Hitchens’ Razor

Hitchens’ razor is an epistemological rule of thumb which asserts that any person who makes a claim about ‘the way the world is’ takes on the burden of proof for proving it is so.

The razor is usually formulated as follows:

What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

It is a translation of the Latin proverb Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur (What is freely asserted is freely deserted). Near the end of the 20th century, the razor was revived and popularised by the British-Amercian journalist and author Christopher Hitchens, hence its modern name.

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The third President of Kenya was called Mwai Kibaki (pronounced wacky backy).

From 1934 to 1948, the motto of the BBC was Quaecunque, Latin for “Whatever”.

There are no rivers in Saudi Arabia.

A male capuchin monkey will have sex with any female that throws a stone at him.

In the United States, the last recorded clitoridectomy for ‘curing’ masturbation was performed in 1948, on a five year old girl.

See other: Quite Interesting Facts

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In Longyearbyen, Norway, it is illegal to die.

After sex, a ladybird’s orgasm can last for 30 minutes.

The Latin palmo means ‘to print the palm of the hand’ or ‘to tie up a vine’.

People with a rare genetic disorder known as immigration delay disease have no fingerprints.

The United States of America maintains a military presence in 148 of the 192 United Nations countries.

See other: Quite Interesting Facts

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In 1813, Camembert cheese was made an honorary citizen of the town of Caen in Normandy.

27,000 trees are felled each day for toilet paper.

On 26 November 1867, due to a loophole in the law, Lily Maxwell became the first woman to vote in a British parliamentary election. As it turned out, British women would have to wait to 1928 to get the vote.

Air contains about a billion trillion atoms per cubic inch.

The male line in the Roman family tree was Pater (father), Avus (grandfather), Proavus (great-grandfather), Abavus (great-great-grandfather), Atavus (great-great-great-grandfather), Tritavus (great-great-great-great-grandfather).

See other: Quite Interesting Facts

Illiberal [Adj.]

From the Latin illiberalis, restrictive to individual choice and freedom; narrow-minded; bigoted.

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The sun’s core is so hot that a piece of it the size of a pinhead would give off enough heat to kill a person 160 kilometres away.

As a child, writer and comedian Stephen Fry owned a mouse called Snowball.

According to the Qur’an, Satan himself was left-handed.

The English chemist Sir Humphry Davy was so famous in his lifetime that he once received a letter from Italy addressed simply SIR OMFRE DEVI / LONDRA.

In Latin, ignoring a difference in pronunciation, anus either means ‘anus’ or ‘old woman’.

See other: Quite Interesting Facts

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The Ache tribe of Paraguay believe that babies inherit the characteristics of all the men who have had sex with the mother during pregnancy.

In Latin, testis both means witness and testicle.

The “M” on M&M’s candies were stencilled by hand until WWII labour shortages forced the confectioner to automate the process.

The international telephone code for Antarctica is 672.

In 2012, nearly half of Americans were not aware that Judaism is an older religion than Christianity – that is to say, nearly half of Americans did not figure out that, in Christianity, the Old Testament is older than the New Testament.

See other: Quite Interesting Facts

On Three Hearts

“Quintus Ennius used to say that he had three hearts because he could speak Greek, Oscan and Latin.”

– Aulus Gellius