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."

Comments

#65: Incorrect

[jvalenzu]

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.

Re:#65: Incorrect

[ZachPruckowski]

Dude, it's New Year's Eve, one of the biggest party nights of the year, and you're correcting some news story about Klingons and Star Trek on a website for nerds. That's so geeky and nonsocial that I have to say... wait a second....%*&@!

Re:#65: Incorrect

[cashman73]

And I just impressed a couple of chicks by showing them that I'm one out of 18 people,... :-)

I dont think this guy was born in the 1600s

[Tezkah]

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"

I like this one

[Kohath]

One in 10 Europeans is allegedly conceived in an Ikea bed.

That must be a pretty sturdy bed.