1226
@qikipedia
Word of the day: THINKO - a careless error in thinking, a mental typo
1227
@qikipedia
"We're each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?" URSULA K. LEGUIN
1228
@qikipedia
Word of the day: UNDERMEAL (15th century) - an extra mid-afternoon meal
1229
@qikipedia
One in eight Britons reports that they feel tired all the time.
1230
@qikipedia
Batman once had an enemy called Hatman who was obsessed with stealing headwear.
1231
@qikipedia
According to a study from the University of Vienna, you not only look like your dog, you look like your car.
1232
@qikipedia
Plants make aspirin when they’re stressed.
1233
@qikipedia
The word ‘barn’ literally means ‘barley house’, derived from the Old English bere ‘barley’ + aern ‘house’.
1234
@qikipedia
People born with a surname towards the end of the alphabet tend to be more impatient.
1235
@qikipedia
Sunlight takes 8 minutes to travel from the surface of the Sun to Earth, but anywhere from 5,000 to 100,000 years to get from the Sun’s core to its surface.
1236
@qikipedia
Made a typo in an important email? This may make you feel better.
For most of 2009, the Chilean Mint produced 50 peso coins that advertised that they were from the Republic of "Chiie".
1237
@qikipedia
Birds have local dialects.
1238
@qikipedia
Phrase of the day: FARE LA SCARPETTA (Italian) - using a piece of bread to mop the last bits of pasta sauce
(Image: James; CC BY-NC-ND.)
1239
@qikipedia
The gravestone of Merv Griffin, a talk show host and the creator of TV shows ‘Jeopardy!’ and ‘Wheel of Fortune’, says ‘I will not be right back after this message’. [📷: Ben Churchill.]
1240
@qikipedia
The first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary included the word ‘cock’, but excluded ‘condom’. The male genitals were not considered taboo, but contraception was a subject ‘too utterly obscene for the Dictionary’.
1241
@qikipedia
The ‘cheese’ in the phrase ‘big cheese’ may have nothing to do with food: it probably comes from the Persian word ‘cīz’ that means ‘thing’.
1242
@qikipedia
Recent analysis of medieval skeletons indicated that the fashion for ever more pointy shoes caused serious damage to wealthy people’s feet.
(Image: Metropolitan Museum of Art)
1243
@qikipedia
It is obvious that art cannot teach anyone anything, since in four thousand years humanity has learnt nothing at all.
ANDREI TARKOVSKY
1244
@qikipedia
"It's a troublesome world. All the people who're in it
are troubled with troubles almost every minute.
You oughta be thankful, a whole heaping lot,
For the places and people you're lucky you're not!"
DR. SEUSS
1245
@qikipedia
The World Octopus Wrestling Championships took place in 1963 and then never again.
1246
@qikipedia
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.
1247
@qikipedia
Word of the day: NULLIBIQUITOUS – existing nowhere.
1248
@qikipedia
Three-quarters of the world’s border walls and fences were installed after 2000.
1249
@qikipedia
‘Fight or flight’ isn’t the only reaction humans have when stressed; researchers have identified a ‘tend and befriend' response where individuals seek and give social support.
1250
@qikipedia
Germany has three times as many sausage varieties as the French have cheeses.
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves