Interesting Facts

According to research by the UK communications regulator Ofcom, the fairy lights on your Christmas tree can slow down your WiFi. (The research also revealed that nearly 6 million homes and offices in the UK have underperforming Wi-Fi, and it's not just fairy lights that can affect speeds: other electronic devices, including lamps, speakers, TVs and monitors can, and I believe a wet dog walking through the room will also block the signal. I often get told that WiFi is fine for our online sessions, but now I feel justified in my statement to people, use a broadband cable.)

According to The Joseph Rowntree  Foundation's   "Minimum Income Standard" report, i t is no longer considered essential in the UK for a family to have a landline telephone. Creative Commons  I mage  CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (People are now able to rely on mobiles, however, for the first time  internet access is counted as an essential for all groups including pensioners. The internet has been an essential for me since 1999.) 

According to studies carried out by University of San Diego graduate student Whitney Musser and Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute senior research scientist Dr. Ann Bowles, killer whales in captivity can learn to speak dolphin, albeit with an accent. (Scientists already know that killer whales "speak" using a series of clicks, whistles and pulses, and different groups develop their own significantly distinctive "dialects". The Smithsonian reported that in some cases, the difference can be likened to that of the difference between Greek and Roman.  In this particular study they found that killer whales began to sound a lot like the bottle nosed dolphins they were socialized with. Dr. Luke Rendell, a lecturer in biology at the University of St. Andrews said, "It is yet another confirmation that learning is central to how killer whales acquire their vocal repertoire, and further confirms the status of the * cetaceans as one of the few groups of mammals to ha...

Albert Mehrabian, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, UCLA, came up with the 7%-38%-55% rule. (His premise is that when it comes to "liking" someone,  words account for 7%, tone of voice accounts for 38%, and body language accounts for 55%, this is abbreviated as the "3 Vs" for Verbal, Vocal & Visual. Unfortunately people often use his research to say that communication is only 7% verbal.  Which of course is nonsense. On his website, Mehrabian clearly states: "Total Liking = 7% Verbal Liking + 38% Vocal Liking + 55% Facial Liking. Please note that this and other equations regarding relative importance of verbal and nonverbal messages were derived from experiments dealing with communications of feelings and attitudes (i.e., like–dislike). Unless a communicator is talking about their feelings or attitudes, these equations are not applicable. Also see references 286 and 305 in Silent Messages – these are the original sources of my findings....

According to Cisco, mobile devices will outnumber humans by the end of 2012. (By 2016 it predicts that there will be 10 billion mobile connected devices around the world. Today your pocket - tomorrow the world!)

According to a report by Ofcom, in 2010 an average of five text messages per day were sent for every person in the UK. (Of course not every person in the UK sent a message, I very rarely text people, but the rest made up for it. No wonder texting isn't free any more.)

According to a report by Ofcom, half of all UK teenagers own smartphones. (Yes, the Communications Market 2011 report from Ofcom shows that that smartphone ownership is still on the rise and that teenagers are obsessed with their phones. The report findings show that teenagers are much more likely to own a smartphone than adults and are more obsessed with them. 48 per cent of teenagers own a smartphone compared to just 27 per cent of adults. 60% of teenagers who owned a smartphone described themselves as “highly addicted” to their handsets. Only 37 per cent of adults felt that way. I'm really glad I'm not a teenager any more.)

According to Billmonitor, an Ofcom approved bill-analysis service, UK mobile phone users are wasting around £5bn a year because they are on the wrong contracts. (The overspend figure equates to almost half their spending every year on their mobile phone, or an average of £195, compared with an average spend of £439 annually. Just over three quarters (76%) of people on monthly deals are paying too much, having signed up to tariffs after wrongly estimating how many minutes and text messages they use. Maybe they just overestimated how many friends they have.) Source: The Guardian

The mobile phone numbers 07700 900000 to 900999 are reserved for fictional numbers in TV and films. (During an episode of Dr Who people spotted that his mobile number was 07700 900 461. Viewers who rang it received a recorded message saying the number was not recognised, at no charge. IMHO viewers who rang it should have received a recorded message telling them not to be so stupid next time, with a premium rate charge.)

According to scientists from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, orangutans use 40 body language signals to communicate. (The gestures were used to communicate 'I want to play', 'give it to me', 'go away', 'follow me', or 'stop doing that. Gestures included things like back rolls, placing objects on the head, blowing raspberries, nudge and shoo movements, hand to mouth 'begging' gestures, hitting the ground, hair pulling, biting the air, swatting, grabbing, and walking in tandem with another individual. It sounds like chucking out time in Nottingham.)

According to new research by Glasgow-based Go Group, the speed of your smile can have an impact on the first impressions created in others. (Smiling too quickly can lead others to think that you are insincere, but slow grins appear more genuine. So, the Cheshire Cat had it spot on.)