Did you know…. A fun, and very simple game.

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Did you know.....

"Go!" is the shortest sentence in English

The word 'Go' is the shortest grammatically correct sentence in the English language. 

Here's how:

A complete sentence needs to have a subject and a verb. Here, 'you' is the implied subject, meaning that it is understood without mentioning that 'go' is being told to 'you'. 

And of course, 'go' is the verb, thus making it a complete sentence in itself.

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Did you know.....

The name Jeep comes from a US army phrase

Though the Jeep’s contributions to WWII are clear, the origin of its name remains mysterious. A strong theory is the name comes from the letters "GP", the military abbreviation for "General Purpose".

That’s when Willys officials demonstrated the new scout car’s impressive off-road capabilities to Congress by driving a presentation model right up the steps of the Capitol building. 

In an article covering the spectacle, journalist Katharine Hillyer reported that GIs who had already worked with the new experimental machine had christened it “the jeep.” The name stuck.

IF HISTORIANS COULD pick a single piece of military hardware to symbolize the whole of the Second World War, they’d be hard pressed to come up with a better choice than the beloved Jeep.

U.S. factories produced nearly 650,000 of the ubiquitous utility vehicles between 1941 and 1945 – that’s nearly 500 a day for the duration of America’s participation in the conflict. Each one cost Uncle Sam about $650. At that price, Jeeps were a real bargain, particularly when considering that a single Thompson sub-machine gun went for $200.

The 2,000-pound, four-wheel-drive runabout was the embodiment of the word workhorse. Jeeps performed a seemingly endless array of jobs everywhere Allied soldiers fought. From medevac duties in Pacific jungles and armed reconnaissance in North Africa to towing artillery on the Russian Front, jeeps literally did it all and more.

In fact, the legendary machines have carved out such an indelible niche in the public’s consciousness, few today even stop to think about the vehicle’s peculiar-sounding name and where it came from. 

Yet interestingly enough, the origin of the word “jeep” is still mired in controversy, more than 80 years after the first models rolled off assembly lines.

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Did you know.....

No two people can ever see the same rainbow 

Regardless of how substantial a rainbow looks; it’s only an optical illusion. And like other optical illusions, people don’t always see it the same way. With rainbows, however, it’s scientifically impossible for two people to see exactly the same thing.

As National Geographic reports, a rainbow occurs when light waves encounter water droplets at an angle, often when sunlight shines through raindrops. 

The combination of the light waves’ angled paths and the fact that they’re passing into a new substance causes them to change speed and appear bent, a process called refraction. 

When they encounter the other side of the droplet, they ricochet off it (reflection) and then exit the droplet, refracting again as they move back from water to air. Since the colours don’t all refract at the same angle, we see them as separate layers.

And because no two people can view that resulting rainbow from exactly the same angle, it’s going to look slightly different for each of us, there’s essentially a line running from the sun to the very centre of the rainbow’s full circle (called the antisolar point), which passes straight through your vantage point along the way. 

If you stood on your toes, crouched down, or moved two feet to your left, that line would change and so would the rainbow, though it might not be very noticeable.

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Did you know.....

A man called Ray sent the first ever email in 1971

Up until the early 70s you could only send ‘mail’ to users on the same machine. So, it was that in 1971 a 25-year-old software engineer called Ray Tomlinson implemented a system that allowed messages to be sent between different users on different computers. 

The email was sent from one computer to another computer sitting right beside it in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but it travelled via ARPANET, a network of computers that was the precursor to the Internet.

It was called e-mail (note the hyphen) and Ray used the (until then barely used) ‘@’ symbol to indicate that the recipient was at a different location than where the message came from. 

In that way the e-mails used a person’s name, then @, followed by the computer they were sitting at. In that one moves he plucked the lowly @ symbol from obscurity and thrust it into the mainstream.

[uk666]

Did you know.....

Ghosts make an appearance in five Shakespearean plays

William Shakespeare loved adding ghosts into his stories and probably scared the people who attended his plays. 

Keep your eye out for some ghastly apparitions in Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Richard III and Cymbeline. Wooh!

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Did you know.....

Egypt doesn't have the most pyramids

Thanks to the movies, when most of us form a mental image of a pyramid, we transport ourselves to Egypt where those massive, triangular tombs are pretty much synonymous with the country itself.

There's one problem - despite what many of us might have assumed, Egypt isn't the pyramid capital of the world, or even northern Africa. That honour belongs to Egypt's southern neighbour: Sudan.

Yup, the country with the most pyramids in the world is Sudan. Sudan has between 200 to 255 known pyramids, compared to Egypt's 138, and no, they weren't created by ancient Egyptians who might have wandered further south.

Instead, the pyramids in Sudan were built by members of the Kingdom of Kush, an ancient civilisation that ruled areas along the Nile River from 1070 BC to 350 AD.

While the Kushites started building pyramids about 500 years after the Egyptians were over them, both cultures used them to entomb their dead.

One of the biggest concentrations of Kushite pyramids is the ancient city of Meroë, which lies near the middle of modern-day Sudan. This city alone contains roughly 200 out the country's 255 pyramids, suggesting that at some point, it was a thriving metropolis.

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Did you know.....

The bowler hat was designed for protection

The distinctive dome of the Coke (pronounced “cook”), otherwise known as the Bowler hat, was first made in 1849 for nobleman Edward Coke, younger brother of the 2nd Earl of Leicester. 

He ordered it from Lock & Co. as a type of hard, protective hat, to be close-fitting and with a low, rounded crown. This was to protect the heads of Coke’s gamekeepers at Holkham Hall, Norfolk so when they rode the horses and carts, their heads were shielded from the branches of any low-hanging or thorny trees.

Before Coke’s, gamekeepers and estate groundsmen wore top hats that have high, square crowns and would often get knocked off and damaged when they hit the ground. The Bowler hat was designed to solve these problems. A prototype was swiftly made by Lock & Co.'s chief hat maker, Thomas Bowler, hence why it is more commonly known as the Bowler hat.

From Charlie Chaplin’s slap sticking on the silent screen, the outlaws and lawmen riding the Wild West, and to its iconic presence in the city of London, the Bowler hat's unmistakable silhouette has made it as recognisable as any of its famous wearers.

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Did you know.....

Rain can freefall at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour

While rain usually falls at a speed of 15 miles per hour, in storms, they can exceed that by around 10 miles! That's why it's good to carry an umbrella, especially in Britain (at any time of year).

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Did you know.....

Caesar Salad was invented in Mexico

Yes, the Caesar salad was indeed invented in Tijuana, Mexico. It was created by Italian immigrant Caesar Cardini at his restaurant, Caesar's, on July 4, 1924.

The restaurant was overwhelmed with customers on that day, and Cardini, short on ingredients, improvised the salad using what was available. 

The original recipe included romaine lettuce, olive oil, raw egg, croutons, Parmesan cheese, and Worcestershire sauce.

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Did you know.....

Crows hold grudges against individual humans, for up to 17 years

Crows are more than just black-feathered figures cawing from treetops; they are masters of memory and grudges, with cognitive abilities that defy our expectations.

crows can hold a grudge against a human for up to 17 years. That’s nearly two decades of memory of remembering a face, a voice, or a feeling. Imagining a bird glaring at someone from a telephone wire year after year.

Crows, it turns out, are not just ordinary birds. They belong to the corvid family, which includes ravens and magpies’ birds that are known for their intelligence. Scientists have studied them for years and discovered that crows can recognize human faces, use tools, solve problems, and communicate danger to other crows.

In one study, researchers wore masks while capturing and tagging crows for observation. Years later, crows still remembered those faces and would scold or mob anyone wearing the same mask even if that person wasn’t involved in the original incident.

That means these birds don’t just remember they associate, they learn, then they warn others. The grudge becomes collective. It’s passed down like a warning call echoing…

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Did you know.....

Honey can last for thousands of years

Honey can last for thousands of years in sealed pots; it’s even been discovered in Ancient Egyptian tombs. The secret to its long life lies in the bees’ honey-making process.

Forager bees collect sugary nectar from flowers and transport it back to the hive. Here, the bees transfer the nectar to other worker bees, which repeatedly drink and regurgitate the liquid, reducing its water content. 

During this process, an enzyme in the bees’ stomachs breaks down the nectar’s glucose into gluconic acid – which helps to make honey acidic (pH of around 4) and hydrogen peroxide.

Once the nectar is deposited in the honeycomb, the bees fan it furiously with their wings to speed up the water’s evaporation. The honey’s low water content and high acidity are the two main reasons it doesn’t spoil the bacteria that cause food to go off can’t thrive in these conditions. 

The hydrogen peroxide also has antibacterial properties. So, the honey stays fresh for the bees during the cold winter months and for much longer inside our jars.

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Did you know.....

Rhubarb can spring up so fast that you can actually hear it grow

Yes, it's true that forced rhubarb can grow quickly enough that you can sometimes hear it growing. 

This phenomenon is most noticeable in commercial forced rhubarb production, where plants are grown in dark sheds. 

The rapid growth, sometimes over an inch a day, causes the stalks to make popping, creaking, and even screeching sounds as they push upwards.

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Did you know.....

Thousands of rabbits once attacked Napoleon

Yes, that's a true, if unusual, historical anecdote. Napoleon Bonaparte did indeed face a rather comical and humbling defeat at the hands of a large group of rabbits. 

In the summer of 1807, after a treaty with Russia, Napoleon and his men planned a rabbit hunt. His chief of staff, Alexander Berthier, gathered a large number of rabbits, potentially thousands, for the event. 

However, instead of fleeing from the hunters, the rabbits charged at Napoleon and his men, swarming them and even climbing onto Napoleon himself. The rabbits surrounded his stagecoach, and he had to retreat into it before eventually escaping. 

The incident is often described as one of Napoleon's most unusual and embarrassing defeats. 

The rabbits' behaviour was likely due to the fact that they were domesticated rabbits, hand-reared and hand-fed, and thus not afraid of humans. They may have also been hungry due to inadequate feeding during transportation.

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Did you know.....

You can buy eel flavoured ice cream in Japan

Yep, it’s actually eel-flavoured ice cream. With a handy packet of sanshō pepper on top for your take-out dining pleasure! At the Cup Ice Store, you can buy individual servings of this and many other flavours that at best might be described as…interesting.

And that’s not even the weirdest flavour they have! Fancy some horse meat flavoured ice cream? No probs. Chicken? here's a tub, fill your boots (best place for it). Garlic?! Soy Sauce?! You're in luck. Welcome to Japan!

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Did you know.....

King Louis XIX ruled France for less than an hour

When we think of kings, we often picture grand palaces, long reigns, and stories of power that shape nations. But then there’s Louis XIX — the man who became king and gave it all up in just 20 minutes. 

In that brief moment, Louis XIX made a choice that speaks to the fleeting nature of power. As Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “The throne is but a bench covered in velvet.” Power may seem grand, but it can disappear in an instant. And in Louis XIX’s case, it did.

Yes, his reign was shorter than most of our coffee breaks. This unique moment in history is a reminder of how quickly life can change, and how sometimes, power isn’t as grand as it seems.

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Did you know.....

Young children grow more during spring

Spring, a season synonymous with new beginnings and growth, has long captivated our imaginations with its transformative power. 

Beyond the blossoming flowers and vibrant landscapes, there is a phenomenon that has intrigued observers for centuries: children seem to experience a growth spurt during this time of year. 

Now, a groundbreaking study reported in Frontiers in Physiology has provided scientific validation to this age-old observation, shedding light on the remarkable connection between springtime and children’s accelerated growth rates.

The study, conducted in 2022, explored the growth patterns of children and sought to uncover any seasonal variations. The findings confirmed what many parents and caregivers have intuitively noticed: children’s growth rates indeed accelerate during spring and early summer. 

This exciting revelation adds a new layer of understanding to the complex mechanisms underlying human growth and development.

Several factors may contribute to the accelerated growth observed in children during springtime. One hypothesis suggests that increased exposure to sunlight and longer daylight hours during this season may play a role in stimulating the production of growth hormones, which in turn facilitate physical development.

Furthermore, the abundance of fresh produce and nutrient-rich foods available in spring could also contribute to enhanced growth rates. 

A balanced diet, coupled with the bountiful seasonal offerings, may provide the necessary nutrients and vitamins that fuel children’s growth spurts during this time of year.

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Did you know.....

Your skeleton is replaced once a decade

That’s right, the human skeleton essentially regenerates itself over time, with most of your bones undergoing a full remodel about every 10 years. While it’s not like waking up with an entirely new skeleton one morning, your bones are far from static.

Remodelling is the body’s way of keeping your skeleton strong and healthy. It’s a lifelong process where old or damaged bone tissue is broken down and replaced with new, healthy bone tissue.

You’ve got tiny, specialized bone cells (like tiny construction workers) called osteoclasts that handle the breakdown, while osteoblasts take care of rebuilding.

This behind-the-scenes teamwork helps maintain bone strength, repair micro-damage from daily wear and tear, and support your body’s need for vital minerals like calcium and phosphorus.

Bone remodelling happens on a microscopic level, piece by piece. So, while your skeleton is gradually renewed over the course of about a decade, it’s not a total swap-out. Think of it more like ongoing home renovations than demolishing and rebuilding from the ground up.

Bone isn’t the only tissue that gets replaced. In fact, your entire body is in a constant state of renewal:

1. Skin cells renew roughly every 2–4 weeks
2. Red blood cells last about 120 days
3. Intestinal lining turns over every few days
4. Some tissues, like tooth enamel and most brain cells, don’t regenerate at all

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Did you know.....

It's considered rude and repulsive to blow your nose in public - in Japan

Blowing your nose in public is considered rude in Japan due to cultural norms that emphasize discretion and respect for others. 

In Japanese society, bodily functions are seen as private matters, and actions like blowing your nose are expected to be done discreetly, preferably in a restroom. 

Public nose-blowing can be perceived as inconsiderate because it draws attention and may spread germs, which contradicts the Japanese value of maintaining cleanliness and harmony in shared spaces. 

Instead, people often opt to sniffle quietly until they can find a private place to use a tissue. This cultural etiquette reflects the broader Japanese emphasis on minimizing disturbances and maintaining a respectful environment for everyone.

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Did you know.....

Humans blink 21,600 times per day

Blinking is almost like breathing: You do it all day, every day without paying attention to or counting your blinks. Blinking serves many important functions to keep your eyes healthy. You blink in order to keep your eyes clean and moist, and also to rest your eyes and mind.

In fact, these are the four primary functions of blinking:

1. Blinking keeps your eyes clean – When you blink, the motion of the eyelid and the distribution of tears help to clear away allergens such as pollen, dust and other debris. This lowers the risk of eye irritation and infections.
2. Blinking keeps your eyes moist – A blink replenishes the tear film, which is a layer of tears that covers the surface of your eye. The tear film is important for eye health and clear vision.
3. Blinking gives your eyes a rest – Blinking also allows your eyes to take a brief rest from the task at hand and to refocus after the blink. Normal blinking can help prevent eye fatigue.
4. Blinking gives your mind a break – Blinking also gives you short mental resting periods, which can help you regroup when you’re concentrating on a task.

As you can see, blinking your eyes is key to eye health. In fact, it’s a vital part of your day even if you rarely realize you’re doing it.

The average number of times you blink in a day may vary individually but is about the same for men and women. Babies and children blink less often.

Assuming your blinking frequency is in line with the average for teens and adults, your number of blinks in a given timeframe should resemble the following:

1. We blink around 151,200 times per week
2. We blink around 657,439 times per month
3. We blink around 7.8 million times per year.
4. We will blink over 621.5 million times during our life.
    

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Did you know.....

If you open your eyes in a pitch-black room, the colour you'll see is called 'eigengrau'.

‘Eigengrau’ is German for ‘intrinsic grey’, also known as dark light, or brain grey. It is used to describe the uniform dark grey background that many people see in the absence of light.

The term dates back to the nineteenth century.

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Did you know.....

Information in your brain can travel faster than a Formula 1 car

The neurons in your brain transfer vital information from cell to cell at 268 miles per hour.

