100 Things We Didn't Know Last Year

gollum123 writes "The BBC news magazine is running a compilation of the interesting and sometimes downright unexpected facts that we did not know last year, but now know. Some examples — There are 200 million blogs which are no longer being updated, say technology analysts. Urban birds have developed a short, fast 'rap style' of singing, different from their rural counterparts. The lion costume in the film 'Wizard of Oz' was made from real lions. Online shoppers will only wait an average of four seconds for an internet page to load before giving up. Just one cow gives off enough harmful methane gas in a single day to fill around 400 litre bottles. For every 10 successful attempts to climb Mount Everest there is one fatality. Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobiacs is the term for people who fear the number 666. The egg came first."

Duh

[UbuntuDupe (970646)]

Just one cow gives off enough harmful methane gas in a single day to fill around 400 litre bottles.

That doesn't sound very surprising, given that a gas always fills its container, just like a liquid always takes its container's shape.

Oh, and by the way, if, like me, you went straight to the bird one [bbc.co.uk], you couldn't but snicker at the picture's caption: "There are an estimated 1.7million great tit pairs in the UK."

Re:Duh

[Sciros (986030)]

There's another sentence in there that starts well: "The research focused on great tits in ten major European cities, including London, Paris, Amsterdam and Prague..."

Reminds me of the vacation I took this past August.

Well yeah, but...

[Robot Randy (982296)]

While what you say is true, I expect that they are talking about it filling the bottles at sea level pressure.

And having visited the UK in 2002, I can vouch for there being quite a lot of great tit pairs.

Re:Duh

[by Anonymous Coward]

Just one cow gives off enough harmful methane gas in a single day to fill around 400 litre bottles.

So how much unharmful methane does it give off? Do you know that you breathe out deadly carbon dioxide? That the earth is infested with deadly dihydrogen monoxide? That 40% of all sick days are taken monday and friday?

Useless liberal fear mongering.

Re:

[AKAImBatman (238306)]

Happy cows don't really come from California as the commercial states, overheated, dead cows come from California. Good thing we learned that last summer though so they can stop running that stupid ad (I'm from Wisconsin by the way)

Not to mention that Wisconsin makes better cheese. We care about our curds, man! ;-)

Re:

[soloport (312487)]

We care about our curds, man!

No whey, man. You do?

Re:Duh

[Cadallin (863437)]

Generally, Yes you'd measure it at 1atm. I'm actually surprised it isn't more than 400L. Note that one mole (6.0223x10^23 molecules, or atoms) of ideal gas (almost all normally encountered gases are close enough to be considered ideal) occupies 22.4L at 1atm. Noting that 1 mole of substance has a mass equal to the substance'as molecular weight in grams, which is 16g/mol for methane. That means that a Cow produces on average about 285 grams of methane per day. Which isn't all that much really.

Taking this further, by rough guesstimate, you'd need around 4000 grams of methane to substitute for a gallon of gas (This one is pretty rough, I'm using 4L is approximately 1 gallon, and ignoring that methane is significantly less dense than water, on the other hand, methane is also less energy dense than octane, so there you go), giving about 2 cow-weeks to produce the equivalent of a gallon of gas (assuming no loses). On the basis of this, I'd say you should take suggestions to run your car on cow methane with a huge grain of salt.

Re:

[zeno_2 (518291)]

So.. id need around 4kg of methane to substitute a gallon of gas (i'm realizing this is a big guesstimate), which takes about 2 weeks to create. How long did it take to make that gallon of gas, a few hundred millions of years or so? I'm not really trying to convince anyone that methane is the way to go, but using a figure of time to show how long it takes to create a type of fuel doesn't really work here. Of course you have the fact that petroleum is releasing CO2 into the atmosphere, and that CO2 has be

Re:Duh

[lahvak (69490)]

Anyway, the thing that I found curious about this whole thing is why they used the metric "400 1 litre bottles" - how would that be any different from filling a single 400 litre bottle?

Because 400 one litre bottles will need more plastic than one 400 litre bottle, thus making it even more harmful to the environment.

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobiacs

[duguk (589689)]

Though the 666 term of 'Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobiacs' is true, in 2005, "a fragment of papyrus was revealed, containing the earliest known version of that part of the Book of Revelation discussing the Number of the Beast. It gave the number as 616, suggesting that this may have been the original."

