1. Duumvirate
The word duumvirate means the joint office or authority of two. Similarly triumvirate means the joint authority of three people. Duumvirate comes from the Latin for man which is vir, and two which is duo.
2. Fluency
Whenever I've filled in a form, I've had problems working out what level I am in a language. What does fluent mean? I don't want to put something untrue on my CV, and I don't want to overclaim my ability, but what can I claim? Well, I still can't answer that question, but I do understand better why I've had so much trouble with working it out. http://www.babbel.com/magazine/myths-of-fluency
3. Proof and Alcohol by Volume
A friend made some limoncello using Everclear. I hadn't heard of this product so I looked it up. That led me to wondering about different measuring systems between the USA and the UK. For instance, in the USA, a tablespoon is 14.8 ml and in the UK it's 17.8 ml. Confusing, isn't it? Well, why should the way alcohol is measured in drinks be any different?
Historically, in the UK, a drink would be proved to test how much alcohol it had by pouring some on gunpowder and lighting it. If it burnt with a steady flame, it was 100 degrees proof. If it burnt too quickly, it was overproof and if it failed to burn at all it was underproof. The amount of alcohol required for 100 degrees proof is 57.15% by volume (unsure what temperature this is at.
In the USA, the proof of a drink is twice the percentage of alcohol by volume at 60\deg; Fahrenheit (15.6\deg; Celsius).
Fortunately, the international standard defined by International Organization of Legal Metrology is now used in the USA and the UK amongst others. The alcohol by volume (ABV) used is the percentage of alcohol at 20\deg; C (68\deg; F).
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