The Hottest State

While avoiding a mountain of laundry, I found a link to BBC News 100 things we didn't know this time last year. My favourites include:

12. Until the 1940s rhubarb was considered a vegetable. It became a fruit when US customs officials, baffled by the foreign food, decided it should be classified according to the way it was eaten.

20. The Queen has never been on a computer, she told Bill Gates as she awarded him an honorary knighthood.

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.

37. Cyclist Lance Armstrong's heart is almost a third larger than the average man's.

52. You're 10 times more likely to be bitten by a human than a rat.

69. First-born children are less creative but more stable, while last-born are more promiscuous, says US research.

87. Pulling your foot out of quicksand takes a force equivalent to that needed to lift a medium-sized car.

98. Nettles growing on land where bodies are buried will reach a foot higher than those growing elsewhere.

posted by pixiesparkle @ 5:10 PM