Calm Advent Calendar


November 27,2007

November 2007

UK Useless Facts

  • 95% of £5 notes have been in contact with cocaine.
  • If you buy a lottery ticket at 7pm on Saturday, you are more likely to die in the hour before the draw than you are to win.
  • No word in the English language rhymes with the word unicorn.
  • The easiest way to become a millionaire is to convert £4 sterling into Turkish Lire.
  • The Guiness Book of Records lists 'The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick' as the hardset tongue twister.
  • The most dangerous part of a plane journey from the UK to Australia is the drive to the airport.
  • An average of four people a year in Britain are killed by writing instruments.
  • Three serious accidents a year in Britain can be attributed to pencil sharpeners.
  • Last year, 43 British adults died in their bathtubs.
  • 27 million porn mags are sold in the UK each year.
  • Britons eat on average 2.2 curries a week - spending £2.8 billion every year.
  • Lambeth council in south London owes £850 million (as of 1999) - this is more than the national debt of Guatemala.
  • During December 1998, Barclays Bank's cash machines in the UK dispensed a total of £1.24 billion in notes.
  • The average British motorist is overcharged by 50p a year for their petrol due to faulty pumps.
  • Accidents in the UK home for 1996: 343 injured putting on their socks; 112 hurt reading a newspaper; 41 hospitalised by marbles; 34 hurt by cardboard; 12 hosipitalised by paperclips; 11 accidents involving bathroom scales; 6 hurt using talcom powder; 2 hurt by tea cosys.
  • In 1870, British boxing champ Jim Mace and an American challenger fought for almost 4 hours without landing a single punch!
  • On 3rd March 1991, the Queen needed 3 stitches in one of her fingers after she tried to break up a fight between two of her corgies.
  • During World War 2, the British Minister of food considered a plan to feed the population with black pudding - secretly made from surplus human blood bank donations. The idea was thankfully rejected.
  • In the last 10 years, 8 people in Britain have been killed by cows.
  • During the 1978 fireman strike an army unit rescued an old lady's cat from a tree and then run over it as they drove away.
  • 50% of male Internet users in Britain have viewed pornography on the Internet.
  • On average, in the UK per year:
  • 488 people are injured by zips;
    3,078 people are injured by slippers;
    315 people are injured by photo frames;
    and 70,000 are injured by dogs.

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