10 Things We Didn't Know This Time Last Week

[Scheherazade]

1. Half of 15 year olds drink alcohol every week.

2. George Alagiah's surname is actually pronounced "ullerhiya".

3. The InterCity 125 train was designed by the same man who came up with the angle-poise lamp and Kenwood Chef mixer.

4. Pavements are tested using an 80 square metre artificial pavement at a research centre called Pamela (the Pedestrian Accessibility and Movement Environment Laboratory).

5. Acorns are toxic to ponies and cattle (but not to the pigs brought into the New Forest to feast on the fruits).

6. Cyclists in the UK can be prosecuted for "furious cycling".

7. Russian premier Khrushchev's favourite dish was stinging nettle soup.

8. Areas of ice the size of Turkey have disappeared from the Arctic in a single year.

9. Overseas student numbers around the world have doubled in a decade to 2.7 million students.

10. A common American poplar has twice as many genes as a human being.


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

[Scheherazade]

1) Women who attended single-sex schools earn more than those who were taught in mixed schools.

2) Barbie's full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts.

3) A Smurf is three apples tall.

4) Mosquitoes have a sweet tooth, a weakness to be exploited by an anti-malaria project.

5) Four of the top 10 people on the Forbes rich list derive their wealth from the Wal-Mart chain.

6) Eating a packet of crisps a day is equivalent to drinking five litres of cooking oil a year.

7) More than one in four pupils have played truant from school in the past year.

8) Pearl and Dean's a-pa-pa pa-pa theme tune, played in cinemas before the ads, is called Asteroid.

9) Plant seeds that have been stored for more than 200 years can be coaxed into new life.

10) There were no numbers in the very first UK phone directory, only names and addresses. Operators would connect callers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...this_w_1.shtml

[Scheherazade]

1. There are more than 600 full-time creative writing degree courses at UK universities.

2. Lionesses favour balder lions, with less of a hairy mane. (Do not despair if you are losing hair fast, guys! )

3. Ubuntu, espoused by Bill Clinton, is the African philosophy which means "I am because you are”.

4. Menthol cigarettes are harder to give up than normal cigarettes.

5. The brain is soft and gelatinous - its consistency is something between jelly and cooked pasta.

6. People suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome can be helped by talking about it, say researchers.

7. China executes more prisoners than the rest of the world put together.

8. One in eight children in primary schools in England have English as a second language.

9. Europe has a Buddhist state - the Russian republic of Kalmykia.

10. The Mona Lisa used to hang on the wall of Napoleon’s bedroom.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...x.html#a004979

[Scheherazade]

1. Some Amish people have phones in trees near their houses to get round the ban on them at home.

2. More than 90% of plane crashes have survivors.

3. Pollen can cause havoc on the railways, by blocking train radiators.

4. Duck a l'orange is not from France, but Renaissance Italy.

5. Peter Kay and Ronnie Barker used to write to each other in character - Barker as Fletch from Porridge and Kay as Brian Potter from Phoenix Nights.

6. Dung beetles prefer horse and dog faeces to those of camels and foxes.

7. Parents spend four times as much time with their children now as in the 1970s.

8. Computer games are a powerful learning tool according to government-funded research.

9. Bullets can’t penetrate more than two metres of water.

10. Tony Blair’s favourite meal to cook is spaghetti bolognaise.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...x.html#a005231

[Serenata]

1. Man Candy, though a good dancer solo, is an awkward couple dancer.

2. Hypoglycemia and a junk fest don't mix well.

3. Six teenage girls can sleep comfortably on a king-size bed.

4. How to curse in other languages.

5. Yell leaders are awesome.

6. Man Candy is a good yell-leader.

7. Parents don't truly appreciate you until the dishes pile up.

8. People I don't like have more talent than they should.

9. School shootings are becoming a popular use of time.

10. English is a crazy language.

[ShoutGrace]

3. Six teenage girls can sleep comfortably on a king-size bed.

Oh woe! And I try so hard to keep away from lewd content on the Internet.

3) A Smurf is three apples tall.

[Virgil]

3. Ubuntu, espoused by Bill Clinton, is the African philosophy which means "I am because you are”.

I wonder how Monica fits into that.

[Serenata]

Oh woe! And I try so hard to keep away from lewd content on the Internet.

There was nothing lewd about that. I did say sleeping. Ahh. Fun sleepovers at Chrys's.

[Scheherazade]

1. In Kingston upon Thames, men on average live to be 78. In Kingston-upon-Hull it is 73.

2. The Queen's got great legs (according to Helen Mirren).

3. Seventy percent of victims of police shootings are shot in the back or the side.

4. Each person sends an average of 55 greetings cards per year.

5. Cats and some other mammals are thought to navigate using magnetised cells in their brains.

6. Chris De Burgh has healing hands.

7. Kim Jong-il is an obsessive James Bond fan.

8. Joggers who run with their backs to the traffic are twice as likely to die as those who face oncoming cars.

9. Just one cow gives off enough harmful methane gas in a single day to fill around 400 litre bottles.

10. Eighty-five percent of women working in brothels in the UK are from overseas, where 10 years ago 85% were from Britain.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...x.html#a005452

[Nightshade]

9. Just one cow gives off enough harmful methane gas in a single day to fill around 400 litre bottles.

Is methane natural gas? As in a fuel? cant people bottle it?

10. Eighty-five percent of women working in brothels in the UK are from overseas, where 10 years ago 85% were from Britain.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...x.html#a005452

white slavery???

[Scheherazade]

1. The Australian investment group which is buying Thames Water also owns the transmitters on which the BBC is broadcast.

2. Twice as many people turn their heads to the right to kiss as to the left, say researchers.

3. Nearly one internet user in 10 has started a blog, according to Harris Research.

4. A dwarf species of hippopotamus once lived on Cyprus.

5. There are 375 people reported missing each day, on average, according to the National Missing Persons Helpline.

6. More than one in eight people in the United States show signs of addiction to the internet, says a study.

7. The warm autumn has seen North African butterflies appearing in Scotland.

8. One third of all the cod fished in the world is consumed in the UK.

9. UK customs officials intercept attempts to smuggle in 150 live birds and animals, and 6,400 animal parts, each week.

10. Boys’ GCSE results have improved to the level that girls had reached seven years ago.

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

[Scheherazade]

1. Pelicans can swallow pigeons whole.

2. Pelicans were first introduced into London's St James's Park as a gift from the Russian ambassador.

3. Sex workers in Roman times charged the equivalent price of eight glasses of red wine.

4. Only 12% of the adult male population had more than one sexual partner in the past year, says the Office for National Statistics.

5. Finland is the only country in the world which broadcasts the news in Latin.

6. The 100-million-year-old bee fossil found in Burma is so well preserved scientists can see individual hairs.

7. English is now the only "traditional" academic subject in the top 10 most popular university courses.

8. The number of people committing suicide in the UK has fallen to its lowest recorded level.

9. A very small front garden can hold up to 700 different species of insect.

10. Kellogg's Special K in the UK has 31% more sugar than Special K in the US.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...x.html#a005930

[Virgil]

3. Sex workers in Roman times charged the equivalent price of eight glasses of red wine.

Hey that's about two bottles of wine, or about 30-40 dollars. Which, depending on the quality of the hooker, is about what it costs these days too. Some things never change.

[Scheherazade]

Hey that's about two bottles of wine, or about 30-40 dollars. Which, depending on the quality of the hooker, is about what it costs these days too. Some things never change.

Thanks for that info, Virgil. Some of us were wondering what the going rate these days were.

[cuppajoe_9]

Oh woe! And I try so hard to keep away from lewd content on the Internet.

Not that comfortably.