Hidden away in the dry valleys of Antarctica lies Lake Vanda. From the surface, Lake Vanda looks like and ordinary Antarctic lake with permanent surface ice several meters thick; beneath the surface, however, Lake Vanda is anything but normal.
Underneath the surface ice the water is saline enough to keep the water from freezing; at the bottom of the lake the water has 10 percent dissolved solids content - three times as saline as sea water. While the water at the top of the lake is cold, the further down you go the warmer the water gets. Scientists have recorded water temperatures of 26°C in the bottom few meters of the lake; almost as warm as the Indian Ocean which is the warmest ocean on earth.
These high temperatures are due entirely to solar heating of the water through the ice, and not to any heat from rocks at depth beneath the lakes.
PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS
Noun
A pneumoconiosis (lung disease) caused by inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust.
This is the longest word in the English dictionary (not including place names and chemical compounds). With 45 letters and 19 syllables, it is a bit of a mouthful!
The disease is also known as 'Black lung disease'.
Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit.
To boldly go where no man has gone before.
Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
If Caesar were alive, you'd be chained to an oar.
Canis meus id comedit.
My dog ate it.
Cogito, ergo doleo.
I think, therefore I am depressed.
Die dulci fruere.
Have a nice day.
Fac ut gaudeam.
Make my day.
Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum!
Don't you dare erase my hard disk!
Non plaudite. Modo pecuniam jacite.
Don't applaud. Just throw money.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Si hoc signum legere potes, operis boni in rebus Latinus alacribus et fructuosis potiri potes!
If you can read this sign, you can get a good job in the fast-paced, high-paying world of Latin!
Utinam logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant!
May faulty logic undermine your entire philosophy!
Vah! Denuone Latine loquebar? Me ineptum. Interdum modo elabiturOh!
Was I speaking Latin again? Silly me. Sometimes it just sort of slips out.
Recedite, plebes! Gero rem imperialem!
Stand aside plebians! I am on imperial business.
I'm not sure whether these exam answers are true; but I know standards are slipping. They do seem very funny though
Q: Name the four seasons.
A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.
- Presumably also the inspiration of Vivaldi (don't forget the Ketchup)
Q: Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.
A: Filtration makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists.
- (dead sheep could really block your tap)
Q; Name a major disease associated with cigarettes.
A: Premature death.
Q: How can you delay milk turning sour?
A: Keep it in the cow.
(can't argue with that)
Q: What does the word "benign" mean?
A: Benign is what you will be after you be eight.
TECHNOLOGY
Q: What is a turbine?
A: Something an Arab wears on his head.
(to keep him cool in the desert ?)
RELIGION
Q: What is a Hindu?
A: It lays eggs.
Usless conversions
Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter = 1 Eskimo Pi
2000 pounds of Chinese soup = Won ton
1 millionth mouthwash = 1 microscope
Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour = Knot-furlong
Half of a large intestine = 1 semicolon
1000 aches = 1 megahurtz
Weight an evangelist carries with God = 1 billigram
Basic unit of laryngitis = 1 hoarsepower
Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement = 1 bananosecond
The first step of a one-mile journey = 1 Milwaukee
1 million microphones = 1 megaphone
1 million bicycles = 2 megacycles
365.25 days = 1 unicycle
2200 mockingbirds = two kilomockingbirds
10 cards = 1 decacards
1000 grams of wet socks = 1 literhosen
1 millionth of a fish = 1 microfiche
1 trillion pins = 1 terrapin
10 rations = 1 decoration
100 rations = 1 C-ration
10 millipedes = 1 centipede
3 1/3 tridents = 1 decadent
10 monologs = 5 dialogs
5 dialogs = 1 decalog
2 monograms = 1 diagram
4 nickels = 2 paradigms
2 wharves = 1 paradox
100 Senators = Not 1 decision
One acre is exactly 43,560 square feet = a lotsa toes
The humble thrush hardly seems a model of sturdiness, though it most probably accounts for the word.
Sturdy today means 'strong, robust, resolute'. About 600 years ago, however, in Middle English, it meant 'giddy or impetuous' - a nice case of amelioration once again; the links presumably were something like this: impetuous . . . reckless . . . violent . . . forceful . . . strong.
The word came into English from the Old French estourdi, 'stunned or dazed', from estourir, 'to stun'. And the way this word came about is probably as follows: there must have been a Vulgar Latin verb exturdire, which meant more or less 'to be stunned like a drunken thrush' - thrushes apparently having a tendency to get drunk by eating overripe grapes. The Latin roots of the word would have been ex-, 'completely', and turdus, 'a thrush'.
Taken from 'What's in a word' by John Kahn
