Category Archives: Lifestyles

Why is Everyone Dying?

Arts & Humanities, Health, Lifestyles, News & Current Events, Society,

In 2016 there have been a spate of celebrity deaths that actually kicked off just after Christmas of 2015 with Lemmy of Motorhead.

Obviously the big death that shocked everyone initially was David Bowie on 4th January 2016 but then it seems like a lot of high profile people have followed over the past few months.

So why are so many people dying you may ask? Well one theory is that popular culture really started kicking off in the 1950s and 60s and that is when television became much more widespread. By the beginning of the 1960s around 3/4 of the population had a television in their homes and so you could say that celebrity became much more common and accessible at that stage.

This enabled not only TV celebrities but also musicians to gain much more notoriety and in much larger numbers.

So those people who were becoming well known in the 50s and 60s were likely to be born in the 30s and 40s, which would make a lot of them in their 70s right now.

With life expectancy for men being in the 70s it becomes logical for many of the popular figures in the 60s to now be hitting that kind of milestone.

Obviously there are other factors involved too and in particular it seems that a lot of the deaths in 2016 have been from cancer including Bowie, Alan Rickman, Dan Haggerty, Johan Cruyff,  Victoria Wood and Billy Paul, but cancer is a big killer. Currently 44% of the population are expected to get cancer in their lifetime (in the UK) and of those 50% will survive for 10 or more years.

So really we have to think that maybe it is not a case of lots of well known people dying in 2016, but maybe more of the case that there are more well known people around so we are likely to hear about more celebrity deaths in the coming years as the generation that became celebrities in the 60s and beyond become part of the older generation.

It does seem that 2016 has started pretty badly, but overall life expectancy is getting higher each year and women in particular can expect to live until they are around 83 years old in the UK and 81 in the US. Men are a little behind with an average life expectancy of 79 in the UK, 76 in the US.

Life expectancy is rising continually so anyone born now could have a life expectancy in their 90s and by 2050-60, anyone born around that time may be expected to live until 100!

Trump 7/11 Gaffe

Lifestyles, News & Current Events, Society

So a few days ago Donald Trump was making a speech at a campaign rally in Buffalo, New York when he made a terrible gaffe when speaking about the 9/11 disaster and instead referred to 7-Eleven (a chain store of convenience shops).

Instead of calling the event the 9/11 disaster – he called it ‘7-Eleven’ – in fact he said: “I watched our police and our firemen down at 7-Eleven – down at the World Trade Center”.

He didn’t even seem to realize this mistake at the time he made it but no doubt it was pointed out to him very soon afterwards.

However, even so he has yet to apologize for the gaffe, two days later, even after a social media outburst that means there is no way he doesn’t realize the mistake he made.

Trump does seem to be prone to not thinking before he speaks but possibly this is his worst gaffe…yet. We will wait and see what else he has to offer the media.

Check out the video from CNN for the speech that  he made here:

 

Where to Buy a Home Drugs Test

Beauty & Personal Care, Health, Home & Garden, Lifestyles, Shopping, ,

Buying Home Drug Testing Kits

Are you looking to buy a cheap but effective home drugs test? Is the easiest way to get hold of one for you to order it online and get it delivered to your home rather than having to go to a pharmacy?

There are many reasons why you might want to buy a home drug test, perhaps you want to test that your system is clear of drugs after stopping or perhaps you are worried about a family member.

Whatever your reason, if you are looking to buy one that has accurate results and is very simple to perform, then it is very easy to buy a home drug test kit on the internet and perform the test in the comfort of your own home.

These home drug tests can test for a variety of drugs and most of them use a urine test strip that you need to dip into a sample of urine and it will bring up two lines if any of the tests are positive. There are some tests that are combination tests and will test for Illicit drugs such as marijuana or cocaine and there are also tests that check for prescription drugs such as anti-depressants.

These drug tests vary in price but generally you can get a simple home drug test for around $10 or less. You can buy home drug tests in greater quantities if you want to test on an ongoing or regular basis.

It is easy to buy home drug tests online and they are sold by Amazon, among other retailers. There is a good selection of FDA approved products by various manufacturers.

Check out some of the tests shown below that may be suitable for your needs or else click through to be offered a greater selection of tests.

What Are the Chances of Winning the Lottery?

Entertainment, Finance & Insurance, Fun Stuff, Games, General, Lifestyles, Money, Recreation, Society

What are the chances of winning the lottery with 59 balls?

In October 2015 the national lottery in the UK increased the number of balls in the draw from 49 to 59, thus making it much harder to actually win the jackpot.