Formula 1 cars can reach speeds of up to 220 miles per hour. Both are quite fast, we think you'll agree.

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Did you know.....

Your body contains about 100,000 miles of blood vessels

If you took all the blood vessels (including arteries, veins and capillaries) out of an average child and laid them out in one line, the line would stretch over 60,000 miles. An adults would be closer to 100,000 miles long.

The function of blood vessels is to deliver blood to the organs and tissues in your body. Blood supplies them with the oxygen and nutrients they need to work. Blood vessels also carry waste products and carbon dioxide away from your organs and tissues.

Each type of blood vessel serves a different function:

1. Arteries. These strong, muscular blood vessels carry oxygen-rich blood from your heart to your body. This blood contains oxygen from your lungs.
2. Arterioles. Similar to arteries, arterioles are smaller branches that extend out from arteries as they move toward your tissues. These smaller vessels are very flexible. They get bigger or smaller to help maintain your body’s blood pressure.
3. Capillaries. Your smallest blood vessels, these connect arteries and veins. Because of their thin walls, capillaries are transfer stations for oxygen, nutrients, carbon dioxide and waste.
4. Venules. Venules (small veins) receive blood from capillaries and lead to veins.
5. Veins. These blood vessels carry oxygen-poor blood back to your heart. From there, it goes to your lungs for more oxygen.

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Did you know.....

The King of Hearts is the only king in a deck of cards without a moustache

First, let’s look at the essentials of a standard deck. There are 52 cards in a deck, consisting of numbered cards from ace to 10 and face cards — King, Queen, and Jack — across four suits — Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, and Spades. Each suit has 13 cards, making up the 52-card deck. Interestingly, while each suit has a king, the king of hearts has a distinct appearance, lacking the moustache found on the other three kings.

Originally, the king of hearts did have a moustache. According to Technology.org, today’s playing card designs are based on styles developed in 15th-century France. Back then, cards were printed using wooden stamps and were hand carved. Over time, these wooden blocks would wear down, causing the designs to fade.

This happened with the king of hearts’ block, resulting in the gradual disappearance of his moustache. When new cards were printed without the moustache, the change became the standard design, even as different countries adopted their own variations. In Russia, the king of hearts is still depicted with a moustache.

Another curious feature of the King of Hearts is the dagger in his hand, which appears to be aimed at himself. This, too, was changed by the worn wooden blocks. 

Originally, the king of hearts held an axe, but as the block’s details wore down, the head of the axe faded, leaving only the handle, which began to resemble a dagger. This led to the image we see today, where the king of hearts appears to be holding a dagger, earning him the nickname, ‘The Suicide King.’

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Did you know.....

Hummingbirds are the only animals that can fly backward

Birds are all around us, and as such, we don't necessarily think about how incredible they are. These are creatures that descended from therapods, a group of two-legged dinosaurs to which the Tyrannosaurus rex also belonged. 

Modern birds are obviously not quite as imposing as a T. rex, but their adaptations are perhaps just as impressive in their own way.

Wings, for example, are an incredible bird adaptation which came towards the end of birds' evolution away from their dinosaur ancestors. After feathers and wishbones came wings, which when coupled with birds becoming much smaller as they evolved, allowed them to take flight and stay airborne. It's incredible to think of birds as tiny flying dinosaurs, but in a sense that's what they are.

Despite all these astonishing features of birds, there is one thing that they can't do: Birds cannot fly backwards. Or, more specifically, all but one family of birds cannot fly backwards. Hummingbirds are the remarkable exception to this rule and have evolved a number of physical features which allow them to fly in ways that no other bird can.

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Did you know.....

Snails can sleep for periods of 13 to 15 hours

Snails can go through seven bouts of sleeping over a 13- to 15-hour period. Once awake, they can be active for 33 to 41 hours

Snails often sleep in a series of short naps. During this time, they undergo physiological changes like reduced metabolic rate and retraction of their tentacles. 

While they don't have traditional sleep cycles like humans, their sleep-wake patterns involve alternating periods of rest and activity. In unfavourable conditions, like extreme heat or dryness, snails can enter a state of dormancy (estivation) lasting for months or even years, which is distinct from sleep.