Interesting Facts

Among the 50,000 Guinness World Records, less than 50 records are held by China. (However, they are making an effort. The proud new record holders of making the largest ice cream cake in the world. Seemingly it took 20 people 20 days to create the eight ton cake in Beijing. The huge ice cream cake is (was) 4.8 meters (15.74 feet) long, 3 meters (9.84 feet) wide and 1 meter (3.28 feet) tall and weighs eight tons - 2.5 tons heavier than the previous record set by Americans in 2004. Come on guys!)

In the UK you can send the following by Royal Mail:- Bees Leeches Silkworms Caterpillars Earthworms Lugworms Fish eggs Maggots Mealworms Ragworms ...but only in the correct packaging

There are more than 150,000 computer viruses in the world. (I have had the lot - thank you world. Actually, I have it on good authority that there is a special place in hell for virus writers.)

Researchers studying shoppers' baskets found people who bought wine also tended to buy poultry, cooking oil and low-fat cheese. Beer buyers, on the other hand, tended to buy chips, pork, butter, margarine, and sausages. (What about people like me, I buy both wine and beer! But not sausages and certainly not low-fat cheese - what's the point?)

Members of an isolated tribe in the Amazonian rainforest can understand geometry as well as American schoolchildren. (why does this not surprise me?)

Web users on the internet, make their judgements about websites within a twentieth of a second of first seeing it. (Oh dear. I'm in trouble.)

Emperor penguins can hold their breath for 20 minutes underwater. (I can hold my breath for 1 minute - until I have to speak again.)

Bono wears sunglasses because he has sensitive eyes. (Ahh Bless!)

An impressive lineup of Bulgaria's future athletes take to all fours in a lively competition that's become an annual event. A fast-crawling competition was the highlight of a local event celebrating babies and motherhood in Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second city. Watch the video on Reuters.

Less than 10% of the land in the UK is owned by homeowners. (The rest is the landed gentry, companies, the crown, the MOD ...)

Google employs 40 new staff a week. (Gi's a job!)

Looking away from a human face helps concentration. (Look into my eyes. - NO! I'm trying to think.)

Alanis Morisette cuts her own hair. (She says, "It's easier". Me, I can't even use the curling iron.)

The BBC has a Pronunciation Unit. (So now you know whom to blame.)

'Yogh', pronounced "yog", is a letter in old English and Scots which has no exact equivalent today. It used to be written a bit like the old copperplate-style "z" (it looked like a 3), helps explain the discrepancy between the spelling of Menzies and the pronunciation "Mingis". The rise of printing in the 16th Century coincided with the decline of the yogh, and so it tended to be rendered in print as a "z", and pronounced as such. (This means that newsagent John Menzies is more properly pronounced John Ming-iss.)

According to a new poll, Stonehenge, the FA Cup and the red Routemaster bus are among England's most popular icons. (I didn't even appear on the list.)

More than 9,000 drivers were arrested in England and Wales for drink-driving over Christmas 2005. (Incredible. Years and years of warnings of the danger of drink driving come to nought.)

Google is to start selling video online, offering a way for people to search for and buy TV shows and more through its site. (I only hope it offers this service globally, then we can talk about the TV shows on PalTalk.)

World famous Brazilian footballer Pele has always hated his nickname, which he says sounds like "baby-talk in Portuguese". (He was actually born Edson Arantes do Nascimento and his parents used to call him Dico, so he should be grateful.)

A third of orchestral musicians suffer noise-induced hearing loss. (Now that's what I call rock and roll.)

A laser beam can travel 15 million miles (25 million km). (It can, but does it want to?)

Cattle are capable of producing 500 litres of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, every day. (The gas is produced mostly through belching, although the other end gets involved too.  Maybe we could harness all this energy to run our heating and cut down on global warming.)

Black Gold caviar costs £20,000 per kilo. (Umm has anyone ever told them it's fish eggs?)

In America it's possible to subpoena a dog. (I thought the law was an ass, not a pooch.)

The = sign was invented by 16th Century Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde, who was fed up with writing "is equal to" in his equations. (Seemingly he chose the two lines because "noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle".)

Until the 1940s rhubarb was considered a vegetable. It became a fruit when US customs officials, baffled by the foreign food, decided it should be classified according to the way it was eaten. (My personal classification is still poisonous.)

One in 10 Europeans is allegedly conceived in an Ikea bed. (On any given Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people in the UK visit an Ikea. Last year 33 million people visited at least one of the stores.)

In the UK it's an offence to drop litter on the pavement, however it's not an offence to throw it over someone's garden wall. (They do say the law is an ass - well this proves it.)

People can train their bodies to heat up, helping them survive longer in icy water. (I hope you don't mind if I don't test this theory.)

Musical instrument shops must pay an annual royalty to cover shoppers who perform a recognisable riff before they buy, thereby making a "public performance". (That's it! The world has officially gone mad! Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!)

The Body Shop is banned from China where cosmetics have to be tested on animals, says Dame Anita Roddick. (Just goes to show the difference in cultural attitudes towards our furry and feathery friends.)

"Restaurant" is the most mis-spelled word in search engines. Restaurant = 423,000,000 Restaraunt = 1,380,000 Restorant = 306,000 Restarant = 193,000 Restauraunt = 163,000 Restoraunt = 12,700

Magnetic North is not fixed, but in fact is drifting at such a speed away from northern Canada it could be in Siberia in 50 years. (No wonder I can never find my way around!)