10 Things We Didn't Know This Time Last Week

1. More than 70% of banknotes initially reach the public via cash machines.

2. Tennis Girl doesn't like tennis.

3. YouTube's first video was called "Me at the zoo".

4. Booking fees can be as much as £26.

5. Ian Fleming created Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

6. More than a fifth of the world's population live in the time zone GMT+8.

7. Russell Brand gardens.

8. The baby son of physicist Brian Cox, George, has the middle name Eagle, named after the first spacecraft to land on the moon.

9. More than 90% of schoolchildren study Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck.

10. The first text message ever sent read: "Merry Christmas".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...st_w_177.shtml

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

8. The baby son of physicist Brian Cox, George, has the middle name Eagle, named after the first spacecraft to land on the moon.

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Brilliant!!

1. When Prince Albert - the future George VI of The King's Speech fame - wanted to marry Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (aka the Queen Mum), she only said yes on his third proposal.

2. Their wedding breakfast comprised of dishes named in their honour - a royal tradition continued into the 1980s.

3. The average person only uses 20,000 words, with another 40,000 in reserve.

4. One in six people live in India.

5. Dark birds are healthier.

6. Sleep affects weight.

7. The first Eddie Stobart truck was called Twiggy.

8. The T. rex had a cousin.

9. More than 100,000 Americans lied about their age in the 1970 census.

10. The numbers attending huge street protests are estimated using the size of the streets involved.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...st_w_178.shtml

1. The word "loo" dates from medieval times, derived from the warning shout of "gardez l'eau!" given by those tipping chamber pots out the window.

2. George and Laura Bush are fans of BBC costume drama The House of Eliott (pictured).

3. Actor Tom Wilkinson's real name is Geoffrey.

4. An American aircraft carrier weighs more than 100,000 tonnes.

5. The average UK household spends about 60p a week on stamps.

6. Early cosmonauts were fairly short, as spacecraft were a tight fit for anyone tall.

7. There were gay cavemen.

8. The acronym "lol" is "mdr" in France.

9. Seat belts are banned on some roads.

10. Half of girls aged 15-17 in Liverpool and Sunderland use sunbeds.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...st_w_179.shtml

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

1.
10. Half of girls aged 15-17 in Liverpool and Sunderland use sunbeds.

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Also known as hammocks.

1. Ducks' bills reveal whether they have sexually-transmitted diseases.

2. The average British home had 5.34 rooms.

3. Dogs watch how how nice people are to others to work out who to approach to beg for food.

4. Time travel storylines are officially discouraged in China.

5. The first Dulux dog was called Dash.

6. More girls than boys became scouts in the past year.

7. Some dinosaurs did their hunting at night.

8. The world's smallest ever music instrument is a guitar the size of a single blood cell.

9. There are 8.5 million football-related words in English.

10. Male humpback whales play "Chinese whispers" across 6,000km.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...st_w_180.shtml

1. Planets may have black plants.

2. Chimps give birth like humans.

3. Dinosaurs suffered from toothache.

4. Swearing relieves pain.

5. Cuckoos copy hawks.

6. Supermarkets still give away cardboard boxes for nothing.

7. The world's smallest caravan measures 6ft 7in (2m) by 2ft 6in (75cm) and has a top speed of 5mph.

8. A rare version of God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols is the most valuable record of all time.

9. Spies used to engrave messages on toe-nails.

10. Soap and water can be better than hand gels and wipes at tackling germs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...st_w_181.shtml

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

2. Chimps give birth like humans.

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Screaming and cursing out their husbands?

1. There is a camel-mounted bagpipe band.

2. Transparent typewriters are manufactured for sale to prisons, to avoid the risk of contraband being hidden.

3. City dwelling birds have larger brains than those that live in the countryside.

4. CDs were designed to be 12cm (4.8in) in diameter, because it provided sufficient capacity at 75 minutes to store all of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

5. Bonobos share eating-out tips.

6. Litter and graffiti could cause racism.

7. A taxi ride from New York to Los Angeles cots $5,000 (£3,000)

8. Deer win respect by breaking up fights.

9. French police are currently allowed 25cl of wine or a small beer with their lunch while on duty

10. Rabbit jumping is a sport.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

1. There is a camel-mounted bagpipe band.

2. Transparent typewriters are manufactured for sale to prisons, to avoid the risk of contraband being hidden.

3. City dwelling birds have larger brains than those that live in the countryside.

10. Rabbit jumping is a sport.

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1. There is a camel-mounted bagpipe band.
Do they prefer dromedary or bactrian?

2. Transparent typewriters are manufactured for sale to prisons, to avoid the risk of contraband being hidden.
I assume they require invisible ink

3. City dwelling birds have larger brains than those that live in the countryside.
Either from radiation and PCB's or from all the garbage they read strewn about the streets

10. Rabbit jumping is a sport.
Jumping over a rabbit doesn't seem like much of a challenge unless it's one of these babies! -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s9nK...eature=related

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8. Deer win respect by breaking up fights.


Hehe I love the idea of this.

“Now come on lads what’s this all about? Seriously Prongs your misses would never go off with him, No offence Pokey, but you’re just not as statuesque as Prongs ‘ere. Now lets all go down to the watering hole and get us a drink. They have a lovely new barmaid.”
"You are so right Deer, I always respected you."

1. New York taxis used to be red and green, but in 1907 were all repainted yellow to be visible from a distance.

2. Philtrum is the name of the groove on your top lip that lies just beneath your nose.

3. The perfect nap lasts 26 minutes.

4. Kate Bush writes songs more easily with a bag of bone meal - yes, the garden fertiliser - on her piano.

5. Marlon Brando, Liz Taylor and Michael Jackson shared a hire car on 9/11.

6. A "Spanish plume" is a weather system that sucks warm - and perhaps thundery - air up from Spain and North Africa.

7. European brands that succeed in the US tend to be at the luxury end of the market - as Tesco is finding to its cost.

8. Delilah became the anthem of Stoke City FC fans after police officers asked them not to sing any songs with swear words. Next up on the pub jukebox was the Tom Jones hit...

9. Left-handed people are more fearful than right-handers.

10. Kate Middleton - the Duchess of Cambridge - has never been to the United States

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...st_w_183.shtml

1. French time used to be nine minutes ahead of GMT, based on the time in Paris.

2. Sugar level in strawberries is calculated on the Brix scale.

3. The first known use of the word "slut" in printed English was from 1402.

4. The hemlines of school skirts in South Korea have risen 10-15cm (4-6in) in the last decade.

5. The first British Tupperware was held in Weybridge, Surrey in 1960.

6. A Christian doomsday group in the US is warning that the end of the world - or the Rapture - will occur on Saturday 21 May.

7. It costs $60,000 to train a Navy Seal dog - like the one that accompanied US special forces on the Bin Laden operation.

8. Goats are able to recognise the voices of their very young kids, and differentiate them from other animals' offspring

9. Humans are naturally predisposed to believe in gods and life after death.

10. The government's wine cellar contains about £2m worth of wine and spirits

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...now_this.shtml

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

1. French time used to be nine minutes ahead of GMT, based on the time in Paris.

2. Sugar level in strawberries is calculated on the Brix scale.

3. The first known use of the word "slut" in printed English was from 1402.

4. The hemlines of school skirts in South Korea have risen 10-15cm (4-6in) in the last decade.

5. The first British Tupperware was held in Weybridge, Surrey in 1960.

6. A Christian doomsday group in the US is warning that the end of the world - or the Rapture - will occur on Saturday 21 May.

7. It costs $60,000 to train a Navy Seal dog - like the one that accompanied US special forces on the Bin Laden operation.

8. Goats are able to recognise the voices of their very young kids, and differentiate them from other animals' offspring

9. Humans are naturally predisposed to believe in gods and life after death.

10. The government's wine cellar contains about £2m worth of wine and spirits

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...now_this.shtml

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Number 4 seems like good news!

I don't buy #9, though. Humans may very well have lived on this earth for 800,000 years without believing in God or life after death (of course we don't know for sure). Surely if anything about humans is "culturally consitituted" rather than "naturally perdisposed", it is their religious beliefs.

1. Watermelons can explode.

2. The Queen is apparently not a Guinness drinker. Or at least not in the morning.

3. The hardiest animal on Earth is known as a "water bear".

4. Humans stare longer at people with bad reputations.

5. Parrots are good at teamwork.

6. "Highly cheerful" people die younger.

7. A good sense of smell helps mammals' brains get bigger.

8. The internet craze of planking started in the UK and in Australia.

9. Tarantulas shoot silk from their feet.

10. There are only two beret factories left in France.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...w_this_1.shtml

1. Fifa is a charity.

2. Vultures are better than sniffer dogs at searching large, overgrown areas for dead bodies.

3. A Devon cream tea has scones with cream first then jam on top, while a Cornish cream tea has scones with jam first then cream on top.

4. You can see the shockwaves from a trombone. On video.

5. Shale gas drilling can cause earthquakes.

6. Heart disease is less common among religious people.

7. Among certain early humans, the women left home and the men stayed behind.

8. Penguins do a Mexican wave to stay warm.

9. An intense fear of dying can make a heart attack worse.

10. It's possible for a horse to paint.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...st_w_184.shtml

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

...4. You can see the shockwaves from a trombone. On video.

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I believe you can, starting at about 4:15:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIQq1...eature=related

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

...10. It's possible for a horse to paint.

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They’re just now realizing this? Have they not heard of Edouard Manet, aka “Mr. Ed”?

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_26qDKCIi5Gg/TH...LZVcsY/ed6.jpg


For the sake of the uneducated: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSsuohepbVk


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1. The Rotary club is an enemy of Palestine, according to Hamas.

2. Spiders use their webs to breathe underwater.

3. Michael Caine was nearly sacked from the film Zulu for standing like Prince Philip.

4. The Wombles have had four gold albums.

5. Cow hooves are used to make the foam in fire extinguishers.

6. Wearing high heels could increase the risk of arthritis.

7. Chimps can outperform eight-year-olds in tasks.

8. The odds of scoring two holes-in-one in the same round of golf are 67 million-to-one .

9. Elephants can flirt.

10. Zebras can do showjumping.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...w_this_2.shtml

1. The yellow brick road leads to a car park.

2. Iron age man was into home brewing.

3. Astronauts get travel sick.

4. Women don't see Porsche drivers as marriage material.

5. Magpies can scold humans.

6. Men are the first to say 'I love you' in a new relationship.

7. There is no music chart in India.

8. Britain's most stolen vehicle is white-van-man's Ford Transit.

9. Tinkering with certain proteins could stop hair going grey.

10. Britain's youngest undertaker is 16 years old.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...st_w_185.shtml

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

1. The yellow brick road leads to a car park.

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Makes sense, the Emerald City probably became a big tourist attraction (and expensive--they want all your green) after the movie. What, you didn't know it was a documentary?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

6. Men are the first to say 'I love you' in a new relationship.

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I had two thoughts when I saw this:

* Who's the first to mean it?

* Does that mean gay men say it simultaneously? And gay women never do?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

2. Iron age man was into home brewing.

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and they still are in the backwoods of the deep south, only they refer to it as "moonshine"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

3. Astronauts get travel sick.

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How can that be since, according to at least one Forum member, they never left God's green earth?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

10. Britain's youngest undertaker is 16 years old.

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Let me guess...his name is Oliver.

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1. Vincent Van Gogh looked a lot like his brother Theo.

2. Urban pigeons remember who will feed them and who will chase them away.

3. Women have gaydar.

4. There are ants that carry a friend so they can deal with big bits of food.

5. It's very difficult to urinate in a treated water reservoir in the UK.

6. Half of Britons are, in fact, Germans.

7. Sonic the Hedgehog's shoes are based on Michael Jackson's footwear in the Bad video.

8. British taxpayers own 200,000 paintings - including multi-million pound works by the likes of Titan, Monet and Picasso.

9. A female tennis player's grunts can reach 95 decibels.

10. Chocolate milkshake is the ideal post-workout recovery drink.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...st_w_186.shtml

1. Makes sense

2. Birds have brains

3. But which do they prefer?

4. The more the merrier

5. Huh?

6. This I find interesting - the word Briton comes from some Latin word meaning 'those of the design' referring to their painted faces, while the word Pict comes from the Latin for 'those with painted faces'. The Angles and Saxons didn't just migrate, they were invited by the Brits (who later became the Welsh) and paid in land to help defend against the Norse (or so I've been told)

7. What were Michael Jackson's shoes based on?

8. I wonder how many they own privately - it'd have to be in the billions...

9. Unless you're Maria Sharapova who can reach decibels that interfere with the measuring equipment - I have to turn the sound completely OFF when she's playing

10. Chocolate milkshake is yummy, and also the ideal pre-workout and no-workout recovery elixir - I might have one right now...

1. The ideal slice of toast should be cooked for exactly 216 seconds.

2. Stick insects can go without sex for one million years.

3. The key to a happy marriage is based on the wife remaining slimmer than the husband.

4. People working out in a gym can cause tremors in buildings.

5. Lions will most likely attack humans just after a full moon.

6. Tall people are at greater risk of cancer.

7. Jalfrezi is now Britain's favourite curry.

8. Diamonds are not forever, they evaporate under exposure to light.

9. Mount Everest is getting higher.

10. The Speaking Clock still receives 30 million calls each year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...st_w_189.shtml

1.Venus apparently is supposed to resemble Hell

2.Jupiter has storms in its atmosphere, and perhaps life on Europa

3.Along with the Great Red Spot, there are also the Great White Spot and the Great Dark Spot

4.It's pretty much a drug once you begin writing angst stories, especially when people are on the edge of their seats wanting more

5.My sister can actually be pleasant when she's not around her friends (even though she's only 8)

6.There are 400 active volcanoes on one of Jupiter's moons, Io

7.Ryan Higa (nighahiga on youtube) is actually becoming so big that he's going on TV shows...I love him

8.Kim Kardashian had psoriasis

9.That I can actually write comedic pieces, even though I suck at humor

10.Mercury has no atmosphere, just an exosphere

...I've been having fun and researching the planets.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

3. The key to a happy marriage is based on the wife remaining slimmer than the husband.

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:yikes::yikes::yikes:

Shush. I didn't say anything.

1. Spider-Man has died.

2. Margaret Thatcher did not pioneer the Right to Buy scheme for social housing.

3. Almost as many people get married on a Thursday as on a Sunday.

4. A web address can cost nearly £1 million.

5. Suicide bombers are considered a suitable subject for Afghan satire.

6. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin cannot bend frying pans with his bare hands.

7. A hole in the ground can qualify as a private members club.

8. It was illegal to sign a football player on a Sunday in the 1950s.

9. Local councils in England own 40 hotels and around 20 cinemas.

10. There are poisonous rats.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...st_w_191.shtml

1. Mr Men author Roger Hargreaves was the third best-selling author of the last decade, topped only by JK Rowling and Dan Brown.

2. The prison system in Brazil holds an annual Miss Penitentiary beauty contest.

3. TV's Mork and Mindy visited a mother and daughter in Dulwich, south London, in 2003.

4. BBC Radio 4 deters foxes from attacking swans.

5. Sparrows' birdsong has a lot in common with the profanity-strewn bragging of rappers.

6. A shorter than average tongue is not good if you're learning to speak Korean.

7. The Redneck Olympics contains sports such as armpit serenade, watermelon seed spitting contest and bobbin' for pigs feet.

8. Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger can sing in Sanskrit.

9. Most of the 3.5m people who visit Liberty Island each year do not climb the Statue of Liberty.

10. A thin belt of antimatter envelops the Earth.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...st_w_192.shtml

1. Apple founder Steve Jobs patented designs for two glass staircases.

2. Almost a quarter of new words added to the Chambers Dictionary come from internet culture.

3. Female birds like confident males.

4. Col Gaddafi's compound contained a photo album filled with pictures of former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

5. "Astoundingly thick" is an acceptable description of someone who performs badly on Mastermind.

6. Our ancestors began cooking 1.9 million years ago.

7. Stress really does make hair turn grey.

8. A planet 4,000 light years away from earth is made almost entirely of diamonds.

9. Getting married increases the risk of putting on weight.

10. Britons are now twice as likely to be bitten by a mosquito in the UK than in the 10 years to 2006.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...st_w_194.shtml

1. Harrogate is the only postcode in Britain without a Tesco store.

2. Coral could be the key to stopping sunburn.

3. We nearly always pick items from the middle shelf in supermarkets.

4. A German city has started taxing prostitutes by installing a ticket machine.

5. An officially hot day in the UK - as classified by the Met Office - is when temperatures reach 30C.

6. Domino's pizza chain is planning to open a restaurant on the moon.

7. In 1941 the government in the UK wanted to know how many bras women owned.

8. The first fluorescent clothing was made from the inventor's wife's wedding dress.

9. The world's atmosphere is worth £4.3 quadrillion, going by the air we breathe in and the price of CO2

10. Britain has 800 major self-storage units, the same as the rest of Europe put together.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...st_w_195.shtml

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

9. The world's atmosphere is worth £4.3 quadrillion, going by the air we breathe in and the price of CO2

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That's right, give Haliburton more ideas.

1. Female fiddler crabs are attracted to males who can wave well.

2. The size of the ring finger is linked to the size of your sex drive.

3. The Queen's swans get flu jabs.

4. Lack of sleep leads to sugar cravings.

5. You need apermit to bring more than 2.2Ibs (one kilogram) of meat into Israel.

6. Some people fear spiders, but spiders fear assassin bugs.

7. Crocodiles go off their food when they're stressed.

8. There is a one in 3,200 chance that a Nasa satellite could hit you this month when it plunges from orbit.

9. Cliff sold more calendars than any other male celebrity last year.

10. Forty percent of of active Twitter users do not tweet at all, they just follow other people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...st_w_196.shtml

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

1. Female fiddler crabs are attracted to males who can wave well.

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...and to those with a well endowed Pizzicato.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

7. Crocodiles go off their food when they're stressed.

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and like alligators you need to watch out for that medulla oblongata...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfC4u5GCy3I

.

One should learn how to cause crocodiles stress... In case we meet them.

I've always like a good waver.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

One should learn how to cause crocodiles stress... In case we meet them.

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That's why all women should have at least one crocodile handbag.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by papayahed

That's why all women should have at least one crocodile handbag.

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I like the way you think!

:p

1. A planet can orbit two suns.

2. Women remember men with a deep voice more than those with a high voice.

3. Britons contact friends and family via Facebook an average of 3.2 times a week.

4. Escaped pet parrots can teach wild birds to say phrases learnt from their owners.

5. The steel used in the construction of the new Westfield shopping mall in Stratford is equivalent to the weight of 80 million medals.

6. New homes in Denmark are 80% bigger than new homes in the UK.

7. Cavefish can keep time without the sun.

8. Green belts in England cover 13% of total land.

9. Panda poo can reveals a lot about their sex lives.

10. Australians have a third choice when describing their gender on passport applications.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...st_w_197.shtml

1. MI5 used to have special kettles kept solely for steaming open envelopes.

2. Only one in every 250 million births is a case of conjoined twins.

3. Bill Clinton was invited to appear on Dancing with the Stars, the US version of Strictly Come Dancing.

4. Penguins find their family members by sniffing them out.

5. The world's smallest aquarium contains just two teaspoons of water.

6. Elephants can paint.

7. Red-haired donors are being turned away by the world's largest sperm bank because there is a lack of demand for their "product".

8. Facebook hosts 4% of all photos ever taken.

9. Yawning cools down the brain.

10. Crows can find food with the aid of mirrors.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...st_w_198.shtml

1. TV satellite dishes in the UK mainly point southeast - and so can be used to orientate the lost.

2. Hummus comes in pizza, peanut butter and chocolate mousse flavours in the US.

3. A typical restaurant throws away 21 tonnes of food every year - partly because Brits are loath to ask for doggy bags.

4. Preston bus station joins the Nazca Lines in Peru and a Greek cemetery on this year's list of at-risk cultural heritage sites.

5. Steve Jobs studied calligraphy.

6. Doritos take their name from the Spanish for "little golden".

7. Cream tea in Devon is scone topped with clotted cream then jam. In Cornwall, the order of jam and cream are reversed.

8. Dancing With The Stars contestants in Argentina can get naked.

9. The optimum cooking time for a soft boiled egg suitable for dunking toast soldiers is a full six minutes.

10. The first e-book, back in the 1970s, was the US Declaration of Independence.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...st_w_200.shtml