Previously, choosing 6 numbers from 49 would give you a 1 in 14 million chance of winning the lottery but now with the extra 10 numbers to pick your 6 numbers from, the chances have massively decreased to 1 in 45 million.

This increase in the number of balls and decrease in the chance of winning have been proven with the fact that the jackpot has continued to be an elusive prize that has not been won since the changes were made, contributing to a massive jackpot of £50 million + which could go on for a couple of weeks.

Tonight’s draw (6th January 2016) will be the 14th rollover jackpot – continuous rollovers since the new rules were introduced. This could trigger more people to buy tickets just because of the size of the jackpot which could then mean that more of the number combinations are covered.

The national lottery website says the following about the limit on the size of any rollover jackpot:

The jackpot can only stand at £50 million for two draws. If no one wins in the second draw, the full amount rolls down and is shared between the players in the next winning prize tier.

So it might be worth waiting to see if anyone wins the jackpot this time and if they don’t then there might be a great chance of winning more money with lower odds in the draw where the jackpot will be filtered down if no-one wins. This would be next Saturday 9th January 2016.

If no-one wins the jackpot on Saturday then the chances of winning with 5 numbers and the bonus ball are around 1 in 7.5 million which is almost twice the odds as winning the jackpot before the numbers were expanded to 59!

So if you want to know what are the chances of winning the lottery with 59 balls then I would say much better if you wait until the jackpot has to filter down!

What We Bought in 2015 – According to Mary Portas

Beauty & Personal Care, Clothes and Fashion, Entertainment, Fun Stuff, Health, Home & Garden, Lifestyles, Shopping

The Big Trends of 2015So as one of the end of year TV programmes on Channel 4 in the UK, Mary Portas went on a mission to find the best selling things of 2015. Here is a summary of what she found that we bought the most of in 2015 and also details of where you can buy it all:

 

At the start of the year we all want to lose weight and the massive big seller of 2015 in terms of fitness DVDs was Charlotte’s 3 minute belly blitz.

Next on the list were 2 kitchen aids whose sales went a bit crazy in the first part of the year. One was the nutribullet and the other was the spiralizer. Both were designed to help you to eat more healthily and sales on both were massive.

On the back of the sale of the spiralizers came the bestselling book by vegan blogger Ella Woodward – Deliciously Ella.

In February came the film of the best selling book 50 Shades of Grey. As the DVD is now out, if you haven’t read the book or seen the film then you can watch the DVD.

In 2015, Mary Portas reports, the beard revolution was upon us. According to the program in some cities over 50% of men are now sporting beards. With celebrities endorsing the fashion came the trend for beard products which went a bit crazy, in particular beard oil.

There are a huge number of people selling beard oil on Amazon and jumping on the bandwagon so we have just chosen one option to show you on the right!

70s fashion was the next item on Mary Portas’ best selling list of 2015 but we will leave you to peruse the high street to choose your favourite 70s clothes options which could include flared trousers, A-line skirts and fake fur jackets!

Another massive bestseller which has been popular with friends of SpikyMouse was the adult colouring book. This trend suddenly hit our shelves in 2015 and was taken on by those needing a bit of relaxation in their lives from the craziness of everyday.

One of the best selling adult colouring books was the Animal Kingdom colouring book by Millie Marotta but there are numerous different books available and they are obviously not only available online but also in your local bookshop by the dozen.

Another trend that we have been promoting at SpikyMouse for a few years is coconut water. But sales of this also really took off in 2015 as well as other coconut based products like coconut oil to cook with.

Next in line is another fashion item that has been dubbed ‘athleisurewear’. Having seen the increase in leisure wear over the last decade or so, with whole shops dedicated to clothing that looks like you should be wearing it for playing sport but it really isn’t suitable, comes clothing that is suitable for both sports and leisure.

Quite a few brands of clothing have been sponsored by celebrities particularly in the music industry and many of the items are sold out online before you even have a chance to look at them.

One big seller in this area was leggings which had been elevated to a major fashion item with the addition of bright colours, patterns and stripes. Rita Ora was one person who had her own range of Adidas clothing which sold really well.

A fun trend which hit the shops and took off in major way was the pastel hair dye – another trend that was endorsed by quite a few young celebrities, including Pixie Lott who brought out her own range of pastel hair dyes.

There were some pastel hair dyes that were suitable for pre-lightened or very light blonde hair or there were chalk hair colours that just gave a temporary effect.

So at the end of the year came Star Wars which sent all fans into a major frenzy and thoughout the year Prosecco was our favourite drink.

How many of these trends did you embrace? And what is going to be the next big thing for 2016? We can only guess!