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Word of the day: SESSELPUPSER (German) - literally "armchair-farter", someone who gives orders from the comfort of their office but doesn't do any of the work themselves
602
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Climate change is making albatrosses more likely to divorce.
603
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Brazilian footballer Argélico Fuchs spent much of his life spelling his name "Argélico Fucks", resulting in headlines such as "Fucks off to Benfica".
604
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In 2006, a robot taste-taster confirmed humans taste like bacon.
605
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The longest cell in the human body is a metre long. The axons in the sciatic nerve are single threadlike cells a few micrometres in diameter that reach from the base of the spine to the end of the big toe.
Image: KDS4444, CC BY-SA 4.0
606
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The New Jersey volunteer campaign to rescue thousands of stranded horseshoe crabs by flipping them the right way up is called 'ReTURN the Favor’.
607
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Only one in 15 people who have ever lived are alive now.
608
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Word of the Day: AGNOTOLOGY — the study of ignorance and of deliberate spreading of ignorance, confusion, and deceit.
609
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Although English is the most predominant language in New Zealand, it is not an official language of the country. The two official languages are Maori and New Zealand Sign Language.
610
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The word ‘wassailing’, as in ‘Here we come a-wassailing’, comes from the Old English greeting ‘wes hāl’ (‘be well’). It became a drinking salutation (‘waes hail’), then the name for the Yuletide drink (‘wesseyl’) and finally the name for the holiday fun when you were drinking it.
611
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‘Vaccination’ comes from Latin ‘vacca’ (‘cow’), because Edward Jenner immunised against smallpox with the cowpox virus. At the time, horsepox-based immunisation was just as effective, so instead of vaccinating we could have easily been equinating (Latin ‘equus’, ‘horse’).
612
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It means nothing to me. I have no opinion about it, and I don’t care. PABLO PICASSO, IN 1969 ON THE MOON LANDING
613
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Self-identified "cat people" are more likely to be neurotic.
614
@qikipedia
In ancient Greece, small penises were preferred to large ones.
A small penis symbolized self-control and intelligence.
615
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Word of the day: DETERIORISM - the belief that the worst is yet to come
616
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"If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be 'meetings'." DAVE BARRY
617
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The Khasi people of India make bridges by shaping live tree roots.
Since the trees and roots are still alive, a living bridge can last as long as the tree lives - hundreds of years.
(Image: Anselmrogers; CC BY-SA.)
618
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Word of the day: ONOMATOMANIA - the frustration of not being able to think of that particular word you're looking for
619
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"We are not nouns, we are verbs. I am not a thing – an actor, a writer – I am a person who does things – I write, I act – and I never know what I am going to do next. I think you can be imprisoned if you think of yourself as a noun." STEPHEN FRY
620
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Something to think about when you put your Christmas decorations up. #QI 🎄
621
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Vampire bats lap blood rather than suck it – their saliva contains an enzyme called draculin to prevent the blood clotting.
Image: Mokele, CC BY 3.0
622
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Word of the Day: VERGURKEN (German) — to screw up or ruin something, literally ‘to cucumber [something] up’.
623
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The word ‘bridal’ comes from ‘bride ale’, a traditional wedding feast typically involving ale drinking.
624
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According to documents provided by his son, Nostradamus came up with his prophecies during trance sessions induced by nutmeg which can cause hallucinations if consumed in large quantities.
625
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Alice Lee was a statistician who debunked the claim that men must be more intelligent than women because of bigger skulls. In 1898, she measured the skulls of 35 members of the Anatomical Society and found that the smallest heads belonged to the most renowned scientists.
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves