Fancy That!

Facts to make you go“WOW!”

◆ A backward question mark was proposed by Henry Durham in 1580 as an end to a rhetorical question, and was used until the early 1600s.

◆ The term “spring fever” refers to real symptoms, including restlessness, daydreaming and increased libido. The exact cause is unclear but scientists believe the increased daylight and warmer temperatures influence our hormone levels.

◆ On March 23, 1839, the initials OK were first published in the Boston Morning Post, from “oll korrect”, a popular colloquial misspelling of “all correct”.

◆ March was known as lide in old english, which means loud, referring to the march winds.

◆ A large-scale study found that babies born in springtime are more likely to develop schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression and anorexia.

◆ If Earth rotated on an axis perpendicular to the plane of its orbit around the Sun, rather than on a 23.4-degree tilt, there would be no variation in day lengths and no variation in seasons.

◆ Air flows around the earth counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere.

◆ Do you ever get the urge to pinch or squeeze something that is irresistibly cute? Filipinos call that “gigil”.

◆ An instrument to measure wind speed is called an anemometer.

◆ Salmon gets its colour from the shrimp and krill it feeds on, which contain an orangey-pink pigment called Astaxanthin.

◆ If Pope Gregory XIII had not established his Gregorian calendar in 1582, then every 128 years the vernal equinox would come a full calendar day earlier, eventually putting Easter in midwinter!

◆ On march 29, 1886, coca-cola was first developed – and the original recipe includes cocaine as a pick-me-up!

◆ There are many names for very strong winds, including hurricane, tornado, microburst, zephyr, sirocco, sharav, mistral and monsoon.

◆ More 20th century UK Prime Ministers had birthdays in March than any other month.

Spring is the most popular season to buy or sell ahouse

Since 1978 all wind turbines turn clockwise, as viewed from the front