January 17th- Tiny frogs

The smallest known vertebrate is a frog. It is native to Papa New Guinea and is called paedphryne amauensis and ranges from 7mm to 8mm. They average 7.7mm. That is one tiny frog!

January 15th- Call me king Zog

Zog I was the last King of Albania. His surname was Zogolli and he holds the world record for the most cigarrettes consumed in a day, 255!

January 14th- Don't be so...

Facetious! Which, amusingly has all the vowels in alphabetical order... that is all.

January 13th- 1984 by Blair?

George Orwell is a pen name, the famous author was actually called Eric Arthur Blair and he was born in India. I realise that this is probably common knowledge and I am being a bit slow, but I genuinely didn't know!

January 12th- The colour of space

Scientists have discovered that the Milky Way is actually milky. In a revolutionary experiment they have concluded that the galaxy is actually white in colour. According to Professor Newman, "The best description I can give would be that if you looked at new spring snow, which has a fine grain size, about an hour after dawn or an hour before sunset, you'd see the same spectrum of light that an alien astronomer in another galaxy would see looking at the Milky Way."


Again the full story is on BBC news here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16523528

January 11th- Predictions

In 1900 an American civil engineer named John Elfreth Watkins made a number of predictions about how life would be lived in the year 2000. He correctly predicted the rise of digital photography, mobile phones, TV, tanks, ready meals and a 2 inch rise in average height. Although he got a few things wrong, like the removal of C X and Q from the English alphabet, I thought it was cool nonetheless. 

The full story is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16444966 

January 10th- Sacre Bleu!

The phrase sacre bleu probably came from a late middle age Marian oath referring to the colour blue. Effectively meaning "sacred blue" it most likely refers to the fact that the virgin Mary is often depicted in blue clothing (blue was a very expensive dye.) It may also be a corruption of the verbs sacrer, meaning to crown, anoint or champion and Dieu, meaning God. Either way, I was wondering why it was sacre bleu and not sacre vert or sacre jaune...