The BBC’s Technology magazine [1] has one of those end of year lists that someone must have obsessed over:
I particularly liked the following factoids:
8. Devout Orthodox Jews are three times as likely to jaywalk as other people, according to an Israeli survey reported in the New Scientist. The researchers say it’s possibly because religious people have less fear of death.
11. One in 10 Europeans is allegedly conceived in an Ikea bed.
14. It’s possible for a human to blow up balloons via the ear. A 55-year-old factory worker from China reportedly discovered 20 years ago that air leaked from his ears, and he can now inflate balloons and blow out candles.
19. The = sign was invented by 16th Century Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde, who was fed up with writing “is equal to” in his equations. He chose the two lines because “noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle”.
20. The Queen has never been on a computer, she told Bill Gates as she awarded him an honorary knighthood.
23. In America it’s possible to subpoena a dog.
32. “Restaurant” is the most mis-spelled word in search engines.
35. The name Lego came from two Danish words “leg godt”, meaning “play well”. It also means “I put together” in Latin.
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.
53. It takes 75kg of raw materials to make a mobile phone.
59. Oliver Twist is very popular in China, where its title is translated as Foggy City Orphan.
61. You can bet on your own death.
64. New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s home number is listed by directory inquiries.
73. One in six children think that broccoli is a baby tree.