Julie is the author of a number of guidebooks, including 'Melbourne's Best Bush Bay and City Walks' & 'Melbourne for Dogs' (with RSPCA). Read more of her adventures at her walks blog: walksmelbourne.com
Published December 31st 2012
Things you never needed to know about 2012
Okay, as we see in the new year, there was a lot to celebrate about 2012 (unless your name was Lance Armstrong). We had a successful Olympics, for one, a man jumped to earth from the stratosphere (and survived) and the world DIDN'T end - I thought that was pretty good, personally.
But at the end of the day, there were also a lot of totally unremarkable happenings which made the news in 2012. Here's some of my favourite:
1. North Korea officially announced it's discovery of an ancient unicorn lair. Really.
2. In the final episode of the X-Files, it was announced that aliens would invade the earth on the 21st December 2012. They didn't.
3. In 2012, scientists discovered that a virtual 'rain forest' of over 10,000 different bacteria lived in our belly buttons Thank you for that.
4. The leggiest creature in the world was discovered living near Silicon Valley in the USA. Not a computer-enhanced version of Barbarella, it is in fact a 3cm long, 750-legged millipede.
5. From South Korea this time, Koshik the Asian zoo elephant sticks his trunk in his mouth to 'speak' English and Korean. So far, he has mastered: 'good, no, hello' and 'sit-down'. We're waiting for 'get me someone who can hold a decent conversation!'
6. 'Gangnam style' (a funny little man called Psy from the posh Gangnam district of South Korea doing very bad dancing) received the most hits (that's over 1 billion) on You Tube all year. Oh dear. What is it with Korea this year?
Do you have any other favourite bits of totally useless but vaguely interesting news items from 2012 that tickled your fancy? I'd love to hear them.
