Interesting Facts

According to The Wright Stuff 80% of people will use social media to find out more about potential partners. (What do they check? What you post about . . . the quality of the pictures . . . your grammar . . . your teeth and smile . . . and your clothing. According to a survey from Pew Research in 2013 it was just 41%.)

In a survey that examines the good each country does for humanity as well as what it takes away, Britain has ranked 4th. (The Good Country Index placed Sweden first, Denmark second, and the Netherlands third, but the UK came above France and Germany because Britain does more “good” and less harm than more than 150 countries around the world. Britain came top for its global contribution to science and technology, thanks to the high number of journal exports, Nobel prizes and international publications it has produced,  was ranked 2nd on its global contribution to health and wellbeing, but it scored poorly on international security and peace, coming 64th out of 163 countries. Simon Anholt, who created the Good Country Index, said that while countries must serve the interests of their people it should not be at the expense of other populations.  I think we could apply that to ourselves as individuals too.)

Allegedly, image recognition software that detects brand logos on pictures uploaded to blogs and sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr is being used to glean marketing information for targeted advertising. (For example, Twitter is using image-based ad targeting through image analytics firm, Ditto Labs.  They are able to pick out photos posted to Twitter -- either directly or through Instagram -- that contain a brand's logo, collect the Twitter handles of the people posting those photos to create a list that an advertiser can then submit to Twitter as the audience it would like to show particular ads to. Maybe it's time to stop wearing branded items when we have our photo taken.)

US scientists at Johns Hopkins Medical School and the University of Nebraska, might have found the answer as to what causes unspeakable stupidity - a virus.   (The algae virus, which has never been found in healthy people,was discovered to affect cognitive functions such as visual processing and spatial awareness. I wonder if there is a cure.)

According to a survey conducted by Sky Rainforest Rescue, 9 out of 10 Brits are unable to identify 5 common trees. Most were able to name 5 trees, but they couldn't recognise them when shown a picture. (The survey found that many adults couldn't tell a maple tree from an oak or a fir, and nine out of ten people struggled to identify the pointed leaves and red berries of a holly tree. Many didn't even know where conkers come from, or that acorns grow on oaks. Horse chestnut, maple oak tree? Never heard of them. And the worst of all the fir tree, traditionally put up in our homes for Christmas, caused confusion with more than 1 in 10 unable to name a picture of one. I guess it was unrecognisable without its clothes on. )

The Cavendish variety of banana accounts for 95 per cent of bananas shipped to export markets around the world. (That's interesting in itself, but the biggest nightmare of a monoculture has arisen, and the world’s banana crop is under threat from a fungus; Foc-TR4. According to Nature, a strain of Foc wiped out the Gros Michel cultivar, which was the main exported banana variety until the 1950s. Gros Michel plants were then replaced with the Cavendish variety, which is resistant to that Foc strain, but susceptible to the new Foc Tropical Race 4 (Foc-TR4) strain. The disappearance of bananas from supermarket shelves in the UK is one thing, but bananas form a crucial part of the diet of more than 400 million people.)

 Hamburg, Germany’s second largest city, is planning to ban all cars from its centre over the next 20 years. ( Their new urban development scheme, “Green Network”, will see all vehicles banned in the city centre by 2034. Instead people will move about the port city, either via  public transport, on foot or by bicycle. Gives a whole new meaning to "on your bike".)

On my trip to the UK recently I was dismayed to read and hear all the negative press about the opening up of borders to new countries in the EU. It really made me ashamed to be British. Now the figures have started to come in and so far the millions of Eastern Europeans anticipated by the tabloid press and other people who should know better has turned out to be 24. (Yup 2 dozen, and they are probably wondering what they let themselves in for. On New Year's Day, politicians, including Keith Vaz, and journalists gathered at Luton airport desperately waiting for the arrival of millions of unemployed Romanians, only to be greeted by two new entrants, both of whom already had jobs. Of course people will travel to look for work.  That's how I ended up in Germany.) "Britain's an island; it's always had a constant ebb and flow of immigration - it makes it a better place." John Lydon

According to figures released by the Circle Housing organisation, about 7 million people in the UK are expected to take out a loan to cover the crippling cost of Christmas. (It gets worse; according to the Money Advice Service, one million Brits will use a payday loan to cover the cost of Christmas while a third of adults will use credit cards.  Two of the most expensive ways of borrowing money. In 2012 Brits spent an average of £1,000 per household on Christmas and some of them haven't paid that back yet. The harsh reality is, if you can't afford to buy something without paying with credit, don't buy it.  If you are feeling pressured into buying presents you can't afford, be honest and tell people, including your children, you simply can't afford it. They will be more understanding than you think, and you can offer to start a fund to buy their "must have" item later when you have enough to buy it with hard cash.  If you have to have something to wrap...

According to the parenting website Netmums, by the age of 32 we are turning into our parents. (The pressures of career, buying a house and having children mean one day we suddenly realise we are echoing phrases or mannerisms that used to end in a good door slamming.  Six out of seven people who took part in the poll admitted that they had reason to fear they were already “turning into” their mother or father. If you are in your twenties and think it can't happen to you - think again.)

According to quarterly magazine Delayed Gratification, to date 531 people have travelled into space. (The criteria for what constitutes human spaceflight varies, but The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) defines spaceflight as any flight over 100 kilometres (62 miles) high. This definition is recognized by most countries.  Funnily there's a list of 528 people on Wiki, but the edition of the magazine I read listed 531 people.  I managed to find a copy of the original PDF, but can't read the font and I'm not sure who the extra 3 people are.  Anyone with better eyesight is welcome to look.) PDF Here

Every day, more than 300m photos are uploaded to Facebook, and 526m people log in. (This is up 41% from a year ago, and in case you think it's a good thing, you'd better read tomorrow's factlet.)

According to ZDNet, 51 per cent of website traffic is through automated software programs, often with      malicious activity in mind. (The breakdown of an average site’s traffic is as follows: - 5% = hacking tools looking for an unpatched or new vulnerability within a site. - 5% = scrapers. - 2% = automated comment spammers. - 19% = “spies” collating competitive intelligence. - 20% = search engines (non-human traffic but benign). - 49% = real people who are actually browsing the Internet. Maybe I should cut my visitor logs in half.) Source

According to figures from Samsung, 2.5 billion people around the globe have a digital camera. (Given that there are 7 billion of us on the planet, there's plenty of room for growth.)

According to research by leading psychologist and paranormal investigator Professor Richard Wiseman, more than 11 million people in the UK claim to have had an experience with a ghost. (That's 25% of Brits! In the 1950s, the figure was just 7 per cent, rising to 14 per cent in the 1990s and 19 per cent in 2003. "Who ya gonna call?")

According to the Independent on Sunday, attractive people are, on average, less selfish than moderately attractive people. (Have I mentioned how incredibly generous I am?)

Tony Blair smoked his last cigarette 15 minutes before he got married. (No wonder he's pushed a ban through.)

Boris Yeltsin lost a thumb and index finger on his left hand while playing with a hand grenade as a child. (Luckily my mum was only worried about me playing with matches.)

According to a report in the Times, most of the large-scale vandalism on the rail network is caused by only 200 people. (I guess they must get around a bit. Probably letting the train take the strain.)

According to the National Phobics Society , four million people in the UK have phobias about toilets. (There are different words to describe this kind of phobia: Shy Bladder, Paruresis, Parcopresis. It must make daily life very awkward, although if you have used a public toilet in the UK you can understand people's alarm and as for France - well I'll admit it, I'm very afraid of French public loos - I can't go if it's one of those elephant's feet thingies. And let's face it, in America they have a phobia about the word toilet.)