An almanac of the best of interesting facts learned in 2014.
1. The Pentagon has a plan for combating a zombie apocalypse.
Find out more (Foreign Policy)
2. Seals like to have sex with penguins.
Find out more
3. Hello Kitty is not a cat - she's a little girl.
Find out more (Jezebel)
4. It's quicker - by about three hours - to read the Hobbit than watch Peter Jackson's movie trilogy.
Find out more
5. There have been lions in London since the 13th Century - arriving either in 1210 or 1235 - although they may have died out briefly under Henry VI in 1436.
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6. Age renders you less certain as to whether a badger or a baboon would win in a fight.
Find out more (Independent)
7. Dreams get weirder as the night wears on.
Find out more (Smithsonian)
8. Gladiators were mostly vegetarian.
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9. The release of a track by Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson was delayed more than 30 years because Mercury objected to the presence of Bubbles the chimp at its recording.
Find out more (Daily Mail)
10. It's possible to charge a Nokia Lumia 930 using 800 apples and potatoes connected with copper wire and nails.
Find out more (Daily Telegraph)
11. Watching action films makes you eat more.
Find out more (Daily Telegraph)
12. Sir John Gielgud wrote the script for a gay porn film.
Find out more (Guardian)
13. It's against the law in England and Wales to swallow and regurgitate goldfish, even if they survive, but it may be legal to do the same with an octopus.
Find out more
14. American teachers are allowed to whack children with a paddle (a wooden bat a little shorter and thinner than a cricket bat) in 19 states.
Find out more (Economist)
15. There is a "right" way to eat chocolate - you pop a piece in your mouth, let it melt between the tongue and the palate, and then breathe in through your mouth and out through your nose.
(Financial Times) (Actually, forget this one - because you have to sign up to read the article)
16. It's actually fairly easy to weigh an ant.
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17. At least three Google employees have lived for months in their vehicles on the firm's California campus, eating in the staff cafeteria and showering in gyms.
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18. The bass line of Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side cost £17.
Find out more (Guardian)
19. Dollar squiggles on the pavement denote electric cables below.
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20. The most effective office regime is to work for 52 consecutive minutes and then have a 17-minute break.
Find out more (The Atlantic)
21. Ukraine's navy is equipped with combat sea lions.
Find out more (CNN)
22. A porcupine can fight off a pride of lions.
Find out more (Science Alert)
23. Two per cent of Anglican clergy are not sure whether God is "more than a human construct".
Find out more (The Times)
24. Los Angeles prison inmates have to pass a "gay-dar" test to stay in the safest wing.
Find out more (LA Weekly)
25. Over 88% of individual winners at the Darwin Awards are men.
Find out more (BMJ)
26. At the Starbucks outlet in the CIA's Langley headquarters, baristas aren't allowed to write customers' names on their cups.
Find out more (Independent)
27. When a person's age ends with a nine they are more likely to seek extramarital affairs, sign up for their first marathon, and run marathons faster than when they were slightly older or slightly younger.
Find out more (Guardian)
28. Popping a criminal's phone in a microwave and closing the door (but not switching it on) stops said criminal wiping it remotely.
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29. In China, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are known as Curly Fu and Peanut.
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30. The most expensive pies of any English league football club are to be found at Brighton & Hove Albion - Rochdale's are the cheapest.
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31. It is almost impossible to take a German-registered car into Japan.
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32. Olive oil and baking powder are rubbed onto parts of the Sydney Opera House in order to maintain it.
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33. Tall men get married earlier but short men stay married longer.
Find out more (Daily Telegraph)
34. Dodger Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is the most expensive Major League Baseball ground in which to propose marriage.
Find out more (Swimmingly)
35. There are more bicycles in Copenhagen than people.
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36. Lawrence of Arabia was offered a job as a nightwatchman at the Bank of England. He turned it down.
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37. The Indian record for staff absenteeism is thought to have been set by a biology teacher who did not turn up for work for 23 years.
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38. Senior technology gurus at the White House don't have to tuck their shirts in.
Find out more (The Hill)
39. Elephants can differentiate between men and women, and between different ethnicities, when they hear a voice.
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40. There is a brown bear living at the Chernobyl site.
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41. The average length of a Best Picture Academy Award-winning film is two hours and 20 minutes.
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42. The best way to prevent your headphones from tangling in your bag is to join the ends together.
Find out more (The Times)
43. It is illegal to race rubber ducks in some US states.
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44. A salmon cannon fires 40 fish a minute.
Find out more (Wired)
45. Simon Cowell has a saying for people editing shots of him on X Factor: Two words - happy and handsome.
Find out more (Financial Times)
46. When making a decision, former England and Derbyshire fast bowler Devon Malcolm asks himself: "What would Margaret Beckett do?"
Find out more (All Out Cricket)
47. Yorkshire and Humberside are as red-headed as Ireland.
Find out more (Daily Mail)
48. There is a symphonic Finnish prog-rock concept album about Scrooge McDuck.
Find out more (AV Club)
49. In Somalia, the word for president also means "big head".
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50. When Richard III was killed he suffered at least 11 injuries, although some of them might have been inflicted after death.
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(The rest will follow in next post)