10 things we didn't know last week
16:42 UK time, Friday, 20 July 2007
Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.
1. Enoch Powell studied Urdu at university.
2. School children in England and Wales have the shortest summer holidays in Europe.
3. People in residential care homes can only keep £20 per week. The rest has to cover their accommodation costs.
4. Some cars on the market can park themselves, or keep to their lane on the motorway.
5. One-third of front gardens are paved over in some regions.
6. The first virus for personal computers was called Elk Cloner, and was created and distributed on an Apple II computer in 1982.
7. Just 11% of the night sky over the UK is totally dark now.
8. There are "fattening rooms" in Nigeria where the wealthy go to stack on the pounds, as being fat remains a symbol of status and power.
9. Seven-year-olds have proms.
10. There are 500 billion billion possible draughts positions. But that's fewer than there are in chess.
(Sources, where items not linked: 1. University Challenge, 16 July. 7. Observer, 15 July.)
Seen 10 things? . Thanks to Alan Chesterman for this week's picture of 10 ice creams, and to Simon Robinson, Birmingham.
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