10 THINGS !

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. The British eat a third of the world’s cod.

2. Squirrels can peel bananas.

3. Pre-schoolers will watch a favourite DVD or video for an average of 17 times before getting bored.

4. Astronauts wear adult nappies on spacewalks and during launch. But Nasa likes to call them "Maximum Absorbency Garments". More details

5. Seventy-thousand teenagers failed to turn up to take a GCSE exam last year.

6. Tony Blair smoked his last cigarette 15 minutes before he got married.More details

7. Widening the M1 will cost more than the annual economies of a third of the world’s nations.

8. Fewer than 3% of rewards offered for information about crimes are paid out each year in the UK.

9. Four ingredients have been added to bread by law since WW2 – niacin, thiamine, iron and calcium.

10. UK’s oldest working household appliance is a 50-year-old Prestcold Fridge in Norfolk.

Sources: 1, 5, 7, 9 - Observer, 2, 10 - Daily Mail, 7 May; 3 - Guardian, 11 May; 8 - Times, 11 May;
BBC MAGAZINE