Fun fact: There's no such thing as a fish. This 'QI'-style factum results from the notion that fish do not all belong to the same genus (or 'family', or 'phylum', or some other Biological category). If we take one genetic branch of fish as the real fish, then we miss out a lot of animals which everyone calls 'fish'. …

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Instead of looking up how to spell a word, I always look up the Etymology and find a link to another word I can spell. I don't know Latin or Greek, but just seeing the links between words often shows why people construct the spelling in this way or that. Defence or defense? It's 'defence', because it has the same root …

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My friends had a spirited debate after too many drinks. I suggested bringing back the Greek-style symposium, and it lead to a far more interesting debate. First, we agreed on time - two minutes. Then someone kept the time, and motioned to indicate when only thirty second remained. Everyone felt heard, nobody …

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For the last ten years, I've tried to expunge the words 'simple' and 'complex' from my vocabulary and thinking. Good and Bad Words Different cultures use different words. I can't say how much it affects their thinking - people have levied many criticisms of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Still, I suspect bad words inflict …

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