Interesting Facts

17th May 1521 – Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, was executed for treason. 1536 – George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford and four other men were executed for treason. 1590 – Anne of Denmark was crowned Queen of Scotland. 1792 – The New York Stock Exchange was formed. 1814 – The Constitution of Norway was signed and Danish Crown Prince Christian Frederik elected King of Norway by the Norwegian Constituent Assembly. 1974 – Thirty-three people were killed by terrorist bombings in Dublin and Monaghan, Ireland. 1978 - Charlie Chaplin's stolen body was found. 1984 – Prince Charles called the proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend," sparking controversies on the proper role of the Royal Family and the course of modern architecture. 1992 – The WHO (World Health Organisation) took homosexuality out of its list of mental illnesses. 1994 - The U.N. Security Council approved sendi...

Norway has been named the world’s happiest country, according to the World Happiness Report 2017 . (Norway moved up 4 places, and knocked Denmark off the top spot into second place, by ranking highly on the main factors found to contribute to happiness: “caring, freedom, generosity, honesty, health, income and good governance”. Iceland and Switzerland rounded out the top four. Sadly The UK sits in 19th place, beaten by Germany in 16th and the US in 14th. Poor old France is a miserable 31st in the standings. So much for Hygge. Although I guess to really experience Hygge, this sort of thing shouldn't matter.)

A Norwegian city, Trondheim, has banned adverts that show semi-naked models, male or female, in public spaces. (The new policy says: “No advertising that conveys a false image of the model/models’ appearance and contributes to a negative body image will be permitted. As a minimum, advertisements in which body shapes have been retouched should be marked as such.” This is seemingly an attempt to reduce the impact such adverts could have on people with body image issues. It reminds me of the "Beach Ready" controversy on London Underground.)

The top 5 countries in the Global Wellbeing Index, published by the United Nations, are Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Canada. (The researchers believe that the differences in happiness can be explained by 6 factors: levels of gross domestic product (GDP), life expectancy, generosity, social support, freedom and level of corruption. The US is 15th, the UK is 21st, but Germany is only 26th.) Source

According to the Gobal Gender Gap report, published by the WEF, Britain has dropped  eight places to stand 26th in the world for gender equality. (Not surprisingly the Nordic countries - Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark - were the most equal, and they have been joined by Nicaragua, Rwanda, Ireland, the Philippines and Belgium in the top 10. Yemen remained at the bottom of the chart for the ninth year in a row.) Source

According to the United Nations, Spain, Norway and Luxembourg have donated l ess money to the global fight against Ebola than Ikea. CC 2.0  (The 3 European countries have collectively donated €3.2m, while the Swedish furniture seller has donated €5.3m. Maybe they should start calling it the United States of Ikea.) http://www.un.org/ebolaresponse/

According to neuroscientists, children who write using good old fashioned pen and paper learn better than those who use a keyboard. (A study carried out at the University of Stavanger in Norway showed that people who are learning new letters—such as children learning to read for the first time, or as adults picking up a second language with new characters— retain the information best when writing the letters by hand. One of the researchers, Anne Mangen, said, "The movement for “the typing of a T is no different than the typing of a Y. Furthermore, when you write something on the keyboard, you get the visual output somewhere else, on the screen, as opposed to watching your hand when you write on paper." I am so tempted to say "Told you so" again.)

According to a UN-backed global study, Sweden is the best place in the world to be old. (Sweden, Norway and Germany headed the list, whilst Britain was rated 13th, one place behind Ireland. So, I guess I won't be moving any time soon.  Sorry to say Afghanistan, Tanzania and Pakistan ranked lowest, but don't worry, the only way is up.) Source: The Global AgeWatch Index is the first-ever overview of the wellbeing of older people around the world. http://www.helpage.org/global-agewatch/global-rankings/

According to the 2012 league table of food and drink costs, Britain pays more for food and alcohol than most of Europe. ( The staples, milk, cheese and eggs are 7% more expensive and across all food and non-alcoholic drinks, the UK pays 4% above the EU27. In the same study, Norway came out as the most expensive for food and drink and Macedonia the cheapest. All this came as no surprise to me; doing a food shop in the UK is always more expensive than Germany, but the biggest surprise is alcohol in the UK is around 43% above the European Union average, in France alcohol costs are 12% below the average and Germany 18%  lower. However, this is not why I moved to Germany.)

Finland has been rated the best place in the world to be a mum in the annual Mothers' Index compiled by Save the Children. (Sweden and Norway, were also at the top, while Germany was 9th, Australia 10th, France 16th and Ireland 20th, Britain came 23rd, behind most of her European neighbours, and the United States was placed 30th in the ranking of 176 countries. Mums in the poorest countries are at most risk, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the world’s toughest place to be a mother.) Save the Children

According to research published in the British Medical Journal, shift workers are more at risk of having a heart attack or stroke than day workers. (The researchers from Norway and Canada calculated that shift work was linked to a 23% increased risk of heart attack, 24% increased risk of coronary event and 5% increased risk of stroke. The researchers said that shift work can disrupt the body clock and have an adverse effect on lifestyle. I know that when my body clock is disrupted it has an adverse effect on hubby's lifestyle.)

Britons get angry more often than anyone else in Europe. (According to a survey commissioned by TV comedy channel GOLD, Brits fly into a rage an average of four times a day by things like queue jumping, traffic jams, rude service in shops, foreign call centres and having to deal with ill-mannered neighbours. In contrast Italians only get angry three and a half times a day, the French three times and apparently those living in Sweden, Norway and Denmark said they get irate just once every five days.)

Norway is the world's third largest oil exporter. (And I always thought they only exported Norwegian wood.)