10 things we didn't know last week
17:42 UK time, Friday, 15 August 2008
Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.
1. Olympic swimmers can consume more than 12,000 calories a day while training. And not get fat.
2. Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson was once ranked seventh in the UK at fencing (men's foil).
3. There were 1,048 babies named Gertrude in 1907 but none in 2005.
4. Octopuses do not have eight legs. They have six arms and two legs.
5. The number of farmland birds in the UK is about half of what it was in the 1970s.
6. Penguins receive knighthoods.
7. Ear infections can affect the risk of being obese because they influence the nerves governing taste.
8. A rooftop luggage carrier increases fuel consumption by 20%.
9. Mills and Boon still publish at least one sheikh romance a month.
10. Buying oil only requires a 10% deposit of the market price.
Seen 10 things? . Thanks to Kirsten Elliott for this week's picture of 10 flags at Trowbridge Village Pump Festival).
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