Trivia Bits 07 February

 

• Bishop Leofric (before 1016–1072) was a medieval Bishop of Exeter who presented the cathedral with a book of poetry.
• In 1885, Gottlieb Daimler (together with his design partner Wilhelm Maybach) took Nicolaus Otto's internal combustion engine a step further and patented what is generally recognized as the prototype of the modern gas engine.
• A 2009 YouTube video showed Queen Elizabeth II reprimanding Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi form Italy for shouting during an official group photograph.
• The famous seaside fossil beach of Lyme Regis where collector Mary Anning lived is in Dorset. This gave rise to the rhyme She sells seashells on the seashore.
• Coming from the Latin word for useful is the word utensil meaning container or implement.
• Resembling a dog, but more closely related to the mongoose and cat, the Hyena is a nocturnal mammal that hunts on the plains of Asia and Africa.
• The Parthenon marbles are named after the Earl of Elgin - Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin obtained a controversial permit from the Ottoman authorities to remove pieces from the Parthenon while serving as the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1799 to 1803.
• In biology, the central portion of an aster where the centrosome lies is called the astrosphere.
• Dutch graphic artist, Escher, whose works include the lithograph Drawing Hands (1948), created optical effects by altering spatial reality or by introducing multiple planes.