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  • Dephlegmator: An apparatus used in alcohol distilleries for freeing the spirit from water
  • Fandango: A lively Spanish dance in triple time, danced by a male and female dancer beating castanets, to the accompaniment of the guitar. The man sometimes carries a tambourine
  • Farthing: A quarter of a penny. The smallest pre-decimal English coin.
  • Fasces: In ancient Rome, were twigs of birch or elm bound together in a bundle, and containing an axe, the head of which projectd from them. They were carried by lictors before the consuls, praetors, dictator and master of the horse, and in the provinces before the quaestors. When a general had been "saluted as imperator" by his soldiers in consequence of a victory, his fasces were wreathed with laurel. Probably they were Etruscan in origin, and they were carried before the Roman kings.
  • Fata Morgana: An optical phenomena seen in the Straits of Messina. The observer facing the sea of Reggio, standing at a fair elevation with their back to the sun, will see reflected from the smooth surface of the sea, a multitude of clearly def ined pilasters, towers and castles, armies of men on foot and horse, and many other multiple images of objects on shore. The phenomena requires a calm surface of the sea, a full and swelling tide in the centre of the channel, and a certain altitude of the sun. Special conditions of the air above may cause the production of aerial images. Fata = Fairy and Morgana = The enchantress sister of King Arthur who lived in a land of perpetual day enveloped in a bank of magic clouds.
  • Fathom : Originally the space reached by with two arms outstretched. A distance of six feet (~2 metres) used in sounding the depth of water.
  • Felo de se (A felon of himself): Is one who being of sound mind and years of discretion deliberately causes their own death and also, in some cases, where one maliciously attempts to kill another, and in the carrying out of such attempt unwilli ngly kills themself, they are adjudged felo de se. When the deceased is found by the coroner and jury a felo de se, all their chattels, real and personalm are forfeited to the Crown, though they are usually restored upon payment of moderate fees. Formerley a felo de se was buried in the highway with a stake driven through their body. But George IV provided that a felo de se shall be interred privately at night in the burial-ground in which their remains mightby law have been interred if the verdict of felo de se had not been found against them. Discount OEM Software Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007
  • Felucca: A small ship with two masts and a lateen sail, coomon in the Mediterranean. It sometimes has a rudder at both ends.
  • Fifth Monarchy: The millenium or personal reign of Christ on Earth, which was looked for in the time of Cromwell by the sect called "Fifth Monarchy Men." The four preceding monarchies were those of Assyria, Persia, Greece and Rome enumerated i n the Book of Daniel. These enthusiasts would acknowledge no human ruler and organised risings in 1657 and 1661 which were unsuccessful.
  • Five Mile Act: An act passed in 1665, which forbade ministers to teach in schools, or reside within five miles of a corporate town, unless they took the oath of non-resistance, and subscribed to the Act of Uniformity.
  • Theodore Roosevelt was the first US president to ride in a car or fly in an airplane.
  • H.G. Wells wrote of an atomic weapon in "The world set Free" in 1914. His name for the device was "atomic bomb".
  • December 25 was not celebrated as the birthdate of Christ until 440 AD.
  • In early Eighteenth Century Poland the Church owned two thirds of all the land.
  • Each year, 9 million tons of salt, more than 10 percent of all the salt produced in the world, is applied to American highways for road deicing. The cost of buying and applying the salts is over $200 million.
  • There is a salt mine in the Polish town of Wieliczka, near Cracow, that has been in operation of nearly 1000 years.
  • John Cage's Imaginary Landscape No. 4 never sounds the same twice. It is scored for twelve radios tuned at random.
  • Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote 500 articles for the New York Tribune from 1851 to 1862.
  • Nearly 87% of the 103 people asked in a poll in 1977 were unable to identify correctly an unlablled copy of the Declaration of Independence. The poll was conducted at a shopping centre in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
  • Frankincense: The gum-resin of several species of Bosivellia trees. It is traded in semi-opaque tears or lumps, yellowish or almost colourless, covered with white dust. Bitterly aromatic in taste. It burns with a bright white flame and is somet imes used as an illuminant and for chewing. Common or European frankincense is applied to the resin of the Norway spruce.
  • The only royal palace in the United States is the Iolani Palace in Honolulu, Hawaii. The palace was built in 1882 for King Kalakaua. It came under US jurisdiction with the annexure of Hawaii in 1898.
  • Lenin (the pseudonym of Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov) used about 150 other pseudonyms including Petrov, Tulin, Ilin, William Frey, Jacob Richter, Ivanov and S.T.A.
  • Upon his death in 1956 Bela Lugosi was buried in the black cape that he had worn in his Dracula films.
  • The actor Walter Matthau's original name was Walter Matuschanskavasky.
  • Hieronymous Bosch's orginal name was Hieronymous van Aeken.
  • Dr Seuss was the pseudonym of Theodor Seuss Geisel. Geisel also reversed his surname to create another pseudonym Theo. Le Sieg.
  • Parkinson's First Law: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
  • Kitman's First Law of TV: If it moves people will watch it.
  • The First Law of Expert Advice: Don't ask a barber if you need a haricut.
  • For ale and beer: 4 gills = 1 pint, 2 pints = 1 quart, 4 quarts = 1 gallon, 9 gallons = 1 firkin, 2 firkins = 1 kilderkin, 3 kilderkins = 1 hogshead, 2 hogsheads = 1 butt
  • Precedence in British Peerages: Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount, Baron
  • Non-royal British Dukedoms created before 1700 and the year of creation: Norfolk (1483), Somerset (1547), Hamilton (1643), Buccleuch (1663), Grafton (1675), Richmond (1675), Beaufort (1682), St Albans (1684), Bedford (1694), Devonshire (1694)
  • British universities founded before 1900: Oxford (1249), Cambridge (1284), St Andrews (1411), Glasgow (1451), Aberdeen (1495), Edinburgh (1583), Durham (1832), London (1836), Manchester (1851), Newcastle (1852), Birmingham (1880), Wales (1893).

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