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Coelacanths, the ‘fossil fish' still found off the coast of Madagascar, existed over 300 million years earlier than Madagascar itself.
(Image: Alberto Fernandez Fernandez)
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Americans today have approximately 64 billion bones between them. In 65 million years, only about 50 of these bones will survive in the fossil record.
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The shred of skin that peels off after sunburn is called a blype.
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Sedona in Arizona is home to the world’s only McDonalds with a blue ‘M’. Officials felt yellow clashed with the scenery. (Image: 1Veertje, CC-BY 2.0)
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Dogs can have cat allergies (and vice versa).
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The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised. GEORGE F. WILL
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Some clubs use free lollipops to calm patrons at the end of the night, because it’s hard to shout at someone with a lollipop in your mouth.
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Eating the head of a sea bream called sarpa salsa can cause hallucinations. It was used as a recreational drug during Roman times.
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The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock because they were about to run out of beer.
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Something killed off 90% of all sharks 19 million years ago. No one knows what.
(Image: Richard Ling; CC BY-NC-ND.)
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"There's no problem so awful that you can't add some guilt to it and make it even worse!" BILL WATTERSON
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In the 18th century, small cannons were sometimes mounted on camels.
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Word of the day: SWAGE (Scots) - to sit back and let a good meal digest
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There is a pizzeria in Guatemala that cooks their pizzas on lava from an active volcano.
(Image: Carlos Urrutia; CC BY-SA-NC.)
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Euphonia, a Victorian ‘talking machine’, was one of the first robots who could speak sentences. It was so unsettling one commentator labelled it a ‘scientific Frankenstein monster’ with a ‘hoarse sepulchral voice’.
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While filming the 1996 horror movie Scream, a phone used by Drew Barrymore’s character to make panicked 911 calls was accidentally left connected. Concerned police phoned back to check the murders weren’t real.
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Zombies would likely develop high cholesterol on an all-brains diet.
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In the event of an apocalypse, about 200 humans would need to survive for the species to be able to repopulate.
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Most of the bacteria found during a recent study of the microbiome of the London Underground were previously unknown to science.
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WORD OF THE DAY: POKEMON an old Cornish word meaning 'clumsy', first recorded in the 19th century.
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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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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.
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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.
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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)
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British people spend about 200 million pounds a year feeding birds.
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A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves