From various sources I have found the number of words estimated to have been used and/or understood by the following:
William Shakespeare 31,534 (actually counted)
Winston Churchill 40,000 (educated guess)
Graduate 5,000
Non-graduate 1,000 (my estimate, discuss)
Koko the Gorilla 1,000 (sign language)
A Dog 250
Some of these may be arguable, but how many words do you think the following use?
A Blogger
A Twitter user
During a truce at Christmas in World War 1 there was an impromptu football match between the lines of trenches.
Now, a German soldier who played has admitted in his memoirs that he may have handled the ball before scoring.
This wasn't investigated at the War Crimes Tribunal. However there was a replay at Wembley in 1966.
Score England 4 Germany 2........
(although one of England's goals may not have crossed the line)
I've mentioned 'Twitter" before here and did not have much response; nor did I with Twitter initially. Everyone thinks it merely records minutiae about what the Twitterers had for breakfast etc.
I then posted a "Tweet" which complained about our local Councillors, basically not doing their jobs and was rewarded by a higher ranking and infinitely more active Councillor offering to help. This he did quite excellently.
Then I was asked to compile a list of local community newspapers. I do some voluntary work for one of these, the Evington Echo (www.evingtonecho.co.uk).
I mentioned this in a "Tweet" and again, very quickly, the News Editor of our Main Provincial Newspaper, the Leicester Mercury, contacted me. He was interested in investigating how the two papers might combine resources to some degree.
This may or may not lead to bigger things, but I was impressed with the immediacy and effectiveness of Twitter.
Great Britain is divided into Counties. Some large one have administrative Capital Cities which may surprise. For example the County of Lancashire, contains cities such as Manchester and Liverpool yet it's capital is... Preston.
Similarly, in the United States of America, large States have capitals which are not the obvious. The Cpaital of California is not Los Angeles nor San Fransisco, but Sacramento.
The following are the Capital of the States of America, you may be surprised.
Alabama : Montgomery
Alaska: Juneau
Arizona: Phoenix
Arkansas: Phoenix
California: Sacramento
Colorado: Denver
Connecticut:Hartford
Delaware: Dover
Florida: Tallahassee
Georgia: Atlanta
Hawaii: Honolulu
Idaho: Boise
Illinois: Springfield
Indiana: Indianapolis
Iowa: Des Moines
Kansas: Topeka
Kentucky: Frankfort
Louisiana: Baton Rouge
Maine: Augusta
Maryland: Annapolis
Massachusetts: Boston
Michigan: Lansing
Minnesota: St Paul
Mississippi: Jackson
Missouri: Jefferson City
Montana: Helena
Nebraska: Lincoln
Nevada: Carson City
New Hampshire: Concord
New Jersey: Trenton
New Mexico: Santa Fe
New York: Albany
North Carolina: Raleigh
North Dakota: Bismark
Ohio: Columbus
Oklahoma: Oklahoma City
Oregon: Salem
Pennsylvania: Harrisburg
Rhode Island: Providence
South Carolina: Columbia
South Dakota: Pierre
Tennessee: Nashville
Texas: Austin
Utah: Salt Lake City
Vermont: Montpelier
Virginia: Richmond
Washington: Olympia
West Virginia: Charleston
Wisconsin: Madison
Wyoming: Cheyenne
Recently I've discovered Twitter. I've known of it's existence for a year or so but it's somehow passed me by.
I suppose I'm a Newbie in Blogging terms but have gained a great deal of pleasure from blogging and all the bloggers. I decided to see if Twitter provided something similar.
So, I've been Twittering for a couple of weeks.
Thoughts so far:
As a Twitter post (a Tweet) is limited to a maximum of 140 characters there are advantages and disadvantages.
It's quick to post a Tweet and it can be done several times per day if necessary. This allows a quick response to be made to other Tweets that may be of interest. It is also less time consuming. A Tweet takes a minute or so whilst a blog post takes me 30 minutes at least.
One doesn't need many literary skills to Tweet and by necessity much of it is abbreviations or code.
Many organisations and celebrities use Twitter, the BBC, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, 10 Downing Street as examples (I'm sure there are other less "establishment" organisations too). Tweet-active people include Stephen Fry, Demi Moore, Suzi Perry and amny others.
I'd very much like to hear your comments as you are bloggers (and maybe Twitterers).
Later, I'll probably post this as a link in a Tweet.
My Twitter is http://twitter.com/SaintSteven
During the Second World War, 12,000 members of the 82nd US Airborne Division were billieted Leicestershire. Many lived in a tented village in Evington, Leicester prior to D-Day.
A fifteen-strong group of former members of the Division visited Evington as part of a tour commemorating the 65th anniversary of D-Day and continued onto Quorn where some of them were also based.
The visitors were all in their 80s but still managed to make a long journey to see their bases.
A local man, Deryk Wills, who is 81, is an honorary member of the regiment and he helped organise the tour.
They paid a visit to St. Denys Church, Evington, and saw the American Flag that they left as a gift 65 years ago. It still hangs in the church, togther with a White Ensign which was on a British landing craft during the invasion.
In 1944 they also donated money so that the church could have an extention built.
Howard Comstock, 84, from St Louis, said: "I was with the 504th, staying in Shady Lane and it was rough.
"But there were girls hanging around everywhere and we drank the pubs dry.
"Things have changed a lot, but it's great to be back and see everything."
I met a local man who was a crew member in the very last raid on Germany in the war. He flew Halfax bombers from Pilkington in Yorkshire.
The EU Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union, rather than German which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a
5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".
In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.
The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.
Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.
By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".
During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.
Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.
As an ex-microbiologist who did a little genetics: I wonder of the swine flu virus combined with the bird flu virus:
Pigs Might Fly:??:
Dick and Sally Sutton invited Dave and Margaret Thompson and Chris and myself to their new bungalow in Costock, Nottinghamshire for the weekend.
This was a mini-version of a reunion of some of the people who holidayed together 42 years ago. We have regular reunions, in fact there have been as many as TWO since 1967
One notable non-attendee was John Bricher (and Helen) who made some lame excuse for not joining us. Can't remember exactly what the excuse was but Chris and I made an effort and travelled all the way from Leicester which is 20 miles away and Dave and Marg were heroes for driving 200 miles. (For those not privy to the details, John and Helen live in Adelaide, Australia).
We had lunch in the excellent local pub, the 'Generous Briton' . The lunch was notable for the violent dispensation of diet coke.... I'm saying no more......
An excellent grand buffet in the evening was accompanied by much conversation.
Dick's Laptop wouldn't connect wirelessly
Ater many hours and no sleep 
Saturday
Someone threw a jam butty at Mike ... I'm not saying whom
It was showery and windy but we braved the elements and looked around the Trent Lock River Trent / Canals junction.
We then went to Trent Lock Golf Club, had a few drinks and then hit 100 balls with various degrees of success.
Mike missed a crucial turn torwards Costock and was somewhat late in arriving at Sally & Dick's.
(Whilst all the above was occurring, Leicester Tigers were winning the Cup, by beating London Irish by 10-9)
On Saturday evening, we went to an Indian Restaurant in Keyworth. There was a vast amount of food, sometimes not the same as expected. For example the Begam Behar was like a Tandoori Chicken Masala and Sally's chicken Pasanda was a very tomoto based dish, unlike any Pasanda we have ever seen or tasted.
After post-prandial drinks back at Sally & Dick's we retired to (bunk) beds.
Chris and I had to leave early because Mike had arranged to take Keith Kenyon to Mallory Park to see motorcycle racing.
Before we arrived home, Maggie 'phoned to say that Keith had been and was unwell and wouldn't be able to go to Mallory.
All-in-all an excellent weekend, the only missing bits were John and Helen.
John did email and offer to buy his round!
Is it legal for a man in Belgium to marry his widow's sister? *
In The Times 5.5.09 and from Einstein's Riddles, Paradoxes, and Conundrums to Stretch your Mind, by Jeremy Stragroom, Bloomsbury.
