10 things we didn't know this time last week

10 THINGS

Ten gems - by Dauvit Alexander

Your chance to be creative. 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. In a lifetime, the average meat eater will chew through five cows, 20 pigs, 29 sheep and 760 chickens. That's a small farm each.

2. Britons are rubbish at recycling. Last year enough furniture was dumped in the UK to make 82,000 double beds. There were also 2m mobile phones ditched - when they could have been donated to any number of charities. Also six billion disposable nappies, and 972m plastic water bottles. In all, just 11% of waste is reused in the UK - only Portugal and Greece fare worse in European league tables. Leading the way is virtuous Austria, where 64% of rubbish is recycled.

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3. A robot named Da Vinci has performed 20 successful heart bypass operations at St Mary's Paddington, London. The joystick-controlled robo op means only tiny incisions need to be made, rather than surgeons having to crack open the patient's ribcage. Thus patients are on the road to recovery within days.

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Live birds!

4. Forget the human inhabitants of the Big Brother house - there's live sex, tits and ruffled feathers aplenty in the Piip Show, broadcast 24/7 on the net. The Norwegian show stars blue tits living in a specially designed bird house, the latest in a line of non-human BB spin-offs - Norwegians have also voted for their favourite fish, there was Pig Brother in 2001 [a stunt the Sun is repeating for those who tire of the housemates], and guinea pigs named for the UK contestants will mirror their antics in Little Brother.

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5. Sir Hans Sloan, the man who invented Chelsea (and by implication is responsible for the Chelsea Flower Show) also invented milk chocolate. One of the great botanists, he brought back cocoa beans on one of his trips, and to make them more palatable, mixed them with milk and sugar.

6. George Bush Jnr is a kisser. When his press spokesman Ari Fleischer told the president of his decision in the Oval Office last Friday, Mr Bush came forward and "kissed me on the head", Fleischer revealed. Très français.

7. First face masks and herbal remedies, now Sars is boosting sales of a caramel-flavoured soft drink in Australasia. Does it fend off the virus, you ask? No, the drink itself is called Sars. The sales boom sparked by its virulent namesake has surprised its makers, Golden Circle, and shop-owners. "People laugh at it," says one. "Many people point it out. Jokingly they ask: 'Is this a medicine for Sars or protection against Sars?'" Anyone remember AYDS slimming biscuits?

SEVEN DAYS

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8. How much is not very much money to the super-rich? Multi-millionaire Michael Douglas is surely well qualified to provide an answer. Recounting a half-hour gambling session in Las Vegas, he said: "I've never lost so much money so fast in my entire life. It wasn't a lot, five figures, but I couldn't believe how fast it went."

9. Even on short-haul flights, air passengers may be at risk from deep vein thrombosis. Of the 85 Britons who have died after contracting DVT, 14 were on the plane for three hours or less. It is the conditions inside the cabin - such as dryness in the air, and reduced oxygen - which cause the potentially fatal blood clotting, rather than just the length of the flight.

10. Last week, we mentioned the invention of the word "blogeoisie" - meaning those classes which write blogs or read blogs. Brian Moffat - a fully fledged member of that class - wondered on his website BMOEASY how that word would be pronounced. Blozhwuzee? Or Bloggwuzee? Hear him enunciate the difference by clicking on the internet links on the right. And, by the by, he gives us another word we didn't know this time last week - Googletariat.

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If you see something you think should be included next week, let us know using the form below.