52 Things The Internet Taught Me in 2025

As we reach the end of another lap around the sun, we approach the conclusion of another year in which the internet has excelled itself in its main current purpose – purveying filth, fraud and fake news to the masses. Every so often, however, sifting through the merde, one gets a quick glimpse of its original mission – retaining and spreading most of human knowledge. A flash of a nugget of information hidden among the reams of AI pictures showing buses driving through the River Thames or models with seven fingers. And so, in tribute to the original point of the worldwide web, as before (here and here), herewith 52 random things I have learned this year from spending too much time in front of a screen. Some of them might even be true…

1. In 1400/1401, the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos paid a state visit to England. On the one hand, it lasted two months not three days (unlike you-know-who’s), on the other, he only got one. Loser.

2. In Kiribati, a dog is a “kamea”. The species is not native to the islands, and was brought by English colonialists. Hearing “Come here” being shouted frequently at run-away Rovers, the locals decided it was the name for the animal.

3. In a similar vein, the Celtic word for “river” is “Avon” so Shakespeare’s birthplace technically lies on the “River River”.

4. On current demographic trends, 100 current South Koreans will, between them, have 15 grandchildren.

5. The distance in time between you and the first British farmers is shorter than the distance between them and the first farmers. Our ancestors were slow learners.

6. At Nelson’s funeral, St Paul’s was decorated with flags captured from enemy ships.

7. There have been more test matches in which 20 wickets have fallen in a day (21) than in which 19 wickets have fallen in a day (18).

8. In a name containing three short, similar words, the order of the vowels will always be “I”, “A” “O”. In two-word names, “I” will always come first, followed by one of the other two. You don’t shally-shilly in your flop-flips to play pong-ping…

9. At the end of the ATP Finals, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, the world’s top two tennis players, had played 3302 points against each other in their careers to date. They were tied 1651-all.

10. Sinner’s triumph earlier in the year in SW19 meant that 2025 was the first year the Gentlemen’s and Ladies’ champions had served drugs bans.

11. Not the worst thing a Wimbledon player has ever done. Vere St Leger Goold, losing finalist in 1879, died on Devil’s Island, serving life for murder. His opponent, John Hartley was a Church of England vicar who would win once more before losing in the shortest ever final (37 minutes).

12. Britain’s death toll in WWII was 0.9% of the population (including civilian casualties). In WWI, it was 1.9%. In the Napoleonic Wars, it was 2.7%.

13. The original plans for Saudi Arabia’s The Line, called for two buildings, both taller than the Shard, stretching the equivalent of London to the Norfolk Coast. It’s since been scaled back a bit.

14. In the days following the Louvre heist, the German makers of the crane the thieves had used started featuring it in their adverts. The tagline was, “If you’re in a hurry…”

15. 20 years ago, unable to afford the $80mn price tag for a new monastery, a group of Carmelite monks in Wyoming decided to take matters into their own hands. Teaching themselves stone-carving and modern construction techniques, they have just about finished.

16. The winner of the Caerphilly by-election had stood in every one since 1983. This year was the first he won.

17. Similarly, his third place in this year’s British Grand Prix was Niko Hulkenberg’s first podium in 239 starts.

18. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (the Andrew formerly known as Prince) has, as we know, lost all his honours. Despite spending time in prison recently, Nicholas Sarkozy remains an Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.

19. Abraham Lincoln is the last U.S. President not to have been alive during the lifespan of Herbert Hoover.

20. In a similar vein, Barack Obama is the only President born in an America with 50 states.

21. The Easternmost point of Brazil is closer to Africa than to the Westernmost point of Brazil. And it’s not even close – 2,600km plays 4,300km.

22. Prince William, if he inherits, will be the first descendant of Charles II to sit on the throne. Diana had two of his illegitimate children in her ancestry.

23. Sticking with the Stuarts, Bonnie Prince Charlie’s younger brother, Henry, was appointed Cardinal at the age of 23, and remained so until his death 59 years later, probably the record (the Vatican archives are less complete than Dan Brown would have you believe). Rising to be head of the College, in the papal interregnum of 1798, he was both de facto Pope and (to the Jacobites at least) de iure King of Britain.

24. Emma Watson was the first choice for Emma Stone’s role in La La Land.

25. In a 2019 survey of Suffolk’s rivers, researchers found traces of cocaine in every shrimp they tested. They thought this was a bad thing. The shrimp, of course, might have been (almost certainly were, in fact) very happy about it.

26. Probably a reflection of differing wealth (or a greater interest in food), in Britain, people are “as good as gold”, in Italy, they are “as good as bread”.

27. Russians may, or not, believe in a free lunch, but they are adamant that “the only free cheese is in the mousetrap”.

28. Returning to Italy, the country’s shepherds have developed special coats for donkeys with large pockets for lambs, to make it easier to move them between pastures.

29. In this year’s Norwegian election, the Labor Party came top. The last time this didn’t happen, people were queuing to see the first talkies.

30. On a training ride in 2022, Colombia’s Egan Bernal ran into the back of a bus at 50kmph, breaking his back, leg, knee and several ribs. Doctors gave him a 5% chance of survival. He won stage 16 of this year’s Vuelta a Espana.

31. In tribute to Sir Mark’s numerous victories there, for the duration of this year’s Tour de France, the town of Chateauroux renamed itself “Cavendish City”.

32. Someone who doesn’t like joining in is an “otrovert”. Or standoffish. You choose. I don’t care.

33. Between its start in 1959 and 1981, France’s Fifth Republic had 7 Prime Ministers. Emmanuel Macron has got through 7 in his Presidency to-date.

34. The late Duchess of Kent was not only a Catholic, but the first member of the Royal Family to be descended from Oliver Cromwell – a one woman resolution of the Civil War.

35. Asked in the hastily-arranged by-election to get him into the House of Commons, whether he would buy a house in his new constituency, Sir Alec Douglas-Home grandly replied, “No, I have too many houses to live in already.”

36. One of the stained glass windows in Canterbury Cathedral depicts a castration. Eilward of Westoning, having lost his bits for non-payment of debts (it was a different time) prayed to Thomas a Becket for their restoration. When they miraculously reappeared, Eilward became a minor celebrity, exposing himself to anyone who wanted to check his story.

37. A “theic” is someone who drinks too much tea or, in the words of the OED, a “tea drunkard”.

38. More students sat A-level PE (do you “sit” PE or do you run, jump or kick it?) this year than A-level French, German, Latin and Greek. Combined.

39. Since 2017, Kazakh has gone through 4 different orthographies. Originally written in Cyrillic, a new Latin version was announced. Which was changed. And changed again. Going to school must have been a blast.

40. Chefs at Le Bernardin in New York (recently voted the world’s best restaurant) eat a piece of processed cheese before service every day. It never changes, but their taste buds do, so how it tastes tells them how sensitive they are that day and whether they are likely to be right if, for example, they think a dish is too salty.

41. Swimmer Katie Ledecky went undefeated in the 1500m freestyle this year. As she has done for the last 15 years. She hasn’t lost since she was 13.

42. Westminster used to be an island, sitting between the forks of the river Tyburn where it met the Thames. Originally called Thorney Island, an 8^th century charter described it as a “terrible place.” Plus ça change…

43. Faustin Wirkus, a U.S. Marine seconded to Haiti, helped out a young woman accused of voodoo. She turned out to be the Queen of the island of La Gonave. Due to his kindness and the fact he shared a name with the late Emperor of Haiti (who knew that was a thing?), she and her people named him King. He reigned for three years before the Corps, slightly unsportingly, reassigned him.

44. John James Audubon, the American nature artist, liked to eat birds before he painted them, probably holding the record for most species sampled. Snowy owls, apparently, really do “taste just like chicken”.

45. Roland the Farter was a jester at the court of Henry II. In return for “a jump, a whistle and a fart” every year, he was given 30 acres and the manor of Hemingstone in Suffolk. Professional farters (flatulists) also appear in the Classical world (St Augustine mentions them), the mediaeval (Montaigne) and in the Japanese shogunate.

46. In the 1860s Britain decided it needed better repair facilities for the Western Atlantic Fleet. The Victorians being the Victorians, they built an 8,000 ton iron dry dock in Woolwich and towed it to Bermuda.

47. At the battle of Waterloo, Col. Ponsonby of the Light Dragoons rode too far through the French line and took sabre cuts to both arms. He fell off his horse and was speared in the back. A French soldier then used him as cover, firing over his body. Finally, the advancing Prussian cavalry trampled him. He survived, recovered and became Governor of Malta.

48. Bartolo Longo was canonised in October. In his youth he had been a Satanist. Every sinner has a future, that saint certainly had a past…

49. You can predict imminent American military action by monitoring the busyness of the pizza parlours near the Pentagon. War, like marathons, appears to require carb-loading.

50. In 2024, Americans spent $47bn on bottled water, more than the GDP of Bahrain.

51. The idea you should do 10,000 steps in a day comes from the Japanese company Yamasa Tokei Keiki. Looking, in the sixties, for an ad campaign for their new pedometer, they noticed that the character for 10,000 looks a bit like a man walking. Thus, the “10,000 steps meter” was born, promoted by a campaign telling everyone they should do it. It probably won’t hurt though.

52. Blood plasma makes up about 2% of total U.S. exports.

Best Wishes for 2026!

 

Stewart Slater works in Finance. He is now also on Substack, where you are welcome to follow him.

 

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