Leave it to Mother BEEB

100 things we didn't know last year


Interesting and unexpected facts can emerge from the daily news stories and the Magazine documents some of them in its weekly feature, 10 things we didn't know last week. To kick off 2009, here are some of the best of last year.

1. Victorians believed smoking cleared the lungs - and struck off Dr Thomas Allinson, who founded the bakery of the same name, for describing nicotine as a "foul poison" and advocating healthy eating.More details
2. Police are not required to clean up a crime scene once evidence has been gathered.More details
3. Octopuses need mental stimulation.More details
4. 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.More details
5. Both men and women find long legs in the opposite sex attractive, but not too long.More details
6. Carrots used to be purple.More details
7. Only offal-free versions of haggis are available in the United States.More details
8. A bear helped carry ammunition for Polish troops during World War II.More details
9. Swedes have a word for a man who visits prostitutes - torsk.More details
10. 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.More details
11. Cumbria is the safest county in England and Wales.More details
12. Every year, the world's deserts produce 1,700 million tonnes of dust.More details
11. St Kilda has no rats.More details
12. The oldest Mormon congregation in the world is in Preston, Lancashire.More details
13. A fire at a landfill site in Guernsey has been smouldering for three years.More details
14. Brain tumours can be diagnosed by a handshake.More details
15. Whales catnap.More details
16. If housewives got salaries at the going rate for doing household chores, they would on average earn £30,000.More details
17. For the first time in US history, more than one in every 100 American adults is behind bars.More details
18. 23% of plastic bags used in the UK are from Tesco.More details
19. Prison pay is on average £9.60 a week.More details
20. The average midweek bedtime is between 10pm and 11pm.More details
21. Short men are more likely to be jealous.More details
22. Toasters are banned in Cuba.More details
23. The most frequently used term of abuse in schools is "gay".More details
24. Men eat more Brussel sprouts and broccoli than women.More details
25. Lions were kept in the Tower of London in the 14th century.More details
26. Up to one quarter of the sand on shorelines can be composed of plastic particles.More details
27. It costs $100,000 to hunt a rhino in South Africa.More details
28. The Olympic torch is designed to withstand winds of up to 65km an hour and stay alight in rain up to 50mm an hour.More details
29. Each year 40,000 people pay homage at the California garage where the founders of Hewlett Packard started out.More details
28. Rice was once considered so important in Japan that it was worshipped as a god.More details
29. About 86% of fathers attend the birth of their children.More details
30. Smells can drift across the Channel.More details
31. The language of space is English.More details
32. There are 109 journeys between London's Tube stations that are quicker to walk.More details
33. A severed finger tip can grow back naturally.More details
34. The most common "combination craving" for a pregnant woman is pickles and peanut butter.More details
35. Punch and Judy puppeteers are called professors.More details
36. Some 1.3 million unopened yoghurt pots are thrown away each day in the UK.More details
37. The Ministry of Defence has amassed 160 files on UFOs, containing details of 8,000 sightings.More details
38. Sloths aren't lazy.More details
39. Brain chemical oxytocin makes us trust strangers with money.More details
40. You can lessen jet lag by not eating.More details
41. Women are banned by law from Mount Athos in Greece, home to 20 monasteries.More details
42. One of the earliest Mars Bars was pineapple-flavoured. It flopped.More details
43. Biscuits are key to clinching deals.More details
44. Syria has the world's largest restaurant, seating 6,014 diners.More details
45. Pigs can suffer from mysophobia, a fear of dirt.More details
46. A petaflop is a measurement of computing speed equivalent to one thousand trillion calculations a second.More details
47. Schools influence the smoking habits of young people.More details
48. A bespoke garment does not necessarily need to be handmade.More details
49. A Volvo can accommodate 13 people.More details
50. The Royal Family costs the equivalent of 66p per person in the UK.More details
51. An income of £13,400 is required to enjoy a minimum standard of living in the UK.More details
52. Everton, Aston Villa and Fulham are among the football clubs that were created from Sunday schools.More details
53. Pears sink while apples float.More details
54. A monsoon is a wind, rather than rain.More details
55. Young teenagers are drinking less and consuming fewer drugs.More details
56. White Americans are 14% more likely than other ethnic groups to survive cancer.More details
57. Faking one's death is known as pseudocide.More details
58. Having fat friends increases your risk of obesity.More details
59. Bees act in a similar way to serial killers.More details
60. Liz Taylor has broken her back five times.More details
61. Robins only became a symbol for Christmas in the 19th Century, when postmen - who mostly brought mail at Christmas - wore scarlet waistcoats and were known as Robin Redbreasts.More details
62. Pet dogs can catch human yawns.More details
63. Mills and Boon still publish at least one sheikh romance a month.More details
64. A rooftop luggage carrier increases fuel consumption by 20%.More details
65. A 72oz steak is about the size of a large telephone directory. And since 1960, 8,000 people have managed to eat one - plus all the trimmings - in under an hour.More details
66. Misheard song lyrics are known as mondegreens.More details
67. Twenty-three wedding cakes were made for the nuptials of Charles and Diana.More details
68. Shetland is the fattest part of the UK.More details
69. E-mail addresses beginning with "A", "M" or "S" get more spam than those starting with "Q" or "Z".More details
70. You can dive from 35ft into 12in of water - and only suffer bruising (with a lot of training).More details
71. Baseball was played in Surrey in 1755.More details
72. Portraits of famous people often look like the painter instead.More details
73. Texting impairs drivers more than alcohol.More details
74. Kenyan women eat stones.More details
75. The ideal drive is 16 minutes long.More details
76. Henry V invented passports.More details
77. Bradford and Bingley has registered the raising of the bowler hat as a trademark.More details
78. There are two £1m banknotes still in existence. Nine were made after World War II.More details
79. The word "unbepissed" means "not being urinated on".More details
80. Goats wear condoms.More details
81. The world's longest insect is 56cm long.More details
82. Prince Charles could have had a cameo in Doctor Who.More details
83. Gay couples can't commit adultery.More details
84. Stars make noise.More details
85. The United Arab Emirates, along with the US, has the largest ecological footprint per person.More details
86. There's a town in Uruguay called Fray Bentos.More details
87. Barack Obama supports West Ham.More details
88. Saddam Hussein's yacht had an escape tunnel leading to a submarine.More details
89. The QE2 does 49 feet to the gallon.More details
90. The song Two Little Boys was probably about the American Civil War.More details
91. On the Buses star Reg Varney opened the UK's first cash dispenser.More details
92. Camel urine is sought after for its medicinal effects in India's Bihar state and sells for £1.34 a litre.More details
93. Police use curry to hasten the re-emergence of swallowed drugs.More details
94. The 999 emergency number was chosen over 111 because telegraph wires rubbing together in the wind transmitted the equivalent of a 111 call.More details
95. The Sydney Opera House was inspired by a peeled orange.More details
96. A street light costs about 15p a night to keep lit.More details
97. Emily, of Bagpuss fame, was paid with a bag of sweets.More details
98. Councils are banning number 13 houses on new developments.More details
99. Sneezing can be a sign of arousal.More details
100. Leonard Cohen's original Hallelujah has more than 80 verses.More details


"Calm down dear, it's only a recession" - The slogan on Michael Winner's T-shirt while on holiday in Barbados. It was a play on his "Calm down, dear, it's only a commercial" ads for Esure insurance.