Chess

Chess is a board game with a very long history. It can be traced back to the 6th-century Indian game caturanga (Sanskrit for "four military divisions"), which spread first to Persia and then via the Arab world to Europe.

By the 10th century it was widespread in Europe, but the rules of the game as played today weren't settled until the 15th century.

The name "chess" comes from the Persian word for king, shah, and the phrase "check mate", which is what you say when you've trapped the opponent's king, comes from the Persian for the "king is dead".

Gold nugget

Gold is often found in the form of nuggets of almost pure metal. The largest nugget ever found is called Welcome Stranger, weighing in at 78kg, of which 71kg was pure gold. It was dug up in 1869 in Victoria, Australia.

And I've been to the place where they found it!

Flies

Everyone loves to hate them, but did you know that if it weren't for flies (or, more accurately, their larvae) we would be swimming in a sea of rotten vegetation and dead bodies six metres deep within a year?

Fly larvae eat enormous quantities of, well, how do I put this? crap. Without them, quite apart from all the hungry spiders and bored cats, life as we know it would be impossible because there would just be crap EVERYWHERE.

Peanuts

They're not nuts!! In fact they're legumes, like peas or beans. But they're weird legumes because instead of hanging on a bush, like peas, the fruit pods of the peanut plant push themselves down into the ground and mature there. Which is why they're also known as ground nuts.

Hailstones

Hailstones are initially formed high up in the sky, like normal raindrops, when moisture freezes onto a tiny grain of dust. Rain is only liquid because it is falling through warm air.

What makes hailstones different is that there were strong upcurrents of air that pushed the raindrops back up into colder air, where they grew another layer of ice. The larger the hailstone, the more often it was blown back up into the cold air.

Broccoli

Broccoli is the name not only of the spiky green vegetable (which is incidentally full of cancer-preventing goodness) but also of a famous film producer who was responsible for many James Bond films.

Little finger

In some people, one of the tendons attaching the little finger to the hand are missing, such that it is not possible to touch the tip of the finger with the tip of the thumb.

I'm one of those unfortunates - but thankfully only in my left hand.

Cheese

You can freeze cheese. And it tastes pretty much as good as it did when you first bought it.

Not that there's EVER any spare cheese in my house that might need freezing...

Seven sisters

The constellation Pleiades are known as the Seven Sisters, not only because there were seven of the eponymous Greek myth girls, but also because - in clear skies (ie skies from before the Industrial Revolution) - you can see seven stars twinkling next to each other.

These days of course you're lucky to see four or five. But with a telescope you can see many more than seven. So it's a pretty inaccurate name all round really.

IKEA branding

We've all been to IKEA: the hot dogs, the friendly signage, the unpronounceable names for each item. And of course, it's blue & yellow, blue & yellow, blue & yellow all the way - which is only right for a Swedish company (the Swedish flag is of course a yellow cross on a blue background). Being Swedish is a huge part of the company's profile.

But did you know that IKEA in Denmark isn't blue & yellow at all, but rather red & white? This is because the Danes (flag: white cross on a red background) hate the Swedes (age-old rivals across the Kattegat sea), and most of them wouldn't be seen dead in that modern-day temple to home furnishings if it were decked out in its national colours.

International Labour Day

It's the first of May, which in almost every civilised country is a bank holiday to honour the humble worker.

But our dear Margaret Thatcher couldn't bear all this reds-under-the-bed socialism and so decreed that the United Kingdom should have Spring Bank Holiday instead, which would be on the first Monday in May - which of course is usually not 1st May.

Still, at least it means Brits get a guaranteed day off, not like this year in most countries...