1276
@qikipedia
Word of the day: NULLIBIQUITOUS – existing nowhere.
1277
@qikipedia
An expert is a person who has found out by his own painful experience all the mistakes that one can make. NIELS BOHR
1278
@qikipedia
Word of the Day: SLOTCH (South Lancashire, 19th Century) — a gluttonous, drunken clown.
1279
@qikipedia
In English, Latin, Hindi and many other languages, the Proto-Indo-European word ‘*udros’ — ‘water creature’ — became the word for the otter. In Greek, it became the word for a sea monster (‘hydra’). [📷: Cloudtail the Snow Leopard, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]
1280
@qikipedia
Word of the day: ESQUISSE - a first, rough sketch of an idea that you will flesh out later
1281
@qikipedia
In 1879, ‘Punch’ predicted video calls: In this cartoon, parents ‘set up an electric camera obscura over their bedroom mantel-piece, and gladden their eyes with the sight of their Children at the Antipodes, and converse gaily with them through the wire’.
1282
@qikipedia
Word of the day: ABLIGURITION - excessive spending on food and drink
1283
@qikipedia
Word of the day: THINKO - a careless error in thinking, a mental typo
1284
@qikipedia
Three-quarters of the world’s border walls and fences were installed after 2000.
1285
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The James Bond theme music was written by composer Monty Norman. He based it on his earlier piece, a composition (with words) for a stage production of V.S. Naipaul’s novel ‘A House For Mr. Biswas’, where the tune is played on a sitar.
youtube.com/watch?v=g6EuzG…
1286
@qikipedia
Word of the day: POLITICASTER - a much-disliked politician
1287
@qikipedia
Japanese scientists are tackling pollinator loss with drones that shoot pollen-dusted soap bubbles. (Study: bit.ly/3tR7Vlc).
1288
@qikipedia
60% of the world’s seeds are owned by four companies.
1289
@qikipedia
Soccer was originally ‘socca’ – a late 19th century Oxbridge slang term created by shortening the Association in ‘Association football’ to distinguish it from ‘rugger’ (rugby football).
(Image: Christopher Bruno)
1290
@qikipedia
Experts believe there are 5.25 trillion bits of plastic in our oceans; 50 bits for every star in our galaxy.
1291
@qikipedia
The pumpkin toadlet is so small that its vestibular system doesn't function well.
This means it is very bad at jumping.
(Video from Essner et al 2022; used with permission.)
1292
@qikipedia
At one point in the 1990s, 50% of all CDs produced were promotional AOL CDs.
(Image: Jeran Renz.)
1293
@qikipedia
Word of the Day: STUMBLEBUM — an inept person.
1294
@qikipedia
"I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities that I have visited, all my ancestors." JORGE LUIS BORGES
1295
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This year’s PNC Christmas Price Index (based on the cost of the gifts listed in the 12 Days of Christmas) is 5.7% up on 2020 to $41,205.58, with the biggest increase of +57% attributed to the cost of six geese-a-laying at $660.
1296
@qikipedia
Word of the day: NANNICK (early 20th century English dialect) - to fool around when you really should be working
1297
@qikipedia
You can be RUTHFUL - full of compassion or pity - in addition to being RUTHLESS.
1298
@qikipedia
APROSEXIA is the inability to concentrate.
1299
@qikipedia
According to the 2021 Global Drug Survey, Irish people are the most likely to get drunk and then regret it.
(Chart by @_LutherAF_.)
1300
@qikipedia
Anannatannassamitindriya is a Sanskrit word for the feeling that there must be a word for a feeling that you can’t name. Its literal translation is ‘I-will-come-to-know-what-is-unknown’.
press.princeton.edu/ideas/word-wat…
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves