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 the Indian Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, smartphone sales in India reached 100 million by the end of December, 2015. (India is growing at a phenomenal pace and the government is looking to expand rural development with broadband being laid out in rural India. According to data from analyst firm CyberMedia Research (CMR) 94% of feature-phones (as opposed to smartphones) sold in India were priced below 2,000 rupees  £21.)

Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin spent a total of 21 hours on the Moon, two-and-a-half of them outside the landing module.  They left a plaque, which read, "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind." " Neil Armstrong pose ".  via  Wikimedia Commons . (The astronauts, including Michael Collins, returned to Earth on 24th July, where they spent the next 21 days in quarantine at an American military base - a procedure dropped in subsequent missions since no alien organisms were found.)

The top 5 countries in the Global Wellbeing Index, published by the United Nations, are Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Canada. (The researchers believe that the differences in happiness can be explained by 6 factors: levels of gross domestic product (GDP), life expectancy, generosity, social support, freedom and level of corruption. The US is 15th, the UK is 21st, but Germany is only 26th.) Source

Sad to say, Sherlock Holmes never said ‘Elementary, my dear Watson!’ in the books written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. (Holmes did use the word ‘elementary’ in The Crooked Man (1894):- “I have the advantage of knowing your habits, my dear Watson,” said he. … “Excellent!” I cried. “Elementary,” said he. The phrase, ‘Elementary, my dear Watson’ was penned 21 years later by P.G. Wodehouse in his novel Psmith, Journalist, and the phrase is also uttered at the very end of the 1929 film, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, the first Sherlock Holmes sound film.)

We were talking about maternity and paternity / maternal and paternal in today's session, so this little factlet is very fitting. According to a survey carried out by the Family Matters Institute, 12% of fathers in the UK aspire to be like Homer Simpson. A good role-model? (The following "father figures" were most popular:- David Beckham - 21% Jamie Oliver - 14% Homer Simpson - 12% Prince William - 9% David Walliams - 7% Simon Cowell - 5% David Cameron - 4% Wayne Rooney - 1% The typical, modern UK dad was described as a food-loving, health-conscious, house proud family man, but their choices of role models leaves a lot to be desired.  For goodness sake! David Cameron left his 8 year-old daughter in the pub!)

According to a poll by the BBC World Service, only 11% of people from 27 countries thought free market capitalism is working well. (In the United States (25%) and Pakistan (21%) of people agreed that capitalism works well in its current form. Luckily 51% of the people surveyed believed the problems can be solved with more regulation and reform, so there's hope for us yet.)