Alcohol really can make you better at speaking foreign languages. (Study: ).

In 1449, Italian engineer Taccola advised protecting your camp using the ‘enogastronomic stratagem’. Put food and wine into an enclosure and pretend to flee at the approach of your enemy, who would easily get inside, then naturally eat and drink themselves into a stupor.

The flag of Nepal is so difficult to draw correctly that the country’s constitution provides a 24-step instruction guide.

The word ‘frustrating’ first appeared in print in George Eliot’s Middlemarch.

Legalising marijuana causes sales of junk food to increase about 4%.

The Victorian slang for ‘chronically lazy’ was ‘born a bit tired’.

The recently-closed Antigallican pub in Woolwich, London, was named after an 18th century society that campaigned against the influx of French culture and produce to Britain.

About a third of people sneeze when they look at bright light. Although this has been studied since Aristotle first recorded it, no one knows why it happens.

Companies can vote in City of London elections depending on how many employees they have. Deloitte has 260 votes.

Cuttlefish have self-control, and are able to hold off eating snacks on the promise that they will get a better snack later.