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In 1795, a French cavalry regiment won a battle against a Dutch naval fleet.
The fleet had frozen in ice, so the cavalry just rode up and surrounded them.
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The Spanish word for cardigan is 'rebeca’ based on the one Joan Fontaine wore in the 1940 Hitchcock film ‘Rebecca’.
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When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent. ISAAC ASIMOV
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Britney Spears' "Toxic" changed how people used the word "toxic".
According to research by @OxLanguages, her song helped popularise the metaphorical use of "toxicity".
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According to addiction researchers, it is extremely difficult to get hamsters drunk.
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Something killed off 90% of all sharks 19 million years ago. No one knows what.
(Image: Richard Ling; CC BY-NC-ND.)
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Dutch people are getting shorter.
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The peregrine falcon has a series of baffles in its nostrils to prevent the air pressure bursting its lungs when it dives.
(Image: Greg Hume)
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As part of its COVID response, Seoul has recently banned gyms from playing music with a tempo higher than 120 beats per minute — so that people won’t breathe too fast or splash sweat on others. This means that Gangnam Style (132bpm) is officially banned.
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Loneliness makes people more sensitive to cold and more likely to order hot soup or coffee.
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A single editor has removed the phrase "comprised of" from Wikipedia - 47,000 times.
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Dogs can sniff out COVID19, but aren’t very good at it if they’re hungry or after eating, when they need a nap.
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In 1920, Dorothy Parker met her editor for brunch. He fired her. She ordered the most expensive dessert on the menu and left.
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Orcas go through short-lived fads. For instance, they recently started breaking rudders off sailboats along the European coast; and for a few weeks in the 1980s, some took to swimming with dead fish on their heads.
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Pond Square, North London is said to be haunted by a chicken that Francis Bacon tried to preserve in ice in 1626.
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There are more pet tigers in the USA than there are wild tigers in the world.
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If you are listening to something boring, doodling while you listen will improve your recall by 30%.
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In the 16th century, Danish king Christian IV required captains of ships passing by Denmark to pay taxes.
They were allowed to declare their cargo at whatever value they chose, without further audit, but the king reserved the right to buy the cargo at that price.
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People are worse at detecting sarcasm than they think they are.
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When hunting, weasels and ferrets dance around their prey to disorient them.
It is called the "weasel war dance".
(Image: USFWS Mountain-Prairie; CC BY.)
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An apple a day does not keep the doctor away. A 2015 study found no correlation between eating apples and physician visits. However an apple a day is linked to fewer prescriptions.
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Word of the day: SESSELPUPSER (German) - literally "armchair-farter", someone who gives orders from the comfort of their office but doesn't do any of the work themselves
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We are pleased to update you that Yakei's rule has survived the mating season. No other macaques attempted to usurp her position. twitter.com/qikipedia/stat…
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According to a 2000 poll, the Japanese believe their greatest invention of the 20th century was the instant noodle.
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Rather than placing the currency symbol before the amount (e.g. $50.00) or after the amount (e.g. 50.00€), the Cape Verdean escudo puts the symbol as the decimal separator - as 50$00.
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves