Tufty's surname at 97

A collection of 100 things we've learnt in 2006, from the BBC Online Magazine. Guess how many apples we eat a year. The answer's at number 75.

Time for a change

No picture of this, but here's news of a device which will tell you when to replace your trainers - because it should be at least every 500 miles, not just when they're getting scruffy.

Matters of resigning

The National Archives website now offers, for free download, 240 newly-released Cabinet papers from 1976, including the official record of Harold Wilson's address to the Cabinet on his resignation in March. From that come these words to his successor (at that point unchosen):

"The price of an Adminstration's continuance and success is eternal vigilance - on duty or on call every minute of the day. Yet you must find time enough to stand back and think about the problems of the Administration, its purpose, its co-ordination and its longer-term strategy. Equally you have to watch for that cloud no bigger than a man's hand which may threaten not tomorrow's crisis, but perhaps next month's or next year's. In all this you have got to think and feel politically as well as in constitutional and administrative terms.

"It is not only the job here in Westminster, Whitehall and Parliament. It is the job in the country. The leader of the Party, and no less the Prime Minister, has a duty to meet the people, to address political and other meetings. For 13 years I have averaged well over 100 a year, covering nearly every constituency, some of them many times.

"You will be able to count on my full support, especially when the going is rough. My advice and experience is available when you seek it: I do not intend to offer gratuitous advice. I will give any help I can in any form you ask, inside the House, in the Parliamentary Party, and in the country, apart from accepting a Ministerial appointment.

"In particular, I shall be guided by the letter and spirit of the undertaking which a pre-war predecessor gave when he stood down for a succesor, who was in fact chosen - not elected as is our rule - "Once I leave, I leave. I am not going to speak to the man on the bridge, and I am not going to spit on the deck"."

The quote was from Stanley Baldwin, from his own resignation statement to the Cabinet in 1937. Wilson remained as MP for Huyton until 1983.

Looking good

Give yourself a magic makeover.

Social

Here's the fascinating website of the Social Issues Research Centre, with articles on how the dinner party isn't dead (even though we don't call it that any more), and how to flirt.

Ahmet Ertegun

A quick entry in tribute to Ahmet Ertegun, the co-founder of Atlantic Records, whose many discoveries included the great Dusty Springfield and Aretha Franklin. Here's his obituary in the New York Times, and here's the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame which he helped to create. His story of Atlantic, "What I'd Say", is still available on Amazon in America.

Bounce

The space hopper is back.

Discover new music

Last.fm is another website to help you find music you like - and it's got simplicity on its side.

From me to you

As soon as you've used up all the left-over Christmas stamps, it'll be time for a special Beatles commemorative stamp set.

Wait for it

It doesn't have a release date or a price. In fact it hasn't even been finished yet. But Amazon is taking orders for the new Harry Potter book, and it's already topped their sales chart.

Your page

Netvibes - a "custom-made home page solution".

Watch the camel

Now you can relax and look back at Christmas, thinking that whatever happened at that party, at least you weren't as bad as an out-of-control camel.

From the New Statesman, newly relaunched online, comes this:

A camel gatecrashed the staff Christmas party at an equestrian centre in Ireland. Before anyone arrived, Gus helped himself to all 200 mince pies and 150 sandwiches. He also opened and drank seven cans of Guinness.

Light up

Cool online candle shop. (Candle snuffer - £1.99 in the sale.)

Staying alive

For fighting off winter lurgies, echinacea.

Look sharp

As the sales get into gear, the Undercover Economist reveals that the best way to get checkout workers scanning quickly is to put someone really fast next to them, in their eyeline. Facing someone who's 10% quicker will speed you up by 2%.

Tickle

You just haven't had enough gifts. You need a small Freud which laughs when you press his foot - for those "moments when you realise that over-analysis is the beginning of the end".

Things never remain the same for all that long

The Queen's podcast

Signs of the times

In its 2006 Zeitgeist section, Google tells us that Iran and North Korea started to occupy our interest more than Iraq during 2006, and that Nicole Kidman's wedding beat Tom Cruise's in the search stakes.

I like the "what's hot" page, from which we learn that the answers topping their four most-sought information leagues are

• Who is Borat?


• What is Hezbollah?


• How to refinance


• Define promiscuous

That pretty much covers it.

The graphic at the top, by the way, is from their technical pages, describing Google's patented pigeonrank system, explained here.

Here he is

Happy Christmas from Santa and the reindeer (with help from the Drifters).

Cheapest flights

Just launched in the UK (and still in Beta) is kayak.co.uk, a "flight aggregator", which checks over a hundred websites for the best flight deals. Starting soon, they'll be adding a facility to see the "fare history" for your chosen flight, so that you can tell whether the quoted fare is higher or lower than normal.

Spreading Christmas cheer

An anonymous woman has been giving away fifty-dollar notes on buses in Spokane.

Cuddly jumper

OK, this is just a little camp as a blog entry, but it's cold and it's nearly Christmas, so check out the cashmere on the Charles Tyrwhitt website, including this, in cranberry.

Cold and foggy

The Met Office website's had a nice overhaul. Detailed local forecasts look like this.

All for charidee

Matt's put a grand on himself to win Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday. The proceeds (just under £1400 profit at 11/8) will go to Children In Need if he wins.

Less fishy than a fish

i-Fish.

Oh, you want more? OK...

"i-Fish swims and swishes to the beat of your music, acting as a speaker for your music player. Just as there are 7 seas, i-Fish has 7 levels of volume. It communicates its personality and mood via patterns, with a range of swooshing and bubbling digital fish sounds. Keep i-Fish happy by touching its head and stroking its tail."

Photo gallery

Portraits by the Observer's Jane Bown

Brain boxes

Taxi drivers have bigger brains (because they need somewhere to keep all that information).

Move it

I'm putting off the chore of upgrading my trusty Dell Latitude laptop, which after three trusty years is running out of space and slowing down. Here, as recommended in the FT, is some software by Laplink which might make it less of a drag.

Prawn

Everywhere you turn, there's news that 70's cooking is back in fashion, so here's a book dedicated to retro cooking.

Snow at last for Lapps

After a shock lack of snow in Lapland last week, my in-depth research tells me that it's now a healthy -11 degrees and (rejoice) snowing.

Nice ice cream for the time of year

Gaggia do coffee machines, we know. And now, an ice cream maker too, which is presumably just as classy.

Gallic shrug

55% of communication in Paris is non-verbal. Here's a guide to some of the gestures you need to get by.

Signing off

The last ever Open University programme on regular TV has gone out.

Hands free stirring

Why go to all the trouble of stirring things in the saucepan, when you can get the StirChef to do it for you. The paddle rotates 10 to 12 times a minute and has impressive torque, you know.

AAAA

Not sure if these can all be trusted, but here's a guide to the origins of cliches, and from the same website, a guide to acronyms, some of which are especially wicked.

Left-leaning

From Australia, news that left-handed people think quicker when playing sports and computer games. The link between the two hemispheres of their brain is better. Here's a transcript of how ABC covered the story, with quotes from the scientist who's done the research.

Stab

It's the Voodoo Knife Display. Buy a nice set of knives from those good people at Firebox, and they come in this rather unusual setting. As you replace the knife, you stab the little voodoo person, who is, incidentally, also available in red. Good job. (Brenda from Aberdeen has named hers "Bob".)

PM's Window On Your World

Radio 4's PM programme has launched "Window On Your World". It's a simple idea - listeners were asked to email in a photograph of what they could see at 5pm last Tuesday, as PM's editor explains here. Many of the resultant postings on the website include small captions putting the photo into the context of the listener's life. (Here's a random example.) You have to remember that over half of PM's weekly audience of 3.5 million is over the age of 55, and that it has a general bias towards London and the South East (its penetration in London is double that of North East England), so it doesn't claim to represent the whole population, but the photos are engrossing.

