Why German men are most likely to sit down on the loo

And other stories from the stranger side of life

A toilet roll
(Image credit: (Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images))

German men are the most likely to sit down while taking a pee, according to am international poll. Researchers found that 62% of German men said they usually or always sat down, compared with 50% of Swedes, 34% of Italians and only 23% of Brits. Generations of German parents “worried about younger boys’ aim” have “long encouraged their offspring to sit down while urinating”, and signs placed in the bathrooms of some bars and cafés recommend it, noted The Times.

Man hides scissors in a risky place

Smashed Cobain guitar sells at auction

A guitar smashed by Kurt Cobain has confounded expectations by selling at auction for nearly $600,000 (£480,000). The broken black Fender Stratocaster had been expected to sell for a tenth of that amount at the auction at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York, said ABC. Although the instrument has been put back together, is no longer playable. The three-day auction also included memorabilia from Eddie Van Halen, Elvis Presley, Freddie Mercury, Bill Wyman and Janet Jackson.

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Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.