News Round Up
by Patrick O'Connor
IF you love surfing the net don't go and live in Erw Fawr, Henryd, Wales or Weatley Road in Stanford-Le-Hope, in Essex.
The Mirror says that both streets have come out top in a survey of the slowest broadband in the UK. They have average download speeds of just 0.6 megabytes per second, 30 times slower than the national average.
You may need to use the Internet if you want to pursue your favourite hobby.
The Mail says that a poll of 2,000 British adults revealed that more than half of our favourite pastimes now involve the Internet.
Facebooking, tweeting, online gaming, bargain-hunting and internet dating have overtaken traditional hobbies such as stamp collection and trainspotting..
The survey showed that computer gaming, online shopping, social networking and 'technology' are all in the top 10.
It was carried out for content and listings aggregation app CircleMe and a spokesman said: “Hobbies have changed drastically over the last 20 or so years. Whereas years ago people considered a hobby something they would do at evenings and weekends now everyday tasks such as social networking, online shopping and internet dating are viewed as hobbies and pastimes.”
Help!! When it comes to sorting out a computer problem, a baffling smartphone or how to download, two out of five parents turn to the their kids for help, says a survey carried out for technology website Crucial.com and reported in the Daily Mail.
Nearly two-thirds of parents admit their children know more than they do about modern technology, with around a tenth feeling embarrassed when they have to ask for help.
Twenty six year old James Robinson, from Milfield, West Yorkshire, has been described by the Daily Mail as possibly the worst game show contestant in Britain.
James has been a regular contestant on numerous game shows since he was 14 but has never won a top prize.
He told the paper: “ I haven’t actually won any money on the shows yet but I put that down to just being unlucky. I have a Pointless trophy and a Countdown goodie bag though.”
James has certainly done his research.
“I used to sit and read an atlas in the library in high school to learn all the flags for the different countries. I’d learn the capital cities and countries, any knowledge that I could possibly use for game shows really.”
A letter believed to be the last one written on the Titanic liner before it sank in 1912 has been sold at an auction in Wiltshire for £119,000.
A story on the BBC website says that the letter was written by survivors Esther Hart and her seven-year-old daughter Eva eight hours before the ship hit an iceberg and sank. Her husband Benjamin died along with more than 1,500 people in the disaster.
The letter only survived because it was his coat pocket which he gave her to keep warm.
Meant for her mother in Chadwell Heath, east London, the letter went under the hammer at a Wiltshire auctioneers.
Mrs Hart wrote to her mother saying that they were enjoying what she called the 'wonderful' journey".
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said “It's the only letter known that was written on Sunday 14 April, so the day the ship hit the iceberg.
“So we can say with absolute certainty that about 12 hours after this letter was written the Titanic was at the bottom of the North Atlantic.”
Reference list:
Daily Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk)
Daily Mirror (www.mirror.co.uk)
BBC (www.bbc.co.uk)