1. Bob the Builder had a fifth finger added to his hands by editors in Japan so viewers there wouldn't think that the character was a member of the Yakuza, the feared Japanese organised crime group. Yakuza members cut off their little fingers as a sign they can be trusted and have strength of character.
2. Back in 1996, Google was originally called ... wait for it ... BackRub. Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin picked the name because their program analysed the internet's "back links" to see how important different websites were and if and how it related to other sites. The name was changed to Google in 1997.
3. If raw pistachios are stored together in large quantities they are known to spontaneously combust because of the chemical reactions that take place when they are ripening.
4. In a 2008 survey, 58 per cent of British teenagers thought Sherlock Holmes was a real person, while 23 per cent thought Winston Churchill was not.
5. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.
