Interesting Facts

According to a report by BARB, the official body for collecting TV audience figures, nearly 5% of British homes do not own a television. (That's about 1.3 million UK households with no TV, but that doesn't necessarily mean they don't watch TV: Whilst some people prefer life without the gogglebox, changing viewing habits have led to many watching TV shows on their PCs, laptops or tablets. Nearly half of the households without TVs are people aged 16 to 44. It seems that millenials are increasingly turning to other channels for their entertainment.)

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 the charity BackCare, growing numbers of children in the UK are developing irreversible back deformities because of the weight of the bags they carry to school. (Pupils often have to carry bags filled with heavy books, laptops, sports kit and packed lunches, and their bag may weigh as much as 28 lbs. According to experts, children risk long-term and ultimately permanent damage if they regularly carry more than 15 per cent of their body weight over their shoulders and because children’s skeletons are still growing, carrying heavy bags can cause lasting damage. The British newspaper, the Daily Mail, worked out that bags can weigh up to 2 stone, which they calculated as:- Textbooks - 8lb 13oz Laptop - 8lb 13oz Lunchbox - 1lb 11oz Bottle of water - 1lb 11oz Exercise books - 1lb 1oz Pencil case - 1lb 1oz PE Kit - 1lb 1oz Sports shoes - 1lb 1oz Coat - 13oz Diary - 9oz Game console - 8oz Mobile phone - 5oz MP3 player - 5oz Wallet and ...

The tiny South Pacific nation of Niue is the first nation in the world to issue laptop computers to all its children. (It's part of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative. Every primary and secondary school student has been given a little green laptop, with wireless connection to the Internet. Not only that but inhabitants have free internet access! I'm moving to Niue!)

More than 12,000 laptops a week go missing at US airports. (According to a survey by the Ponemon Institute reported by the IDG News Service, an amazing 637,000 laptops are lost each year, most often at security checkpoints. Not very secure security checkpoints.)

The $100 laptop actually costs $176. (Five years after the concept was first proposed, the so-called $100 laptop, for developing countries, is poised to go into mass production. It's actually more rugged and energy efficient than the laptops you can buy at the moment as it has a rugged, waterproof case and uses less power.)