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 British Coffee Association around 2,000,000,000 cups of coffee are consumed worldwide every day. (According to market researchers, Mintel, in the UK we drink over 70 million cups a day, but 3/4 (74%) of all UK adults drink instant coffee, compared to around 1/2 (48%) who drink fresh coffee. I stopped drinking instant when I left England, and I've never wanted to go back to the brown sludge.)

According to a survey commissioned by Nationwide Credit Cards, the 1970s was the most tasteless decade when it comes to home decor in the UK. #TBT to when avocado bathrooms were in. Seriously, who thought that was a good look?! pic.twitter.com/liz1dJVtK8 — WICKES (@Wickes) January 29, 2015 (Lava lamps, orange and purple decor, tartan upholstery, shagpile rugs, avocado bathrooms and woodchip wallpaper all contributed to make the 70s so unstylish, but the 1980s, with its textured ceilings, frills and flounces, and Laura Ashley prints came second at 16 per cent. I wonder what they will say about the 2010s?)

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.)

Jack, a Yorkshire Terrier, is the oldest living dog in Britain. (At 117 years old (in dog years), he still looks like a puppy.  He will be the eighth-oldest dog of all time if his age can be proven to Guinness World Records. There are different formulas for calculating dog years. Alot of people multiply by 7, but dogs are mature by the age of 2, so some calculate it by allowing 10.5 dog years per human year for the first 2 years, then 4 dog years per human year for each year after that. According to: http://www.onlineconversion.com/dogyears.htm, Laika is a mere 57, but according to http://www.pedigree.com/all-things-dog/dog-age-calculator/ she is 70 years old. Guess which one she prefers?) Source

According to a survey conducted by OnePoll.com 70% of Brits admit to regularly sending text messages to the wrong person, and over 40% said they had been on the receiving end of a message clearly intended for someone else. (The survey revealed that people are most likely to send emails to the wrong people via text message, followed by desktop email, smartphone email, tablet email and WhatsApp. Some people have even lost their job by accidentally sending inappropriate stuff to their boss. One texter, ended up sending his driving instructor, 'a big, butch bloke' called Harry, a message thst was meant for his wife Hannah, saying that he loved him and discussing what they should have for dinner I've had people posting to my public forum page instead of in a private message - you know who you are. My advice? Slow down, and check before clicking "Send".)

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

According to a survey by recruitment firm Portfolio Payroll, only 1 in 10 workers in the UK is happy with their job. (Nearly 40% of respondents were looking for a new post while 54%  were considering a move.   They also found that 70% would leave 'without hesitation' for a pay rise regardless of the job. The reasons for such unhappiness were poor wages, stress and long hours.)

Good news for once! Some areas of the brain do not peak until we are in our fifties. (A published paper in the journal Psychological Science, states that each cognitive skill peaks at a different age. For example, raw speed in processing information appears to peak around age 18 or 19, then immediately starts to decline. Short-term memory continues to improve until around age 25, when it levels off and then begins to drop around age 35. The ability to recognize faces improves until the early 30s before gradually starting to decline,  but the ability to evaluate another person's emotional state peaks in our 40s or 50s. At 60 we are still learning new vocabulary skills, and between 60 - 70+: our intelligence actually peaks. I think the main point is, just keep learning, keep on learning, learn, learn learning.)

According to insurance company Prudential, a British man will typically have earned £1 million by the age of 51 during his working life but a woman will have to wait until her 70th birthday to do the same. (By the time the average worker has earned their first million they will have paid around £123,300 in tax and £93,200 in national insurance. If I'm meant to have earned a million by the time I'm 70, I'd better get myself a better paid job.)

People in the UK prefer to drink their tea at a temperature of 56-60°C. (It's probably why we add cold milk to it and it is lucky, as adding cold milk makes it cool enough to reduce the risk of developing cancer of the oesophagus. According to research at the University of Tehran, drinking hot tea (65-69°C) is associated with twice the risk of developing oesophageal cancer, and drinking very hot tea (70°C or more) is associated with an eight-fold increased risk. I'm glad I drink my tea with milk.)

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.)