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.
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2. Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson was once ranked seventh in the UK at fencing (men's foil).
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3. There were 1,048 babies named Gertrude in 1907 but none in 2005.
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4. Octopuses do not have eight legs. They have six arms and two legs.
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5. The number of farmland birds in the UK is about half of what it was in the 1970s.
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6. Penguins receive knighthoods.
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7. Ear infections can affect the risk of being obese because they influence the nerves governing taste.
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8. A rooftop luggage carrier increases fuel consumption by 20%.
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9. Mills and Boon still publish at least one sheikh romance a month.
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10. Buying oil only requires a 10% deposit of the market price.
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Seen 10 things? Send us a picture to use next week. Thanks to Kirsten Elliott for this week's picture of 10 flags at Trowbridge Village Pump Festival).
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