1176
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The inventor of the transistor, John Bardeen, won a Nobel prize in 1956 but only brought one of his three kids to the ceremony. When questioned on it, he said he’d bring the others the next time he won, which he then did in 1972.
1177
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Julia Child was 6' 2" (188 cm) and so dominant at college basketball that the administration at her college banned her from dunking.
1178
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WRAP RAGE is the anger you feel when attempting to open tamper-resistant packaging.
1179
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If you feel less sharp in midlife than you did in your 20s, you can't blame your age.
According to new research, your mental processing speed doesn't begin slow down until your 60s.
1180
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McDonald’s introduced its first drive-thru in 1975 for soldiers on an Arizona military base, because they weren’t allowed to be seen in their uniforms in public, so had to stay in their cars.
1181
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In 1989, the Australian Labor Party insisted they weren’t bribing voters with a pre-election barbecue and denied “being involved in the dissemination of sausages”.
1182
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In 1974, a bridge in Vulcan, West Virginia collapsed.
When it had not been replaced by 1977, the mayor requested aid from the Soviet Union to repair it. A Soviet journalist, Iona Andronov, flew out to report.
Within hours of his visit, the state OKed a replacement.
1183
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Word of the Day: URINATOR (17th century) — someone who dives under water.
1184
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15% of Britons take 70% of the flights.
1185
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Statistician Craig Anderson calculated the cost of completing the Euro 2020 sticker book. To get 90% of the stickers - without swapsies - would cost an average of £893.70
1186
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Without biting midges, we wouldn’t have chocolate: cocoa plants are pollinated by them.
1187
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The German word for compound interest - ZINSESZINS - translates literally to "interest's interest".
1188
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When correctly viewed, everything is lewd. TOM LEHRER
1189
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This year’s PNC Christmas Price Index (based on the cost of the gifts listed in the 12 Days of Christmas) is 5.7% up on 2020 to $41,205.58, with the biggest increase of +57% attributed to the cost of six geese-a-laying at $660.
1190
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Global revenue from cybercrime is approximately $1.5tn a year; greater than Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google’s annual takings combined.
1191
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Teenagers literally feel more than adults do, as our sense of touch peaks between 16 and 18.
1192
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Bees can count to four but score higher marks when punished for getting their answers wrong.
1193
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The oldest known spider was 43 years old when it passed away.
1194
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In Ancient Egypt lettuce had a phallic shape and oozed milky fluids when cut, making it a potent sex symbol.
1195
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In a similar way to tree rings being made, periods of stress in our lives can show up in our teeth.
1196
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Michelangelo hated painting the Sistine Chapel so much he wrote a poem about it.
It begins:
"I've already grown a goiter from this torture,
hunched up here like a cat in Lombardy
(or anywhere else where the stagnant water's poison)..."
1197
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The Welsh for ‘July’ is Gorffennaf, which literally means ‘end of summer’.
1198
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At the 2000 Olympics, organizers ordered 50,000 condoms - but the Olympic Village still ran out halfway through the Games. They had to place an emergency order for 20,000 extras.
1199
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Sharks (or shark-like creatures) appear in the fossil record before trees.
(Image: Albert kok)
1200
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‘Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you’ was the longest string of words signed by Nim Chimpsky, the chimpanzee subject of an extended study into animal language in the 1970s.
Image: Herbert Terrace/Bantam
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves