Interesting Facts

18th November 1307 - Famed marksman William Tell put an apple on his son's head and shot it off.  (Call Social Services) 1928 - Mickey Mouse appeared in Steamboat Willie, his first cartoon to be distributed. 2004 - Britain outlawed fox hunting in England and Wales.

Bees contribute more to the British economy than the Royal family. (According to research carried out at the University of Reading, the overall value of the contribution of our busy bees is £651 million a year, which is £150 million more than the Royal Family brings in through tourism. In fact 85 per cent of the UK’s apple crop and 45 per cent of our strawberry crop relies on bees to grow. These two crops alone brought in £200 million to Britain in 2012. Unfortunately honeybee colonies have slumped in the UK from 250,000 in the 1950s to fewer than 100,000 today. In Germany everyone seems to have their own beehive.)

According to a study by BUPA, 80% of Brits believe families today are missing out on creating happy memories by not eating meals together. (The top foods that invoked childhood memories were:- Ice cream Roast dinner Fish and chips Apple crumble Bangers and mash Shepherd’s pie Spaghetti Bolognese Strawberries and cream Fruit salad Bakewell tart For me it's sherry trifle.)

According to a study by Bupa, ice cream is Britain's happiest food. (76% of Brits said food could boost their mood. The foods that make us feel happiest are:- Ice cream Roast dinner Fish and chips Strawberries and cream BBQ Apple crumble Pizza  Steak and chips Curry  Spaghetti Bolognese  I'm surprised no one mentioned chocolate (It is a food, isn't it?), or steak and kidney pie.)

According to analysis by the Economist, the popularity of apples has outstripped that of oranges. (Denmark consumes the most apples per head (30kg per person per year), and Morocco has the highest orange, tangerine and mandarin consumption (32 kg per person per year). I bet Danish doctors aren't that happy.)

You've probably never heard of Susan Bennett, but if you own one of the latest Apple phones you will have talked to her. She is the voice behind Siri, Apple's built-in speech-recognition "personal assistant". (You can listen to the real Siri here:-

According to news reports, the new royal baby, Prince George has been given some unusual gifts, they include the following:- A hand-embroidered blanket made by nuns in Spain. An apple tree (supposedly this is traditional, but I can't remember getting one, probably because I'm not the first born son). A baby crocodile (called George). (I guess it beats silver spoons and rattles, but really, all he needs is loving parents and a relatively normal upbringing. We always tell our children that they can be whatever they want to be, so why not tell them they don't have to be whoever people say they ought to be.  If I were his parents I'd give him a free pass from becoming king.)

Today - 30th May 2013 is Tax Freedom Day in the UK. The day when you've actually earned enough to pay tax, NI contributions etc, and are now working for yourself. (Unless you are Starbucks, Amazon, Apple or Google of course. In which case, every day is tax freedom day.)

Apple  paid less than 2% tax on profit made outside the United States last year. (They paid $713m (£445m) in overseas corporation tax on foreign profits of $36.87bn (£23bn) in the year to the end of September. That translates as a tax rate of 1.9%, compared to a headline corporation tax rate of 35% in the US and 24% in the UK.   Executives from Google, Amazon and Starbucks will be hauled before the Commons public accounts committee in the UK on Monday 5th November 2012.  They will be asked to explain why they pay so little tax to the exchequer. Analysis by the Guardian found that Google, Amazon, Starbucks and Facebook have paid just £30m in tax over the past four years despite generating more than £3.1bn in sales.)

Apple claims that statistics show it's responsible for creating or supporting 514,000 jobs in the US. (On their web page entitled "Creating jobs through innovation" the say that a study by the Analysis Group determined that Cook & Co. has "directly or indirectly" created 304,000 jobs spread throughout all 50 states. The remaining 210,000 jobs, Apple says, were created in the "app economy". It's the "indirectly" part of the statement that I have an issue with, as Apple directly employ 47,000 people in the US – about 9 per cent of the total they claim. Now I'm all for beating your own drum: if you don't beat it, no one else will, but the rest of the figures are difficult to quantify, Apple says they are made up from these "indirect" jobs, which come from "the development and manufacturing of components, materials, and equipment; professional, scientific, and technical services; consumer sales; transport...

As of today Apple is the most valuable company in the world based on the value of its stock. (It has stolen this dubious crown from ExxonMobil as its stock price rose to $363.69 per share for a total "market capitalization" of $337.2 billion. ExxonMobil's stock price slipped to $68.03 per share to give the international petroleum giant a valuation of $330.8 billion. Of course how long Apple keep their crown, will depend on their next product.)

Apple has more money than the US government. (As of July 27th, the US Treasury held operating cash of $73.7bn, whereas according to its recent financial results, Apple had a few dollars more (cue spaghetti western music) at $76.4bn. It seems that Apple, once the darling of the independent anti-Bill Gates movement, is now the big corporate giant that everyone accused Microsoft of being. It has been valued at $364bn, compared with Microsoft's $230.5bn. At the moment, there is only one other corporation in the world – Exxon Mobil – that is bigger. So how has this maker of toys for the well-heeled become so rich? Well, apart from making diamond studded iPhones, if you want your paper or magazine to be available on the iTunes subscription store, it will cost you 30% for Apple straight off. Let's face it, in the Apple economy, only Apple gets rich.)

Angry birds the multi-platform game is made by a Finnish software company. (Rovio Mobile, the software developer from Finland created the game, which was first launched for Apple's mobile operating system in December 2009, since then over 12 million copies of the game have been purchased from Apple's on-line store. The game features cartoonish, wingless birds that the player must slingshot into enemy pig territory to reclaim stolen eggs. It is completely addictive.)

In computing "app" is an abbreviation of application - a piece of software that runs on a computer, a mobile device or other platform (for example, an iPhone or Facebook.) App is really a generic term for any standalone bit of software. (Of course it's a pretty new word, so now people are fighting over it. Apple is suing Amazon in a bid to stop the online retail giant from using the name Appstore, which will offer downloadable applications for Google's Android operating system.. Apple, which makes iPhones and iPads, claims that the name is deliberately similar to its own App Store. "It will confuse and mislead customers," said Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet. I think I'm going to put a claim on the term "shoe store". I mean enough shoe salesmen target the forum, I think I have a very good case.)