FYI: Port 616 is officially registered to SCO System Administration Server.

Re:

[SamSim (630795)]

616 also happens to be the reality designation number of the mainstream Marvel Universe [wikipedia.org]. Which, as we all know, is evil. Ish.

Re:Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobiacs

[by Anonymous Coward]

aibohphobia (the fear of palindromes) didn't make the list.

Re:

[chitokutai (758566)]

Isn't this the fear of the electronic dog Aibo? That bastard creeps me out!

The Pope's been known to wear red Prada shoes

[$RANDOMLUSER (804576)]

I thought The Devil Wears Prada [imdb.com].

Re:

[MrHanky (141717)]

The Pope has also been known (to some) to be the Anti-Christ.

Re:The Pope's been known to wear red Prada shoes

[MBCook (132727)]

Have you seen him [news.com.au] lately?

Re:

[$RANDOMLUSER (804576)]

Yeah. Here's another [att.net].

Sure

[by Anonymous Coward]

facts that we did not know last year

Sure, but I knew I didn't know these facts last year. I'm interested in things that I didn't know that I didn't know.

Known unknowns just aren't that interesting.

Re:Sure

[by Anonymous Coward]

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

Donald Rumsfeld, Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing

Re:

[WhiplashII (542766)]

What's sad is that what he is saying is true, and is a very important part of dealing with the world effectively.

But nobody gets it, so they think it is funny. Please don't attempt anything important until you understand the statements you just ridiculed...

Re:Sure

[JayBlalock (635935)]

Um... I don't know about anyone else, but I got it completely.

*I* find it funny\ironic\interesting because, when Rummy was just rooting around trying to find a way to dodge a reporter's question, he accidentally made a profoundly poetic, even zen, philosophical statement. When properly spaced out like parent did, I truly believe that could stand alongside the great insights of the great writers of the world. In terms of form, composition, and truth, it is nearly perfect.

Which means just about the LAST place you'd expect it to come from is the mouth of the man whose job otherwise was to blow up as much of the known world as he could.

And that's what makes it funny.

And just for the record, the A.C. parent posted no commentary. Just the moment of zen. And others modded it as funny (and insightful!). Why did you automatically assume he was ridiculing it?

Great tits!

[garcia (6573)]

The research focused on great tits in ten major European cities, including London, Paris, Amsterdam and Prague, and compared them to forest-dwellers.

I'd be singing faster rap style songs too rather than longer melodies if it attracted mates with great tits.

Chicken or the Egg?

[Zashi (992673)]

We know the egg came first because it was the first to light up its cigarette and ask "how was it, baby?"

Oblig python

[Weaselmancer (533834)]

43. There is only one cheddar cheese maker in Cheddar, even though cheddar is the most popular hard cheese in the English-speaking world.

Not 'round here, sir.

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobiacs...

[creimer (824291)]

In the old days, people would scream "the Devil!" when they pronounced the number 666. These days we have a long word to wrap our tongues around to pronounce the number 666. I guess Word Nazis rule hell.

this article is silly

[xilmaril (573709)]

They say that last year we didn't know that... Panspermia is the theory that life came from other planets???

I scanned down the list for a bit, but when I saw that, I just had to reread it in surprise, then close that browser tab. I knew that a long, long time ago, as did a lot of other science or science-fiction fans. The wikipedia article on panspermia cites its usage as early as 2000.

I was kind of disappointed.

stat on everest

[vingilot (218702)]

For every 10 successful attempts to climb Mount Everest there is one fatality.

This is per expedition. See:
http://www.americanalpineclub.org/pdfs/aaj/HueyEve restAAJ_03.pdf [americanalpineclub.org]

1 in 54 climbers dies. 1 in 10 expeditions will experience a fatality.

For any climbers out there the above reference has good statistics of risk, including vs denali and k2.

Re:stat on everest

[rubycodez (864176)]

thus we see it is far safer to climb mt. everest than to be president of the U.S.A.

Very true

[mangu (126918)]

These are the POTUS who died in office, with the years of their last election and dates of death:

William Henry Harrison --- elected 1840, died April 4, 1841 at Washington, D.C.
Zachary Taylor --- elected 1848, died July 9, 1850 at Washington, D.C.
Abraham Lincoln --- elected 1864, died April 15, 1865 at Washington, D.C.
James Garfield --- elected 1880, died September 19, 1881 at Elberon, New Jersey
William McKinley --- elected 1900, died September 14, 1901 at Buffalo, New York
Warren G. Harding --- elected 1920, died August 2, 1923 San Francisco, California
Franklin D. Roosevelt --- elected 1944, died April 12, 1945 at Warm Springs, Georgia
John F. Kennedy --- elected 1960, died November 22, 1963 at Dallas, Texas

Of 42 people who were elected, 8 died in office, almost one in five...

Re:stat on everest

[PrinceAshitaka (562972)]

Unfortunatly this kind of logical reasoning precludes you from the job.

godless evolutionist pagans!!!

[C0vardeAn0nim0 (232451)]

*sarcasm on*

"The egg came first."

read and weep evolutionists:

"And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and l

Re:godless evolutionist pagans!!!

[Surt (22457)]

Actually, birdseed came before the chicken OR the egg ;)

I thought birdseed was what was released when the chicken came.

1.5p

[Paradise Pete (33184)]

Flushing a toilet costs 1.5p, but the cost of requiring flushing is, of course, only 1p.

Most useful

[nick255 (139962)]

The one I found most useful was:

79. The best-value consumer purchase in terms of the price and usage is an electric kettle.

I wonder what the worst is?

Urban birds and 'rap style'

[GrumpySimon (707671)]

Dear god that's just stupid - It's got absolutely nothing to do with rapping or urbanisation, just communication. The more I see of science reporting, the more depressed I get (hence I'm trying to do it better myself).

The original report said that the urban birds have shorter songs with an upshift in frequency, all the better to compete with traffic noise. You can read a more sciency report on it at Science Daily [sciencedaily.com]. The paper's abstract:

Worldwide urbanization and the ongoing rise of urban noise levels form a major threat to living conditions in and around cities. Urban environments typically homogenize animal communities, and this results, for example, in the same few bird species' being found everywhere. Insight into the behavioral strategies of the urban survivors may explain the sensitivity of other species to urban selection pressures. Here, we show that songs that are important to mate attraction and territory defense have significantly diverged in great tits (Parus major), a very successful urban species. Urban songs were shorter and sung faster than songs in forests, and often concerned atypical song types. Furthermore, we found consistently higher minimum frequencies in ten out of ten city-forest comparisons from London to Prague and from Amsterdam to Paris. Anthropogenic noise is most likely a dominant factor driving these dramatic changes. These data provide the most consistent evidence supporting the acoustic-adaptation hypothesis since it was postulated in the early seventies. At the same time, they reveal a behavioral plasticity that may be key to urban success and the lack of which may explain detrimental effects on bird communities that live in noisy urbanized areas or along highways.

From Current Biology here [current-biology.com] and you can even listen to the songs yourself [current-biology.com].

Re:

[GrumpySimon (707671)]

Are rap songs shorter with an upshift in frequency? I doubt it.

Sure, I may be being a little bit uh, anal here, but a glib report along the lines of "it's like a rap song" just trivialises and dumbs down the research which is actually quite neat: these birds have adjusted their songs to compete with the other noises in their environment, showing a high level of behavioral plasticity.

Re:

[dangitman (862676)]

Are rap songs shorter with an upshift in frequency? I doubt it.

Pretty much, yes. It has a "sharp" style, and words are pronounced much more quickly than in rock, folk, opera - in fact, it is sung more quickly than just about any genre I can think of. And while rap is known for deep basslines, the vocals are higher pitched than other genres, both to distinguish them from the bass, and as a side-effect of the quicker pace. Of course, rap varies, and some rappers use a deep voice, but the majority of it is higher-pitched than equivalent songs in other genres like rock.

Sure, I may be being a little bit uh, anal here, but a glib report along the lines of "it's like a rap song" just trivialises and dumbs down the research which is actually quite neat: these birds have adjusted their songs to compete with the other noises in their environment, showing a high level of behavioral plasticity.

A small problem

[StikyPad (445176)]

Ouch [bbc.co.uk]. You'd think they could've phrased it a little better.

Oh, sorry...

Title is inaccurate

[meckardt (113120)]

This article would more accurately be captioned "100 Interesting Things". Perusing the entire list, there are more than a few factoids therein that I did know.

Come to think of it, the name "100 Things That Some People Might Not Know" would be even more accurate.

Eveyone seems to be missing the point

[Tim C (15259)]

This isn't "100 things no-one knew last year", it's "100 things we didn't know last year". The "we" doesn't refer to the human race, it refers at the very most to "the average person in the street", and quite possibly only to the person(s) who pick the things that go in the articles.

This isn't meant to be a list of 100 new discoveries, so can everyone stop commenting on it as though it is?

The brain is soft and gelatinous...? Really?

[turrican (55223)]

"30. The brain is soft and gelatinous - its consistency is something between jelly and cooked pasta."

Not to jump on the bandwagon late, here - but I'm pretty sure that's NOT something we didn't know last year...

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobiacs translation

[SystematicPsycho (456042)]

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobiacs -

translated in Greek -

Hexakosio - 600
hexekonta - 60, but I don't know if this is a spelling mistake, should be hexenta.
hexa - 6
phobia - fear of

Re:Not quite

[Southpaw018 (793465)]

It's not "things we didn't know last year," it's "factoids the Beeb's own magazine liked from their lists this year."

Still interesting, tho, even with a misleading headline.

Re:

[Ucklak (755284)]

Highly misleading.

30. The brain is soft and gelatinous - its consistency is something between jelly and cooked pasta.

You mean that we didn't know that years prior?

31. The Mona Lisa used to hang on the wall of Napoleon's bedroom.

You mean they found it 'this year?'

Re:Not quite

[sugarman (33437)]

30. The brain is soft and gelatinous - its consistency is something between jelly and cooked pasta.

You mean that we didn't know that years prior?

Well, they didn't know how well it was cooked. It was previously thought to be al dente. They've now confirmed that it is closer to Kraft Dinner.

Re:Not quite

[StikyPad (445176)]

6. The late Alan "Fluff" Freeman had trained as an opera singer.
Because it was a non-story? Or did people really care?
7. The lion costume in the film Wizard of Oz was made from real lions.
I'm assuming they knew this when they made it.
9. Fathers tend to determine the height of their child, mothers their weight.
Maybe scientists didn't know this, but tall men have probably known it for a while.
11. An infestation of head lice is called pediculosis.
An infestation of inaccurate headlines is called ridiculosis.
15. Donald Rumsfeld was both the youngest and the oldest defence secretary in US history.
I'm guessing someone figured that out three years ago when he surpassed George Marshall as the oldest.
17. Coco Chanel started the trend for sun tans in 1923 when she got accidentally burnt on a cruise.
Does that even warrant a comment?
20. Sex workers in Roman times charged the equivalent price of eight glasses of red wine.
Even assuming "things we forgot" counts as things we didn't know, that brothel was discovered in 1862 [scotsman.com].
24. One third of all the cod fished in the world is consumed in the UK.
Only 1/3?
28. More than 90% of plane crashes have survivors.
If you count the crashes that don't involve falling out of the sky. Anyway, the story appeared on CNN in 2005 [cnn.com], and the report is from 2000.
32. Barbie's full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts.
This is from 2003 [archive.org]..
35. There were no numbers in the very first UK phone directory, only names and addresses. Operators would connect callers.
Someone just finally got around to opening the very first UK phone directory?
37. Pavements are tested using an 80 square metre artificial pavement at a research centre
You mean they test materials now?
41. Some Royal Mail stamps, which of course carry the Queen's image, are printed in Holland.
Insert prior evidence here [gbstamps.com].
42. Helen Mirren was born Ilyena Lydia Mironov
2004 [wikipedia.org].
48. Allotment plots come in the standard measure of 10 poles
2001 [archive.org]
49. When filming summer scenes in winter, actors suck on ice cubes
1978 [imdb.com]
50. There are 60 Acacia Avenues in the UK.
Didn't know, or didn't care to know?

I'll let someone else do the last 50.

Re:

[dargon (105684)]

> 48. Allotment plots come in the standard measure of 10 poles

Good, I much prefer my land measured in poles than russians

*queue loss of karma*

ba dump bump!

Re:The Egg

[by Anonymous Coward]

BullShit! The Rooster came first.....

Re:

[Citizen of Earth (569446)]

BullShit! The Rooster came first.....

Yes, but, the father of the first "chicken" wasn't quite technically a chicken. And neither was the mother.

Re:

[blugu64 (633729)]

Not sure if it world work or not, but it would make on kickin waterslide for sure!