5 things we learned this week

1 Urinating on jellyfish stings doesn’t make them less sore. A poll has shown

that millions of Britons mistakenly believe the treatment works, probably because of a Friends episode in which Chandler does it for Monica. But scientists insist it’s bunkum. ‘You shouldn’t believe everything you see on TV,’ says top jellyologist Jack Willans.

2 never dating anyone over the age of 25 isn’t the only thing Leo DiCaprio is known for in Hollywood, says Popbitch. In Los Angeles, all the venues for big events have hidden entrances and exits to allow A-listers to dodge crowds and paparazzi. This manoeuvre is known as ‘Doing a Leo’ – as in, ‘Do you have the facilities at this venue for a Leo?’

3 More people in the US now smoke marijuana than tobacco. In the latest Gallup poll on the issue, just 11 per cent of Americans said they were regular cigarette smokers compared to 16 per cent who claimed to be regular marijuana users. The drug has been legalised in some form in the majority of states, which is likely to be a contributing factor.

4 nosy French bureaucrats are using artificial intelligence to hit householders with undeclared private

swimming pools with big tax bills. The system, developed by Google and French tech firm Capgemini, identifies pools on aerial images and cross-checks them with land registry databases. Launched as an experiment a year ago in nine French departments, it has uncovered 20,356 illicit pools, landing owners with tax bills totalling around £8.6million.

5 Heinz has brought out a line of clothes pre-stained with its ketchup. The company’s range features 157 second-hand garments, including items from Louis Vuitton and Saint Laurent, each daubed with sauce that looks like it ‘dropped straight out of a hot dog’. Proceeds from the defaced designer range go to the charity Rise Against Hunger.

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