BITS ‘N’ PIECES

* The world’s oldest wooden wheel has been around for more than 5,000 years

It was found in 2002, approximately 12 miles south of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, and is now housed in the city’s museum. Radiocarbon dating was used to determine the wheel’s age, which is somewhere between 5,100 and 5,350 years old.

* The Philippines consists of 7,641 islands

The Philippines is an archipelago, which means it’s made up of a group of islands —7,641 islands, to be exact. That figure does not include the thousands of sandbars and other landforms that emerge during low tide.

* Japan has one vending machine for every 40 people

Japan is thought to have one of the highest densities of vending machines in the world, with one for every 40 people in the country. While most sell various types of beverages, others feature ice cream, noodles, and disposable cameras.

* Scotland has 421 words for snow

Yes, 421! Some examples: sneesl (to start raining or snowing); feefle (to swirl); and flinkdrinkin (a light snow).

* The longest English word is 189,819 letters long

We won’t spell it out here, but the full name for the protein nicknamed titin would take three and a half hours to say out loud. According to international guidelines, a protein’s technical title lists every single amino acid found inside it. Even the smallest proteins contain no fewer than 20 amino acids, making for some pretty long names in their own right; titin, however, is the human body’s largest protein that helps keep our muscles elastic. Total amino acid count: 34,350. Spell out each of those acid names in a row and you get, well, a really long word.

* No number before 1,000 contains the letter A

But there are plenty of E’s, I’s, O’s, U’s, and Y’s.

Parents struggle to keep up with children’s career options

Research has found that more than two-thirds of parents of 11- to 18-year-olds in England are lost in a “job fog”, feeling overwhelmed as their children express interest in careers they know nothing about. The situation isn’t helped by the number of new career and education options available to young people. More than 75 percent of parents felt that giving relevant career advice to their children was almost impossible in such a fast-changing jobs market.

For example, there are loads of young people who want to be streamers, and the parents are like: “How is that a real job when all they do is play computer games all day? How are they going to make a living out of that?” The parent doesn’t realise that the child actually can not only make a lot of money from doing exactly that – but go on to gain the attention of a big gaming company and then be employed by them. The world of work has changed and it’s taking parents time to realise that.

Children in primary school today will one day take on careers that don’t yet exist, and each child won’t have just one career but lots of different careers. This means that parents should be encouraging their children to learn a wide mixture of art, science, computing and coding, so that they can find or create their own niches. Parent can’t possibly teach a child what their niche is in such a fast-moving world; it’s something the young person has to discover themselves.