More chit chat fodder

As the days get warmer and the nights get shorter, the glow of the monitor fails to keep my attention. In the meantime, here's some more interesting facts, courtesy of my former customs broker, because knowing is half the battle:

In Britain, surfing the Internet is now more popular than TV. On average, adults in Britain spend more time online, 41.5 days a year, than in front of the TV. Government figures show they now spend just 37.5 days a year watching television. Londoners spend the most time on line, 183 minutes a day, but it is the high-tech Scotland that is second with an average of 181 minutes each day.

Japan is revising a century-old law because of its people's honesty which has overwhelmed the police by swamping them with lost property. Over 10 million items were handed in to police in 2004. The figure, more than double that of 1964, reflects the law-abiding, yet forgetful nature of the Japanese. Unclaimed items become the property of the finder.

Turkey is the third-largest exporter of underwear in the world. Revenue from the industry, which employs close to one million Turks, reached US$4-billion in 2004 giving Turkey eight per cent of the world market for bras, panties and bathing suits, behind China and Hong Kong. Turkey's textile industry owes its success to good quality, low production costs, technology and proximity to Europe.

Recently, fishermen off the coast of Japan have often been pulling in giant jellyfish which can be over a metre across and weigh 150 kilos. Their arrival has been a disaster for many fishing communities, breaking nets and gear, crushing the fish catch or spoiling it with poisonous tentacles. The jellyfish spawn along the coast of the East China Sea and drift towards Japan.

At least one new disease is jumping the species barrier from animals to humans each year, exposing people to emerging germs at an unprecedented rate. The first work to catalogue the range of germs capable of infecting people has disclosed that 38 new human pathogens have emerged in the last 25 years of which three-quarters originated as animal diseases.

The European Court of Justice has ended a thirteen year dispute ruling that the name "feta" must be used only for white cheese soaked in brine and made in Greece. This was done under the same legislation that ensures champagne comes from Champagne, France and Parma ham must come from Parma, Italy. The ruling has caused chaos in the European feta industry. There are large-scale feta manufacturers in Denmark, Germany and France.

Japanese auto maker Mazda says it will pay employees who walk to the office, rather than commute by car, as part of an effort to improve their health and protect the environment. All the company's 20,000 workers at domestic plants are eligible.