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10 Things We Didn't Know This Time Last Week
via BBCSnippets harvested from the week's news, chopped, sliced and diced for your weekend convenience. 1. One euro cent coins cost more to make than their face value, due to the rocketing price of copper. 2. Forget The Scream. There are currently 491 missing Picassos, 342 missing Miros and 152 missing Rembrandts, according to the Art Loss Register. More details 3. The sale of methylated spirits is currently prohibited on Sunday under Section 26 of the Revenue Act 1889. Custom and Excise and DTI are taking steps to repeal it. 4. A "jiffy" is 10 milliseconds in computer science terms. More details 5. It's 10 years since the world's first internet café opened - Cyberia, in London's Whitfield Street. 6. The procedure for impeaching a public official in the UK was last used in 1806, when an attempt was made to remove Viscount Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty. Full story 7. The "tiffin carriers" of Bombay, who deliver home-cooked lunches to office workers, are so good at delivering to the right person on time that Forbes Magazine has given them an accuracy and precision rating of 99.99% - one error per eight million deliveries. Full story 8. The 1900 and 1904 Games were low-key events, coinciding with the World's Fair in their respective cities. So low-key, in fact, that some athletes were left unaware that they had just competed in the Olympics. More details 9. Margaret Roberts (later Thatcher) helped invent the chemical process that produces Mr Whippy ice cream. 10. The pollution given off by cigarettes is 10 times greater than that in diesel car exhaust, an Italian study has found. Full story Posted by: .com 2004-08-28 |
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