Miscellaneous -
General Public
Nosepicking,
burping and passing wind in public are rife among
the population, according to a survey. More than
a third of 6,000 people say they pick their nose
more than five times a day while 34% say they eat
what they excavated. And 34% say they have no
shame in burping loudly in public or passing wind
indiscreetly (29%).
The survey was conducted as part of an exhibition
entitled Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of
the Human Body, at the Science Museum in London.
A spokeswoman for the museum said, "Overall,
we are all pretty gross. But it was a fun survey
and I don't think anybody should take it too
seriously. The people who responded to the survey
were being very open and really we should never
be embarrassed about our bodies."
According to the results, Northern Ireland can
claim the grossest nosepickers in the UK with 44%
confessing to digging around more than five times
a day. They also topped the league for belching
the most in public (44%) and passing wind (34%).
People in Wales came top (61%) for a willingness
to transfer the blame for their smells on to
others. Men from Essex came top of the lewd
league with 49% admitting they burped noisily in
public and 48% passed wind blatantly in public.
A
survey of garage owners covering motorists'
bizarre and stupid habits revealed the following:
An overweight couple who wrecked their Mini's
suspension by constantly having sex. One dealer
told how the owner of a VW Golf left the car
infested with maggots after a fishing trip before
trying to sell it. Another said a driver had
wrecked a high-performance Audi TT by using it to
tow a boat, leaving it with belt failure and
rotting ignition wires. Further examples include
a woman Rover owner who stuck pictures of Cliff
Richard on her car windows using superglue and
the owner of a Fiat Uno which was covered in
dents after his children jumped up and down on
the roof.
The most common, mentioned by 64% of dealers,
were those who lose up to a quarter of the value
of their car by leaving it full of rubbish,
smells and stains. 45% run the car with flat
tyres, followed by 41% who fail to use the right
fuel and 39% who drive carelessly off the beaten
track. 25% constantly strain their engines, while
22% respray their vehicles with the wrong paint
and 18% sit on the clutch. Finally, 12% use posh
cars to shift heavy loads, 11% slam doors closed,
making them difficult to open and 9% fit
oversized tyres and wheels on tiny cars.
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