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According to a study by the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University, all cats have "an element of psychopathy".
(Image: MisterDesgraciao; CC BY-SA.)
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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.
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There was less lightning in the world during the Covid lockdowns.
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On average, being single costs £860 more a month than being partnered.
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Self-identified "cat people" are more likely to be neurotic.
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Unborn sea turtles sing to each other in their eggs.
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"I don't think I'd have been in such a hurry to reach adulthood if I'd known the whole thing was going to be ad-libbed." BILL WATTERSON
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The Cuban giant owl (which went extinct over 9,000 ears ago) was flightless, stood over three feet tall and weighed nine kilos (imagine a big turkey armed with massive claws).
634
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In 1969, a drunk Richard Nixon ordered a nuclear strike on North Korea.
Henry Kissinger countermanded the order and told the Joint Chiefs to wait until the president had sobered up to make any decisions.
635
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There is a cafe for writers in Tokyo that won't let you leave until you've met your writing goals.
636
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The French word ‘ça’ (‘it’ or ‘that’) as in ‘Ça va?’ is a shortening of the word ‘cela’, which itself is a shortening of the Vulgar Latin phrase ‘ecce hoc illac’, meaning ‘look this over there’.
637
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The elephant shrew is the world’s fastest small mammal: they can reach speeds of 28.8 km/h. [📷: Joey Makalintal CCA 2.0]
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In 1665, physician William Simpson recommended regular glasses of wine to prevent plague and ‘many enormous ideas of fear’.
639
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A 1940s Australian expression for surprise was "stiffen the wombats!"
640
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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
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Word of the day: THOROUGH-COUGH - coughing and breaking wind at the same time
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Isaac Roberts took this photo of the Andromeda galaxy in 1888, almost 100 years before the invention of ciabatta bread.
643
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Word of the Day: MONOMATH (neologism) — ‘a person with an exhaustive knowledge of a single, often utterly trivial, subject’.
644
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Strangolapreti is a type of pasta whose name in Italian means ‘priest-strangler’.
645
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Newfoundland, Canada is home to the small town of Dildo.
In 2019, a porn website offered to run free advertising to support tourism to the town.
(Image: Jcmurphy; CC BY-SA.)
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Word of the day: ROKJESDAG (Dutch) - literally "skirt day", the first day of spring where it is warm enough to wear skirts
647
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The figurative meanings of the word ‘backlog’ — ‘reserves’ and ‘unfulfilled orders’ — were preceded by a literal one: originally, the word referred to a heavy log put at the back of a fireplace as a protection of the brickwork.
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I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free - MICHELANGELO
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Aztecs prescribed chocolate for angina, fatigue, dysentery, gout, hemorrhoids and dental problems.
650
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An ENDLING is the last surviving individual of a species.
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves