http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/ The Magazine's recommended daily allowance of news, culture and your letters. en Copyright 2009 Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:06:20 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.1 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Fred Perry was also table tennis world champion. More details 2. Mrs Slocombe's first name was Betty. More details (the Guardian) 3. The UK is developing a quarter of the world's wave technologies. More details (New York Times) 4. Press-ups come in many guises, such as the "seal", "frog" and "donkey-kick". More details 5. The keffiyeh, a chequered scarf worn mostly by Arab men, and made famous by Yasser Arafat, is now mostly made in China. More details 6. Vegetarians are generally less likely than meat eaters to develop cancer. More details 7. The Duke of Kent requested that players no longer bow to the royal box at Wimbledon, in 2003. More details 8. Richard and Judy did not pick the books that featured in their book club. More details 9. Michael Jackson patented one item - the special shoes he used in the stage version of Smooth Criminal. More details 10. Saddam Hussein once hired the James Bond director, Terence Young, to make a promotional Iraqi film. More details Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. Thanks to Vic Barton-Walderstadt from Welwyn Garden City for this week's picture of 10 bales of hay near St Albans. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_96.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/07/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_96.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:06:20 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Camels travel by train. More details 2. Buddhist monks sleep upright. More details 3. Four-legged animals need to avoid doing "wheelies". More details 4. Seagulls attack whales. More details 5. If you use a tool for a while, your brain can mentally incorporate it into your body. More details 6. The UK has the ability to launch "cyber attacks". More details 7. British-style black cabs are now driven in China. More details 8. Every film in which actress Dame Judi Dench swears results in complaints to the BBFC. More details 9. There is a long tradition of "medals of dishonour". More details 10. Chilli can be used as a weapon in crowd control. More details Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. Thanks to Terry Donovan for his picture of 10 yellow Citroen 2CVs. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/06/10_things_we_didnt_know_this_t_18.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/06/10_things_we_didnt_know_this_t_18.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:19:30 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. There are 2,500 year old bird nests still in continuous use. More details 2. The Fred Perry sportswear logo was almost a pipe - Perry was a keen smoker - but his business partner thought this would put off women customers. More details 3. As a cold-blooded insect, flies are slower in the early morning and evening when the air is cooler, and speed up in the heat of the day. More details 4. C, the single-letter codename for the head of MI6, dates from when the first boss, Captain Sir Mansfield Cumming, signed himself "C" for Cumming. More details 5. Streetlights cause problems for bats. More details 6. The pilot and co-pilot on a passenger plane are not allowed to have the same meal in case they both get food poisoning. More details 7. The Queen has an allotment. More details 8. Scotland has the lowest age for criminal responsibility in Europe. More details 9. Hitachi makes trains. More details 10. Pak Do-ik, the North Korean footballer, is still known as "the dentist" among Italian football fans for causing them pain by scoring the goal that saw them beaten 1-0 in the 1966 World Cup. More details Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. Thanks to Vic Barton-Walderstadt for this picture of 10 bollards. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/06/10_things_we_didnt_know_this_t_17.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/06/10_things_we_didnt_know_this_t_17.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:16:23 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Gay people in China used to be prosecuted under "hooliganism" laws. More details 2. Canada used to border Zimbabwe. More details 3. Carly Simon had a stutter. More details 4. Sir Alan Sugar donates his salary from The Apprentice to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. More details (Mail) 5. Setanta started in an Irish dance hall in west London in 1990. More details 6. A new word in the English language is created every 98 minutes. More details 7. You're seven times more likely to be a millionaire if you're called Patel than if you're called Smith. More details 8. More than half of all Patels in the UK are married to people born Patel. More details 9. Only eight Britons who fought in the Spanish Civil War are known to be still alive. More details 10. Britney's father monitors her mobile phone use. More details (Times) Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. Thanks to Vic Barton-Walderstadt for this week's picture of 10 drops of water in Welwyn Garden City. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/06/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_95.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/06/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_95.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:07:35 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Armstrong DID fluff his lines. More details 2. The Apprentice losers' café featured in Z-Cars. More details 3. One in three organ transplant patients believe they have taken on some aspects of the donor's personality. More details 4. Some apes make noises similar to human laughter when being tickled. More details 5. Australia is not in recession. More details 6. In the 1970 US Census, the number of people who said they were aged over 100 was about 22 times the true number. More details 7. Gay couples in the animal kingdom can rear young. More details 8. You can see penguins droppings from space. More details 9. David Attenborough's first pet was a salamander. More details (the Sun) 10. Urban great tits sing louder than their country cousins. More details Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. Thanks to Anita Bekker for this picture of 10 shells on the seashore. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/06/10_things_we_didnt_know_this_t_16.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/06/10_things_we_didnt_know_this_t_16.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:19:18 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Beer mat collectors are called tegestologists. More details 2. A train that arrives 10 minutes late can still be officially "on time". More details 3. The word "Laodicean" means to be indifferent in matters of politics or religion. More details 4. Sounds have shapes. More details 5. People can overdose on chewing gum. More details (Telegraph) 6. Only one in 10 people with Tourette Syndrome swears. More details 7. Just two people know the recipe for Irn Bru. More details 8. Stabbing in the buttocks has its own verb in Roman dialect. More details 9. Places with slow or non-existent broadband are called "notspots". More details 10. The world's longest recorded marriage is 86 years. More details (Daily Mail) Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. Thanks to Basil Long and Mark Grosvenor for sending us two things, and thanks to Anita Bekker for this week's picture of 10 postboxes near Akaroa, New Zealand. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/05/things.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/05/things.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 29 May 2009 17:25:27 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Franco had one testicle. More details 2. That condition is called monorchism. More details 3. Only 26 people a day, on average, used Yangyang International airport in South Korea last year. More details 4. Excessive cola-drinking can cause paralysis. More details 5. 29% of women have never used the internet, but only 20% of men. More details 6. Seven Speakers of the House of Commons were beheaded prior to 1560. More details (Guardian) 7. Britain had animal welfare laws before it had child welfare laws. More details 8. Child protection used to be enforced by uniformed NSPCC inspectors, known as "cruelty men". More details 9. Pringles are potato crisps after all. More details 10. The man who was the voice of Mickey Mouse was married to the woman who did Minnie's. More details Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. Thanks to Caption Competition for this week's picture of 10 Minis. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/05/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_94.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/05/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_94.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 22 May 2009 16:30:37 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Sending nude images via a mobile phone is called "sexting". More details 2. Miss Universe must remain single for a year. More details 3. The Odeon cinema chains are named after their British founder Oscar Deutsch, and the acronym stands for Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation. More details (Daily Mail) 4. Use of the word "carbuncle" to describe a building was first made in the 19th Century to describe Buckingham Palace. More details (Times) 5. We are born violent. More details 6. And a tribe in Bolivia has a festival of violence to settle disputes. More details 7. Joanna Lumley was sounded out by Labour to run as London Mayor in 2000. More details (Times) 8. Plants can water themselves. More details 9. Emotionally intelligent women orgasm more. More details 10. Some petals have velcro-like surfaces. More details Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. Thanks to Andrew Ferguson for this week's picture of 10 lids from Smarties tubes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/05/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_93.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/05/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_93.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 15 May 2009 16:22:49 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. There is a real place called Hicksville. More details 2. Britain once sent an envoy with a quadruple-barrelled name to Moscow - Admiral Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurley Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax. More details 3. Sikhs do not have to wear motorcycle crash helmets. More details (the Guardian) 4. Napoleon wrote chick-lit. More details (the Guardian) 5. John Prescott's toilet seat broke twice. More details 6. Tom Hanks watches Loose Women. More details (Daily Mirror) 7. Youth hostelling was invented in Germany in 1912. More details 8. The use of the word "rat" as an insult in English goes back at least until the 16th Century. More details 9. Two main muscles are used for smiling - the zygomatic muscle turns the corner of the lips up and the orbicularis oculi crinkles the corners of the eyes. More details 10. Birds are actually really rather clever. More details Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. Thanks to Hamna Saeed, from Cardiff, for this picture of the lions in Longleat. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/05/10_things_we_didnt_know_this_t_15.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/05/10_things_we_didnt_know_this_t_15.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 08 May 2009 15:27:39 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Diamonds can be blue. More details 2. Birds can dance. More details 3. You can get a driving licence and credit card in the name of Pudsey Bear, but not a passport. More details 4. The annual salary for the Poet Laureate is £5,750. More details 5. Many mosques in Mecca point the wrong way for prayers. More details 6. Flu vaccines are grown in chicken eggs. More details 7. An outbreak of swine flu in 1976 killed one person but a vaccine to combat it killed 25. More details 8. Adults who are sexually attracted to teenagers are called hebophiles. More details 9. David Attenborough doesn't own any pets. (Radio 5 Live, Sunday, 16 May) 10. Prince was born with epilepsy. More details Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. Thanks to Nick Sharples for this week's picture of 10 jetties in Perth's Yanchep Park. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/05/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_92.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/05/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_92.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 01 May 2009 17:44:37 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Five trees make an orchard. More details 2. Matthew Parris once ran the London Marathon in 2hrs 32m, the fastest by an MP. More details 3. Paper can be made from wombat excrement. More details 4. Robin Hood had no Maid Marian in the early days. More details 5. British consumption of poultry increased 25-fold between 1950 and 2000. More details 6. Video Killed the Radio Star was inspired by a JG Ballard short story. More details 7. Wine varies in taste from day to day. More details 8. French women are the lightest in the EU. British women are the heaviest. More details (The Independent) 9. The Sun is dimmest it has been for a century . More details 10. There's a swear word in The Beatles' Hey Jude. More details (The Times) Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. Thanks to Simon Dale for this week's picture of 10 seagulls in Eastbourne. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/04/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_91.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/04/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_91.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:43:48 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Squatters take over islands, as well as homes. More details 2. White wine has more calories than red wine. More details (Daily Mail) 3. Some ants reproduce without sex. More details 4. About 15% of the world's wine bottles have screw caps. More details 5. If you list your religion as Jedi on the census, the Office of National Statistics will class this as atheist. More details 6. Pandas prefer artificial sweetener to sugar. More details 7. Pigs are the fourth most intelligent animals. More details 8. Being sorry originally meant to be distressed and sad. More details 9. About one in 30 people suffers from agoraphobia. More details 10. A thrown shoe is considered an insult in India, as well as the Middle East, where George Bush famously dodged a lobbed loafer. More details Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. Thanks to Liam Whelan in Barnsley for this week's picture of 10 Yorkshire puddings. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/04/10_things_we_didnt_know_this_t_14.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/04/10_things_we_didnt_know_this_t_14.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:32:50 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Breaking wind is a bookable offence in football. More details 2. Black soldiers fighting for the Free French Forces were removed from the unit which led the liberation of Paris to ensure a "whites only" victory. More details 3. Many of the mosques in Islam's holiest city, Mecca, point the wrong way. More details 4. Britain pays an annual sum to Ireland to cover healthcare costs of Irish workers who have returned home. More details 5. Jellied hoof meat from horses is a delicacy in Siberia. More details 6. Potholes are aggravated by cold weather. More details 7. Car ownership in India is about nine per thousand people. More details 8. Mexico City was once a floating city. More details 9. Six percent of England's streets are littered with rubber bands. More details 10. More than 97% of all e-mail traffic is spam. More details Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. Thanks to Sam Bennett of Sittingbourne, Kent, for this week's picture of 10 cars at the British Touring Car Championships meeting at Brands Hatch last Sunday. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/04/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_90.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/04/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_90.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:33:01 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. The song Agadoo by Black Lace is originally French. More details 2. There are 19 countries in the G20. More details 3. The American signal to stop is a cross of the forearms. More details 4. It requires 60 tonnes of paint to paint the Eiffel Tower. More details (Times) 5. Eating custard cakes daily does not prevent a very long life. More details 6. Chicks count. More details 7. Michelle Obama does high fives. More details 8. When photographing a group of heads of state, the host should stand in the centre at the front and next to him should be the longest-serving leaders. More details (Guardian) 9. Too many grapefruit are bad for you. More details 10. The police tactic of confining demonstrators in a confined space is called kettling. More details Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. Thanks to Charlotte Easton for this week's picture of 10 London Eye pods. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/04/10_things_we_didnt_know_a_week.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/04/10_things_we_didnt_know_a_week.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:13:50 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Tits are also known as bumbarrels. More details 2. The Daily Sport website is banned in the House of Commons. More details 3. Teenagers don't like pink light. More details 4. Crabs feel pain. More details 5. Britons spend six months of their lives queueing. More details (Telegraph) 6. A broken heart is known as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy and it can be cured. More details 7. Britney Spears's family comes from Tottenham in north London. More details 8. People like their tea to have a temperature of 56-60C. More details 9. Hyenas have the strongest jaws in the animal kingdom. More details (Metro) 10. Charles Darwin loved eating vegetables. More details Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. Thanks to Basil Long, and to Jon Dalladay for this week's picture of 10 Victorian rhubarb forcers in the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/03/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_89.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/03/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_89.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:16:57 +0000