10 things we didn't know last week
16:30 UK time, Friday, 30 November 2007
Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.
1. Eddie Irvine is Britain's wealthiest sports star – beating the Beckhams into second place by £30m.
2. Sleeping on the job is tolerated in Japanese work culture, as long as you remain upright and obey certain other rules. It's called inemuri.
3. Voltaire did not say "I disapprove of your views, but would fight to the death for your right to express them". It's a paraphrasing from a 1906 biography.
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4. William Blake was not a fan of his poem in the preface to Milton, which became the words to the hymn Jerusalem. He removed it from later editions of the work.
5. The number of weather-related disasters has quadrupled over the past 20 years, the aid agency Oxfam says.
6. The first telephone directory, dating from 1880 and reissued this week online, had 248 names and no numbers. Callers were expected to call the operator and say the name of the person they wanted to talk to.
7. MI6 calls its spies "operational officers".
8. The Romans had roadmaps.
9. Pigeon racing is not regarded as a sport while baton twirling is, for taxation purposes, by HM Revenue and Customs, on the advice of the UK's Sports Councils and UK Sport.
10. By the time they are four, children from poor families are likely to have heard 13 million words. For children from better off families, a figure of 45 million is typical.
Seen 10 things? . Thanks to Bryce Cooke for this week's picture of 10 "Santa Stop Here" signs.
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