Interesting Facts

The YouTube video Gangnam Style has forced YouTube to upgrade their viewing statistics to handle 64 bit numbers. (The number of views for the video steadily increased since its release in 2012, until it hit a critical 2,147,483,647. Why critical? Well, the largest number that can be represented by a 32-bit integer is 2,147,483,647. As a result, YouTube have upgraded their view counter to handle 64 bit integers, which means that they can sit back and relax, unless the video clocks up 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 views.  There's not much chance of that, because every human being on earth would have to watch it 1.29 billion times to reach that number.)

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.)

According to the parenting website Netmums, by the age of 32 we are turning into our parents. (The pressures of career, buying a house and having children mean one day we suddenly realise we are echoing phrases or mannerisms that used to end in a good door slamming.  Six out of seven people who took part in the poll admitted that they had reason to fear they were already “turning into” their mother or father. If you are in your twenties and think it can't happen to you - think again.)