Interesting Facts

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has added over 1,000 words. (New entries include air-punching - the act of thrusting a clenched fist into the air in elation or triumph. Agender for designating people who do not identify themselves as a particular gender. Bovver - part of the catchphrase of comedian Catherine Tate's teenage character Lauren (Bovvered?) Budgie smugglers - close-fitting swimming trunks Dudettes - the female form of dude. Fro-yo - the short form for frozen yoghurt. Starter marriages are short-lived first marriages. *Stupid o'clock - used to describe a time outside normal waking hours. *See!  I told you it would make it in eventually.) A couple of new abbreviations were added too:- ICYMI (in case you missed it) FWIW (for what it's worth)

Seemingly the word "twerk", which was made famous (notorious) by Miley Cyrus' antics on stage and has just made it into the Oxford English dictionary, is almost 200 years old. (It was first used as a noun in 1820, but was spelt “twirk”, and referred to a “twisting or jerking movement” or “twitch”. The verb is believed to have emerged later in 1848, and the “twerk” spelling was in popular use by 1901. So, Miley Cyrus, stick that in your e-cigarette and vape it.)

Since the first Women's Boat Race, in 1927, the women's rowing teams from Oxford and Cambridge universities have never been permitted to race on the same course, on the same day, as the men. (That will all change today, when for the first time ever female crews representing Oxford and Cambridge will row the four miles, 374 yards from Putney Bridge to Chiswick Bridge, the Tideway, on the same day as the men, in front of a live TV audience. The tide has changed, and another bastion of gender inequality in sport bites the dust. )

According to Lloyds bank, Oxford is the least affordable city to live in the UK when compared to local wages. (On average houses in Oxford sell for £340,000, which is 11 times local salaries. And renting isn't that great an option either, with one-bed flats fetching around £900 a month, so to be able to afford to rent it you would have to be earning £36,000 a year. I don't think I'll ever be able to afford to move back to the UK.)

Swansea has been named the most likely place for a person to have a one night stand in the UK. (Runners up for this dubious honour were:- Edinburgh (11%) Birmingham (11%) London (10%) Chelmsford (9%) Coventry (9%) Brighton and Hove (9%) Oxford (9%) Manchester (8%) Belfast (8%) For this to actually make sense you need to know what a one night stand is, in this context it means a sexual relationship lasting only one night. Now, before you think "What a great idea!" and start booking your tickets, research has shown that one night stands are linked to depression and suicidal thoughts.)

Male students at Oxford University can wear skirts when taking their exams. (In the past only ceremonial clothing "specific to gender" was allowed, the outfits were known as known as subfusc, where male students were required to wear a dark suit and socks, black shoes, a white bow tie and a plain white shirt and collar under their black gowns, and female students had to wear a dark skirt or trousers, a white blouse, black stockings and shoes and a black ribbon tied in a bow at the neck. Since 2012 the regulations have been amended to remove any reference to gender, so male students are free to sit their exams in said skirts and stockings and women have the option of wearing the suits and bow ties. Guess what I sat my exams in?  Yup - jeans and a t-shirt.)

According to a review published in the British Medical Journal, adding 17.5% VAT to unhealthy foods in Britain could cut up to 2,700 heart disease deaths a year. (One US study showed a 35% increase in the price of sugar sweetened drinks – working out at 28p per drink – in a canteen led to a 26 per cent decline in sales. Dr Oliver Mytton and colleagues at Oxford University said so called fat taxes would need to be at least 20 per cent to have a meaningful effect on population health. In the past year, Denmark has introduced a fat tax, Hungary a junk food tax and France a tax on sweetened drinks. Other countries,  notably Ireland, are also considering such taxes. I want to know why they're not considering a champagne tax or caviar tax.) Source

The Open University's iTunes U service has broken the world record for number of downloads. (The service allows students to download free video and audio recordings of lectures, and reached 40 million downloads - with the increase driven by mobile devices such as iPads.  Figures from Apple suggest this puts the Open University ahead of rivals such as Stanford, Yale and even Oxford, but let's face it, these institutions are not best known for sharing.)

According to the Sun newspaper, of the 3,200 students who started studying at Oxford University in 2009 only 27 of them were black. (The reason that this has hit the news is because our illustrious leader, David Cameron (of Eton no less) said it was “disgraceful” that only one black student began studying at Oxford in 2009. However, a spokesman for the university said the figure only referred to UK undergraduates of black Caribbean origin starting courses in 2009/10. There were an additional 26 students who said they were of black origin, and another 14 of mixed black descent. wow! Oxford, what a diverse culture you must have - not.)

Oxford University's Bodleian Library is entitled to a copy of every book published in the UK. (Not surprisingly they've been running out of space (around 1,000 new books arrive each day), but they now have a warehouse big enough to store eight million books - which is enough space for about 20 years. And I thought I had a storage problem!)

According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, more than a fifth of UK University students fail to finish their degrees. (But it seems to depend on the university. The study showed that 45.4 per cent of Bolton University students failed to finish their studies, and at London Metropolitan University, the figure was 44.4 per cent, but at Oxford University, only 3.6 per cent failed to complete the course they started. Why don't you finish what you started? Hmm I feel a song coming on.) Source