if it’s news to me, it must be news to you!
The great debate: Having sorted out Europe, we can now get down to the important question of the day – should we pronounce the word ‘scone’ to rhyme with gone or bone? A YouGov survey reveals that 51% of us go for ‘gone’ while only 42% are in the ‘bone’ camp.
For the record, I prefer ‘bone’ but what I really want to know is how the missing 7% pronounce it.
Lonely planet: We parrots do get around a bit, but it can be a lonely life, especially if you were the only parrot to live in Siberia. It brings to mind the Monty Python’s Dead Parrot sketch but we have known for some time that the Norwegian Blue really did exist.
Referee! Despite the cries of ‘should have gone to Specsavers’ from the crowd, football referees are much more likely to make the correct call than we mere mortals and can even predict where a foul will happen.
The research by the University of Leuven in Belgium and Brunel University has published their findings in the journal Cognitive Research, complete with videos. Meanwhile, try the referee theory test to see how well you know the laws of the game.
Face facts: Which face did you spot in the drawing on the left? One online expert thinks your answer could change your life. While how you interpret these images will tell you whether you’re sex-obsessed or not.
Spot of Bozzer: Now that Boris Johnson hasn’t got the distraction of a Tory leadership campaign, he is back in his other job as a steward at Rochdale FC.
Mystery solved: I wrote in July about the mystery of the hordes of visitors to the town of Kidlington in Oxfordshire. Residents were baffled at why coachloads of Chinese tourists should be seen wandering their suburban streets. It seems it is: ‘being marketed by Chinese tourist agencies as a beautiful English village on the way to Bicester Village shopping centre’.
TV times: This week marks the 80th anniversary of the launch of the world’s first television service by the BBC. The presenter required bizarre makeup more suited to Halloween was required simply to be seen as this video explains.
Knickers: Underwear that once belonged to Eva Braun is expected to raise £450 at auction, although this is a bit of a drop since they were first spotted last year.
Media hype of the week: The Science Channel in America reports that scientists have solved the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, except that the scientists then said they had done no such thing. But why let the truth get in the way of a good story eh?
Brief lives: Tom Hayden civil rights activist and Mr Jane Fonda; Prince Mikasa of Japan; Spitfire pilot Molly Rose; songwriter Claude ‘Curly’ Putman whose hits included D-I-V-O-R-C-E;