100 things we didn't know last year
09:00 UK time, Monday, 3 January 2011
The most 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 2011, here's an almanac of the best from the past year.
1. The G-spot nearly came to be known as the Whipple Tickle.
2. You can assault someone without touching them.
3. Animal heaven is called Rainbow Bridge.
4. It's OK to own military medals you haven't earned, but it's illegal to wear them and pretend they are yours.
5. The first international cricket match was in the US.
6. The two most common pronunciations of Van Gogh are wrong.
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7. The last remaining Royal Mail ship goes back and forth to St Helena.
8. Men's waistbands are at their highest point when men reach the age of 57, just seven inches below their armpit.
9. Swans divorce.
10. Haggis has been banned in the US since 1989.
11. Face blindness - difficulty in remembering faces - is called prosopagnosia.
12. Glass attacks in bars and pubs cause 87,000 injuries a year in England and Wales.
13. You can pay for university tuition with Tesco Clubcard points.
14. The Frisbee was originally called the Pluto Platter.
15. Parents in Japan swear by KitKats when their children are taking exams.
16. Goldie Hawn runs schools.
17. The Barbie doll has had 125 careers since 1959.
18. Australia has never had a saint. Until now.
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19. There are people in the UK called Justin Case, Barb Dwyer and Stan Still.
20. Elephants growl.
21. The types of lasers that remove tattoos can also be used to clean up works of art.
22. Some chickens are half-male and half-female.
23. Fifty percent of a jumbo jet can be recycled.
24. Soldiers in Afghanistan use concrete mixers to wash their clothes.
25. The mafia use Facebook.
26. Straightening irons outsell hairdryers.
27. Fried tarantula tastes like liver.
28. The name "scrumpy" comes from a word meaning small and shrivelled.
29. In The Wizard of Oz, Toto was played by a dog called Terry.
30. Marriage over the telephone is valid under Islamic law.
31. Bebo stands for blog early, blog often.
32. MPs' parliamentary gym memberships are cancelled during the election campaign.
33. Insect museums are called insectariums.
34. British servicemen and women have had their own brand of tea since 1921.
35. Doctor Who regenerations were modelled on bad LSD trips.
36. Sir Cliff Richard split up with his first serious girlfriend by letter.
37. The Turin Shroud is woven in a herringbone pattern.
38. In the US, 30% of teenagers send more than 100 texts a day.
39. US President George Washington failed to return a library book. It's now racked up a $300,000 fine (£193,000)
40. There are vending machines that sell hot chips.
41. There are surgeons who specialise in restoring virginity.
42. Storks can be blue.
43. Downing Street's famous black front door was once green.
44. China smokes one third of the world's cigarettes.
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45. Florence Nightingale used the pseudonym "Miss Smith" to evade the media.
46. A million people a month are refused a drink in a pub.
47. American and British sign language is different.
48. The European Cup was stolen in 1982 when Aston Villa players took it to a pub in the West Midlands.
49. Ken Dodd sang the third biggest-selling single of the 1960s.
50. When one police diver is under water, another four remain on dry land.
51. Wonder Woman was originally an Amazon.
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52. Withdrawn banknotes are shredded and sometimes used in compost.
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53. Hamburger-related injuries are on the rise in Taiwan.
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54. The common octopus is the most intelligent invertebrate.
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55. Gorillas play tag.
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56. Having a big head may protect against dementia.
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57. International athletes coming to London for the 1948 Olympics had to bring their own towels.
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58. One of the world's most ancient living creatures are a breed of shrimp which live in south-west Scotland.
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59. Dogs mimic their owners.
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60. Buttocks are hardest to tan.
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61. Pea plants can grow inside a human lung.
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62. Some hardened sauna users can stand temperatures of up to 160C.
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63. Honeybees are cleverer at certain times of the day.
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64. The average person spends around 15 hours 45 minutes every day awake.
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65. Children with squints are less likely to be invited to birthday parties.
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66. Urine could be a source of renewable energy.
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67. Milk used to be watered down, then coloured yellow with toxic lead chromate to make it look creamy.
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68. Traffic jams can last nine days.
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69. It's possible to watch 28,000 films in a lifetime.
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70. Apples originated in Kazakhstan.
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71. It is illegal to dry clothes in various parks in Whitstable, Kent.
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72. Geoff Capes was a champion budgerigar breeder.
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73. When people fall in love they lose on average two close friends.
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74. Subbuteo has a rugby version.
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75. The Pope's aircraft is known as "Shepherd One".
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76. Elgar wrote one of the first football songs.
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77. In French, the words for "inflation" and "fellatio" are very similar.
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78. Squirrels can be black.
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79. Chimpanzees can become addicted to smoking.
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80. Men sweat more efficiently than women.
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81. Noise affects taste.
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82. Getting drunk quickly is genetic.
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83. King penguins flirt with other penguins of the same gender but tend not to settle down with them.
84. Sparrows eavesdrop on fighting birds.
85. Crows go to school.
86. Flamingos use make-up.
87. John and Margaret were the most popular British baby names for 30 years.
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88. More than half of Americans dress up for Halloween
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89. Some 7.2 million British people get by without a wristwatch.
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90. Tea parties were invented in the 1830s.
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91. Which means that the 1773 Boston Tea Party wasn't known by that name until more than 60 years after the event. At the time it was referred to as "the destruction of the tea".
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92. Having fewer brothers and sisters can be good for your education.
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93. It's not just in comedy films that babies can fall from tall buildings, bounce on awnings and be caught by a passer-by.
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94. Nazis coined the verb coventrierung (literally, to coventrate) to describe total annihilation of a city - Coventry - through aerial bombardment.
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95. One in five people only clean their homes at weekends.
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96. Aerial massed acrobatics performed by starlings at this time of year are called "murmurations".
97. David Cameron slept on the Mall the night before Prince Charles married Lady Diana.
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98. German shoes are wider than Italian.
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99. Badgers still occupy setts known since the Domesday Book.
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100. Donald Trump's hair is real.
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