Borrowed

The following quotes are often attributed to Mandela, but in actuality have been borrowed from another source:

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some; it is in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Actual Source: Marianne Williamson [1994 Inaugural Speech]

The Preying Mantis - Nature's Abomination

Okay; fun animal fact #1.

The female Preying Mantis (Mantis religiosa) has been made infamous for it's cannabalistic tendancy to consume the head of the male prior to, during, or post-coitus. While previously thought to be a manic method of nutritional input (which it is regardless; brains are high in protein!), it is now understood in some circles that it may be a vital part of reproduction.

The male mantis has several sexual inhibitory censors in its head that limit/repress its sexual behavior. Upon consumption, these inhibitors are removed. Normally, you'd think that this would present a problem for most species, but the amazing curve ball of nature foils even the most expectant of expectant expectators...yeah. Turns out the mantis is still able to successfully reproduce AFTER THE HEAD HAS BEEN EATEN. Apparentely it's worth it to get that rushing orgasm. Not something I'd normally think with insects, but hey! all males are alike.

How many words are there in the English language?

There is no single sensible answer to this question.

It is impossible to count the number of words in a language, because it is so hard to decide what counts as a word. Is dog one word, or two (a noun meaning 'a kind of animal', and a verb meaning 'to follow persistently')? If we count it as two, then do we count inflections separately too (dogs plural noun, dogs present tense of the verb). Is dog-tired a word, or just two other words joined together? Is hot dog really two words, since we might also find hot-dog or even hotdog?

It is also difficult to decide what counts as 'English'. What about medical and scientific terms? Latin words used in law, French words used in cooking, German words used in academic writing, Japanese words used in martial arts? Do you count Scots dialect? Youth slang? Computing jargon?

The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words. To this may be added around 9,500 derivative words included as subentries. Over half of these words are nouns, about a quarter adjectives, and about a seventh verbs; the rest is made up of interjections, conjunctions, prepositions, suffixes, etc. These figures take no account of entries with senses for different parts of speech (such as noun and adjective).

This suggests that there are, at the very least, a quarter of a million distinct English words, excluding inflections, and words from technical and regional vocabulary not covered by the OED, or words not yet added to the published dictionary, of which perhaps 20 per cent are no longer in current use. If distinct senses were counted, the total would probably approach three quarters of a million.

--Reference: www.askoxford.com