Slashdot Mirror
100 Things We Didn't Know This Time Last Year
An anonymous reader wrote to mention a BBC list of 100 topical pieces of information that they've reported on over the course of 2005. While some of them are very Brit-specific ("16. The London borough of Westminster has an average of 20 pieces of chewing gum for every square metre of pavement."), there are some interesting, touching, and humorous stories in there. "20. The Queen has never been on a computer, she told Bill Gates as she awarded him an honorary knighthood. 32. 'Restaurant' is the most mis-spelled word in search engines. 65. Actor James Doohan, who played Scotty, had a hand in creating the Klingon language that was used in the movies, and which Shakespeare plays were subsequently translated into."
Uh, 65 is incorrect. I think we all remember Star Trek VI where Chancellor Gorkon mentions that Shakespeare was originally written in Klingon. I can't believe they let this one through.
Why didn't we know the japanese word "chokuegambo" last year?
Is it a new word? Or are they assuming that nobody here speaks japanese?
32% of all Slashdot stories are duplicates :)
19. The = sign was invented by 16th Century Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde, who was fed up with writing "is equal to" in his equations. He chose the two lines because "noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle".
16th Century? I'm pretty sure that guy posts on slashdot regularly. "oi got frist psot"
Bill Gates does not own an iPod. That's odd... Number 101: Steve Jobs does not run Windows!
This message printed on 100% post-consumer recycled electrons.
bah, Neatorama had this many days ago, and they had the sense to hilight No. #78, "One in 18 people has a third nipple".
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
One in 10 Europeans is allegedly conceived in an Ikea bed.
That must be a pretty sturdy bed.
32. 'Restaurant' is the most mis-spelled word in search engines.
There is a lot of money to be made if you could get the top list of mispelled words in search engines.
umm, 1024x768?
Too many zeros, not enough ones
Actually, I believe Gates has been a major iPod fanboy for a long time ... going back, it would seem, to the days of the 5-1/4" floppy. Talk about an early adopter!
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
66. The hotter it is, the more difficult it is for aeroplanes to take off. Air passengers in Nevada, where temperatures have reached 120F, have been told they can't fly.
Funny. I was sure my flight instructor told me this the first day of flight school. I guess this explains the success of the European aerospace industry.
No Stairway? Denied!
. . .what do I get once my win has been confirmed?
Cremated.
KFG
Obviously. Had she ever used his software, she would have cut off his head.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Voting is not compulsory. Turning up to get your name ticked off is.
"11. One in 10 Europeans is allegedly conceived in an Ikea bed." I wonder if Ikea can take claims to those children as prior art?
One Hundred & Ninety-Nine Barrels of Whiskey v. United States, 94 U.S. 86
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. ONE 1988 PREVOST LIBERTY MOTOR HOME, Measuring 40 Feet in Length, also known by Vehicle Identification Number 2P9M33403J, and Bearing Oregon License Plate H998173, Defendant
7 Fifths Old Grand-Dad Whiskey v. U.S., 158 F.2d 34
Pennsylvania v. $7,000 in U.S. Currency, 742 A.2d 711
Mayo v. Satan and His Staff 54 F.R.D. 282 This one is interesting because the judge threw out the case based on the fact that the plaintiff could not prove he served notice to the defendent (that being the aforenamed Mr. Satan and his staff in Hell).
Duh, it disguises as a coconut to be carried by swallows. It even includes the string.
Tordek, Dwarven Warrior - Juegos de Rol en Argentina
FTA: The UK's first mobile phone call was made 20 years ago this year, when Ernie Wise rang the Vodafone head office, which was then above a curry shop in Newbury.
Was the guy on the other end named Watson by any chance?
Personally, I didn't know where my pants were.
Long story.
m-
You catch enchiladas by picking them up behind the head and holding them underwater until they don't kick anymore -VeGas
A mix of all three. In fact, let's take it bit by bit...
...who make music that's not worth buying...
...and yet own mansions.
more promiscuous
Hot whores...
less creative
but more stable
So they grow up to become professional pop stars! w00t! (My apologies, I'm just jealous since I'm a last child...)
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
I'll agree with that, as I call the Clue characters by their original names.
I liked this one:
I've still never understood why programming languages use the ugly == sign to mean "is equal to" when the universally understood = has been around for over 400 years. I still cringe when people use == in everyday writing to mean equal. Neither have I come across a single convincing explanation as to why programming language designers felt the need to redefine what = means in a language (laziness in typing, convenience or expediency are not convincing reasons IMO)
British news for British people.
If you want news that caters to your particular foibles, why don't you browse one of the many high quality American news web sites? *snigger*