Lock 'em up

Boy arrested for opening Christmas present early

Clinging on

The very clever Gorillapod tripod - you can use it to attach your digital camera to just about anything. Except souls. And thoughts. Anything solid, then. (I actually have one - this model - and it's very neat indeed.)

Shop

Favourite place for Christmas shopping and eating.

Correctamundo

Henry Winkler is playing Captain Hook in Peter Pan at the New Wimbledon Theatre. Let no-one say that he doesn't care about his character:

"Hook is a bad guy, but I truly believe he's misunderstood. I mean, you have your hand eaten by a crocodile, that's got to create some anger and resentment. I think he has redeeming qualities. He's very dashing. He doesn't delegate well but he's a good leader."

Buttery

Sometimes your butter's too hard to spread, sometimes it's just a little bit too runny. The Butter Wizard - that's what you need.

Goat

New York's Cafe Mozart, in mid-town Manhattan, featured in tribute to Mozart's great quote: "Without my morning coffee, I am just a dried-up piece of roast goat". You and me both, Wolfie.

Christmas shopping

UK Customs officials are cracking down on Brits heading to America for Christmas bargains - your standard allowance is for goods to the value of £145. Above that limit, you may have to pay import taxes. More here.

Ding Dong indeed

So IP is the thing. IP phones are great (I speak from experience) so clearly from there it's just a short step to the IP doorbell - probably the cleverest doorbell in the world.

Championing independent journalism

The Frontline is a club which puts on regular events to interest foreign correspondents, war reporters and journalists in general. It's also an excellent restaurant (now with breakfast from 8am if you're in the Paddington area and needing a bit of civilisation).

You got me what?

The better you know someone, the worse the presents you'll buy them.

Tentacled

It's not pretty, but it is functional, and possibly even a little bit funky. The LaCie Huby is a USB hub. Yep, those are li'l USB plugs dangling and flopping around, with "colourful LED lights". Also hanging at the end of a wire are a USB fan and a USB light.

Some things

If you work in London, Westminster City Council has set up the "some things" website to try to make your life that bit safer this Christmas season. You have to dig around for it, but the most unusual service they're offering is for mobile users, and the direct link to it is here, offering:

Do you need a good reason to leave your party early? Choose a message from the list below and let us know what time you’d like to leave. We’ll send you the perfect excuse to make a move.

Take a look - it's worth it for some of the excuses they'll send you.

We can rebuild him

Leonardo's fingerprint, reconstructed.

LG - making very nice phones

Oh my. Look at all these lovely phones from LG. I was playing with a friend's LG phone the other weekend - she has one of the older chocolate phones, and although the menu is a bit fiddly, the handset itself is simply gorgeous.

Just lush

Lush shops are popping up everywhere - they're fab, and they're online as well (after a fashion).

The immaculate conception

I learn from the Guardian that the immaculate conception has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus.

This fallacy has sometimes been perpetuated in the Guardian's own pages, amongst others, but the paper has also been at pains to correct it, having now done so here, here and here.

Smile

It’s a clock, a mirror and a radiator all in one, backlit with soft neon, and very good looking. Made by Tubor in Italy, it’s too expensive even to have a price tag.

Down the drain

Flushed Away – one to watch from Aardman.

Lock up

Hull, Bradford, Leeds and Ilford in London are the places in Britain where you car is most likely to be burgled, according to Endsleigh. Norwich is the least likely, followed by Solihull.

Glowing

The Glow Brick.

Charge it up all day long under natural light, let it glow all night. It’s hard to know why you would want to do this, but it’s really cool, so please find a reason.

Torn

Objects in Conflict is an exhibition showing personal belongings which may be worthless in themselves, but which tell a story of war and loss in a way which the headlines cannot.

To see the objects, you need to go to Tel Aviv, but you can read a review of Nadette de Visser's display here.