http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/ The Magazine's recommended daily allowance of news, culture and your letters. en Copyright 2012 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:35:28 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.33-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. The last chocolate in the box really does taste better. More details (Daily Mail) 2. Diogenes extended his middle finger as a gesture of contempt in 4th Century BC Athens. More details 3. A severed head was a Valentine's gift in 19th Century Taiwan. More details (Independent) 4. Hitler was embarrassed about a photograph showing him wearing lederhosen. More details (The Times) 5. Cabbages can talk to each other. More details (Daily Mail) 6. Lizards can survive a spin in the washing machine. More details 7. A source in an FBI report described Steve Jobs as a "deceptive individual who is not completely forthright and honest". More details (Daily Telegraph) 8. David Beckham has only three close friends. More details (Daily Mail) 9. Seagrass is the oldest living thing on earth. More details (Daily Telegraph) 10. Having an easy-to-say name makes you more likely to get promoted. More details (Daily Telegraph) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2012/02/10_things_19.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2012/02/10_things_19.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:35:28 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Newt Gingrich's name at birth was Newton Leroy McPherson. More details (LA Times) 2. Lard lasts 64 years. More details 3. Castaways on Desert Island Discs have taken 183 pianos, five trombones, the Albert Memorial and a cheeseburger machine. More details 4. Twitter is more addictive than cigarettes. More details (The Guardian) 5. Tree trunks can be played like vinyl records. More details 6. Tripe is one of Nelson Mandela's favourite foods. More details 7. Gorillas reassure each other by grinning. More details 8. The earth is getting lighter. More details 9. More babies were born in the UK during 1920 than in any other year. More details (Daily Telegraph) 10. Fans of snowdrops are known as galanthophiles. More details http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2012/02/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_216.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2012/02/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_216.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:30:21 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. The English eat more haggis than the Scots. More details (Daily Telegraph) 2. The Dead Sea is only two-thirds the size it was in the 1930s. More details 3. Mice sing. More details (Press Association) 4. Of 163,000 space rocks owned by Nasa, 517 are missing. More details (New York Times) 5. The world's most competitive espresso market is the UK. More details (The Independent) 6. Dinosaurs were good mothers. More details (Daily Telegraph) 7. Welsh doctors once used the skin of puppies as a dermatological treatment. More details 8. King Charles II served his banquet guests 145 dishes during a single first course. More details 9. A Lego man is capable of space flight. More details (CTV) 10. Elephants can wear contact lenses. More details (Daily Mirror) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2012/01/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_215.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2012/01/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_215.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:15:10 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. A Sudoku with fewer than 17 numbers filled in will have more than one possible solution. More details (New Scientist) 2. Skydiving can help you earn a GCSE qualification. More details 3. A horse fly is named after Beyonce. More details (Daily Telegraph) 4. State workers in South Carolina answer the phone with, "It's a great day in South Carolina." More details (New York Times) 5. Snakes know when their prey's heart stops beating. More details 6. The average US share holding lasts 22 seconds. More details (Daily Telegraph) 7. Sound travels five times faster through water than through air. More details 8. Michelle Obama has a pair of $515 (£332) trainers. More details (The Guardian) 9. Beer brewed 75 years ago can still be drinkable. More details (Small World News) 10. The government of Iraq considers the buttocks from a toppled statue of Saddam Hussein part of its national antiquity. More details (Hereford Times) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2012/01/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_214.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2012/01/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_214.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:50:50 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Diners in China subvert salad bar rules by building elaborate towers of food. More details (Daily Mail) 2. People eat Christmas trees. More details 3. The Milky Way is white. More details 4. Authors who finish other writers' unfinished works are known as "continuators". More details 5. Monkeys have faces that help them find each other. More details 6. Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975. More details 7. Frogs can be very, very small. More details 8. Superglue is used in forensics. More details 9. Stars blow bubbles. More details 10. Some people think dogs can act. More details http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2012/01/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_213.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2012/01/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_213.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:44:55 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. Bees are being turned into "zombies" by a parasitic fly. More details (Daily Telegraph) Scientist Stephen Hawking does not understand women. More details (Mirror) Bond star Daniel Craig does not like his knees. More details (Daily Telegraph) Brain function can start declining at the age of 45 - much earlier than previously thought. More details Loch Ness tilts back and forth each day. More details The town of Swindon is twinned with Walt Disney World in Florida. More details JRR Tolkien was passed over for the 1961 Nobel literature prize as judges deemed his prose "second-rate". More details A young Hitler may have been saved from drowning by a priest. More details (Daily Telegraph) Lord Byron was one of the first diet icons. More details Events can be made to "disappear" through a hole in time. More details (Christian Science Monitor) http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2012/01/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_212.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2012/01/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_212.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:06:13 +0000 Interesting and unexpected facts can emerge from daily news stories and the Magazine picks out such snippets for its weekly feature, 10 things we didn't know last week. Here's an almanac of the best of 2011. 1. Birds binge drink. More details 2. Bald people grow the wrong type of hair - so fine it's invisible to the naked eye. More details 3. Aristotle is thought to have been the last individual to know everything that was known at the time. More details 4. Women's tears reduce sexual desire in men. More details (Guardian) 5. President Kennedy's famous line "Do not ask..." was inspired by the headmaster of his prep school. More details 6. Princess Diana had two wedding dresses - one a back-up design in case her first choice was revealed before the big day. More details 7. Huskies can smell thin ice. More details 8. JD Salinger was a fan of Tim Henman. More details 9. Good cops are better at getting confessions than bad cops. More details (Daily Mirror) 10. The average hug lasts three seconds. More details (Daily Telegraph) 11. Cattle once regularly swam between Hebridean islands. More details 12. Elton John has no mobile phone. More details 13. Incan brides had to peel a potato to prove they would be a good wife. More details 14. UK postal workers get through two million red rubber bands a day. More details 15. Artist LS Lowry was a debt collector. More details 16. The ransom paid to release Richard the Lionheart, captured in 1192 on his return from the Crusades, was the equivalent of about £2bn in today's money. More details 17. People with full bladders make better decisions. More details (Daily Telegraph) 18. Chickens feel empathy. More details (Daily Telegraph) 19. About 40% of skyscrapers due to be completed in the next six years will be in China. More details (Economist) 20. St Patrick's Day is a national holiday in Montserrat. More details 21. Sharks go to the cleaners. More details 22. More than 90% of UK schoolchildren study Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. More details 23. YouTube's first video was called "Me at the zoo". More details 24. The average person uses 20,000 words, with another 40,000 in reserve. More details 25. One in six people live in India. More details (Daily Express) 26. The word "loo" dates from medieval times, thought to have derived from the warning shout of "gardez l'eau!" given by those tipping chamber pots out the window. More details 27. Seat belts are banned on some roads. More details 28. Male humpback whales play "Chinese whispers" across 6,000km. More details 29. Dogs watch how nice people are to others to work out whom to approach to beg for food. More details (Daily Mail) 30. Swearing relieves pain. More details (Daily Telegraph) 31. A rare version of God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols is the most valuable record of all time. More details 32. French police are currently allowed 25cl of wine or a small beer with their lunch while on duty. More details (Daily Telegraph) 33. Transparent typewriters are sold to prisons, to avoid the risk of hidden contraband. More details (The Daily Feed) 34. The perfect nap lasts 26 minutes. More details 35. New York taxis used to be red and green, but in 1907 were all repainted yellow to be visible from a distance. More details (Daily Telegraph) 36. It costs $60,000 to train a Navy Seal dog - like the one that accompanied US special forces on the Bin Laden operation. More details (The Times) 37. Humans stare longer at people with bad reputations. More details (Daily Telegraph) 38. There are only two beret factories left in France. More details 39. It is illegal to sell moon rocks in the US. More details 40. "Dong xuan" means frozen garlic in China, but winning an election in Taiwan. More details 41. Heart disease is less common among religious people. More details 42. Vultures are better than sniffer dogs at searching large, overgrown areas for dead bodies. More details 43. The odds of scoring two hole-in-ones in the same round of golf are 67 million-to-one. More details 44. Chimps can outperform eight-year-olds in solving problems. More details 45. Women don't see Porsche drivers as marriage material. More details 46. The yellow brick road leads to a car park. More details (Wall Street Journal) 47. Sonic the Hedgehog's shoes are based on Michael Jackson's footwear in the Bad video. More details 48. Half of Britons have German blood. More details (Daily Telegraph) 49. The US only got its first roundabout in 1990, in Nevada. More details 50. The male water boatman insect sings with its penis. More details 51. California has drawn up a legal definition for the hot dog. More details (Daily Mail) 52. The UK's Speaking Clock still receives 30 million calls each year. More details 53. Stick insects can go without sex for a million years. More details 54. Cows have best friends. More details (Daily Mail) 55. Apple has more cash than the US government. More details 56. Uganda's national anthem is the world's shortest. More details 57. There are poisonous rats. More details 58. A hole dug in the ground qualified as a private members' club in Wales. More details 59. A shorter than average tongue makes it more difficult to speak Korean. More details (The Sun) 60. Singing sparrows are actually trading insults. More details (Daily Mail) 61. Asda Illustrated is the UK's top-selling magazine. More details (Press Gazette) 62. Mr Men author Roger Hargreaves was the third best-selling author of the last decade, topped only by JK Rowling and Dan Brown. More details (Metro) 63. The average Briton suffers 726 hangovers in a lifetime. More details (Daily Mail) 64. Steve Jobs patented designs for two glass staircases - now used in many Apple stores. More details (New York Times) 65. Getting married increases the risk of putting on weight. More details 66. The world's atmosphere is worth £4.3 quadrillion, going by the air we breathe in and the price of CO2. More details (Metro) 67. In 1941 state surveys in the UK asked how many bras women owned. More details 68. Crocodiles go off their food when stressed. More details (Guardian) 69. The Queen's swans get flu jabs. More details (Daily Telegraph) 70. Women remember men with a deep voice more than those with a high voice. More details (Daily Mail) 71. Australians have a third choice when describing their gender on passport applications. More details 72. Yawning cools down the brain. More details (Huffington Post) 73. MI5 used to have special kettles kept solely for steaming open envelopes. More details (Reith Lecture) 74. Facebook remembers all the devices you've ever used to log in, and who else has used that same device. More details (Forbes) 75. Letters addressed to Kabul include directions - there are few street names and numbers, and no postcodes. More details 76. Preston bus station is on this year's list of at-risk cultural heritage sites, along with the Nazca Lines in Peru and a Greek cemetery. More details (Daily Mail) 77. The first e-book, back in the 1970s, was the US Declaration of Independence. More details 78. One in six mobile phones in Britain is contaminated with poo. More details 79. Piranhas bark. More details 80. There is a decrease in natural births on Halloween and an increase on Valentines Day. More details (Mother and Baby) 81. Alice Cooper runs a Bible class. More details (Daily Mail) 82. Staffordshire town Burton upon Trent now has its own perfume, Eau de Burton, with hints of football boots and Branston Pickle. More details (Burton Mail) 83. Polar bears have a surprisingly weak bite, while giant pandas have a very strong one. More details 84. Rival rugby teams face a fine if they stray over the half-way line while the All Blacks perform the haka. More details (Daily Telegraph) 85. Horses with distinctive black-and-white leopard-like markings roamed Europe 25,000 years ago. More details (Wired) 86. Scottish remembrance poppies have four petals and no leaf, unlike the more common two petals and a single green leaf. More details 87. Jimmy Savile and Margaret Thatcher celebrated New Year's Eve together 11 years in a row. More details (Daily Telegraph) 88. Thierville in Normandy did not lose any service personnel in France's last five major wars. More details 89. Many Afghans associate the number 39 with pimps. More details 90. Until 1912 there was no set design for the Stars and Stripes. More details 91. In the fifth and sixth decades of life, you are less likely to die over the coming year than at any other time in your life. More details 92. Facebook users average 3.74 degrees of separation. More details 93. The world's only sex school is in Austria. More details (Daily Mail) 94. Wasps recognise each other's faces. More details (Nature) 95. You are given a lottery ticket if you clean up dog poo in New Taipei City in Taiwan. More details 96. The girl on the classic British road sign "children going to or from school" is based on a school photo of its designer Margaret Calvert. More details 97. Alcohol tastes sweeter when loud music is playing. More details (Daily Mail) 98. Hairy limbs keep bed bugs at bay. More details 99. Lakes can be given village green status. More details 100. Fish walk. More details http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2011/12/100_things_we_didnt_know_last_6.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2011/12/100_things_we_didnt_know_last_6.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 30 Dec 2011 08:04:05 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Pet crocodiles in the UK have to be micro chipped. More details 2. Kim Jong-il was known by 50 names, including Dear Leader, Supreme Leader, Our Father, The General, Generalissimo. More details (Daily Telegraph) 3. There is a 100-year-old Christmas cake. More details (Daily Mail) 4. The average webpage has grown 33% in size in the last year, up from 726 kilobytes in 2010 to about 965 kilobytes in 2011. More details 5. This year's top10 most watched YouTube clips have racked up more than 285 million hits worldwide since being posted onto the internet. More details 6. The world record for Christmas lights covering a property is 331,038 lights. More details 7. Sleeping on left side of the bed makes you more cheerful and positive. More details (Daily Mail) 8. Britain's cheapest house this year sold for £16,000. More details (Express and Star) 9. In Scotland you can eat deep fried butter. More details (Daily Telegraph) 10. The first celebrity to enter the US chart of the most popular search terms this year across all search engines is Justin Bieber at 92. More details (Daily Mail) Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2011/12/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_211.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2011/12/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_211.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:04:04 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Fish walk. More details 2. Ground walnuts are now used by set designers for theatrical dust. More details (Daily Telegraph) 3. Men are at their most competitive between the ages of 45 and 54. More details (Guardian) 4. Hairy limbs keep bed bugs at bay. More details 5. Alcohol tastes sweeter when loud music is playing. More details (Daily Mail) 6. The UK often tops world rankings in terms of the number of tornadoes per square kilometre. More details 7. A cat can have 26 toes. More details (Daily Telegraph) 8. The name "God Particle" began as a reference to "that goddamn particle". More details (Economist) 9. Ibuprofen was developed in house in Nottingham. More details 10. You can have a faecal transplant. More details Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2011/12/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_210.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2011/12/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_210.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:17:36 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. The Crown owns almost half of the UK's shoreline. More details (Daily Telegraph) 2. Four out of the past nine governors of the US state of Illinois have gone to prison. More details (Washington Post) 3. You are given a lottery ticket if you clean up dog poo in New Taipei City in Taiwan.More details 4. There is a bamboo plantation on the outskirts of Amsterdam. More details (Daily Mail) 5. Polar bears are cannibals. More details 6. Singer Adele doesn't like North American beer. More details (Mirror) 7. Brussels sprouts are up to 20% bigger this year. More details (Daily Mail) 8. The girl on the classic road sign "children going to or from school" is based on a school photo of its designer Margaret Calvert. More details 9. Swedish fashion chain H&M has been using doctored photos of shop dummies - superimposed with real-life models' heads - as bikini bodies on its website. More details (The Independent) 10. The world's oldest dog, who died this week, lived to the equivalent of about 125 years for a human. More details (Daily Telegraph) Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2011/12/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_209.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2011/12/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_209.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 09 Dec 2011 09:35:31 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Ravens are the only species other than apes who can "point" and share objects like humans. ">More details (Daily Mail) 2. You are not allowed to take conkers from Royal parks. More details (Daily Telegraph) 3. More than one in every 10 banknotes in circulation in Britain is contaminated with cocaine. More details (Guardian) 4. The world's only sex school is in Austria. ">More details (Daily Mail) 5. The FTSE, the London stock market measure of leading share prices, was the most popular Yahoo search this year, ahead of the likes of Justin Bieber and Katie Price. More details (This Is Money) 6. Turtles communicate with each other before hatching. ">More details (Daily Telegraph) 7. Having a shed can lower your blood pressure. ">More details (Daily Mail) 8. The 12 days of Christmas now cost: $101,119, the most expensive item being seven swans a swimming, which would cost $6,300. More details (The Consumerist) 9. Wasps recognise each other's faces. More details (Nature) 10. Swearing really can relieve pain. More details (Daily Telegraph) Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2011/12/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_208.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2011/12/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_208.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 02 Dec 2011 15:31:44 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Hugh Grant's middle name is Mungo. More details 2. Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls cries when he watches the Antiques Roadshow. More details (Daily Mirror) 3. Facebook users average 3.74 degrees of separation. More details 4. In the fifth and sixth decades of life, you are less likely to die over the coming year than at any other time in your life. More details 5. The average shower lasts eight minutes and uses almost as much water and energy as the average bath. More details 6. The newly discovered Bulbophyllum nocturnum is the only orchid among 25,000 species that flowers at night. More details (Guardian) 7. Human spit is threatening Calcutta's landmark Howrah Bridge. More details 8. The average Briton says thank you up to 5,000 times a year. More details (Daily Telegraph) 9. Desmond Llewelyn played Q - James Bond's gadget whizz - for 36 years. More details (The Sun) 10. The Christmas tree at St Pancras railway station in London is made from 600,000 Lego bricks. More details Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2011/11/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_207.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2011/11/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_207.shtml 10 Things... Thu, 24 Nov 2011 14:29:11 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. There is such a thing as "toast soup". More details 2. Use of the word disgusted in English peaked in 1800. More details 3. Until 1912, there was no set design for the Stars and Stripes. More details 4. Salman Rushdie's first name is Ahmed. More details 5. Many Afghans associate the number 39 with pimps. More details 6. There is a steep hill in the UK called Steep Hill. More details 7. There is no such thing as bullet-proof glass. More details 8. The brains of people who regularly play computer games differ from those of infrequent gamers. More details 9. The Duke of Wellington was so impressed by his French opponents' invention of the ambulance that he ordered his men not to fire on them. More details 10. People can spot whether a complete stranger has a certain "social gene" in just 20 seconds. More details Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2011/11/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_206.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2011/11/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_206.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:47:33 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Thierville in Normandy did not lose any service personnel in France's last five wars. More details 2. Scottish remembrance poppies have four petals and no leaf, unlike the more common two petals and a single green leaf. More details 3. A Browning machine gun can be made to fire after 70 years buried in a bog. More details 4. Horses with distinctive black-and-white leopard-like markings roamed Europe 25,000 years ago. More details 5. A devil's face has been hidden for centuries in a fresco by the Italian renaissance master Giotto. More details 6. Occupy was the most commonly used word in print and on the internet in the past year, according to one study. More details 7. Penguins enjoy mud spas. More details 8. British consulates cannot supply Phil Collins' phone number. More details 9. 11.11.11 is the day that most closely resembles corduroy. More details 10. Locally produced pound notes are used as currency in Totnes, Devon, and Lewes, Sussex. More details Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2011/11/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_205.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2011/11/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_205.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:43:22 +0000 Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience. 1. Robert Hardy has played Winston Churchill on seven occasions. More details 2. Polar bears have a surprisingly weak bite, while giant pandas have very strong one. More details 3. Texas Hold 'Em is the world's most popular form of poker. More details 4. Being born in August can result in low confidence and self-esteem. More details 5. A butcher's shop in Dorset, founded during the reign of Henry VIII, is Britain's oldest family business. More details (Daily Mail) 6. Jimmy Savile and Margaret Thatcher celebrated New Year's Eve together for 11 years in a row. More details (Daily Telegraph) 7. People in England eat more fruit and vegetables than those in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. More details 8. There were fewer than 300 motor cars on the road in France in August 1900. More details (Daily Telegraph) 9. Young Chinese girls in Hunan province used Nushu, a language that no men could read, to communicate with one another. More details (Guardian) 10. Kensington Palace has obscene graffiti dating back to 1902. More details (Daily Telegraph) Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2011/11/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_204.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2011/11/10_things_we_didnt_know_last_w_204.shtml 10 Things... Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:30:56 +0000