DrHGuy Cyber-Bookmarks: 07 April 2007

Filed under: Web Sites-Blogs | By DrHGuy | April 7, 2007 at 7:57 am

Factoid Fascination: The Overlap Between Heck Of A Guy Blog and BBC Magazine

A sporadically promulgated annotated listing of arguably worthwhile, recently published online reading, new or revised websites of potential utility or ostensible interest, and other internet-accessible experiences that, were it not for the casually collected, cavalierly collated, & capriciously collocated components comprising these posts, could easily be overlooked - which would be, in some cases, a shame

100 Things The BBC Magazine Didn’t Know Until 2006

Each week, the BBC Magazine selects from the mass of information that passes through their offices ten factoids that vary in significance from discoveries in genetic research to Nicole Kidman’s intense fear of butterflies but reliably meet the official Heck Of A Guy How about that? Criterion Of Merited Interest.

At the end of the year, the BBC Magazine compiles a list of the 100 best items from the preceding 12 months. A few Heck Of A Guy favorites from 2006 are provided as examples.

2. There are 200 million blogs which are no longer being updated, say technology analysts.
27. Just one cow gives off enough harmful methane gas in a single day to fill around 400 litre bottles.
32. Barbie’s full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts.
33. Eating a packet of crisps a day is equivalent to drinking five litres of cooking oil a year.
45. Cows can have regional accents, says a professor of phonetics, after studying cattle in Somerset
49. When filming summer scenes in winter, actors suck on ice cubes just before the camera rolls - it cools their mouths so their breath doesn’t condense in the cold air.
68. The egg came first.¹
76. In Bhutan government policy is based on Gross National Happiness; thus most street advertising is banned, as are tobacco and plastic bags.
92. In a fight between a polar bear and a lion, the polar bear would win.
100. In the 1960s, the CIA used to watch Mission Impossible to get ideas about spying.

The link for the 2006 “Best Of” list follows: 100 Things We Didn’t Know Last Year (2006)

Bonus: 2005

The 2005 100 Things We Didn’t Know Last Year, is, in by Heck Of A Guy standards, the vintage year for the list. In addition to the Nicole Kidman butterfly phobia item, the 2005 enumeration included these gems:

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.
9. 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”.
29. When faced with danger, the octopus can wrap six of its legs around its head to disguise itself as a fallen coconut shell and escape by walking backwards on the other two legs, scientists discovered.
54. Deep Throat is reportedly the most profitable film ever. It was made for $25,000 (£13,700) and has grossed more than $600m.
56. The Pyruvate Scale measures pungency in onions and garlic. It’s named after the acid in onions which makes cooks cry when cutting them.
58. The average guest at a Buckingham Palace garden party scoffs 14 cakes, sandwiches, scones and ice-cream, according to royal accounts.
76. The day when most suicides occurred in the UK between 1993 and 2002 was 1 January, 2000.
89. Spanish Flu, the epidemic that killed 50 million people in 1918/9, was known as French Flu in Spain.
100. Musical instrument shops must pay an annual royalty to cover shoppers who perform a recognisable riff before they buy, thereby making a “public performance”.

Footnotes