to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, while a record 204 countries entered qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.)

Franklin D. Roosevelt wouldn't travel on Friday the 13th. (The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia, a word derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (Παρασκευή) (meaning Friday), and dekatreís (δεκατρείς) (meaning thirteen), attached to phobía (φοβία) (meaning fear). The term triskaidekaphobia, fear of the number 13, derives from the Greek words "tris", meaning 'three', "kai", meaning 'and', and "deka", meaning 'ten'. the whole word means three and ten. I'm not sure what the fear of pronouncing those phobias is called.)

Superstitious diners who find themselves in a group of 13 in Paris can hire a quatorzieme, or professional 14th guest. (I am available for bookings.)

According to McKinsey Quarterly New Zealand's sheep outnumber the people by 13:1. (New Zealand - where the men are men and the sheep are nervous.)