10 things we didn't know last week
16:05 UK time, Friday, 15 September 2006
Snippets harvested from the week's news, chopped, sliced and diced for your weekend convenience.
1. Half of 15 year olds drink alcohol every week.
2. George Alagiah's surname is actually pronounced "ullerhiya".
3. The InterCity 125 train was designed by the same man who came up with the angle-poise lamp and Kenwood Chef mixer.
4. Pavements are tested using an 80 square metre artificial pavement at a research centre called Pamela (the Pedestrian Accessibility and Movement Environment Laboratory).
5. Acorns are toxic to ponies and cattle (but not to the pigs brought into the New Forest to feast on the fruits).
6. Cyclists in the UK can be prosecuted for "furious cycling".
7. Russian premier Khrushchev's favourite dish was stinging nettle soup.
8. Areas of ice the size of Turkey have disappeared from the Arctic in a single year.
9. Overseas student numbers around the world have doubled in a decade to 2.7 million students.
10. A common American poplar has twice as many genes as a human being.
[Sources, where stories are not linked - 2: Guardian, 8 September; 5: Times, 14 September; 6: Guardian, 12 September.] Thanks to Alan Chesterman for sending the picture.
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