1226
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The gene that makes small dogs small also appears to make them more feisty.
1227
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The German word for compound interest - ZINSESZINS - translates literally to "interest's interest".
1228
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Word of the Day: GRAMMAGRAM — a word or phrase whose pronunciation can be expressed as a sequence of letters. For instance, SX for ‘Essex’, NME for ‘enemy’, or ICQ for ‘I seek you’.
1229
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Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca in the Star wars movies, spoke his lines in English, they were later dubbed into Wookie.
1230
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Word of the day: MASKENTROTTEL (German) - someone who wears a face mask below their nose, literally ‘mask idiot’.
1231
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Under evolutionary pressure from poaching, more and more elephants in Mozambique are born without tusks.
1232
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In 1949, Munich Zoo embarked on a rigorous ‘de-nazification’ programme for a parrot who’d started screaming ‘Heil Hitler’ at guests.
1233
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Word of the Day: SLUMMOCK - to pass the time aimlessly or idly.
1234
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There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing. MAYA ANGELOU
1235
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According to the Roman writer Juvenal, one of the punishments for adultery was the insertion of a mullet in the offender’s anus.
1236
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Word of the day: FINGER-FUMBLER n. the equivalent of a ‘tongue-twister’ in sign language, i.e. a phrase that is difficult to sign correctly.
1237
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According to the Guinness Book of World Records the world’s most difficult tongue twister is in the Xhosa language of South Africa: ‘Iqaqa laziqikaqika kwazw kwaqhawaka uqhoqhoqha’ which means ‘The skunk rolled down and ruptured its larynx’ (the last word contains three clicks).
1238
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According to the head keeper at San Diego Zoo, the worst farts in the animal kingdom come from sea lions.
1239
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The bonnacon is a mythical creature with the body of a bull, the mane of a horse and the ability to expel corrosive faeces with great force.
1240
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Isaac Newton was not a popular lecturer at Cambridge. According to Newton’s assistant, ‘so few went to hear Him, & fewer [...] understood him’ that he ‘read to the Walls.’
1241
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There’s no such thing as a chemical that makes your pee visible in swimming pools.
1242
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The sound of your stomach rumbling is not necessarily because you’re hungry. It’s not even your stomach - it’s your small intestine cleaning itself after digesting food.
1243
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It was not uncommon for Victorians to keep hedgehogs as kitchen pets to eat beetles.
1244
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Word of the Day: DEUTERAGONIST - the second most important person in a story, after the protagonist.
1245
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The Mafra Palace Library in Portugal has an army of bats that come out each night and dine on the insects that want to eat their 14-19th century leather bound books.
1246
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British people spend about 200 million pounds a year feeding birds.
1247
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The first marshmallows were made by boiling pulp from mallow plants with honey and sugar. Ancient Egyptians used it to treat sore throats. (Image: John Morgan CC-by-2.0)
1248
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By law, over a third of all songs played on Canadian radio must feature Canadian music, artists, performances or lyrics. This rule is known as the MAPL system.
1249
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The Manx for hedgehog is ‘Arkan sonney’, meaning ‘plentiful little pig’. That's also the name of the legendary ‘fairy pig of the Isle of Man’, who brings good luck if caught.
1250
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Cicadas pee so much people can mistake it for rain. In parts of the US, it’s advisable to wear a hat when walking near trees in summer. (Image: Bruce Marlin CC BY-SA 2.5)
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A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves