1026
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Sharks (or shark-like creatures) appear in the fossil record before trees.
(Image: Albert kok)
1027
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"We are trying to unravel the Mighty Infinite using a language which was designed to tell one another where the fresh fruit was." TERRY PRATCHETT
1028
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If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it’s another nonconformist who doesn’t conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity. BILL VAUGHAN
1029
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A CHEWBACCA DEFENSE is when a lawyer just tries to confuse the jury, instead of trying to convince them of anything.
1030
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Site of the Day: artist Uli Westphal has charted the evolution of the depiction of elephants in the Middle Ages when European illustrators did not know how the animal actually looked and had to rely on second-hand sources. bit.ly/3B61a34
1031
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Researchers at the University of Glasgow have created a phone that your dog can use to contact you.
1032
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Sunlight takes 8 minutes to travel from the surface of the Sun to Earth, but anywhere from 5,000 to 100,000 years to get from the Sun’s core to its surface.
1033
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From 1987 to 2015, it was more lucrative to invest in Lego than in bonds, wine, or gold. (Study: bit.ly/33tbVRq.)
1034
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Word of the Day: SLUMMOCK - to pass the time aimlessly or idly.
1035
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Word of the day: SORRY-GO-ROUND (19th century) - a depressing set of repetitive events
1036
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WEBSITE OF THE DAY: The one where you click to ‘drop’ a raindrop anywhere in the world and track its path down rivers and streams watching where it ends up. river-runner-global.samlearner.com
1037
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In 2019 the Royal Horitcultural Society confirmed that the herb previously known as ‘rosemary’ was in fact a species of sage.
1038
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Moles shrink their brains in winter to conserve energy.
(Image: Johnnie Walker; CC BY-NC-ND.)
1039
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Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman in the U.S. to earn the M.D. degree, was admitted to a medical school in 1847. The faculty allowed the all-male student body to vote on her admission, being sure they would reject her, but the students voted ‘yes’ as a joke.
1040
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Ancient Greek and Roman mimes were not silent — they were performers and entertainers who talked and sang. They were called ‘mimes’ because they were good at mimicking other people.
1041
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SITE OF THE DAY: The Martin Luther Insult Generator, ergofabulous.org/luther/
1042
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Children’s dislike of cauliflower and broccoli is connected to the concentration of enzymes produced by bacteria in their saliva. The more of an enzyme called cysteine lyases their mouths produce, the more sulphurous brassicas will taste.
Image: Fir0002/Flagstaffotos
1043
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Word of the day: BLELLUM (Scottish) – someone who is all talk and no action
1044
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According to local legend, the mason of Freiburg’s cathedral was unhappy with his pay, and so he sculpted himself onto the building as this gargoyle, defecating in the direction of the city council. [📷: Márcio Cabral de Moura CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]
1045
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Word of the day: TOSIE (Scots) - warm, snug and comfortable
1046
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Tardigrades – also known as water bears - have survived all five mass extinctions on Earth since they evolved over half a billion years ago.
Image: Schokraie E, Warnken U, Hotz-Wagenblatt A, Grohme MA, Hengherr S, et al. (2012), CC BY 2.5
1047
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Word of the day: SWAGE (Scots) - to sit back and let a good meal digest
1048
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Early American trains had wood-burning engines that would spew embers into the passenger cars, so some railways gave each passenger a bucket of sand to pour on a neighbour if they caught fire.
1049
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Before the introduction of postage stamps in the U.S., a letter was supposed to be paid for by the recipient. In the 1830s, one American harassed his enemy by sending him letters filled with nothing but blank pages.
1050
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Word of the Day: KUCHINAOSHI (Japanese) — a nice food that you eat in order to get rid of the bad taste of something you have just consumed, a palate cleanser; literally, a ‘mouth fix’.
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A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves