Wednesday, January 2, 2008

15 Things We Didn't Know Last Year

The BBC News Magazine Monitor keeps a weekly list of “things we didn’t know.” These are items that the BBC editors did not know until the daily news taught it to them.

This week, the magazine posted the top “100 Things We Didn’t Know Last Year.” I wasn’t terribly impressed with the whole list (and didn’t want to post the whole thing here). So, I reduced it to these 15:

1. Saddam Hussein's codename while in US custody in 2004/5 was "Victor".
2. Adding milk to tea negates the health-giving effects of a hot brew.
3. The word "jaywalking" came from the US slang "jay", a term popular in the early 20th Century meaning a rustic newcomer unfamiliar with city ways.
4. There are at least two children given the name "Superman" in the UK since 1984.

5. Cloudy apple juice is healthier than clear, containing almost double the antioxidants which protect against heart disease and cancer.
6. Dishcloths are purged of 99% of their bacteria during two minutes in a microwave.
7. Antony and Cleopatra were ugly.
8. Chimpanzees make their own spears for hunting.
9. Chickens can be diagnosed with depression.
10. There is mobile phone reception from the summit of Mount Everest.
11. Books used to be bound in human skin.
12. Sleeping on the job is tolerated in Japanese work culture, as long as you remain upright and obey certain other rules. It's called inemuri.
13. Until the late 1990s, the RAF's nuclear bombs could be activated using a bicycle lock key.
14. King Tut had buck teeth.
15. Deep-voiced men have more children.

If you would like documentation for these facts or if you are interested in the other 85 items in the article, you might want to follow this link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2008/01/100_things_we_didnt_know_last_3.shtml

So, I want to know who diagnoses chickens.

2 comments:

Gerry Hatrić said...

We had a very depressed turkey this Christmas! ;-)

FriendinME said...

as was the pig from whence my ham came.