cool stats

Books & bytes

A kids’ lifestyle study in India by Cartoon Network — New Generations™ 2011 — reveals that the pocket money of Indian children has increased 201 per cent in the past 10 years. The study covered 3,759 kids between 7-14 years of age and 1,121 parents of 4-6 year olds from 19 Indian cities. What’s more, apart from accessing Internet to play games, email and listen to or download music, 45 per cent kids go online to search for information and 23 per cent for homework. And surprise, surprise! Girls are more active gamers than boys, albeit marginally. Launched in 1998 in the Asia Pacific region, the study, which began in India in 2001, certifies Calcutta kids as the official bookworms — 72 per cent read storybooks as compared to the national average of 59 per cent. Regarding comic books, the figures stand at 56 per cent versus 42 per cent. So, read on.

Big Meow

Making a record

A WOMAN IN ENGLANd claims that her cat is the loudest purring domestic cat on earth. Ruth Adams is proud of Smokey and has taken the help of the music department of Northampton College to obtain special sound equipment to record the purr, so that she can send the recording to the Guinness World Records. To everybody’s surprise, the purr that 12-year-old Smokey let out during the recording session reached 73 decibels — 16 times louder than the average cat. Thanks to her reputation, Smokey has been busy making media appearances including one on Ukrainian television. Let’s hope she gets the title. After all, nobody else is competing!