How to deal with a troll
In Scandinavian mythology, trolls were shady creatures who lived below ground and varied in size from giants (in Iceland) to dwarfs (in Sweden). They snatched infants and replaced them with baby trolls, or ‘changelings’, in an attempt to improve their breeding stock. They could, however, be tackled:
— By leaving a knife on a baby’s cradle, the trolls being frightened of iron.
— By ringing church bells constantly.
— By baptising infants quickly, as trolls will not snatch those already christened.
— By exposing them to sunlight.
Hello, strangers
Which European capitals have the highest and lowest percentages of foreigners in their populations?
Luxembourg | 65% |
Brussels | 34% |
Zurich | 31% |
Riga | 26% |
London | 22% |
Warsaw | 0.6% |
Sofia | 1% |
Vilnius | 1.4% |
Bratislava | 3.1% |
Budapest | 3.3% |
Source: Eurostat
Catching your death
The World Health Organisation says the current Ebola outbreak has had a mortality rate of 70 per cent. Some worse diseases to catch, by mortality rate:
Haemorrhagic smallpox | c.100% |
Primary amoebic meningoencephalitis | 95% |
Lujo haemorrhagic fever | 80% |
Inhalation smallpox | 75% |
The long run
Formula 1 driver Jules Bianchi was seriously injured in the Japanese Grand Prix, but it is over 20 years since a driver (Ayrton Senna) died in a race. Is Formula 1 now safer than driving on the roads?
— In 2011, there was one death among car occupants for every 250 million vehicle miles driven on British roads.
— Formula 1 races are just over 190 miles in length. Races have had between 22 and 26 drivers over the past 20 years and the number of races has averaged 19 per season. So in 20 years Formula 1 drivers have raced for about 1.73 million miles.
— Therefore, Formula 1 would have to go another 143 periods of 20 years — i.e. 2,860 years — without a fatality before you could call it safer than British roads.
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