Barometer | 31 March 2016

Area of doubt

Hillary Clinton has said that if she is elected she will open files on the US military facility in Nevada known as Area 51. Some rumours which will almost certainly not be confirmed:
— According to a physicist who claims to have worked there, nine captured alien spacecraft have been examined there. Another says that a small band of aliens works there. They are 5ft high, wear dungarees and came from a planet called Quintumnia, 45 years’ travel time away.
— Scientists there are working on a 6,000mph plane called Aurora, a prototype of which has already been flown.
— Workers are suing the USAF after their skin turned red and peeled off.

Bouncy hassle

A girl of seven was killed when the bouncy castle in which she was playing was scooped up by winds in Harlow, Essex. How common are bouncy castle injuries?
— A 2012 study in the journal Pediatrics found that the injury rate in US children had risen from 1.01 per 100,000 in 1995 to 15.2 per 100,000 in 2010.
— In 2010, 31 children every day were treated in hospital.
— 54.6% were boys.
— 27.5% of the injuries were fractures, with 27.3% sprains.
— The most vulnerable age group were six- to 12-year-olds: 54% of the victims.

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Source: ONS

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