In the early 19th Century, employees of the Bank of England went through about 1.5 million quill pens per year, or about five pens per employee per day. Quill pens were usually made out of feathers from geese wings. bankofengland.co.uk/-/med…
Today I learned of the lowland streaked tenrec, a black hedgehog-like creature with yellow-striped quills native to Madagascar. Despite its similar physiology, it is unrelated to hedgehogs, instead acting as an example of convergent evolution. It is sometimes referred to as a "fake hedgehog" wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowlan…
An Ohio company including a physicist & biomimicry expert is developing a football helmet liner based on the shock-absorbing pelt of hedgehog quills. They've mimicked the structure of a hedgehog quill with a polymer which lets it bend but not break & mimicked the spacing & angle of each quill. radio.wosu.org/post/desig…
Chris Pratt stole his Peter Quill/Star-Lord costumes, including the jacket, from the set of “Guardians of the Galaxy” so that he could wear them to visit sick children at the hospital if the film was a hit. huffingtonpost.ca/entry/c…
James Gunn has a playlist of over 500 songs that he thinks Peter Quill's mother would have really liked and pulls from that list when he thinks a song would suit a scene. Disney has never rejected any of his songs. cinemablend.com/news/1695…
Velociraptors, unlike how they are shown in movies such as Jurrasic park, actually had feathers. If you look at the arm bones of a velociraptor skeleton, you will see a row of bumps identical to the quill knobs of modern day birds. scientificamerican.com/ar…
A mountain lion died five weeks after it consumed a porcupine. If the quills avoid large bones and vital organs, they can work their way straight through an animal with enough time and come out the other side several months after the encounter. The quills embed deeper and deeper through movement outdoorhub.com/mountain-l…
Today I learned about Koda the dog who located and kept a toddler warm and safe when just a day before the child went missing, the toddler's family tried to help remove porcupine quills from Koda's face. theglobeandmail.com/news/…
Nááts'ihch'oh National Park Reserve is named after the Shúhtagot’ine language description of this mountain and it refers to its unique shape, which is sharp and pointed on the top like a porcupine quill. The mountain from which the park takes its name is credited with great powers en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C…
Today I learned about Götz von Berlichingen (1480-1562), a German mercenary knight and poet whose right arm was severed by a cannonball in 1504. It was replaced with an iron prosthetic, later upgraded so that von Berlichingen could wield a quill as well as a sword. He was an active soldier for another 40 years. badassoftheweek.com/index…
Cursive writing was invented to accommodate the limitations of the quill, and starting falling out of favor in the 30s and 40s after the invention of the ballpoint pen. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cur…
Today I learned of Götz von Berlichingen, a German knight who, after losing his arm in 1504, continued to fight for many years with a prosthetic arm, one of which was fully articulated and capable of holding everything from his shield to a quill for writing. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C…
I learned that the world's most expensive jam is bar-le-duc, a currant jam from France which has seeds removed with a goose quill. fxcuisine.com/Default.asp…
Fishers kill porcupines by repeatedly biting them on the face in a process that takes 30 minutes to 1 hour. They then flip them over on to their backs and start eating from the belly to avoid the quills. news.nationalgeographic.c…
Goose bumps appear in "many mammals besides humans; a prominent example [being] porcupines, which raise their quills when threatened, or sea otters when they encounter sharks or other predators." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goo…
Porcupine Quills are dangerous to dogs because once they make contact with the skin, the quills can migrate further in and cause internal damage. dogtime.com/dog-health/do…
The Tailless Tenrec Can Have a Litter Size of Up to 32 Young (The Most of any Mammal) and Communicates by Rubbing its Quills Together. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai…
Wolverines are so gluttonous that they have been recorded dying after stuffing themselves full of porcupine without taking the time to remove the quills. slate.com/blogs/quora/201…
Gotz of the Iron Hand, a knight who lost his arm in 1504, had a prosthetic built that allowed him to grip anything from a quill to a sword which allowed him to Fight for another 40 years with his battle cry of "Lich mich im Arsch!", which Mozart honoured in two of his Canons. wired.com/2011/06/pl_prot…
North American porcupines have antibiotics in their skin. This helps prevent infections if they injure themselves with their own quills. They are the only mammal native to North America to have thus adaptation. en.wikipedia.org/w/index.…
Chris Pratt had to be convinced to take the role of Peter Quill (a.k.a. Star-Lord), of the Marvel movie, Guardians of the Galaxy ew.com/article/2014/07/11…
Hedgehogs can float on their backs because their quills are filled with many air pockets, which also allow for more strength against breakage. Video in comments. hedgehogcentral.com/quill…
The only three surviving copies of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" are likely pirated versions that scouts from competing theater troupes hurriedly wrote down with a quill and ink while the original play was being performed. cracked.com/article_19153…
Porcupines can not actually shoot their quills. The porcupine senses being touched and thrusts their quills into the threat. youtube.com/watch?v=UhIG0…
'pen' comes from an old French word for feather and as such the small blade of a 'penknife' was used for cutting the quill for writing. etymonline.com/index.php?…
Lowland Streaked Tenrecs (small mammals that live in Madagascar) can communicate by rubbing together quills on their backs to produce a high-pitched sound britannica.com/blogs/2011…
In the movie Homeward Bound, Chance the bulldog is seen being stung by porcupine quills. The scene was shot in cuts with a real porcupine and a fake dog. Then rubber porcupine needles were attached to the side of Chance's face with spirit gum. humanehollywood.org/index…
Mike Quill, founder of the NYC Transit Union, died during a hearse and transit strike (which he refused to call off, saying "the judge can drop dead in his black robes"). His casket had to be transported by station-wagon. news.google.com/newspaper…
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