Interesting Facts

Interesting Fact # 1268 - Crime

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:17:25 PST

An MP's report by the Home Affairs Select Committee, says that one in every 1,300 crimes solved by police is due to the UK's DNA database.

(That's a mere 0.3%. People who watch TV shows like Crimewatch, Waking the Dead and Cold Case, will be very disappointed.)

Interesting Fact # 1267 - Women in the Media

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:16:56 PST

On British TV, women are outnumbered by men two to one.

(A study carried out for International Women's Day, found that more than three-quarters of contributors to news programmes were men, but soaps were more equal, women occupy 50% of the roles. I've always known that soaps are more accurate than the news. If you want to know what's really happening in the world watch Coronation Street or EastEnders.)

Source: BBC News

Interesting Fact # 1266 - Chilean Earthquake

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:57:06 PST

According to geophysicists at the US Geological Survey (USGS) in Colorado, Chile could be feeling aftershocks from the devastating 8.8-magnitude earthquake for months and possibly years to come.

(There have already been more than 200 aftershocks since the monster quake struck on Feb 28th.)

Interesting Fact # 1265 - English Schools

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:37:41 PST

According to the Department for Children, Schools and Families, there are 793,000 empty places in England's schools.

(There are 3.4 million secondary school places, 310,000 of which are unfilled, and out of a total of 4.2 million primary school places, there are 483,000 surplus places. That's a lot of kids!)

Interesting Place # 131 - Finland

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:29:04 PST

In Finland there are two classes of driving licence. An A class licence and a B class licence.

(To get a B class licence you need 30 hours of instructed driving, which has to include a session on a skid pan. I guess this must be because you often have to drive in icy conditions. I doubt I would have passed my test first time if I'd had to do any skid pan training.

Seemingly the B license is issued for two years. During this time, the newly qualified driver may receive a maximum of two traffic fines in total. If the number of fines is exceeded, the license is revoked and the driver is required to re-take the exam. Even with one fine, the interim period may be extended for a maximum of two years. During the interim period, the new driver must pass a short refresher course, which includes another skid pan course, and they have to take part in dark time driving training, but Finnish lighting conditions prevent the dark time training during summer. You can't fight nature.)

Interesting Fact # 1264 - Money

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:39:55 PST

According to the Financial Times £2.5bn gross (£1.5bn net)will be raised by the super-tax on bank bonuses in the UK.

(Of course bankers are furious at the 50 per cent super-tax. The first £25,000 of bonuses is exempt, so a lot of banks have reduced bonuses to this amount, with the "understanding" that employees will be "seen all right" later, when this annoying tax is out of the way. Personally I think the tax should stay in place until every penny of taxpayer's money that was used to bail out the banks has been paid back.)

Interesting Fact # 1263 - Noses

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:26:00 PST

A study at the University of Bath has identified 6 kinds of noses: Roman / Greek / Nubian / hawk / snub and turned-up.

(They scanned the noses in 3D and characterised them by tip, ridge profile and the nasion (area between the eyes). They have said that nose profiling could be useful for identification in covert surveillance. Follow that nose!)

Interesting Animal # 114 - The Swift

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:31:22 PST

The bird, the common swift (apus apus) has been recorded flying at a speed of 69.3mph (111.6km/h).

(This wasn't just swooping and stooping, seemingly it flies at this speed horizontally and upwards. The record speeds were measured during bouts of mating, which are called "screaming parties". Hmm I've been to a few of those.)

Interesting Fact # 1262 - Sport

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:36:08 PST

The Scottish football team's manager, Craig Levein, has banned the Scottish team from drinking alcohol while they are on international duty.

(It all stems from Scotland's failure to qualify for the 2010 World Cup, and of course wasn't helped by former captain Barry Ferguson and Rangers keeper Allan McGregor being banned from international duty following an all-night drinking session between two World Cup qualifiers. The team reckons they won't have a problem complying with this new rule, but only time will tell.)

Interesting Place # 130 - Nepal

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:52:46 PST

Each year in Nepal the youths in two villages in the south of the Himalayan country, Parsawa and Laxmipur, save up their choicest insults for a 10-day "cursing festival" that reaches its climax today.

(The insults range from, "Monkey face", "I hope your sons are as ugly as frogs," to more culturally relevant insults like, "I hope your buffaloes die of diarrhoea". They should be fine, as long as they don't post their insults on Facebook.)

Interesting Animal # 113 - Hippo vs Lion

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:32:14 PST

In Africa, humans are more likely to be killed by the vegetarian hippopotamus than the meat-eating lion.

(Hippos weigh up to 8000 pounds and can gallop at 18 m.p.h. A healthy adult lion weighs around 550 lbs, but they can run at 50 mph. A hippo's canines measure up to 20 inches long, a lion's 3.1 inches.)

Interesting Word # 98 - Pigtails

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:09:09 PST

Pigtails used to be known as queues.

(Pigtail meaning a "braid of hair" is from around 1753, when it was a fashion among soldiers and sailors to wear their hair tied behind their heads. Queue used to mean a braid of hair too, and only started to mean "stand in a line" from around 1927.)

Interesting Place # 129 - Indonesia

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:55:35 PST

In Indonesia, seemingly it's against the law to insult someone on Facebook.

(A student, who shall remain nameless, referred to his marching band mentor as a "scoundrel" and "very greedy". He's ended up with a suspended six-month jail sentence - that's the student, not the greedy scoundrel. Just imagine if this law became popular in the UK or the US. Personally I think the student needed to be a bit wittier, and slightly more up to date. I like to read witty insults.)

Interesting Animal # 112 - Dogs

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:50:31 PST

According to research from the University of California, small dogs may all originate from the Middle East.

(Seemingly a gene, IGF1, which is found in small dogs, is closely related to one found in Middle Eastern wolves. See, there's a bit of wolf in your chihuahua too.)

Interesting Fact # 1261 - The Internet in China

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:38:24 PST

If you want to set up a website in China, you will have to submit identity cards and a photo of yourself, as well as meet regulators, before your domain name can be registered.

(In some ways it's similar in Germany, you can't register a .de domain unless you have a German bank account. That said, I guess I won't be setting up learnenglish.cn any time soon.)

Interesting Word # 97 - Haptephobia

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 02:41:51 PST

Haptephobia is the fear of being touched.

(It comes from the Greek 'haphe' which means 'touch'. With the rise of hugging as a greeting it's becoming more obvious who suffers from this particular phobia. Group hug anyone?)

If you want to discuss hugging, kissing, shaking hands and other ways of greeting people, join the forum.

Interesting Place # 129 - Australia

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 06:02:50 PST

Australia's wine exports amount to some 2.8 billion Australian dollars each year.

(Their main markets are the United States and Britain. Hic!)

Interesting Fact # 1260 - Wine - Podcast

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:43:28 PST

According to Australian drinks giant Foster's, one quarter of Australia's grape vines need to be pulled up in order to reverse a damaging wine glut which is forcing growers to let their fruit wither on the vine.

(The Winemakers' Federation of Australia says the glut exceeds 100 million cases of wine. My friends and I are doing our best to reduce that.)

Interesting Fact # 1259 - Time

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:01:01 PST

Russia, the world's largest country, currently has 11 time zones.

(The president of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, who seems to be quite a sensible person, has proposed reducing the number, but he hasn't said how. It might make it easier for people to find me on iVisit.)

Interesting Fact # 1258 - Interesting Dates

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:34:42 PST

In the UK the first sell-by dates went onto milk and cream products in the 1950s.

(Marks and Spencer started using them to give people confidence in the products in their chilled cabinets. People were used to finding milk and cream on their doorstep every morning, because it was traditionally delivered by the milkman.)

Source: The BBC

Interesting Animal # 111 - The Mosquito

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:01:01 PST

The name mosquito is Spanish for “little fly”.

(I wonder what Spanish for "annoying little blood sucker" is?)

Interesting Fact # 1257 - The British

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:01:00 PST

According to the Government's Food Standards Agency, your average Brit eats around 8.6g of salt per day.

(This amount is down from the 9.5g per day we noshed in 1990, but the recommended allowance for adults is 6g per day and for children just 2g. No wonder us Brits are so cheerful (see previous post))

Interesting Food # 55 - Salt

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:50:40 PST

According to scientists at the University of Iowa, salt can make you feel happier, but it also creates cravings comparable to drug addiction.

(So that packet of salted crisps is a double edged sword, it will make you feel better, but you might start hanging round street corners for your next fix of the white stuff. Actually the addictive qualities could go some way to explaining the popularity of Marmite.)

Interesting Fact # 1256 - Valentine Fact - Valentine's Day Cards

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:51:51 PST

According to an ICR survey, 81% of women and 64% of men will buy cards this Valentine's Day.

(I won't be among them, I always make mine.)

Interesting Fact # 1255 - Accents

noreply@blogger.com (Your Teacher) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 02:04:24 PST

According to Dr Kathleen Wermke of the University of Wurzburg, French babies cry with an accent.

(They think that babies pick up their parents' accents in the womb: German babies had a Teutonic style, and French babies a Gallic twang. Waah la la!)