- More than one billion birds crash into buildings in the US every year. Mirrored office blocks are a particular hazard.
- Having breaking news alerts delivered to your mobile phone may seem cutting edge, but the Daily Express pioneered the service back in 1914, offering personal war updates via telegram for a shilling each.
- When people are in love, weird things happen. Men get more female hormones, and women get more male. Scientist Donatella Marazziti says it’s as if nature wants to eliminate what can be different in men and women, perhaps to help the mating process.
- A cruise ship can put more than 130,000 litres of sewage into the sea each day.
- Matt Groening’s father – the inspiration for Homer Simpson – has only complained once about his alter-ego’s actions. It was an episode in which Homer badgered Marge into walking some considerable distance on a hot day to fetch him something.
BBC News has these and other tantalizing factoids, some with additional details, in a list of “100 things we didn’t know this time last year.”