Interesting Facts

Dr Rhys Morgan, a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering, has come up with a formula to help you choose the perfect stick for the popular British game of poohsticks. (The formula is - PP = A x ? x Cd PP = the perfect poohstick A =  the cross section area (the thicker the better) ? = the sticks density (the denser the better)  Cd = the drag coefficient describing the shape and roughness (the rougher the better)  So, it seems that Dr  Rhys Morgan claims the perfect way to win the game is to find something thick, dense and as rough as possible.  I would think any member of TOWIE would be a cert.)

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 a survey carried out by Littlewoods.com, only 33% of parents in the UK read their child a bedtime story. (Some parents said that their children would much rather watch TV, play with toys or computer games, but 13 per cent blamed lack of time for not reading to them and 9 per cent said they were 'too stressed'. I was read to regularly, and it was part of my bedtime routine, in fact three quarters of the parents surveyed said they were read to every night of the week as children.)

Monopoly is the world's best selling board game. (It is sold in 103 different countries, in 37 different languages. I wonder how many divorces it has caused.)

Welsh football team, Caerphilly Castle Ladies, might just be the worst football team in the world. (The team, called the Castle, was recently defeated 43:0 and over the last 10 games. the players have let in 219 goals and scored just one.  Bless them.) (Update - They have since decided to withdraw from the Welsh Premier Women's League with immediate effect. I just hope they don't stop playing.) Source

The game Cluedo, was originally called "Murder!" (The name was changed to Cluedo when the inventor prese nted the game to  Waddingtons 's  who changed it to its current trademark name of "Cluedo", a nice little word play on "clue" and " Ludo ";  ludo  is  Latin  for  I play .  Much more civilised than, muder.)

Cluedo, the murder mystery game, is called Clue in North America. (It was devised by Anthony E. Pratt, a solicitor's clerk from Birmingham, England, and originally published by Waddingtons in Leeds, England in 1949. It is now published by the United States game and toy company Hasbro, which acquired its U.S. publisher Parker Brothers, and Waddingtons.)

At Christmas ever popular on Santa's wish list are electronic gadgets. Even for children. According to a survey conducted by the Gadget Show live, the first gadget a child gets is probably a games console, by the age of seven years and seven months. (The last they receive is likely to be a mobile – with which they will be texting their friends by the time they are nine years and three months. In between, they will get their first digital camera at eight years six months, a TV in their bedroom two months later and an MP3 player at eight years and nine months. They’ll flip open their first laptop at eight years and ten months. At an even younger age we give them toy replicas of these gadgets, even working examples, aimed at children.  The future is going to be very interesting as our digital age generation comes of age.)

According to its creators Rovio, Angry Birds Space has been downloaded 50 million times in just 35 days. (This makes it the fastest growing mobile game ever, Breaking the records set by - yes - previous Angry Birds releases. Other popular games have reached the 50 million download milestone too, these include Draw Something and Temple Run - but it took them a bit longer than 35 days. Source :

In a recent poll of youngsters in the US only 45% of youngsters aged between 2 and 17 regularly read books. (This compares with 91% who regularly play computer games, and the fastest growth of gamers is in the age range of 2 to 5.  What on earth do they play?)

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 has just gone on sale in the UK. It's going to be a huge hit - a trailer, posted on YouTube on 21 October, has already attracted more than four million hits. (For those of you who are blissfully ignorant of this series of RPG games which can be played against the computer or online against other human players. The series follows American paratroopers, British paratroopers and the Red army, and the player assumes the role of various characters It's successful, but controversial, In CoDMW2 the depiction of a massacre carried out in a Russian airport, caused anger in the international community In CoDMW3 they feature an attack on the London Underground and actually show a family of tourists being blown up, the response to which will create more free publicity for the series (I know - I'm guilty too) Infinity Ward's executive producer Mark Rubin response to the anger was: "Yeah, we get a lot of that and it's tough, but for...

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.)

According to studies carried out by psychologist Bruce Bartholow playing violent computer games desensitizes people faced with violence in real life. (He said, “As far as I'm aware, this is the first study to show that exposure to violent games has effects on the brain that predict aggressive behavior. People who play a lot of violent video games didn't see them as much different from neutral. They become desensitized.” It's a bit of a no brainer really, but I wonder if Raving Rabbids is desensitizing me to hitting people over the head.)

An Olympic gold medal is almost 99% silver. (It seems a bit of a cheat really, I'm sure it's against the trade descriptions act.)

380 "Etiquette Angels" have been trained to help out at ceremonies during the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. (So, what does an Etiquette Angel do? Well, their main job is to escort VIPs as they present medals to the athletes. In order to do this they have undergone rigorous training, which involves - carrying an imaginary tray of medals to an imaginary winner on the podium - deportment training, which involved learning to stand for at least an hour at a time without dropping a sheet of paper tucked between your knees or letting a book fall from your heads - holding a real with six full bottles of mineral water for up to half an hour at a time - and learning to smile by showing at least four teeth. Seemingly the Chinese deem it ungraceful for a woman to bare her teeth when she smiles, but these girls had to overcome this. It sounds as if they deserve a medal too.)

Interactive games on consoles like the Wii are causing strains and sprains across the world. (Yes, people are getting tennis elbow without stepping onto a real tennis court. Not just that, but the wild swinging of remote controls is also causing lots of bystander injuries too. I have to admit I now own a Wii, and the bookcase has already suffered a couple of clunks and I learnt a very important lesson - don't play in your slippers.)

According to gadget magazine T3, the Nintendo Wii is the UK’s fastest selling games console. (I mocked the name when it came out, but now nearly a quarter of all households in the UK own one - more than six million homes. And just think, this number will probably go up on Christmas day.)

According to a study by Pew Research Center, more than half of American adults aged 18 and older play video games. (About one in five play every day or almost every day. It's actually been this way since the invention of railway models.)

Greek sponge divers discovered the oldest computer in 1901. It is a 2,100 year old device and may have been used to calculate the dates for the Olympic Games. (It's called The Antikythera Mechanism. I'm very glad the name didn't catch on, otherwise PC World would have a very long name.)

You don't necessarily get expelled for cheating at a British university. (A study of 86 UK universities by the Higher Education Academy and Joint Information Systems Committee found that out of 9,200 students caught cheating, only 143 were expelled. I think we are raising a generation of cheats. Just look at the games market, for every computer game sold there are hundreds of cheats and hack sites out there.)