As there are more cases of "human" influenza than there are of "Swine" flu, shouldn't pigs be worried that they might catch our version
At the Sunderland v Everton match the published attendence was over 41,000. At the end there were "half that number"*, many of whom were Everton fans.
People were seen leaving the stands with 20 minutes remaining.
Sunderland were losing, but only by 2 goals to nil.
Surely a team in the position Sunderland are in this season, need all the support they can get. Players must respond to the attitude of the crowd. To see so-called supporters deserting them can do little good and may be detrimental to the prospects for next season.
I initially thought I might receive some adverse comments to this blog from Sunderland fans, but they probably stopped reading this some time ago and went to bed, or the pub!
* Quoted by the Sky TV commentator
Numbers of deaths from Swine Flu in Mexico have been reduced!
What did the victims die from then?
There is an opportunity here for a second pandemic.
Also an opportunity for more media hype.
I'll be accused of being cynical, but I am sympathetic to those who have died and their families, People do die from influenza and there are outbreaks of influenza.
On April 29th 2009, President Sarkozy of France announced a plan to expand Greater Paris all the way to the English Channel *. It involves a corridor from Paris to Le Havre followng the River Seine with a fast rail link.
I'm somewhat surprised and alarmed.
What would a Frenchman want to expand northwards (OK strictly north-westwards)?
There must be an ulterior motive: invasion perhaps ?
Should us Brits block the Channel tunnel's exit from France, leaving the entrance to France open?
What do you think?
* Reported in the Daily Telegraph April 30th 2009
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/2080999/Nicolas-Sarkozy-plans-for-Grand-Paris.html
A recent survey* suggests that the average Briton only has 3 true friends that he can rely on.
I checked my contacts list it has 430 entries, both telephone numbers and email addresses. 
There are only 4 people who are true friends, there is another but she's not in the contact list.
How many true friends do you have?
* OnePoll.com
People are being advised not to go to Mexico because of the Swine flu outbreak.
However, millions of people travel to many countries that have endemic malaria and millions die from that disease. Why is travel to those countries not banned or at least discouraged.
OK, there are anti-malarial drugs, but patently they are not 100% effective or are not taken properly or there wouldn't be so many cases.
Hopefully the current swine fever outbreak will not be severe and I am puzzled that presently,deaths have occurred only in Mexico. Why should that be
The UK Government ordered a cull of 5 million animals when foot and mouth disease OF ANIMALS was confirmed in 2007.
What will they do now. Kill pigs, wild boar, cows and sheep who come into contact with swine?
Then foxes, (over-turn the fox huntng ban)?
Then cats that roam the country, then dogs who reside at home with cats?
Then us?
Starting where?
In Scotland where two cases have ben reported?. No there are too many Scots in important positions ......
A Pandemic Far Worse Than “Swine Fever” in Crusader.blog.co.uk
In a past life I was a microbiologist, but haven't verified the first of the following (actually only one of them!):
It takes your food seven seconds to get from your mouth to your stomach.
One human hair can support 3 kg (6.6 lb).
The average man's penis is three times the length of his thumb.
Human thighbones are stronger than concrete.
A woman's heart beats faster than a man's.
Women blink twice as often as men.
The average person's skin weighs twice as much as the brain.
Your body uses 300 muscles to balance itself when you are standing still.
If saliva cannot dissolve something, you cannot taste it.
Women reading this will be finished now.
Men are still busy checking their thumbs.
We've decided to emigrate!
Two main reasons:
So, we're off tomorrow, Sunday April 19th.
Mike
PS: It is only temporary; Chris is emigrating again on April 30th, to Paxos in Greece; I don't really know why, they don't specialise in gin and the snow there is crappy too!
PPS. Mike is applying to be an immigrant to the UK before he emigrates. There are lots of reasons:
First: Where would we go to?
France is the nearest, but the last few times he's been there this year it's been expensive, and full of English people. If you get away from the English people you have the problem of the French!
There's always Germany, but as Mike hasn't forgiven them for bombing our fish and chip shop in 1944, I can hardly go there, so it's stay in the UK. because he would like to:
So, after all the emigration might be temporary, but don't drink the gin yet, we'll be there while it lasts.
