In dental parlance, the top front six teeth are known as “the social six.”
According to Foreign Policy, “give a clock” sounds like “attend a funeral” in Mandarin, so gifting a clock is highly taboo.
According to Stars and Stripes, as late as 1985, the Defense Logistics Agency still had about 120,000 refurbished Purple Heart sets from World War II. The refurbished Purple Hearts have been given new ribbons to put them in line with current requirements.
A study published in 2015 by Microsoft found that since 2000, our attention spans have been cut by 33%. The attention span of the average goldfish is nine seconds, while people now generally lose concentration after eight seconds. However, no definition of attention span is given, and it’s not clear how these numbers were developed.
A lyrebird not only can imitate sounds of other birds, but can also sound like a car alarm, chainsaw, or a camera with a motor drive, all in an attempt to attract a mate.
This article appears in March 31 • 2017.