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 some examples — There are 200 million blogs which are no longer being updated, say technology analysts.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]

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."

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobiacs

[duguk]

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:Duh

[Sciros]

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.

The Pope's been known to wear red Prada shoes

[$RANDOMLUSER]

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

Re:The Egg

[Anonymous Coward]

BullShit! The Rooster came first.....

Great tits!

[garcia]

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.

Re:Not quite

[Ucklak]

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:Sure

[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

Chicken or the Egg?

[Zashi]

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]

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.

Well yeah, but...

[Robot Randy]

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.

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobiacs...

[__aaclcg7560]

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.

Re:Not quite

[sugarman]

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:Duh

[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.

godless evolutionist pagans!!!

[C0vardeAn0nim0]

*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 let fowl multiply in the earth."

See ??? first god created the chicken, then the chicken laid the first egg!

it's so clear now, isn't it ?

*sarcasm off*

Re:Not quite

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok Mr Smartypants, Which came first, the Dinosaur or the Egg?

Re:Not quite

[eugene ts wong]

Well, yeah. The previous misconception was that it was hung on the ceiling over his bed.

Re:Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobiacs

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:godless evolutionist pagans!!!

[Surt]

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

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

1.5p

[Paradise Pete]

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

Re:stat on everest

[rubycodez]

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

*sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess I'll just have to wait until next year to see which is better, vi or Emacs.

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

[MBCook]

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

Re:1.5p

[PatPending]

Unless you're doing a Number Two--then the cost (equivalent) is what, 2p?

A small problem

[StikyPad]

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

Oh, sorry...

slightly OT

[Anonymous Coward]

When the news came that 616 was the actual number of tha beast, Dutch radio was very concerned and asked a spokesman of the church of satan wether they had to change all their books.
"Nah..." was the reply. "As long as number 666 annoys the hell out of christians, we're perfectly happy with it."

Re:godless evolutionist pagans!!!

[dapsychous]

I still say that it was really neither the chicken nor the egg, but in fact the rooster that came first. After all, the rooster laid the hen.

Thanks, I'll be here all week. Don't forget to tip your waitress

Re:i got first post

[Anonymous Coward]

uh...you're a little late there genius...

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

[$RANDOMLUSER]

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

Re:New Facts

[blugu64]

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

Re:Duh

[soloport]

We care about our curds, man!

No whey, man. You do?

Re:stat on everest

[PrinceAshitaka]

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

Re:Most useful

[Michael O-P]

You forgot (c) bread machine. However it does make a nice place to set mail.

Re:Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobiacs

[chitokutai]

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

Scooby Doo today ?

[Joebert]

100. In the 1960s, the CIA used to watch Mission Impossible to get ideas about spying.

haha !
No, seriously, they're joking right ?

Re:Not quite

[dargon]

> 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:Duh

[lahvak]

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.