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."

Qapla!

[kyouteki]

It's been well known for a very long time that Jimmy Doohan helped create the Klingon language. He created the Klingon dialogue for Star Trek 1, which Marc Okrand developed into the tlhIngan'Hol we know today.

Re:#39

[matt21811]

Voting in Australia is compulsary. Thats why they have barbecues, to keep people (and their kids) happy and entertained while they perform their civic duty.

Re:Bananas too

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm no. Fruits contain seeds, vegetables are any other part of a plant.
Tomatoes are fruit, bananas are fruit, rhubarb is a vegetable. Bananas
are a staple in many parts of the world, though we don't normally think
of fruits as staples. More often it's tubers or grains...

Re:Hmmph.

[EoinOL]

"41. Tactically, the best Monopoly properties to buy are the orange ones: Vine Street, Marlborough Street and Bow Street."

I believe they're called New York, Tennessee Avenue and St. James Place. And this is just common sense - their relationship with jail, and the fact that they're on the end of a row (More bang for buck, house/hotel wise, and a 6,8, or 9 after jail yields a hit), makes them ideal.

It seems to have escaped your notice, but there are about a million different versions of Monopoly, including localised ones for lots of countries. The BBC are obviously using the (main) UK one.

Re:Hmmph.

[EvanED]

BTW, if you're curious, here's the rank of the different color groups based upon the average rate of return of that group with hotels. What that means is that every time someone completes a circuit of the board, a player that owns that color group with hotels will make back that percentage of their initial investment. I've also included the dollar amount that translates to. (I tried to space this nicely, but neither tt nor ecode kept whitespace; sorry.)

# Group %ret $ret
1 Orange 23.5 484.10
2 Lite Blue 20.7 221.49
3 Red 17.8 521.54
4 Lt Purple 17.7 343.38
5 Dark Blue 17.3 475.75
6 Yellow 17.2 524.60
7 Railroads 16.0 128.00
8 Green 15.1 591.92
9 Dk Purple 13.6 84.32
A Utilities 7.5 22.50

You can also see from this list that oranges are only best if you're using % return. The way to interpret this is that if you're reasonably early in the game, and people are just building, you want oranges because they are cheap to develop, and you need to get three houses up ASAP. However, if you're late in the game and hotels are already up, you should look to the absolute income for the best property, and there the rank changes:

1. Green
2. Yellow
3. Red
4. Orange
5. Dark Blue

Re:#39

[LordLucless]

Actually, we have em to make money. Polling stations are usually setup at schools. The school gets a couple of parents to come down and organize a barbecue. You get a good couple of thousand people through even a small polling station, that's a pretty darn big market for the cost of gas and a few sausages.

For what it's worth, the one I go to sells lamingtons.

In Soviet Russia...

[Ruff_ilb]

Russian translates YOU!

Seriously though:

Does this have anything to do with the Adlai Stevenson incident?

"
"Do you, Ambassador Zorin, deny that the U.S.S.R. has placed and is placing medium- and intermediate-range missiles and sites in Cuba?... Don't wait for the translation! Yes or no?" Zorin responded, "I am not in an American courtroom, sir, and I do not wish to answer a question put to me in the manner in which a prosecutor does-" Then Stevenson interrupted and said, "You are in the courtroom of world opinion right now, and you can answer yes or no. You have denied that they exist, and I want to know whether I have understood you correctly.... I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over, if that's your decision. And I am also prepared to present the evidence in this room."
"

(Hilarious site: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/world_language s/36160 [suite101.com])

Re:Bananas too

[CthulhuDreamer]

Tomatoes are vegetables, according to the U.S. Supreme Court (Nix vs Hedden, 1893). Vegetables are served with dinner, fruits are eaten for dessert. (This also allowed schools to count hamburger ketchup as a vegetable serving in school lunches.)

"Botanically speaking, tomatoes are the fruit of a vine, just as are cucumbers, squashes, beans, and peas. But in the common language of the people, whether sellers or consumers of provisions, all these are vegetables which are grown in kitchen gardens, and which, whether eaten cooked or raw, are, like potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets, cauliflower, cabbage, celery, and lettuce, usually served at dinner in, with, or after the soup, fish, or meats which constitute the principal part of the repast, and not, like fruits generally, as dessert."

Re:A bunch of hot air.....

[jakebluez]

No the density of the air changes at higher heat. Normal aircraft performance is calculated for ISA [wikipedia.org] (International Standard Atmosphere) as 1atm (29.92 in of Mercury) and about 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius, just to keep the Europeans happy).

When air heats up the density decreases, and changes the pressure at sea level. A plane will perform worse at lower altitudes. In affect you are taking off at a lower altitude. Your wings have less mass to push against. Most people think that Bernoulli's Principal [wikipedia.org] is what makes a plane fly, and while it plays a major role, more lift is created by the angle of attack angle of attack [wikipedia.org] of the wing.

There is a London monopoly edition

[Master Of Ninja]

Having a look at the Wikipedia Monopoly article [wikipedia.org], you can easily see that the London edition was the 2nd edition made, and came out the year after the Atlantic City edition. The London edition (which is also apparently the standard UK and Commonwealth edition) is the one the BBC uses so the street names are correct. Forgetting the localised editions, the 'London" edition would probably be competing with the Atlantic City version in worldwide numbers.

Re:There is a London monopoly edition

[Staplerh]

Having a look at the Wikipedia Monopoly article, you can easily see that the London edition was the 2nd edition made, and came out the year after the Atlantic City edition. The London edition (which is also apparently the standard UK and Commonwealth edition) is the one the BBC uses so the street names are correct.

Not all the Commonwealth countries use the UK edition. I know in Canada, we use the American version.

Re:I dont think this guy was born in the 1600s

[TekPolitik]

Everyone knows the Welsh language has no vowels and is impossible to understand even to Welsh people

Welsh has more vowels than English ('w' is a vowel in Celtic languages, equivalent to "oo" as in "spook")*, but it is true that it is impossible to pronounce. Especially the sound corresponding to "LL".

* - There is a tiny street in a suburb of Sydney called "Clwdyn Place". If you are "clued in" you know how to pronounce it.

Re:#39

[mino]

No, in australia it counts as a vote for whomever is in power.

Erm... no. Did you just make that up?

In Australia (at least, at a Commonwealth level, but certainly also at every state level I'm familiar with) informal (invalid) votes are tallied separately, and do not count as a vote at all. The 50% + 1 requirement to achieve a victory (after distribution of preferences, if required) is a 50% of the formal (valid) votes. The same applies to the Senate, where the quota (e.g. for a typical 6-seat half-senate ballot, 1/7th + 1) is based on formal votes only.

Obviously, a donkey vote (as mentioned upthread) - numbering the candidates 1..n in the order they appear on the paper - isn't informal, and doesn't count towards the party in power, unless they happen to be high enough on the ballot paper that they end up with the vote/preference anyway. As the position on the ballot paper is determined randomly, that's hardly automatic.