1. ‘A capella’ music - vocal singing without instrumental accompaniment - gets its name from the Italian for ‘like in the chapel.’ The term is derived from the practice of early Christian churches to sing without any instrumental accompaniment.
More details
2. The group within the British Conservative Party that advocates free market Thatcherite policies is called ‘No Turning Back’ after the ex-PM’s famous quip.
More details
3. Private security companies’ hired guns are now the second largest military contingent in Iraq, after the US Army.
More details
4. Outgoing US defence secratary, Donald Rumsfeld has been both the youngest and the oldest defence secratary in US history, first serving the role under Gerald Ford between 1975 and 1977.
More details
5. Berengaria, daughter of the King Of Navarre and queen consort of Richard the Lionheart, never visited England during her husband’s lifetime - making her the only English Queen to never set foot in the country. (Richard himself spent only a few months of his reign in England, otherwise busying himself with the crusades.) There’s evidence, however, to suggest that Berengaria may have visted England after Richard’s death.
More details
6. The word soldier is derived from the name for a Roman gold coin, solidus.
More details
7. Andrew Carnegie helped establish a staggering 2,800 or more libraries, in and outside the US, during his lifetime.
More details
8. The practice of sneaking a videocam into a theatre and recording a bootleg is called camming.
More details
9. The period of outward normalcy between the time a virus infects a cell and the time its progeny burst forth shattering the host is called ‘eclipse phase’. This phenomenon is often seen in sci-fi horror movies where victims of alien invasion appear normal for a while, and then start spewing forth ‘the scum of the universe.’
More details
10. The Jolly Roger - the black flag with white skull and cross bones - was allegedly the battle flag of the fleet of the Knights Templars, a full 400 years before pirates started using it.
More details
/archive/10 things
About:
Iqbal Mohammed is Head of Innovation & Strategy at a digital innovation agency serving the DACH and wider European markets. He is the winner of the WPP Atticus Award for Best Original Published Writing in Marketing & Communication.
He blogs about #innovation, #technology and #marketing at misentropy.com. You can reach him via email or Twitter.