1276
@qikipedia
Scholars in the Middle Ages popped the ‘b’ into the word debt because of its Latin origins (debitum), despite the fact that it came to English from the French word dette and was never pronounced. They same applies to doubt, plumber, subtle, indict and island.
1277
@qikipedia
Tomato plants emit ultrasonic sounds when they’re stressed.
1278
@qikipedia
Word of the day: CONFELICITY - joy in the happiness of others.
1279
@qikipedia
A wheeple is an ineffectual attempt to whistle loudly.
1280
@qikipedia
In the 1800s, ducks were sometimes called ‘arsefeet’ because their feet are so close to their bottoms.
1281
@qikipedia
Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless. BILL WATTERSON
1282
@qikipedia
The newly restored 14th century shrine of St Amphibalus at St Albans cathedral features a carving of a head wearing a facemask to commemorate the shrine’s restoration during the pandemic. (Image: St Albans Cathedral)
1283
@qikipedia
A marine worm called Ramisyllis multicaudata has a single head and hundreds of bums. Its body branches off in all directions and each branch has its own butthole. (Image: Sarah Faulwetter)
1284
@qikipedia
Being in love makes food taste sweeter.
1285
@qikipedia
Last month, gravitational wave scientists took suggestions for the collective noun for a group of black holes.
They've narrowed down the list to ten, and are considering: graveyard, horde, perforation, swarm, colloquium, disaster, sieve, brood and doom.
1286
@qikipedia
Thomas Aquinas identified five types of gluttony:
Laute - eating food that is too luxurious
Studiose - eating food too daintily
Nimis - eating too much food
Praepropere - eating at an inappropriate time
Ardenter - eating too eagerly
Tag yourself.
1287
@qikipedia
This is what the inside of a child's skull (with baby teeth) looks like.
1288
@qikipedia
Word of the Day: FORJESKIT (Scots) - exhausted from working too much
1289
@qikipedia
When jelly babies first grew popular in the Victorian era, they were marketed as ‘unclaimed babies’.
1290
@qikipedia
In 1790, Xavier de Maistre, an aristocrat under house arrest in Italy, wrote up a tour of his bedroom into a book.
1291
@qikipedia
In England in the 1700s, 90% of men had one of these eight names: John, Edward, William, Henry, Charles, James, Richard, Robert.
1292
@qikipedia
"Fart" is one of the oldest words in the English language.
1293
@qikipedia
A 2012 study suggested that men who wear pink earn more than those who are not willing to wear pink.
1294
@qikipedia
Word of the day: FRÜHJAHRSMÜDIGKEIT (German) - literally "spring fatigue", exhaustion felt in spring, possibly from allergies or the changing weather
About half of Germans report that they have suffered from Frühjahrsmüdigkeit.
1295
@qikipedia
The oldest recorded joke (from 1900 BCE) was a fart joke.
1296
@qikipedia
Nobody hates tourists more than a fellow tourist. Running into a compatriot abroad is an acutely painful experience. It’s a bit like hearing your own voice. TOM JENKINS (CEO OF THE EUROPEAN TOURISM ASSOCIATION)
1297
@qikipedia
In 1949, a contest for a new term to replace ‘jazz’ featured such suggestions as ‘bix-e-bop’, ‘swixibop’, ‘ragtibop’, ‘schmoosic’, 'jarb' and ‘le hot’.
1298
@qikipedia
Mikhail Gorbachev was a big fan of ‘Twin Peaks’ and asked George H.W. Bush to find out for him who killed Laura Palmer. David Lynch was contacted by the producers on behalf of the president but didn’t tell them the answer.
1299
@qikipedia
An apple a day does not keep the doctor away. A 2015 study found no correlation between eating apples and physician visits. However an apple a day is linked to fewer prescriptions.
1300
@qikipedia
Out of 145 murders recorded in London for the year 1278, two resulted from a quarrel over a game of chess.
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves