Interesting Facts

23rd March 1603 - Queen Elizabeth I of England died. 1895 - The first official match played by women took place at Crouch End in London. (Nettie Honeyball had placed an advert in the press and persuaded about 30 young women to join the British Ladies Football Club. It wasn't a resounding success, but during the First World War it became more popular. Unfortunately women's football in England and Scotland suffered a blow in 1921 when the Football Association, in England, banned women from playing the game on Association members' pitches.) 1975 - The beaver became the official symbol of Canada.

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

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 researchers from the Sao Jose Faculty of Medicine in Brazil, time goes by more quickly when you're over 50. (In the study people were asked to close their eyes and mentally count the passing of 120 seconds.  They all counted too quickly. On average, men and women in the 15 to 29 age group counted down the 120 seconds in 115 seconds.  In the 30 to 49 age group they took 96 seconds, but the over-50s took just 86 seconds. This meant the oldest group perceived time as passing 25 per cent more quickly than the youngest did. The researchers believe it is possibly due to age-related changes in levels of brain chemicals involved in concentration and memory, both of which are involved in estimating the passage of time. I think it's more likely that at 50+ you simply have more to do, and feel you have less time to do it in.) Source PS -If you want to be able to count in seconds more accurately, say the number plus the word elephants.

According to a study carried out by Action on Sugar hot drinks can contain at least as much sugar as a can of Pepsi or Coca-Cola. (In some of the worst cases the drinks tested contained 20 or more teaspoons of sugar. For example, a large Chai Latte can contain around 80g of sugar: according to the NHS, the maximum intake of added sugar per day for those aged 11 and over is about 30g or seven teaspoons - a can of Pepsi or Coke can contain around 9 teaspoons. The drinks assessed included flavoured coffees such as mochas and lattes, hot fruit drinks and hot chocolates from coffee shops and fast food chains.  98% of the drinks they tested would have to carry a red food label for high sugar content.)

According to a study carried out by home insurer MORE TH>N women are at their most fashionable around the age of 30. (By this time the average British woman owns 212 items worth around £7,658.  Their wardrobe usually consists of 166 items of clothing (including designer outfits worth £2,399, 7 pairs of designer shoes, costing £2,086, and some, 24 pieces of jewellery worth £2,800. Men on the other hand hit their peak at 36, but will own a staggering of £8,868 worth of clothing, shoes, watches, bags and jewellery by then. However, 1 year later, the value of a person's wardrobe falls, and between the ages of 30 and 50 women see a 26% decrease in the value of their wardrobe and a 70% decrease in the number of designer items.  For men, the value plunge is even more pronounced, dropping by 46% over the same period. This either means everyone develops some common sense, or they have children.)

According to a report by the WHO (World Health Organisation) 74% of men and 64% of women in the UK will be overweight by 2030. ( That's almost three-quarters of men and two-thirds of women in the UK are on their way to being overweight within 15 years. Medically speaking, b eing “overweight” is defined as having a BMI ( Body Mass Index ) of between 25 and 29.9.  Being  “obese” is defined by a BMI of 30 and above. Worryingly  other European countries are facing growing obesity problems including Greece, Spain, Austria, the Czech Republic and even Sweden.   The only European country to escape is the Netherlands.  Must be all those bikes.) Source

According to the Vegetarian Calculator page on Facebook the average human, who lives to 80, will have eaten 7,000 animals in their lifetime. (They will have eaten 11 cows, 27 pigs, an amazing 2,400 chickens, 4,500 fish, 80 turkeys, 30 sheep, and if rabbits, ducks, geese, goats, prawns and squid are included, the total of animals eaten rises to around 7,500. It reminds me of a joke: Q: What's the difference between roast beef and pea soup?  A: Anyone can roast beef. Sorry.)

On average, New Year's resolutions only last 23 days. (According to a study carried out by the University of Hertfordshire most of us scrap any good intentions as early as January 23rd. Only 30 per cent of women in the UK stuck to their guns, compared with 37 per cent of men. Of course, it depends on the resolution.)

The average dog owner gets more exercise than someone who goes to the gym. (In fact, according to the national dog walking index, compiled by Mountain Warehouse, in the UK most dog owners go for around 433 walkies, and cover on average 548 miles a year, roughly the distance from London to Aberdeen. According to researchers from Michigan State University, nearly half of dog owners exercise an average of 30 minutes a day at least 5 days a week. By comparison, only about a third of those without dogs got that much regular exercise. Of course it doesn't count if you employ a dog walker.)

According to a joint report published by Shelter and KPMG, within a generation, 50% of young Brits will be living with their parents beyond the age of 30. (The main reason is Britain's acute housing shortage, and the spiraling  price of property. 100,000 fewer homes are currently built each year than are needed.  Of course, there's always the tiny house movement, but as British houses are already the smallest in Europe, they couldn't get much smaller. The report also stated that if current trends continue,  the average house price in England could double to £446,000 in 10 years.  Now that really scares me.   I'll never be able to afford to go back to the UK at this rate!)

According to the Peace Corp's website, of all the water on earth, 97.5 percent is salt water. Of the remaining 2.5 percent of fresh water, some 70 percent is frozen in the polar ice caps. The other 30 percent is mostly present as soil moisture or lies in underground aquifers. (This means that less than 1 percent of the world's fresh water (or only about 0.007 percent of all the water on Earth) is readily accessible for direct human use.)

Glastonbury uses 30 megawatts of electricity over the weekend - about as much as the city of Bath. (Of course there is no electricity for your tent, so don't bother taking a hairdryer, but the 200 generators, which use 100km of cabling, are used to supply most of the stages, markets and backstage portacabins. The festival is also making a big push to use renewable energy. The Green Fields - including the 1,000-capacity Croissant Neuf marquee - only use renewable energy, mainly from solar and wind power. And there are solar-heated showers (although not many visitors use them), while generators in several areas use biodiesel sourced from recycled cooking fat. Listen Here.

A three-bedroom house built today must have at least 38 sockets. (This is more than twice as many as 30 years ago. The number has been set by the National House Building Council's technical standards. They recommend 4 each in the kitchen and utility room, 4 in the living room, 8 in a living/family room with 2 near the TV aerial. Funnily enough they reckon there should be 6 in the main bedroom, and four in other bedrooms. I have no idea why you would need so many sockets in the bedroom. The mind boggles.)