if it’s news to me, it must be news to you!
Shedding a light on eccentricity: The English are rather fond of their garden sheds but some things further than others as the Shed of the Year 2017 finalists demonstrate, like the 1950s police station shed on the left.
Sing a rainbow: Just how good is your colour vision? If you want to find out and have five minutes to spare try the Farnsworth-Munsell 100 hue test (Adobe Flash required).
You better believe it: Researchers at the University of Rochester and the Northeastern University have analysed 63 studies and concluded that atheists are more intelligent than religious people but they aren’t sure why. I suppose God just made them that way.
Vintage flatpack: If you are one of those who bought into the Ikea lifestyle early then you could literally be sitting on a fortune. Rare pieces are fetching big money from furniture collectors, like the mushroom chairs on the left now valued at £50,000.
Ticklish problem: We all know that it is impossible to tickle yourself, but researchers at the University of New South Wales have discovered that some people can. However, if you are one of those people it means that you have a high degree of schizotopy, a collection of personality characteristics that includes a lack of close friends, eccentric behaviour and suspiciousness.
Weapons-grade chilli: A gardener in North Wales has grown the world’s hottest chilli, so hot in fact that it could cause anaphylactic shock and kill you. On the plus side, the oil from the chilli could be used as an alternative anaesthetic.
All washed up: A sandy beach in Dooagh Bay, Ireland, that was washed away by a storm in 1984 has reappeared much to the delight of local people.
Getting the bird: With Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia at the moment, I wonder if he’ll get to ride in Bentley Bentayga by Millener which includes all the accessories that a falconry enthusiast might want except for the falcon itself.
Ancient puzzle: Although known about for 200 years, scientists are still puzzling over the civilisation that lived in the highly inhospitable Chaco Canyon in New Mexico.
Royal high flyer: King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands has revealed that he has been leading a double-life for over twenty years by working as a commercial airline pilot as well as ruling a country.
Brief lives: Old news: Masaya Nakamura who gave the world Pac-Man and Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks who both died in January.
More recently, Pat Stewart, the iconic Girl in the Polka Dot Dress (right); Soundgarden lead singer Chris Cornell; former Welsh first minister Rhodri Morgan ; the founding CEO of Fox News Roger Ailes, the man who divided America and; last and least lamented, murderer Ian Brady.