NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17651, 11 December 1920, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Bananas are said to be a good, brain food.

Male spiders are much smaller than the females.

The cork of commerce is the cork of a certain kind of tropical tree.

The Persian desert dog is one of the very few species which never* barks. Domestic economy was introduced as a lesson into English schools .-in 1874. Women in Turkey,'by a, new law. aro not allowed to be seen in public with a man. *

The name "'sardine'' is officially restricted to the pilchard in its immature condition. To rest our bodies, we should stand up for 10 out of every 30 minutes, according to one authority. The dutv on plaving-cards brought the British Exchequer £48,786 in 1918, 1:10.000 more than in 1913. Comparing 1919 with 191 S. there was an increase in Britain of 5924 men voters and 377,357 women votersA Persian carpet was in use for over two hundred years in the main hall of the Shah's palace in Teheran. Since fees have been charged to those patients able to pay, the London Hospital has taken about £60 a day. A French firm of winegrowers has re cer.tlv caused to bo made a bottle "that holds 300 quarts of champagne. By drawing back the loose folds of '.he skin", a French doctor recently removed wrinkles from a woman patient's face. Statistics estimate that the quantity of wine from the French vineyards this year will be about 100.000,000 gallons below last year's, this belying the earlier forecast of a record narvest. There are eighteen stars of the first, magnitude. Some idea of their distance may be gained from the knowledge that they are at least 211,000 times farther from the earth than is the sun. At the Natural History Museum in New York the latest exhibit is a reproduction in glass and wax of a two-inch section of the sea bottom, with its plant and animal life magnified 15,000 times. Limpets have the means of forming a vacuum under their shells, and are pressed on to the rocks by the weight of the atmosphere. That explains why they are so difficult to remove from the rocks The first kidnapping policy ever issued by a United States insurance company has been delivered to Mr. B. F. Wood, ot Alabama. The policy is for £3COO and insures Mr. Wood's three daughters from kidnapping. Every yard of every railway in the TJnited'Kingdom is inspected at least once in the twenty-four hours, and most of it twice. ' To perform this work requires the services of an army of 66.000 ablebodied men. They work in gangs of four.

Every week, within the borders of Greater London, approximately 4000 children are born, 2400 persons die, and 2600 begin wedded life. Every ten years Greater London adds to her number a population as large as that of the County of Sussex. Taking the average birth rate for the past few years, Russia comes top, the average varying between 40 and 50 per thousand. " Bulgaria and Rumania arealso very high. The British birth rate has frequently -worked out at merely half the Russian figures.

The ' output ' of; artificial graphite has risen very rapidly in recent years. The output in 1915 was 5,000,0001b., and it. rose to 10,000,0001b. by 1918. " -Much 61 I it finds its way into lubricants,' paints, battery fillers, foundry facings, and boiler scale preventatives. Erom 2100 acre's of land which* was previously nearly all. derelict, the Kent Agricultural Committee has -obtained this year 148 stacks of corn, besides crops of roots, potatoes, and hay. The land was farmed by the , committee, and it is estimated that one year's crops will fully repay the cost of reclamation. «-' " V - "» :~-' * The tonnage of the merchant-shipping of the United Kingdom is 18,111,000-tons, and the tonnage for the whole empire, including the British " Dominions, is 20,143,000 tons. The United States comes next with 12,406,000 tons, the total for this country having thus grown since--1914 when it was 2,027,000 tons. Since jellyfish are largely composed of water, they evaporate when - they lie exposed to the sun, and - nothing remain* but a small silvery mark. They are not to be envied," for even when they, are in the water' they seem at the .mercy of the currents and quite incapable of directing their own course. •• The cost of education in Britain has increased by 219 per scent, since 1913-14, according to the latest financial memorandum issued by tie" Board of Education. Teachers* salaries, which in 1913-14 amounted to £16.416.000, are estimated for 1920-21' at £33,110,000, an increase of 138 cent. K ;C;. . Each ship.in the British Navy is to. have a badge, of distinctive design in place of the unofficial badges now used. An Admiralty committee has, decided that tho circular badge is the best for battleships and battle-cruisers, the pentagon for light cruisers, and a sqnare, set diamond-wise, for auxiliary vessels. Cables from Norway state that the net increase in the first six months of 1920 in Norway's merchant marine tonnage was 9 per cent., in "Sweden 2.8 per cent.-, ' and in that of Denmark 3.7 per cent. Norway had on January 1 of "this year 1697 merchant vessels, exclusive of vessels less than 100 tons. Sweden had 1253 ■ and Denmark 708 vessels. An ' exceptionally largo tonnage of new vessels for the year ended June 30 is recorded. During that period the new. tannage was 4.250,000. compared with 5,800,000 in the previous year, while at the end of June, 4,930.340 tons of merchant shipping was under construction. Oil fuel ships numbered 426 vessel? of 1,995.788 tens as against 1,193,650 of the previous year. ■ Every zoo throughout the world is in need of new specimens. During the war, of course, the wild beast trade practically ceased to exist, and although a little of the shortage has been made up since. there is still much to be dene. It is estimated that at the present moment British zoos alone are in nerd of £20.000 worth of animals, and it is the same story ! in every civilised country. I Robins have been revered by men for i many centuries. They are always on the i side of the good fairies, and ' thore is j superstition that bad lurk will fall on | anyone who kills a robin, or upon one ■ who keeps a robin in a tag?, and deprives !it of its freedom. Bat probably, 'when j all is said and done, the robin owes its | popularity mainly to its red breast, and ! the cheerful picture it makes amid its j bleak surroundings. A man weighing eleven stone hns in ' him enough fat to make five pounds of ! candles, and enough phosphorus to, put I heads on 2200 matches. He has iron | sufficient to make a one-inch nail, and j lime enough to make whitewash to cover • a small shod. .As for carbon— black !e;'d j —there is in his body an amount equal to filling over a thousand pencils. There is also a spoonful of sugar, a pinch or so of salt, and nine and a-half gallons of water. It is estimated by Lloyd's ihat as a result of the action of enemy submarines and the diversion of resources normally employed :in replacing losses and constructing new tonnage, the net reduction in the, merchant shipping of the world during the;,. last six years amounted to 3,516,000 tons, this figure being based oa the assumption that the ratio of increase. during the last six years would have been, four-fifths'of the average rate p* increase , goring the previous «ix years. '