1101
@qikipedia
‘Calenture’ is the heat-induced illusion suffered by sailors that the sea is a green field they can walk on. It comes via Spanish from the Latin calēre, meaning ‘to be warm.’
Image: European Space Agency
1102
@qikipedia
The president of the Royal Horticultural Society is Mr. Keith Weed.
1103
@qikipedia
Coelacanths, the ‘fossil fish' still found off the coast of Madagascar, existed over 300 million years earlier than Madagascar itself.
(Image: Alberto Fernandez Fernandez)
1104
@qikipedia
In Norwegian, the period between Christmas and the New Year is called ROMJUL. Etymologically, it comes from Old Norse jól (Christmas) + rúmheilagr ("that needs not adhere strictly to legal proscriptions for a holiday").
1105
@qikipedia
This year’s Ig Nobel Prize in Physics went to a group of scientists who studied ‘why pedestrians do not constantly collide with other pedestrians’. The prize for Kinetics went to a group who studied ‘why pedestrians do sometimes collide with other pedestrians’. @improbresearch
1106
@qikipedia
In 2020, the world’s fossil fuel industry was subsidised by $11m per minute.
1107
@qikipedia
The human brain runs on 20 watts of electricity – enough to power a dim light bulb.
Image: KMJ / Edokter
1108
@qikipedia
83% of Britain’s department stores have closed since 2016.
1109
@qikipedia
According to the Roman writer Juvenal, one of the punishments for adultery was the insertion of a mullet in the offender’s anus.
1110
@qikipedia
A kitchen sponge is a better environment for growing bacteria than a petri dish.
1111
@qikipedia
The coal, oil and gas we burn each year requires as much organic matter to make as the entire planet grows in roughly 600 years.
1112
@qikipedia
Word of the day: ABULIA - the pathological inability to make decisions.
1113
@qikipedia
For four years, the US state of Nebraska was last on a list of states that tourists are interested in visiting.
The Nebraska Tourism Commission then adopted the slogan “Nebraska: honestly, it’s not for everyone.”
1114
@qikipedia
In 1962, the Philippine Senate considered a bill that would rename the country "Malaysia".
Before they had a chance to vote, the country now known as Malaysia officially adopted the name.
1115
@qikipedia
The first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary included the word ‘cock’, but excluded ‘condom’. The male genitals were not considered taboo, but contraception was a subject ‘too utterly obscene for the Dictionary’.
1116
@qikipedia
This ancient tablet includes a list of reasons that people missed work.
Reasons include being ill - but also such excuses as "brewing beer" and "drinking".
(Image: The Trustees of the British Museum; CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
1117
@qikipedia
"[Young people today] think they know everything, and are always quite sure about it." ARISTOTLE (4th century BCE)
1118
@qikipedia
Word of the day: KAFFEEKLATSCH - literally "coffee chatter", an informal gathering where friends come and chat over cups of coffee
1119
@qikipedia
Word of the day: MITTYESQUE - describes a person who spends more time daydreaming than paying attention to the real world
1120
@qikipedia
Deadly nightshade aka ‘Belladonna’ (beautiful lady) is so named because its juice was used as an eyedrop in Renaissance Italy to make a woman’s pupils dilate seductively.
Image: Flobbadob, CC-BY-SA 4.0
1121
@qikipedia
Museum of Failure features such products as the Harley-Davidson cologne; the spray-on condom (‘simply insert penis into an apparatus to coat with melted latex. Then wait 3 minutes for latex to dry’); and a $200 handheld device that only supports Twitter.
1122
@qikipedia
"Beauty doesn't have to be about anything. What's a vase about? What's a sunset or a flower about? What, for that matter, is Mozart's Twenty-third Piano Concerto about?" DOUGLAS ADAMS
1123
@qikipedia
A collective noun for a group of ghostwriters is ‘a fright’.
1124
@qikipedia
People can only agree about what they’re not really interested in. BERTRAND RUSSELL
1125
@qikipedia
In 1835 a New York newspaper reported a new telescope had revealed bat-winged men living on the Moon. To end the hoax, it claimed the telescope had caught fire.
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves