100 things we didn't know last year

100 things we didn't know last year

The bbc has a weekly tradition called "10 things we didn't know last week" to highlight some interesting and unexpected news and posts every week. Also other annually "100 things we didn't know last year" to highlight 100 things from the weekly ones.

The weekly 10 things can be always viewed at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/10_things/

The 100 things we didn't know last year 2007 at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2008/01/100_things_we_didnt_know_last_3.shtml

These are some highlights of the last year:

1. Saddam Hussein's codename while in US custody in 2004/5 was "Victor".
2. Only about half of China's population can speak the national language, Mandarin.
3. Serving anything more than tea and biscuits at a political meeting is an offence called "treating" and punishable by a year in prison or an unlimited fine, under the the Representation of the People Act 1893.
4. Denmark is the happiest country in Europe; Italy the unhappiest. (The UK was 9th out of 15.)
5. The secret to happiness is accepting misery.
6. Nearly seven out of 10 (69%) of adults are still in touch with at least one childhood friend.
7. CDs were nearly called mini-racks.
8. The brain can turn down its ability to see in order to listen to complex sounds like music.
9. Adults use maths skills 14 times daily on average and literacy skills 23 times a day.
10. In Ethiopia the start of the year 2000 was celebrated in September.

And these are some shots from last years:

1. The = sign was invented by 16th Century Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde, who was fed up with writing "is equal to" in his equations. He chose the two lines because "noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle".
2. "Restaurant" is the most mis-spelled word in search engines.
3. Cyclist Lance Armstrong's heart is almost a third larger than the average man's.
4. It takes 75kg of raw materials to make a mobile phone.
5. Bill Gates does not have an iPod.
6. It takes less energy to import a tomato from Spain than to grow them in this country because of the artificial heat needed, according to Defra.
7. The day when most suicides occurred in the UK between 1993 and 2002 was 1 January, 2000.
8. You are 176 times more likely to be murdered than to win the National Lottery.
9. Bill Clinton sent just two e-mails while he was president.
10. Bill Clinton revealed in his autobiography that he didn't learn to ride a bike properly until he was 22.
11. It's 30 years since the world's first barcode was used. It was on a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit at a supermarket in Ohio. The gum is now an exhibit in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC.
12. Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobiacs is the term for people who fear the number 666.
13. In America it's possible to subpoena a dog.
14. Poets die young... "On average, poets lived 62 years, playwrights 63 years, novelists 66 years and non-fiction writers lived 68 years," according to California State University's James Kaufman.
15. The Mona Lisa used to hang on the wall of Napoleon’s bedroom.
16. The word "time" is the most common noun in the English language, according to the latest Oxford dictionary.
17. In the 1960s, the CIA used to watch Mission Impossible to get ideas about spying.

And don't forget delay jitter is the variance of delay.

Last years 100 things:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2006/12/100_things_we_didnt_know_last_2.shtml

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4566526.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4134329.stm