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.
More details2. You can assault someone without touching them.
More details3. Animal heaven is called Rainbow Bridge.
More details4. It's OK to own military medals you haven't earned, but it's illegal to wear them and pretend they are yours.
More details5. The first international cricket match was in the US.
More details6. The two most common pronunciations of Van Gogh are wrong.
More details7. The last remaining Royal Mail ship goes back and forth to St Helena.
More details8. Men's waistbands are at their highest point when men reach the age of 57, just seven inches below their armpit.
More details9. Swans divorce.
More details10. Haggis has been banned in the US since 1989.
More details11. Face blindness - difficulty in remembering faces - is called prosopagnosia.
More details12. Glass attacks in bars and pubs cause 87,000 injuries a year in England and Wales.
More details13. You can pay for university tuition with Tesco Clubcard points.
More details14. The Frisbee was originally called the Pluto Platter.
More details15. Parents in Japan swear by KitKats when their children are taking exams.
More details16. Goldie Hawn runs schools.
More details17. The Barbie doll has had 125 careers since 1959.
More details18. Australia has never had a saint. Until now.
More details19. There are people in the UK called Justin Case, Barb Dwyer and Stan Still.
More details20. Elephants growl.
More details21. The types of lasers that remove tattoos can also be used to clean up works of art.
More details22. Some chickens are half-male and half-female.
More details23. Fifty percent of a jumbo jet can be recycled.
More details24. Soldiers in Afghanistan use concrete mixers to wash their clothes.
More details25. The mafia use Facebook.
More details26. Straightening irons outsell hairdryers.
More details27. Fried tarantula tastes like liver.
More details28. The name "scrumpy" comes from a word meaning small and shrivelled.
More details29. In The Wizard of Oz, Toto was played by a dog called Terry.
More details30. Marriage over the telephone is valid under Islamic law.
More details31. Bebo stands for blog early, blog often.
More details32. MPs' parliamentary gym memberships are cancelled during the election campaign.
More details33. Insect museums are called insectariums.
More details34. British servicemen and women have had their own brand of tea since 1921.
More details35. Doctor Who regenerations were modelled on bad LSD trips.
More details36. Sir Cliff Richard split up with his first serious girlfriend by letter.
More details37. The Turin Shroud is woven in a herringbone pattern.
More details38. In the US, 30% of teenagers send more than 100 texts a day.
More details39. US President George Washington failed to return a library book. It's now racked up a $300,000 fine (£193,000)
More details40. There are vending machines that sell hot chips.
More details41. There are surgeons who specialise in restoring virginity.
More details42. Storks can be blue.
More details43. Downing Street's famous black front door was once green.
More details44. China smokes one third of the world's cigarettes.
More details45. Florence Nightingale used the pseudonym "Miss Smith" to evade the media.
More details46. A million people a month are refused a drink in a pub.
More details47. American and British sign language is different.
More details48. The European Cup was stolen in 1982 when Aston Villa players took it to a pub in the West Midlands.
More details49. Ken Dodd sang the third biggest-selling single of the 1960s.
More details50. When one police diver is under water, another four remain on dry land.
More details51. Wonder Woman was originally an Amazon.
More details52. Withdrawn banknotes are shredded and sometimes used in compost.
More details53. Hamburger-related injuries are on the rise in Taiwan.
More details54. The common octopus is the most intelligent invertebrate.
More details55. Gorillas play tag.
More details56. Having a big head may protect against dementia.
More details57. International athletes coming to London for the 1948 Olympics had to bring their own towels.
More details58. One of the world's most ancient living creatures are a breed of shrimp which live in south-west Scotland.
More details59. Dogs mimic their owners.
More details60. Buttocks are hardest to tan.
More details61. Pea plants can grow inside a human lung.
More details62. Some hardened sauna users can stand temperatures of up to 160C.
More details63. Honeybees are cleverer at certain times of the day.
More details64. The average person spends around 15 hours 45 minutes every day awake.
More details65. Children with squints are less likely to be invited to birthday parties.
More details66. Urine could be a source of renewable energy.
More details67. Milk used to be watered down, then coloured yellow with toxic lead chromate to make it look creamy.
More details68. Traffic jams can last nine days.
More details69. It's possible to watch 28,000 films in a lifetime.
More details70. Apples originated in Kazakhstan.
More details71. It is illegal to dry clothes in various parks in Whitstable, Kent.
More details72. Geoff Capes was a champion budgerigar breeder.
More details73. When people fall in love they lose on average two close friends.
More details74. Subbuteo has a rugby version.
More details75. The Pope's aircraft is known as "Shepherd One".
More details76. Elgar wrote one of the first football songs.
More details77. In French, the words for "inflation" and "fellatio" are very similar.
More details78. Squirrels can be black.
More details79. Chimpanzees can become addicted to smoking.
More details80. Men sweat more efficiently than women.
More details81. Noise affects taste.
More details82. Getting drunk quickly is genetic.
More details83. King penguins flirt with other penguins of the same gender but tend not to settle down with them.
More details84. Sparrows eavesdrop on fighting birds.
More details85. Crows go to school.
More details86. Flamingos use make-up.
More details87. John and Margaret were the most popular British baby names for 30 years.
More details88. More than half of Americans dress up for Halloween
More details89. Some 7.2 million British people get by without a wristwatch.
More details90. Tea parties were invented in the 1830s.
More details91. 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".
More details92. Having fewer brothers and sisters can be good for your education.
More details93. It's not just in comedy films that babies can fall from tall buildings, bounce on awnings and be caught by a passer-by.
More details94. Nazis coined the verb coventrierung (literally, to coventrate) to describe total annihilation of a city - Coventry - through aerial bombardment.
More details95. One in five people only clean their homes at weekends.
More details96. Aerial massed acrobatics performed by starlings at this time of year are called "murmurations".
More details97. David Cameron slept on the Mall the night before Prince Charles married Lady Diana.
More details98. German shoes are wider than Italian.
More details99. Badgers still occupy setts known since the Domesday Book.
More details100. Donald Trump's hair is real.
More details
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Tuesday, 4 January 2011
BBC - Magazine Monitor: 100 things we didn't know last year
via bbc.co.uk
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