The BBC has an article in their Magazine on 100 strange things discovered or announced during the past year. It's a lot of fun, if you have time to read it and all the linked articles. See
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/index.html#a007949 for the article.
A few excerpts:
3. Urban birds have developed a short, fast "rap style" of singing, different from their rural counterparts.
17. Coco Chanel started the trend for sun tans in 1923 when she got accidentally burnt on a cruise.
20. Sex workers in Roman times charged the equivalent price of eight glasses of red wine.
(I wonder if that was restaurant, retail or wholesale pricing?
)
40. The medical name for the part of the brain associated with teenage sulking is "superior temporal sulcus".
64. Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobiacs is the term for people who fear the number 666.
67. Music can help reduce chronic pain by more than 20% and can alleviate depression by up to 25%.
76. In Bhutan government policy is based on Gross National Happiness; thus most street advertising is banned, as are tobacco and plastic bags.
90. The Himalayas cover one-tenth of the Earth's surface.
100. In the 1960s, the CIA used to watch Mission Impossible to get ideas about spying.
Very interesting reading!
