100 New Things We Learned in 2005

The BBC is reporting that there are 100 things we didn't know last year. While most of the things that we are credited with knowing now like number five on their list, are just curiousities:

"'Nicole Kidman is scared of butterflies. "I jump out of planes, I could be covered in cockroaches, I do all sorts of things, but I just don't like the feel of butterflies' bodies," she says.'''

Some can give you pause to think, take number two for example:

"Mohammed is now one of the 20 most popular names for boys born in England and Wales. " Interestingly, Islam is the second largest religion in France, also.

If you are interested in seeing what made their list the article is here. One that I enjoyed was 19:

"The = sign was invented by 16th Century Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde, who was fed up with writing "is equal to" in his equations. He chose the two lines because "noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle"."'

I wonder if someone didn't know that before 2005, oh well their list is interesting.