Interesting Facts

Norway has been named the world’s happiest country, according to the World Happiness Report 2017 . (Norway moved up 4 places, and knocked Denmark off the top spot into second place, by ranking highly on the main factors found to contribute to happiness: “caring, freedom, generosity, honesty, health, income and good governance”. Iceland and Switzerland rounded out the top four. Sadly The UK sits in 19th place, beaten by Germany in 16th and the US in 14th. Poor old France is a miserable 31st in the standings. So much for Hygge. Although I guess to really experience Hygge, this sort of thing shouldn't matter.)

Paul Donovan called BT at 7.57pm on Saturday, August 1, to cancel his broadband package. He was put on hold with a pre-recorded message saying the 'lines were busy', a female voice then asked him to hold until one of their operators was free, he waited, and waited, and waited. Eventually, he went to bed, but he didn't disconnect and left his phone on charge. (When he got up on Sunday morning, he was still on hold - 14 hours and 31 minutes later, which is believed to be a UK record, but it's not a world record. That honour goes to Australian Andrew Kahn, who called Qantas Airways to confirm his flight from Adelaide, Australia, to New York City. He phoned the airline at 7:22 on a Wednesday evening and finally hung up at 11:01 Thursday morning. During his wait, he surfed the Internet, slept briefly and caught up on some reading, for 15 hours, 40 minutes and one second. How long would it take you to finally hang up? ) Source

According to research from Heinz Cup a Soup, 31% cent of Brits are so protective of their favourite cup or mug that they would never let anyone else drink from it. (In fact nearly 60% of Brits have an "emotional attachment" to their favourite mug, and a third said they would feel "angry" or "totally devastated" if their mug broke, with 42% adding that their favourite mug is not replaceable. According to food psychologist Christy Fergusson we become attached to these simple everyday objects.  Thaler coined the term 'endowment effect'. When we touch something, it almost becomes an extension of us. You can create a deeper connection to it and associate memories, emotions and feelings with objects. It's a mug!)

According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, on average British mums spend 3 hours a day on housework and cooking, whereas fathers spend an average of three quarters of an hour. (In 8 out of 10 couples, women do all the washing and ironing, but things are changing, a magazine survey in 1999 revealed that among the over-60s age group, none of the men surveyed ever did the washing! Of course in 1980 only 31% of women had a full-time or part-time job compared to 55% today. According to therapist Julia Cole, most men still expect women to do the housework, and if men do it, they act as though they are doing their partner a favour; saying things like: 'I've done the washing up for you' instead of regarding it as something which benefits both of them.)

According to Facebook's own figures only 31% of its employees are female. (To be fair, Google, LinkedIn, and Yahoo have all reported similarly low figures.)

People making a wish with their spare change literally throw away just under 3 million pounds every year, according to the "Fountain Money Mountain" report. (Tourists regularly throw a copper or two into wishing wells and fountains, and a study has shown they spend an average of 31 pence at tourist sites such as Rome's Trevi Fountain. A wishing well is a term from European folklore to describe wells where it was thought that any spoken wish would be granted. The idea that a wish would be granted came from the idea that water contained deities or had been placed there as a gift from the gods, since water was a source of life and oftentimes a scarce commodity. The tradition of dropping pennies in wells, ponds and fountains stems from this. Coins would be placed there as gifts for the deity in thanks. I have tried installing one in my garden, but it doesn't seem to be working yet.) Original photo by Dystopian_Optimist