10 Things we didn't know last week
16:19 UK time, Friday, 20 October 2006
Snippets harvested from the week's news, chopped, sliced and diced for your weekend convenience.
1. The Australian investment group which is buying Thames Water also owns the transmitters on which the Ö÷²¥´óÐã is broadcast.
2. Twice as many people turn their heads to the right to kiss as to the left, say researchers.
3. Nearly one internet user in 10 has started a blog, according to Harris Research.
4. A dwarf species of hippopotamus once lived on Cyprus.
5. There are 375 people reported missing each day, on average, according to the National Missing Persons Helpline.
6. More than one in eight people in the United States show signs of addiction to the internet, says a study.
7. The warm autumn has seen North African butterflies appearing in Scotland.
8. One third of all the cod fished in the world is consumed in the UK.
9. UK customs officials intercept attempts to smuggle in 150 live birds and animals, and 6,400 animal parts, each week.
10. Boys’ GCSE results have improved to the level that girls had reached seven years ago.
[1. 10 O’Clock News, 16 October; 2. Daily Telegraph, 17 October; 3. Daily Telegraph; 4. 19 October, The Times.]
Thanks to Sarah Baker for sending the picture of 10 copper coils in Hanoi.
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