Free For All Friday - Awesome Graphs And Stats

As a matter of fact ....

I love data, statistics and graphs. It's a guilty pleasure of mine. For me, it's so cool how fascinating data collected from so many sources can be presented in such a simple and concise manner.

To demonstrate this, I thought I'd share my three interesting graphs I found from Reddit's subreddit 'data is beautiful.' It certainly is ...

1) Percent of Americans, Canadians and British who think issues are morally acceptable

As a British guy living in Canada, I can't help but feel slightly proud of my two homes acceptance of other peoples life choices including contraception, divorce and gay people. It's not as high as I would have liked but it's still on the right side of the margin.

Although the US falls worryingly short at times, it still looks like the majority of people share my views on the majority of the issues, except when it comes to the death penalty. I'm pretty stunned that almost 60% of Americans are pro-death penalty. I'd love to find out the reasons behind why the average American supports this police as I've only ever been brought up with and surrounded by people all over Europe who are firmly against it.

2) Migration Flow In And Out Of London

This one hits close to home. Over the past couple of years I've become increasingly aware of the so called 'Londocentric' industries within the UK. Basically, if you grow up in the UK and want to take your career or passion to the highest level: you have to move to London. Of course, there are exceptions to this and ways of working around it with enough determination, but I for one have seen half a dozen or more friends move to the big smoke in order to further their careers. 

This graphs shows this perfectly. People flood to London from all areas of the country, with just a couple of exceptions: the south coast. I think the red that shows migration out of London pertains to the exodus of pensioners and the elderly moving to the coastal areas of the south-east for their retirement.  

3) Vocabulary vs Age

I sometimes worry that I've hit my linguistic peak. This chart eases that a bit for me. At 23 years old, I should acquire about 6 or 7 thousand more words over the next 20 years of my life. At 43, the graph seems to plateau a bit. I guess once you hit middle age, there are either no more words to learn or just no use for them!

What surprised me about this graph is that by age 13, the average speaker has a vocabulary of 20,000 words. Since then, I've only acquired 5,000 or so more. If you don't believe me, I just used the word 'acquired' twice in as many paragraphs. My own proof for you there.

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If these have sparked your interest in cool data and graphs, there are tonnes more to enjoy over at the 'data is beautiful' sub reddit.

Free For All Friday - Why Are There Different Hair Colours?

As a matter of fact ...

I have light hair. Depending on the light and time of year, it can be anything from bleach blonde to copper red. 

I quite like it, it's a bit interesting. The downside is I struggle to grow facial hair. My dark haired mates can grow a beard the exact length and thickness of mine but theirs looks a lot thicker and fuller. Ups and downs. Hair colour comes in so many varieties and changing it can change a person's whole image.

So why are there different hair colours anyway? Why do they even exist?

The hair spectrum 

It all comes down to peacocking. Not literally of course. Humans have evolved, like many other species, to attract other mates in any way possible. There are many ways to do this but one of the most striking things is an interesting hair colour. 

Red hair , the rarest hair colour, is caused by higher levels of pheomelanins

Some time in our ancestors past, a random mutation would have caused a hair colour in a person. This individual would have attracted more mates than others and passed the gene onto their children; natural selection at work. Ever been attracted to someone with completley contrasting hair and eye colour to you? There you go. Variation is attractive to humans because genetic variation is beneficial to our species. Think about that next time you have a crush on a ginger. 

Blonde hair is caused by lower levels of eumelanins

The science behind this is simple. We all have pigments inside us called eumelanins and pheomelanins. They're often grouped under the term 'Melanin'. The more eumelanins a person produces, the darker their hair and less means lighter hair. Pheomelanins levels are responsible for red hair. If anyone reading this has bright red hair, you probably have more pheomelanins than most people you know combined. 

It's a myth that hair colours are dying out and only dark hair will be left. They work for our species, they're cool and attractive and this genetic mutation turned good will be around for as long as humans are. 

Free For All Friday - Why Don't Women Go Bald?

As a matter of fact ...

I've spent my whole life without knowing why men go bald. For that matter, I don't know why women don't. I've never even thought about this in all my life. Am I the only one who hasn't? 

It's one of those things in life that you just take for granted. Men bald and women don't. Perhaps I never questioned it because it's such a fact of life. 

As ever, I decided to find the answer. Why do women get to keep their luscious locks well into middle age, yet I have male friends who are fighting back the ebbing tide that is their receding hair line?

Guess who's to blame for men balding: testosterone. Yes, that lovable hormone that makes calm men angry and flirty men straight up creepy is to blame for men everywhere losing their head fuzz. 


Testosterone is converted into the hormone 'dihydrotestosterone.' It's got a long name but a short job: it makes men's hair thinner and shorter over time. The build up is slow and there are many variables from man to man including enzyme production and receptors. This can affect the rate and patter of the balding but the result is eventually the same: no more man mane. I'll stop with the weird names for hair now. 

So now to the question you're all bursting to ask: why not women? Why are they off the hair loss hook? Well, as you might expect, women have a much lower level of testosterone. The little amount they do have is always overpowered by their stronger female hormones. This means no balding enzymes are produced; something that women everywhere should rejoice about. 

But it's not an open and shut case! Women, beware of the menopause! During this time, a women's levels of female hormones can drop to such a level that the ever present testosterone in their bodies begins to have an effect. This can cause some levels of balding! 



This will not happen to the same extent as it does in men so don't worry too much. Besides, it's all natural! As for my male readers, there's not much I can say except if we ever lose our mop tops (last one!) then it will suck but hey, at least now we know why it happens! 

Free For All Friday - Canada Is Bloody Massive

As a matter of fact ...

Canada is bloody massive. Back in the UK I think a 2 hour car journey is a long way. In Canada, you can get on a plane for 6 hours and still be in the same country. That is mental. If I get on a plane for 6 hours in the UK I'm not even on the same continent when I get off. So we know Canada is big. But how big really? Here's some facts to help you wrap your head around it ...

The picture above is a NASA image of Canada from space. Sure, it looks big. You can see it stretching from the US east cost in the south-west to Greenland in the north-east. It's the second biggest country in the world by landmass after Russia at 9,984,670 km² - that's 6.7% of the Earth's surface area. It also has the longest coastline in the world. It's even more amazing when you realise that Canada makes up just 0.48% of the world's population. But it's not until you start to compare it to other place that these figures really get put into perspective. Let's make some comparisons using this useful website:




Here is Canada being overlayed onto Europe. You can fit every single European country and its people inside Canada. When you think that at one point, the Roman empire controlled most of Europe and beyond, it makes you wonder why Canada itself shouldn't be called an empire!

Next up: China. It has the most people in the world so it must be big. Not big enough though. Despite having just 2.49% of its population, Canada squares up to and beats China when it comes to landmass.

Here's one for any Americans out there. Although you guys might (wrongly) look at your northern neighbor as somehow lesser than you, there is simply more of it. For a county that likes to go big or go home on everything, the Canadians have out superzied you. Again, although a fraction of the size in population; there is more of Canada from sea to shining sea.

Back to Asia for a last comparison. This is the province of Ontario in Canada over the country of Japan. I know right. Looks to me like you can fit two Japans just in Ontario alone with room to spare. Also just realised that Ontario looks like a beheaded fish. Learn something every day.






I came to Canada for the first time just over a year ago. I flew to British Columbia and traveled around there for a month before coming to Toronto. I've seen a couple of places outside of the city including Niagara falls but I've only scratched the surface. Doing this post made me realise how much is left to see in this country. Luckily, I'm heading into northern Ontario tomorrow to enjoy the wild and sleep beneath the stars. Unless its cold in which case the stars can wait.

I'm determined to save up and see the whole country one day For any Canadians out there, do the same! You've been born into a bloody massive country - get travelling!

Free For All Friday - The Oldest Human Ever

As a matter of fact ...

The oldest person ever to have lived was Jeanne Louise Calment who died in 1997 at the grand old age of 122 years and 164 days.

Although others have claimed to be much older, including this Ethiopian man who claims to be 160 years old, Jeanne Calment had the only claim that can be officially verified by a birth certificate. 

The picture to the right was taken in 1915 when Jeanne was 40 years old. What is amazing to think is that this was a full 3 years after the Titanic sank. Jeanne died in 1997; the year that the famous movie 'Titanic' was released. She was well into adulthood when the Titanic sank and lived to see the movie be released!

She was born before the telephone and died after the first Harry Potter book was released. This incredible lifespan has not been beaten in the 17 years since her death. Jeanne Calment's only contender is Misao Okawa of Japan. At (only!) 116 years old, we still have a few more years yet to see if Jeanne Calment's incredible record will be beaten!