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2899 Americans went to the A&E in 2020 for pizza-related injuries.
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Google can bring you back, you know, a hundred thousand answers. A librarian can bring you back the right one. NEIL GAIMAN
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The figurative meanings of the word ‘backlog’ — ‘reserves’ and ‘unfulfilled orders’ — were preceded by a literal one: originally, the word referred to a heavy log put at the back of a fireplace as a protection of the brickwork.
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In 1993, a man in Brazil tried to rob a glue factory, but accidentally knocked over two large cans and spilled the contents. The police found him glued to the floor, not being able to move.
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Word of the Day: PÉNISPLIQUER (Canadian French, neologism) — mansplaining; ‘expliquer’ is French for ‘explain’.
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Scientists have created a potato plant that glows when it is stressed.
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Scientists hoping to track Australian magpies were foiled because the birds pecked each other’s tracking devices off.
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There are at least 18 known books that are bound in human skin.
(Image: Wellcome Images.)
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Though eels have been studied since ancient Greece, scientists still aren't sure how they have sex.
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Tchaikovsky was able to quit his day job with the support of a wealthy patron.
Her only condition for her support was that they never meet in person.
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A bear named Hank the Tank had been accused of breaking into 28 homes in California since July.
He has recently been partially exonerated by DNA evidence. There are, in fact, no fewer than three different bears breaking into homes.
(Image: Tim Lumley; CC BY-NC-ND.)
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"The whole of life is just like watching a film. Only it's as though you always get in ten minutes after the big picture has started, and no-one will tell you the plot, so you have to work it out all yourself from the clues." TERRY PRATCHETT
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The craze evidently is dying out fast and in a few months it will have been forgotten. THE NEW YORK TIMES in 1925 on crosswords
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After the Scottish Reformation, the lands of the Church were divided by the Crown into temporary lordships. The act of creation of these lordships was known as ‘erection’, and people who received them were officially known as the ‘Lords of Erection’.
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According to Merriam-Webster, the word ‘colleague’ is most commonly used with such words as ‘fellow’, ‘esteemed’, and ‘distinguished’. The word ‘coworker’ is often used with such words as ‘difficult’, ‘bossy’, and ‘annoying’.
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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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Word of the day: CLATTERFART - a talkative person.
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Welsh mathematician, Robert Recorde, invented the ‘equals’ sign. In 1557 he wrote: ‘noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle.’
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This is from NASA’s Apollo 10 mission’s transcript… (Image: Apollo 10 Mission, NASA/JSC)
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Word of the day: BAYARD - one blind to the light of knowledge, who has the self-confidence of ignorance.
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How to dress for the gym in 1895…
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If you feel less sharp in midlife than you did in your 20s, you can't blame your age.
According to new research, your mental processing speed doesn't begin slow down until your 60s.
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Drinking tea made Britons in the 1700s healthier.
Since tea used boiled water, increased tea drinking reduced mortality from water-borne diseases.
[Study: direct.mit.edu/rest/article-a…]
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During the 1980s, New York City used these signs instead of standard "no parking" signs.
(Image: Sunny Ripert; CC BY-SA.)
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At the 2000 Olympics, organizers ordered 50,000 condoms - but the Olympic Village still ran out halfway through the Games. They had to place an emergency order for 20,000 extras.
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves