Protos

The BBC has an amusing list of “100 things we didn’t know this time last year” – a few examples:

2. Mohammed is now one of the 20 most popular names for boys born in England and Wales.

6. WD-40 dissolves cocaine – it has been used by a pub landlord to prevent drug-taking in his pub’s toilets.

18. If all the Smarties eaten in one year were laid end to end it would equal almost 63,380 miles, more than two-and-a-half times around the Earth’s equator.

20. The Queen has never been on a computer, she told Bill Gates as she awarded him an honorary knighthood.

27. Only in France and California are under 18s banned from using sunbeds.

29. When faced with danger, the octopus can wrap six of its legs around its head to disguise itself as a fallen coconut shell and escape by walking backwards on the other two legs, scientists discovered.

32. “Restaurant” is the most mis-spelled word in search engines.

36. The average employee spends 14 working days a year on personal e-mails, phone calls and web browsing, outside official breaks, according to employment analysts Captor.

38. Nasa boss Michael Griffin has seven university degrees: a bachelor’s degree, a PhD, and five masters degrees.

45. C3PO and R2D2  do not speak to each other off-camera because the actors don’t get on.

50. Only 36% of the world’s newspapers are tabloid.

53. It takes 75kg of raw materials to make a mobile phone.

60. Newborn dolphins and killer whales don’t sleep for a month, according to research carried out by University of California.

71. Jimi Hendrix pretended to be gay to be discharged from the US Army.

72. A towel doesn’t legally reserve a sun lounger – and there is nothing in German or Spanish law to stop other holidaymakers removing those left on vacant seats.

73. One in six  children think that broccoli is a baby tree.

74. It takes a gallon of oil to make three fake fur coats.

78. One in 18 people has a third nipple.

87. Pulling your foot out of quicksand takes a force equivalent to that needed to lift a medium-sized car.

92. You are 176 times more likely to be murdered than to win the National Lottery.

94. Bill Gates does not have an iPod.

99. The Japanese word “chokuegambo” describes the wish that there were more designer-brand shops on a given street.

More @: news.bbc.co.uk