Interesting Facts

16th May 1770 – 14-year old Marie Antoinette married 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later became king of France. 1836 – Edgar Allan Poe married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia. 1920 – Pope Benedict XV canonized Joan of Arc as a saint. 1960 - The first working laser was demonstrated by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories. (But we still don't have proper light sabers.) 1966 – The Communist Party of China issued the 'May 16 Notice', marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. 1975 – Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. 1990 – Jim Henson died.

13th May 1958 – The trade mark Velcro was registered. 1981 – Pope John Paul II survived an assasination attempt after emergency surgery. 1989 – Large groups of students occupied Tiananmen Square in China and began a hunger strike. 1995 – British mother of two, Alison Hargreaves, conquered Everest.

Over the last 50 years short-sightedness amongst children in the UK has doubled. ( In the 1960s just 10% of British 12 and 13-year-olds had myopia, today that is 23%. Experts are blaming this increase on our increasingly indoor lifestyles and use of computers.   And it's not just happening in the UK, in the US in the 1970s 25% of children were diagnosed myopic, by the year 2000 this had risen to over 40%.  In China The journal Nature reported that around 90% of China's teenage and young adult population are short-sighted, up from 10 to 20% of the total population 60 years ago. One Chinese city is so worried, they are experimenting with transparent classrooms to expose children to more sunlight. How about giving them more time and space to play outside?)

According to a survey conducted by Win/Gallup International, the UK is among the least religious countries in the world. (The UK was 6th from last out of 65 countries, 30% considered themselves religious, 53% said they were not religious, and 13% said they were atheists. The remainder did not know how to define themselves. China was the least religious, with only 6% of people saying they were religious and 61% saying they were convinced atheists. Followed by Japan, where just 13% of people were religious, Sweden with 19%, Czech Republic with 23%, and the Netherlands and Hong Kong with 26%. The most religious countries were Thailand with 94%, followed by Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia and Morocco where 93% of people said they were religious.)

Scientists from universities in China and New York have pieced together a “love map” of the human brain. (Using MRI scans they have been able to monitor the physical effects of love, resulting in the first empirical evidence of love-related alterations to the brain. They have found that several areas of the brain show increased activity in people who are in love, including in the parts of the brain linked to reward, motivation, emotion regulation, and the social cognition network. These results shed light on the “underlying mechanisms of romantic love” and could pave the way for a brain scan that could act as a “love test”. So the next time someone says, "I love you", you can answer, "Prove it", put on this brain scanner.)

According to Internet analysts Kleiner Perkins, the U.S. is the sixth-worst nation when it comes to staring at screens. (At the top of the list is Indonesia, where people spend an average of 540 minutes, or 9 hours each day, followed by the Philippines, China, Brazil, Vietnam and in 6th place the USA. In the United States, people spend an average of 444 minutes every day looking at screens, or 7.4 hours. That breaks down to 147 minutes spent watching TV, 103 minutes in front of a computer, 151 minutes on a smartphone, and 43 minutes with a tablet. I wonder when it will be 18 hours a day because of Google glass.)  Source

The World Cup will soon be over, and Chinese doctors are probably relieved. (During the World Cup they spotted a new ailment striking people across the country. World Cup syndrome.  Symptoms were listlessness, tiredness and insomnia, thought to have been induced by the times that football games were broadcast from Brazil.  In Chengdu city authorities opened a World Cup syndrome clinic, and doctors were on standby 24 hours a day for the duration of the World Cup. One poor guy was knocked for six when Suarez did his thing, and had to limit himself to one match every two days. I don't blame him, the late nights were getting to me too, so I simply recorded the matches I wanted to watch, and played them on fast forward at a reasonable hour.)

According to the World Tourism Organisation, nearly one in ten international tourists worldwide is now Chinese. (There were 97.3m outward-bound journeys from China in 2013, of which around half were for leisure.  Chinese tourists spend most in total ($129 billion in 2013, followed by Americans at $86 billion) and per tax-free transaction ($1,130 compared with $494 by Russians).  More than 80% say that shopping is vital to their plans, compared with 56% of Middle Eastern tourists and 48% of Russians.  The Chinese are expected to buy more luxury goods next year while abroad than tourists from all other countries combined. However, only around 5% of China’s population actually own passports.)

According to China News Agency attacks by hornets in northern China have killed 41 people since July. (A combination of rapid urbanisation and climate change seem to contributing to the problem. More than 1,600 people have also been injured by stings in Shaanxi province, but the hornets behind the deadly attacks this summer appear to be the Asian giant hornet, or Vespa mandarinia.  Scarily, they can grow up to 5cm long and have a 6mm sting.)

If the UK followed China and imposed a fine (known as the “social maintenance fee” in China) on families for having more than one child, the equivalent penalty would be £260,000.   (The fine in China varies, but according to an article in the Economist, a husband and wife in Shanghai would have to pay 110,000 yuan (about £6,000) each. This is three times the city's average annual post-tax income. I'm the 3rd child, so my mum would not have been able to keep me, and probably my middle sister would have been doomed too.)

L-Cysteine is an amino acid used to prolong shelf-life in commercially produced bread. (It can be found in duck and chicken feathers and cow horns, but most of the L-Cysteine used in food production comes from human hair. Most of the hair used to make L-Cysteine comes from China, where it's gathered from barbershops and hair salons. You can avoid L-Cysteine baking your own bread, as it is not an additive in flour, but if you find the idea of eating other people's hair, steer clear of fast food places such as McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts and Burger King, who allegedly use L-Cysteine as an additive too.) Source

According to commercial property agents, C&W, Hong Kong has world's most expensive retail space. (Causeway Bay in Hong Kong is the most expensive retail location in Hong Kong, charging a whacking 1,859 euros per sqm per month, pushing New York's Fifth Avenue off top spot for the first time in 11 years.)

Friday 4th January 2013 was a popular day to get married in China. (Seemingly the date was booked well in advance by thousands of couples who hope that marrying on this date would bring them lasting romance. Why? Well according to Daniel from the forum, if you say 4 January 2013 it sounds similar to the phrase "I will love you all my life". The day has been named "nicknamed "love you forever day". I wonder if anyone will keep track of the couples who got hitched on this day and see if they do love each other for ever.  The romantic side of me hopes that they do.)

The handshake is thought to have been introduced to the UK by Sir Walter Raleigh in British Court during the late 16th century. (The handshake is thought by some to have originated as a gesture of peace by demonstrating that the hand holds no weapon. There are various customs surrounding handshakes, both generically and specific to certain cultures:- The handshake is commonly used when meeting, greeting, parting, offering congratulations, expressing gratitude, or completing an agreement. In sports or other competitive activities, it is also done as a sign of good sportsmanship. Its purpose is to convey trust, balance, and equality. In Anglophone countries, in business situations. In casual non-business situations, men are more likely to shake hands than women. In Belgium, handshakes are done more often, especially on meetings. In Switzerland, it may be expected to shake the women's hands first. Austrians shake hands when meeting, often including with children. In so...

China produces almost the entire world supply of rare earths. (China produces more than 95% of the world's rare earth metals, which are used in high-tech goods like mobile phones, computers and flat screens TVs. They include: Scandium; Yttrium; Lanthanum; Cerium; Praseodymium; Neodymium; Promethium; Samarium; Europium; Gadolinium; Terbium; Dysprosium; Holmium; Erbium; Thulium; Ytterbium; Lutetium . Try pronouncing that lot!)

According to official data, China granted 22.69 million driving licenses in 2011. (China is the world's largest car market, and now everyone wants a driving licence. Of course when you look at some of the other posts here on China's roads, you have to wonder if they ever get anywhere.)

Hundreds of Chinese people gathered in Shanghai to stage a massive pillow fight. (The pillows bore the names of bosses and teachers in order to help students and workers let off steam. I do hope my name wasn't on any of them.) Source

In 2010 China reported 3.9 million road accidents that killed 65,225 people and injured 254,075.

China has the longest school day, which often lasts from 7:15 am to 7:15 pm. (Just remember though, it’s not just about the length of time spent at school, but how it’s used, and all work no play makes Jackie a dull boy / girl.)

Edinburgh Zoo's newest residents, Tian Tian and Yang Guang, are the first giant pandas to live in the UK for 17 years. ("H uān yíng Tian Tian  he Yang Guang." (Chinese (I hope) for - Welcome  Tian Tian and Y ang Guang.))