24th May 2016

Spoonerism or switching letters in speech

Spoonerism is a verbal mistake in which the speaker unintentionally switches the first sounds of two or more words often producing humorous results. The noun ‘spoonerism’ was formed after William Archibald Spooner, a highly respected university don in England. Spooner was known to be very absent-minded and he often transposed the letters of two words accidentally. One example of spoonerism is, ‘weight of rages’ instead of ‘rate of wages’. Other examples include ‘a blushing crow’ (a crushing blow), ‘a well-boiled icicle’ (a well-oiled bicycle) and ‘a lack of pies’ (a pack of lies).

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23rd May 2016

India – the birthplace of chess

The original word for chess is the Sanskrit chaturanga, meaning four members of an army, which were most likely elephants, horses, chariots and foot soldiers. According to a German Indologist researching on the origin of chess, in the 6th  century, the Maukhari rulers of Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh, used to play chaturanga with 16 cabinet terracotta before venturing into military campaigns. Historical accounts say that during the later Gupta period there was an Indian army school where cadets were taught about warfare through terracotta pieces on ashtapada, which was again the game of chess in its primitive stage.

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23rd May 2016

No upper front teeth among goats

Goats have no upper front teeth. In place of the upper front teeth, they have a padded gum plate known as a dental pad. However, they do have a full set of lower teeth along with very strong molars at the back of the mouth. Cows, antelopes and other ruminants also do not have front incisors.

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21st May 2016

Who invented the first practical helicopter and when?

Prof. Henrich Focke, a German inventor, devised the first practical helicopter called the Focke-Wulf Fw 16, which was successfully flown in 1936.  By 1938 it set many world records for altitude, speed and flight duration. It could be flown by a pilot after only one hour of pilot briefing.

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20th May 2016

Are fungi plants, animals or neither?

Researchers have come to the conclusion that fungi are genetically more closely related to animals and humans than to plants. Earlier it was believed that fungi were close to plants. This finding is based on the genetic data obtained recently. Accordingly, fungi have been assigned a separate kingdom along with the plant kingdom and animal kingdom.

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