926
@qikipedia
The nouns ‘slew’ (a great amount of) and ‘slogan’ are related. Gaelic ‘sluagh’ (crowd) transformed into ‘slew’ and in combination with ‘ghairm’ — ‘sluagh-ghairm’ (war cry) — gave rise to ‘slogan’.
927
@qikipedia
Youngest siblings tend to think they're the funniest in the family.
928
@qikipedia
Word of the day: 손맛 (son-mat; Korean) - "hand taste", the unique taste each person making a recipe adds to it, usually used to describe how no one can make food like your mum
929
@qikipedia
Word of the day: DESIDERATE - to long for something you once had
930
@qikipedia
In the 1920s, Cincinnati, Ohio began to build a subway system. When the Great Depression hit, they abandoned the project.
It has never been completed or filled in, so there are still 3.5 km of abandoned subway tunnels below Ohio.
(Image: Jonathan Warren; CC BY-SA.)
931
@qikipedia
Word of the day: HINGUM-TRINGUM (Scots) - low spirits, just barely getting through it all
932
@qikipedia
According to a Stanford University study, kids' brains start tuning out their mum's voice at age 13.
933
@qikipedia
Britons spend more than twice as much on bird food than the rest of Europe combined. As a result our great tits are developing longer beaks.
934
@qikipedia
Ever suffer from restaurant menu anxiety? Astronauts on the International Space Station have 200 meal options, but they have to decide what they will want for the whole trip before they go up.
935
@qikipedia
A wasp named after Idris Elba is saving Mexico’s broccoli crop from parasites.
936
@qikipedia
‘D’ä e å, å i åa ä e ö’ is a Swedish dialectal phrase that means ‘There is a stream, and in the stream there is an island’.
937
@qikipedia
A word that can be spelled with only musical notes — A, B, C, D, E, F, G — is called a ‘piano word’. The longest one in English is ‘cabbage-faced’.
938
@qikipedia
Legs are hereditary, and run in most families. SPIKE MILLIGAN
939
@qikipedia
"Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power." P. J. O'ROURKE
940
@qikipedia
Word of the day: FYLLEANGST (Norwegian) - the unsettling feeling one has the day after drinking when you can’t remember what you did while you were drunk
941
@qikipedia
The coal, oil and gas we burn each year requires as much organic matter to make as the entire planet grows in roughly 600 years.
942
@qikipedia
The press release for the 1980 edition of ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ contained a section with the following praise from the members of Monty Python. The total number of words is 42.
943
@qikipedia
Since 1278, Andorra has been ruled by two co-princes: the head of France and the Bishop of Urgell in Spain. Until 1993, in odd-numbered years Andorra paid about £353 to France; and in even-numbered years gave a tribute to the Spanish of £9, six hams, six cheeses and 12 hens.
944
@qikipedia
Climate change is making it harder to sleep - on average, you are losing 44 hours of sleep a year due to higher temperatures.
945
@qikipedia
The president of the Royal Horticultural Society is Mr. Keith Weed.
946
@qikipedia
"We are stuck with technology when all we really want is just stuff that works. How do you recognize something that is still technology? A good clue is if it comes with a manual." DOUGLAS ADAMS
947
@qikipedia
The word ZODIAC is not related to the stars; it comes from the Greek for "circle of little animals".
948
@qikipedia
Humans have the largest bottoms in the animal kingdom relative to body size.
949
@qikipedia
In English, Latin, Hindi and many other languages, the Proto-Indo-European word ‘*udros’ — ‘water creature’ — became the word for the otter. In Greek, it became the word for a sea monster (‘hydra’). [📷: Cloudtail the Snow Leopard, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]
950
@qikipedia
Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise. BERTRAND RUSSELL
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves