10 Things We Didn't Know This Time Last Week

[Virgil]

8. The strength of wine has increased from 11.5% alcohol by volume (ABV) to 13.5% ABV in recent years.

And that is a wonderful thing. Actually it has improved the taste and quality of wine. Now most wines are at least acceptable, when years ago it was hit and miss.

[browneyedbailey]

I have ADD....ooooooooooh....squirel.....

[Scheherazade]

1. Humour comes from testosterone.

2. Wii players use only 2% more energy than players of regular computer games.

3. There were 1,580 cosmetic treatments in the UK on average last year.

4. Blood alcohol concentration does not decrease when you eat as well as drink.

5. Reading in dim light does not harm your eyesight.

6. Only 10% of a horse's lifetime winnings can be attributed to its bloodline.

7. There are 17 surviving versions of the Magna Carta - or 17 Magnae Cartae.

8. The whale is descended from a raccoon-sized land-based mammal called the Indonyus.

9. Only one in a hundred tourists visiting the UK stay for longer than three months.

10. Nick Clegg, the Lib Dems' new leader, once took a road trip across the US with his friend Louis Theroux.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...x.html#a021276

[Nightshade]

1. Humour comes from testosterone.

Oh really? and who decided this a man?

3. There were 1,580 cosmetic treatments in the UK on average last year.

Thats becaus ethey all go and do it abroad.. where its cheaper and you get a holiday thrown in.

5. Reading in dim light does not harm your eyesight.

I have been saying this for years!! Its brightlight that hurts.

[crazefest456]

2. Wii players use only 2% more energy than players of regular computer games.

That is VERY true! I get so worked up when I play first-person shooters on my PS2..It is really intense, but no one understands gamers...

[Pensive]

I have been saying this for years!! Its brightlight that hurts.

Yes. In our area, electricity used to go off a lot. It never cared whether it were my exams the next day or not so sometimes I had to study in candle-light at night (that's what you get by leaving work at the eleventh hour to do ). Next day I would wake up worried if it had hurt my eye-sight but to my astonishment, dear eye-sight always seemed to be as fine as it ever was.

[Scheherazade]

1. Circumcision does not reduce sexual satisfaction.

2. The UK has only one polar bear, at Edinburgh Zoo. Its name is Mercedes.

3. Window cleaners who work on very tall buildings are trained to lie flat if their platform comes loose - a tactic which appears to have saved the life of Alcides Moreno, who tumbled some 500ft (150m) to the ground in New York.

4. At school, Sir Edmund Hillary was in a gym group for those lacking co-ordination.

5. Siblings who are separated when adopted may be naturally attracted to each other in later life.

6. Etiquette dictates that at dinner parties, a man should always talk to the woman on his left during the first course, and right during the main course.

7. One in three British adults is on a permanent diet.

8. Octopuses need mental stimulation.

9. Liverpool is not Europe's only capital of culture this year.

10. Half of men aged 16-24 haven't read a single book in the past 12 months.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...x.html#a021984

[Scheherazade]

1. The Scottish crossbill is the only bird unique to the UK.

2. Barack Obama attended a stag party in Wokingham.

3. Nicolas Sarkozy never had dinner at home in eight years, according to his ex-wife Cecilia.

4. Christopher Columbus introduced syphilis to Europe.

5. Carrots used to be purple.

6. Both men and women find long legs in the opposite sex attractive, but not too long.

7. Rodents used to weigh a tonne and have skulls half a metre long.

8. MPs can claim up to £250 a month without producing receipts.

9. There is no such thing as pure black.

10. Brazil has more people of African descent than any country outside of Africa.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...html#Friday018

[Scheherazade]

1. Swedes have a word for a man who visits prostitutes - torsk.

2. Using a mobile before bedtime can delay you getting to sleep.

3. A bear helped carry ammunition for Polish troops during World War II.

4. Moleskin clothes used to be made of moles' skins.

5. Wealthy people are more likely to drink than those in low-income homes.

6. Ships emit twice as much CO2 as planes.

7. "Plain vanilla" is a term for basic financial instruments such as shares.

8. Only offal-free versions of haggis are available in the United States.

9. Super-fast broadband fibres are laid in the sewers.

10. "Fischer chess" is a game in which the pieces are placed on the board in random order.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...x.html#a022482

[Anza]

1. the names of all the sirens
2. my latin teacher doesn't care about rules when we're close to regionals!
3. Cough drops really taste like candy if you're sick enough
4. the names of all the muses
5. the cello can go as high as the violin
6. I can't come up with ten things
7. the battle of Marathon occured in 490 BC
8. my sister is nice enough to make tea for me
9. Chiru would spend the weekend with me
10. I would be sick

[Niamh]

3. A bear helped carry ammunition for Polish troops during World War II.

Fair enough! Learn something new everyday!

4. Moleskin clothes used to be made of moles' skins.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...x.html#a022482

I always wondered that....

[Scheherazade]

1. Fear of needles is known as belonephobia.

2. Double-income families are not a modern invention - in prehistoric times, they were the norm.

3. Cumbria is the safest county in England and Wales.

4. The D-Day landings were practised on the island of Eigg.

5. Irish singer Joe Dolan sold his hip for charity in an online auction.

6. Some 2.9 million rooms have been lost in British homes over the past five years as owners opt for open-plan designs.

7. Almost 4% of Scotland's phone boxes didn't host a single call in 2007.

8. The age at which we are most vulnerable to depression is 44, while a 70-year-old who is physically fit is, on average, as happy and mentally healthy as a 20-year-old.

9. Chameleons change colour to stand out and attract mates, rather than hide.

10. Harry S Truman, former US president, has no middle name - his advisers insisted he insert an initial between his first and last names if he was to have any credibility with US voters.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...x.html#a022800

[Scheherazade]

1. A white stag lives in the Highlands.

2. Brain tumours can be diagnosed by a handshake.

3. Ian Fleming's contract with the Sunday Times allowed him to spend winter in Jamaica.

4. Kosovo's dialling code is the same as Monaco's.

5. A fire at a landfill site in Guernsey has been smouldering for three years.


6. Staffordshire bull terriers are one of only two breeds that the Kennel Club recommends as suitable with children, the other being a Chesapeake Bay retriever.

7. 99% of beekeepers are hobbyists.

8. The Billy Bunter author, Charles Hamilton, is the world's most prolific, according to the Guinness Book of Records.

9. The UK spends more on cosmetic surgery than Germany, France and Italy put together.

10. Giving birth to a boy may increase the likelihood of severe postnatal depression.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...ast_w_43.shtml

[Virgil]

1. A white stag lives in the Highlands.

Yeah, but they also believe in the Loch Ness Monster.

6. Staffordshire bull terriers are one of only two breeds that the Kennel Club recommends as suitable with children, the other being a Chesapeake Bay retriever.

Rubbish. Most dog breeds are good with children. It's the odd breed that's not.

9. The UK spends more on cosmetic surgery than Germany, France and Italy put together.

Just keep the breast implants coming.

10. Giving birth to a boy may increase the likelihood of severe postnatal depression.

I wonder if this is why my mother is on anti depressants.

[Scheherazade]

1. If housewives got salaries at the going rate for doing household chores, they would on average earn £30,000.

2. Pacifist John Lennon was once an air cadet.

3. Women in Ivory Coast buy “bottom enhancing” injections for $2.

4. Whales catnap.

5. Young dinosaurs were prey to a giant frog.

6. John Prescott played in a parliamentary football team in the 1970s with Jonathan Aitken, Robert Kilroy-Silk and Neil Kinnock.

7. The female G-spot can be located by ultrasound.

8. People can have four kidneys.

9. A replica Statue of Liberty exists in Kosovo.

10. The first pop concert Barack Obama attended was as a 10-year-old watching Elton John.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinem...ast_w_44.shtml