Interesting Facts

Supermarket shoppers in the UK are being wished a Merry Christmas - by self-service checkouts. (Supermarket chain Tesco has introduced a festive message to customers so that when their payment has been accepted they hear a jovial “Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!" I hope they've programmed it to ignore anyone who has bought painkillers. What if they've bought condoms!)

In 1913 Richard Platz threw a bottle into the Baltic sea. (Over 101 years later, the brown beer bottle was found in the catch of Konrad Fischer, a fisherman, and it is now thought to be the oldest recorded message in a bottle. Much of the message was indecipherable, although the address in Berlin on the front of the card was legible, as was the author's polite request that the note be sent by the finder to his home address. He also included two stamps from that time, which were also in the bottle, so the finder would not incur any cost. I wonder what he would think of today's instant messaging.)