Factoids of the week

BBC list on 100 things you didn't know

here are the first five:

1. It would have taken 2.5 million seagulls to lift James's giant peach into the air, not the 501 that Roald Dahl suggested.
Find out more (Guardian)
2. Hot drinks taste different according to the cup colour.
Find out more (Discovery News)
3. It's easier to pick wet things up with wrinkled fingers - suggesting an evolutionary reason for getting "prune fingers" in the bath.
Find out more

4. There are two firms in the world cloning polo ponies.
Find out more (Economist)
5. Two per cent of Europeans lack the genes for smelly armpits
Find out more (Scientific American)

and some more important factoids further down in the list:

10. The House of Lords has a rifle range.
Find out more (Daily Telegraph)


64. You need an 8ft-high table to ensure toast lands butter side up when dropped.
Find out more (Daily Mail)
65. Justin Bieber and Will.i.am used to live next door to each other.


87. There's only one sneeze in the bible.
Find out more (Daily Telegraph)

90. The pope used to work as a bouncer.
Find out more (Catholic News)

yup. Don't mess with Francis.
Of course, the original "Francis" was once a soldier and a POW, not the milquetoast like he is usually portrayed.