GARANG NEWS

SINCE Monday, this has been Orangutan Awareness Week, under the auspices of the Orangutan Foundation (www.orangutan.org.uk).

 

James Bond has killed 369 people in the series

THE new James Bond film Spectre has been released this week. Here are some facts, shaken and stirred.

 

1. From Dr No to Skyfall, James Bond has killed a total of 369 people and slept with 55 women.

2. Bond is the 224th most common surname in the UK and there are 1,011 people in the United States named James Bond.

3. Ian Fleming's house in Jamaica was called GoldenEye. It was later bought by Bob Marley.

4. From Russia With Love was the last film President John F Kennedy ever saw.

5. In the films on average, Bond has a drink every 10 minutes 53 seconds.

November 4 is National Tonga Day (formerly known as Constitution Day) celebrating November 4, 1875 when the constitution of the nation of Tonga was adopted.

 

1. Tonga is a South Pacific kingdom comprising more than 170 islands of which 52 are inhabited. 

2. In 2003, Tonga sued the King’s official court jester who was also his financial adviser. 

3. The capital of Tonga is Nuku’alofa which, according to an old legend, means “abode of love”. 

 

 





4. Nuku’alofa, N’Djamena (the capital of Chad), Sana’a (Yemen), St John’s (Antigua and Barbuda) and St George’s (Grenada) are the only capitals with apostrophes in their names.

5. Actually the punctuation mark in Nuku’alofa is more a glottal stop than an apostrophe. 

6. Tonga became known as the Friendly Islands for the reception given to Captain James Cook in 1773. 

7. According to another account, the chiefs in Tonga wanted to kill Cook but could not agree on how to do it. 

 

8. According to the Church of Latter Day Saints, Tonga has the highest proportion of Mormons of any country in the world. 

9. Ninety per cent of the population of Tonga are overweight; 70 per cent of adult women are obese. 

10. Tonga’s only Olympic medal, a silver, was won by superheavyweight boxer Paea Wolfgramm in 1996.

Hug A Bear Day, celebrated annually, especially by teddy bear manufacturers and toy shops, on November 7.

 

1. The origins of Hug A Bear Day are unclear but it may be connected with the day in November 1902 when Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear on a hunting trip in Mississippi. 

2. Actually the hunting trip was on November 14, not November 7. 

 

3. The incident of Roosevelt sparing the bear led to the popularity and naming of Teddy bears.

4. The story of Goldilocks And The Three Bears was written in 1837 by Robert Southey who was the Poet Laureate at the time. 

 

THE librettist and Oscar-winning songwriter Tim Rice was 71 yesterday. Happy birthday Sir Tim, and here are some facts about rice and Rice.

 

1. There are over 40,000 varieties of rice of which around 4,000 are grown commercially.

2. In 2013 the world production of rice amounted to 745,710,000 tonnes. The only foods of which more is produced are sugarcane and maize.

3. The average person in the UK eats 6kg of rice a year. The average Asian eats about 50kg.

4. In Japanese legend, Ninigi-no-mikoto was the god of the ripened rice plant and is said to be the direct ancestor of all Japanese emperors.

5. In Japanese, Toyota means "bountiful rice field" and Honda means "main rice field".

 

6. RICE was introduced in 1978 as a mnemonic for coaches treating sports injuries. It stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.

7. In 1907 in the USA Julia B Rice founded the Society for the Suppression of Unnecessary Noise.

8. Analysis of the composition of ancient Chinese walls shows that rice was added to the mortar to increase its strength.

9. The Winter's Tale is the only Shakespeare play that mentions rice?

10. ?and Tim Rice wrote the lyrics to the David Essex hit song A Winter's Tale in 1982.

TODAY is Armistice Day, the 11th day of the 11th month when, at 11am, the armistice was signed bringing an end to hostilities in the First World War in 1918.

 

1. The traditional gift for an 11th wedding anniversary is something made of steel. 

2. When England switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1752, 11 days were omitted with September 14 following September 2. 

3. Ben-Hur, Titanic and The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King all won a record 11 Oscars. 

 





 





4. Joe Frazier is said to have cut his Olympic boxing gold medal into 11 pieces and given a piece to each of his 11 children.

5. The Canadian flag features a stylized maple leap with 11 points. 

6. The Canadian dollar coin has 11 sides. Thanks to its depiction of a common loon bird on one side, it is known as “the loonie”. 

7. The word for an 11-sided polygon is “undecagon” or “hendecagon”. 

 





8. To the nearest inch, a rugby ball is 11 inches long. 

9. The UK has won 11 Nobel Prizes for Literature. The only country with more is France with 15. 

10. In 2004, Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas set a world record by eating 11 pounds of cheesecake in nine minutes.