10 things we didn't know this time last week

10 THINGS 10 statues - by Anthony Janes See 10 things? Send us a picture

It's easy to lose track of the news. So at the end of the week, it's good to keep an eye on some of those things which shouldn't go unnoticed.

If you spot something you think should be included next week, send it to us using the form at the bottom of the page.

 
1. Who says politicians aren't ordinary folk? When government ministers get sacked or resign, they get P45s just like you or me. Robin Cook revealed as much in his memoirs, when he resigned as leader of the House of Commons. "Somehow I never quite imagined anyone in the personnel department settling down to send a P45 to the former secretary of state," he wrote.

2. The 118118 runners ran into a bit of trouble from former athlete David Bedford, who claimed their style was based on him. But how about another possible candidate for inspiration, Thing One and Thing Two from Dr Seuss's The Cat in the Hat? They've got some of the characteristics - they are twins, they have got shaggy hairstyles, they have got numbers on their chests, and they run in uncanny unison. 118118 can rest easy, though. The people employed to protect the copyright of Dr Seuss characters have decided not to pursue the matter.

3. Michael Portillo is a "ming". At least that's according to the single mother, whose children Portillo looked after for a week for the BBC Two programme When Michael Portillo Became a Single Mother. With his budget tight, he was breaking eggs into a bowl, when one smashed on the kitchen floor. Determined not to let it go to waste, he used the broken shell to scoop up the smashed yolk, and plumped it straight back in the bowl. "Oh! He's a ming!" said Jenny, watching on a remote camera.

4. It's the week that booksellers rub their hands at increased sales inspired by the Booker Prize. But out of half a million different titles sold each year, only 36 will sell more than 200,000 copies.

5. This time last week, we didn't know that Iain Duncan Smith thought of his wife Betsy as his "sheet-anchor". To be honest, we'd never heard of a "sheet-anchor". And reading the definition in the OED - "a large anchor, formerly always the largest of a ship's anchors, used only in an emergency" - we're not completely convinced it's something one's partner is going to be pleased to be called.

6. One of those odd organisations that no-one's quite sure the function of, is the Privy Council. New Zealand decided as much this week, and withdrew from it. But another of Robin Cook's revelations was that a third clerk was appointed to the Privy Council just in case of terrorist attack. The thinking was that if an attack hit London, the council would be OK, especially because this third person worked only part time. "There is a 50:50 chance she would survive and enable the Privy Council to function," he wrote.

10 THINGS ON CEEFAX If you're in the UK, you can see 10 Things at the weekend on Ceefax, page 129

7. RIP RPI. It's a headline waiting to be written, and it's true. The Retail Price Index, the measure by which government statisticians work out the rate of inflation is being phased out. Get used to hearing about the harmonised index of consumer prices, aka HICP. Fortunately for everyone it's pronounced "hiccup".

8. Some of Nasa's troubles could be fixed with something like a Wal-Mart paintbrush which costs less than $1. It's been discovered that astronauts using the foam brush while in orbit could make repairs to the heat shield on shuttles - all sorts of other expensive devices get too clogged up with the special sticky gel which has been devised to prevent a repeat of the break-up of the Columbia in February with the loss of seven people.

9. Prayer doesn't work, at least if you run an experiment to see if it can make heart surgery patients recover more quickly. The test, in which a group of patients were divided into two smaller groups, only one of which was prayed for, included Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists. But there was no discernible difference in their recovery. But part of the problem might have been a theological one - the Bishop of Durham was just one of those to point out that "putting God to the test" was something of a no-no.

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10. It's the week for Concorde bores to excel, as the white bird faces its final flights. One thing anyone who's flown on it will say is that it's much smaller than they expected. But how small is the wingspan, measured in that international unit of length, the London bus? The answer is about three. (A Boeing 747's wingspan is eight).

Take a virtual tour inside Concorde

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If you see something you think should be included next week, let us know using the form below. Thanks this week to Wolfgang Haak and Chris May.