Fun Facts

Question 1

What was the name of the first movie, and in what year?

Answer 1

Roundhay Garden Scene (1888)

The world’s earliest surviving motion-picture film, showing actual consecutive action is called Roundhay Garden Scene. It’s a short film directed by French inventor Louis Le Prince. While it’s just 2.11 seconds long, it is technically a movie.

Question 2

Who wrote The Alchemist?

Answer 2

Paulo Coehlo (Kwel-oh) 
First published in 1988

Question 3

What is Deipnophobia?

Answer 3

De-ip-nophobia is the fear of dinner party conversations.

Question 4

Your stomach doesn’t growl, it…

Answer 4

wambles.

Question 5

The light emitted by 200,000 galaxies makes our universe a shade of beige. Scientists call the color…

Answer 5

“Cosmic latte.”

Question 6

Eigengrau (eh-gen-grauh) is the color we see when we do what?

Answer 6

Open our eyes in a dark room.

Question 7

Caffeine withdrawal is classified as a mental disorder in the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-V handbook.

Answer 7

….

Question 8

What is the national animal of Scotland?

Answer 8

The unicorn.

Question 9

Egregious

Answer 9

Outstandingly bad; shocking.

“egregious abuses of copyright”

Question 10

‘Mellifluous’ is a sound that is pleasingly smooth and musical to hear.

Answer 10

muh-li-floo-uhs

Question 11

The Japanese word ‘Kuchi zamishi’ is the act of eating when you’re not hungry because your mouth is lonely. We do this all the time.

Answer 11

Here’s something to chew on that’s zero calories.

Question 12

What is the longest book in the world?

Answer 12

A book called ‘A la recherche du temps perdu’ by Marcel Proust contains an estimated 9,609,000 characters, making it the longest book in the world. The title translates to “Remembrance of Things Past”.

Question 13

It rains diamonds on Saturn and Jupiter.

Answer 13

When storms form, the planets produce lightning like here on Earth. lightning causes methane in the atmosphere to decompose, producing hydrogen and elemental carbon. As the carbon falls towards the planet, it may bond together forming graphite, and as the pressure builds up closer to the planet’s core, that graphite may be compressed into diamond.

Question 14

Con·tig·u·ous

Answer 14

sharing a common border; touching.
“the 48 contiguous states”

next or together in sequence.
“five hundred contiguous dictionary entries”

Question 15

A mammal of an order whose members are born incompletely developed and are typically carried and suckled in a pouch on the mother’s belly. Marsupials are found mainly in Australia and New Guinea, although three families, including the opossums, live in America.

Answer 15

Well-known marsupials include kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, opossums, wombats, Tasmanian devils, and the extinct thylacine. Some lesser-known marsupials are the dunnarts, potoroos, and the cuscus.

Question 16

Shrapnel

Answer 16

Fragments of a bomb, shell, or other object thrown out by an explosion. 4% of the sand on Normandy beach is made up of shrapnel from D-Day that has broken down.

Question 17

Ultracrepidarian

Answer 17

One who is presumptuous and offers advice or opinions beyond one’s sphere of knowledge.

Question 18

The Coolidge effect is the progressive decline in a male’s propensity to mate with the same female combined with a heightened sexual interest in new females.

Answer 18

A sexual phenomenon named after President Calvin Coolidge.

Question 19

il·lu·mi·na·ti

/iˌlo͞oməˈnädē/

Answer 19

People claiming to possess special enlightenment or knowledge of something.

Question 20

her·e·tic

Answer 20

a person believing in or practicing religious heresy.

Question 21

her·e·sy

Answer 21

belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious (especially Christian) doctrine. opinion profoundly at odds with what is generally accepted.
“cutting capital gains taxes is heresy”

Question 22

capital gain

Answer 22

When you sell a capital asset for more than you paid for it, the result is a capital gain. Capital assets include stocks, bonds, precious metals, jewelry, and real estate.1 The tax you’ll pay on the capital gain depends on how long you held the asset before selling it. Capital gains are classified as either long-term or short-term and are taxed accordingly.

Question 23

her·o·ine

Answer 23

a woman admired or idealized for her courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. the chief female character in a book, play, or movie, who is typically identified with good qualities, and with whom the reader is expected to sympathize. (in mythology and folklore) a woman of superhuman qualities and often semidivine origin, in particular one whose deeds were the subject of ancient Greek myths.

Question 24

in·gen·u·ous

disingenuous

Answer 24

(of a person or action) innocent and unsuspecting.
“he eyed her with wide, ingenuous eyes”
someone who’s described as disingenuous might be faking naiveté; insincere.

Question 25

Humbug

Answer 25

A humbug is a person or object that behaves in a deceptive or dishonest way, often as a hoax or in jest. In modern usage, the word is most associated with the character Ebenezer Scrooge, created by Charles Dickens in his 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. His famous reference to Christmas, “Bah! Humbug!”, declaring Christmas to be a fraud.

Question 26

cov·et·ous

Answer 26

having or showing a great desire to possess something belonging to someone else.
“she fingered the linen with covetous hands”

Question 27

A miser is a person who is reluctant to spend, sometimes to the point of forgoing even basic comforts and some necessities, in order to hoard money or other possessions.

Answer 27

Although the word is sometimes used loosely to characterise anyone who is mean with their money, if such behaviour is not accompanied by taking delight in what is saved, it is not properly miserly.

Question 28

Ominous

Answer 28

Giving the impression that something bad or unpleasant is going to happen; threatening; inauspicious.

Question 29

Auspicious

Answer 29

conducive to success; favorable.
“it was not the most auspicious moment to hold an election”
giving or being a sign of future success.
“they said it was an auspicious moon—it was rising”
characterized by success; prosperous.
“he was respectful to his auspicious customers”

Question 30

Rapacious

Answer 30

aggressively greedy or grasping.

“rapacious landlords”