Have you ever wondered how our television viewing habits are monitored so they know which are the most popular TV programmes? Is every set fitted with a spy device that registers what we’re watching?

No, basically what happens is that there is a nationwide panel of television-owning private homes that together represent the viewing habits of the 26 million TV households within the UK. Each individual panel home represents about 5,000 of the population. Households on the panel are carefully selected to ensure they are representative of a certain segment of the population (broadcast area, age, income, lifestyle, social status etc.) When the household agrees to join the panel their home has all their television sets, video and DVD recorders electronically monitored by a meter (a small box placed by the TV and connected to it). The box is also connected to a master monitoring meter controlled by BARB – the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Bureau. It’s their job to provide the official statistics.

When a household member is in a room with a TV set switched on, they register their presence by pressing a button allocated to them on the meter handset. When they leaves the room they have to de-register their presence and the metering system monitors all registrations made by each individual for each TV in the house. Viewing data is collected automatically by the meter second-by-second and the channel that is viewed the longest in a minute is attributed to that channel. Only watching at normal speed is counted, so fast forwarding or rewinding isn’t recorded.

What do these households get paid for doing all this registering and de-registering every time they flick on? Nothing – but they are thanked for taking part with a choice of self-selected gift vouchers. Oh, and they get a quarterly Panel Newsletter containing competitions and the opportunity to enter free prize draws.

We’ve probably all experienced goose bumps when we’ve felt cold, fearful or emotional, but what are they for and why do we get them?

The proper term for goose bumps is ‘cutis anserina’ which sounds like a pretty nasty medical condition, but it simply means ‘cutis’ otherwise known as ‘skin’ and ‘anser’ or ‘goose’. Another medical term (and brilliant for quiz nights) is ‘horripilation’ from the Latin ‘horrere’ to stand on end and ‘pilus’ meaning hair.

Goose bumps occur when the miniscule muscles at the base of each hair contract and pull the hair erect, giving the skin the effect of a plucked goose. The response is caused by our body’s subconscious release of the stress hormone adrenaline.

There doesn’t seem to be any worthy purpose for them at all in humans. We do share them with animals and birds though – hedgehogs with their raised spines for example and cats (often accompanied by spitting and an arched back) and dogs (accompanied by excessive salivation and a snarl). In animals, they can be a danger response (remember the fight or flight syndrome) and they have the added benefit of making them look larger and more intimidating. However, horripilation also acts as an insulator by trapping more air between hairs and thus increasing an animal’s body heat.

So to answer the two questions initially posed – What are they for? Absolutely nothing. Why do we get them?  Adrenaline. And one final thing, why ‘goose’ bumps? No-one knows, they could just as easily been called duck bumps or chicken bumps.

This is just one of many subjects that EduCare can make simple. For full details of our range of essential learning programmes visit our website.

It sounds like a new expletive, but fracking, or to call it by its proper name ‘hydraulic fracturing’, is the process by which gas is extracted from rock. It’s in the news at the moment because the government has given the go-ahead to closely monitored fracking activity in Blackpool. Test work was stopped there when it triggered two earthquakes in 2011. But what exactly does fracking entail?

Fracking involves drilling deep below the earth’s surface (vertically or horizontally) and pumping fluid down at a rate that substantially increases the pressure below. This fluid, called ‘fracturing fluid’ is a slurry composed of water, chemicals and a material such as sand to stop the fractures from closing when the fluid injection stops. The pressure that is exerted by the fracturing fluid is so great that it fractures the shale rock around the borehole (drilling tunnel) causing cracks which enable the gas to flow out and be extracted.

It is a controversial technique, although advocates insist it can make a good contribution to the UK’s future energy needs. The Blackpool earthquakes were of magnitudes 2.3 and 1.5 and the government has given permission on the basis of four precautions, one of which is that earthquakes with a magnitude of over 0.5 should trigger an immediate halt to operations.

Its detractors argue that it is not environmentally friendly because of the huge amount of water used in the process. There’s also the opportunity for the gas to leak and contaminate drinking water and cause air pollution, and the wastewater it produces has been reported to contain contaminants which could pollute river systems. A tough one!

Imagine the savings in time, effort and money (not to mention sweeping away the threat of fuel strikes) if we could simply teleport to wherever we needed to be. They did it ages ago in Star Trek and more recently Harry Potter used a portkey to travel – but what are the chances that one day, we really might be able to teleport?

Well apparently scientists have already done it, albeit only with light particles, known as photons. They used a process called ‘quantum entanglement’ – where two photons are entangled together so that they share the same information. This entanglement means that anything that happens to one also happens to the other, no matter what the distance between them. In an experiment scientists managed to transmit information about a change of polarization from photon to photon over a distance of 16 kilometres, almost 10 miles. Because they were entangled, when one photon changed, so did the other. When the original photon is destroyed, you have an exact replica in another location or in other words, a teleported photon.

Sadly the human body contains trillions and trillions of atoms – far too complex to entangle and be absolutely sure that they would be copied in the right order. And the second problematic issue is the ‘killing off’ of the original to achieve true teleportation rather than merely a cloning of the original.

However, the achievement in managing to make photons teleport will have a significant effect on the secure encryption of future communications technologies (no more hacking!) and an ability to dramatically improve the power of our computers – so there is some good news – although not on garage forecourts.

This Sunday at 1.00am precisely, British Summer Time starts and we will all observe the bi-annual ritual of changing our clocks and watches. But why did we start playing with time in the first place?

It’s all down to William Willet, a builder born in 1856. He enjoyed early morning horse rides in Kent and whilst partaking, he often considered what a waste of time it was that people were still asleep in their beds. 1n 1907, he published a pamphlet called ‘The Waste of Daylight’ which outlined plans to get people up earlier by changing the clocks. The government refused to allow it and Willet died a frustrated man in 1915.

Fighting the First World War sharpened the government’s focus and in 1916, just one year after Willet’s death, they re-considered his plans in an effort to save coal. They quickly passed the Summer Time Act 1916 and the first day of British Summer Time (BST) took place on 21st May 1916.

Now transformed into a hero for his jolly good idea, William Willet’s favourite wood, Petts Wood in Kent, was purchased and preserved in his name and there is a memorial in the form of a sundial to him there.

From 1968 – 1971, Britain experimented with keeping the clocks permanently at BST. At the end of the experiment, their findings showed clear benefits, but also definite disadvantages and so they decided to return to the twice yearly clock change.

And that’s roughly where we still are today. Occasionally, someone resurrects the idea of keeping BST, only to find it quashed by those who would be disadvantaged by the change. No doubt, it will rumble on for a long time to come.

Ascot Racecourse has unveiled a new dress code for the Royal Meeting on 19th to 23rd June. It’s certainly formal, but exactly how formal? If you plan to go, you may need between now and June to source your attire. The new dress code has been released in the spirit of being helpful to visitors, as in previous years it was a tad ambiguous which led to embarrassing faux pas.

The headline points are:

For the Royal Enclosure -

Ladies must wear dresses or skirts of modest length, defined as falling just above the knee or longer (this replaces a previous instruction that miniskirts are unsuitable).

Ladies must wear hats. A headpiece worn as an alternative must have a base of 4″ or 10cm or more in diameter (fascinators are not permitted, probably because they can block one’s view of the action).

Gentlemen must wear either black or grey morning dress which must include a waistcoat and tie (no cravats), a black or grey top hat and black shoes.

For the Grandstand Enclosure -

Ladies must wear a hat, headpiece or fascinator at all times and strapless or sheer strap dresses and tops are not permitted. This replaces the previous advice that  hats are not compulsory and ladies should dress in a manner befitting a smart occasion.

Gentlemen must wear a suit and tie at all times.

Last year, there were over 300,000 visitors and over the five days – 58,727 bottles of champagne were consumed and 110,936 glasses of Pimm’s were downed. 2,000 kilos of fresh lobsters were eaten, along with 40,000 strawberry scones and 3,300 punnets of strawberries. Perhaps one should consider an elasticated waist too?

As many of us are looking forward to Spring and considering the need to get our bodies into better shape, spare a thought for the modern pentathlete and the physical peak of bodily perfection and fitness to which they must strive.

 
The word ‘Pentathlon’ derives from the Greek word ‘pente’ meaning five and ‘athlon’ meaning contest – and that’s the clue – there are five different sports in the pentathlon. Today, it’s called the Modern Pentathlon to distinguish it from the ancient one which was based on the skills required to be a good soldier – fencing (fighting), shooting (fighting again), riding (horse skills), running and swimming.

The Modern Pentathlon consists of pistol shooting, fencing, 200 metres freestyle swimming, horse riding and a 3000 metre cross-country run.

This is the 100th year of the Modern Pentathlon and there will be subtle changes at this year’s Summer events. It will start with fencing with electric épees, then a 200 metre swim and then horse riding over a 12-jump course on an unfamiliar horse. The scores from these first 3 events will be amalgamated giving contestants a handicapped start to the next stage.

Then instead of separate shooting and running events, there will be a single combined shooting/running contest. They will need to run 3000 metres overall, interspersed with 3 sets of laser shooting 5 electronic targets. To leave the firing range they have to hit all 5 targets with an unlimited number of shots or after a time of 1 minute 10 seconds. Only then can they run the first of three 1000m legs. So it’s shoot, run, shoot, run, shoot, run and the first over the finishing line of the last 1000m leg wins.  Time for a lie down!

The ‘offside rule’ in football has perplexed many people over the years, but the basics are very simple.

The rule – you can’t score a goal unless there are at least two of the other team’s players between you and the goal when the ball is passed to you.

To be onside, a team mate would need to dribble the ball past all the defenders and then he could take a shot at goal or pass it to you so you could score.  Also, you can’t be offside when you are in your own half of the pitch or when receiving the ball from a corner kick, a goal kick or a throw in.

The first rules of the game were drawn up by the Football Association in 1863 and they are have evolved many times since. The offside rule was invented to stop players from hanging around the goal mouth for the entire game (directly in front of the goal keeper if they wanted to) merely waiting to score. The rule forced more play to the rest of the pitch and players developed more dribbling and passing skills, making for a far more interesting and enjoyable game.

To celebrate a big sporting event this Summer that first took place on Mount Olympus, the Royal Mint has launched a new 50p coin that uses a simple diagram to explain the offside rule. So, if it fits on a 50p coin, it can’t be that difficult!

This is just one of many subjects that EduCare can make simple. For full details of our range of essential learning programmes visit our website.

This new addition to our NSPCC EduCare range of child protection programmes covers the damaging issue of child sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is one of the most damaging forms of child abuse – and disturbingly prevalent. More than 1 in 9 young adults have experienced contact sexual abuse during childhood, so it’s vitally important that your staff are up to date on child sexual abuse as a child protection issue.

NSPCC Child Sexual Abuse is a fully certificated distance learning programme, available in paper and online. It contains facts about child sexual abuse and those who may pose a sexual threat to children. It also provides guidance on how you can create a culture of safety for children within your organisation.

Click here for further information

This new addition to our NSPCC EduCare range of child protection programmes covers the damaging issue of child neglect. Its launch coincides with an important report* that states that neglect corrodes childhoods, robbing the most vulnerable children of hope, happiness and life chances.

Neglect is the most common reason for a child to be the subject of a child protection plan or on a child protection register in the UK. Almost 1 in 10 young adults had been severely neglected by their parents or guardians during childhood, so it’s vitally important that your staff are fully aware of neglect as a child protection issue.

NSPCC Child Neglect is a fully certificated distance learning programme, available in paper and online. It explores the meaning of neglect, the possible causes and the potential effects it can have on children and young people, as well as how you can play your part in safeguarding them.

Find out more

*Review of Child Neglect 2011, Action for Children