1076
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Olivia Newton-John’s maternal grandfather was the physicist Max Born, who won the 1954 Nobel Prize for his research in quantum mechanics. Her father was the MI5 officer Brinley Newton-John, who helped break the Enigma codes. Her third cousin is Ben Elton.
1077
@qikipedia
There’s an art installation on the Moon. It’s called Fallen Astronaut by Paul Van Hoeydonck. The plaque names the men of the US and Soviet space programs that have lost their lives on space missions. (Image: NASA)
1078
@qikipedia
Some elephants in Angola have learned to detect and avoid landmines. They also warn other elephants of the danger.
1079
@qikipedia
A signpost in Maine, USA, showing the names of local towns (Image: Magicpiano)
CC BY-SA 1.0
1080
@qikipedia
Word of the day: BLELLUM (Scottish) – someone who is all talk and no action
1081
@qikipedia
Word of the Day: BINFLUENCER (neologism) — ‘the person on a street who takes the lead in putting out the correct waste and recycling bins on the correct day, thus prompting neighbours to follow suit’.
1082
@qikipedia
The 17th century equivalent for ‘Go to hell!’ was ‘Turd in your teeth!’
1083
@qikipedia
According to a legend, the winner of the 1906 Tour de France René Pottier was ahead of his competitors by more than an hour during one stage. He stopped at a roadside cafe, drank an entire bottle of wine, waited for others to catch up, chased them down, and still won the stage.
1084
@qikipedia
‘Spocking’ is a Canadian practice whereby the features of the prime minister Wilfred Laurier on the Canadian five-dollar bill are altered so that he begins to look like the Star Trek character Spock. [📷: Kelapstick. CCA SA 4.0]
1085
@qikipedia
In general, people think you are both smarter and more likable than you think they think.
1086
@qikipedia
Mel Blanc - the voice of Porky Pig - specified in his will that his epitaph should be "THAT'S ALL FOLKS".
(Image: Robert A. Estremo; CC BY-SA.)
1087
@qikipedia
Over the last 70 years, the United States has lost at least three nuclear bombs.
1088
@qikipedia
In 1820, three men died in an avalanche in the Alps and fell into a glacier. Having studied the speed of the glacier, it was predicted by a geologist that their remains would emerge at the bottom in forty years time. They were found intact in 1861.
1089
@qikipedia
Word of the day: NULLIBIQUITOUS – existing nowhere.
1090
@qikipedia
To ‘poon’ means to put something under the leg of a table to stop it wobbling.
1091
@qikipedia
The ‘wheady mile’ is an old Shropshire term meaning the last bit of a journey that goes on much longer than you thought it would.
1092
@qikipedia
Word of the day: EEDLE-DODDLE - someone who shows no initiative in a crisis.
1093
@qikipedia
In the town of Whittier, Alaska, almost everyone lives in one building.
90% of the town's residents live in one 14-storey building - that also houses a post office, shop, police station, health clinic, and a bed & breakfast.
(Image: WordRidden; CC BY.)
1094
@qikipedia
Willem Arondeus was an openly gay Dutch artist.
In 1943, he bombed the public records office in Amsterdam to prevent the identification of Jews by the Nazis.
His last words before being executed by the Gestapo were "tell the people that homosexuals can be brave!".
1095
@qikipedia
Word Of The Day: SPLOOT — the pose of a dog or cat when it lies on its stomach with hind legs stretched out behind the body. [📷: Rain Rabbit.]
1096
@qikipedia
Because the video for Janet Jackson’s song ‘Rhythm Nation’ contained a natural resonant frequency for a certain model of laptop hard drive, it would crash laptops playing the video. It could even crash laptops within earshot which weren’t playing it.
1097
@qikipedia
Although only 836 people live in the French village of Montolieu, it has one bookshop for every 56 residents as well several workshops and museums dedicated to the craft of making books.
1098
@qikipedia
Word of the day: ABULIA - the pathological inability to make decisions.
1099
@qikipedia
"Are we living a life that is safe from harm?
Of course not. We never are. But that’s not the right question. The question is are we living a life that is worth the harm?" JOSEPH FINK and JEFFREY CRANOR
1100
@qikipedia
The cloudiest city in the US gets more sunlight than the sunniest city in England.
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves