726
@qikipedia
According to a 2019 survey, the words Americans are most likely to know that Britons are not are "manicotti", "ziti", and "tilapia".
The words Brits are most likely to know (but Americans are not) are "tippex", "biro", and "tombola".
727
@qikipedia
One Polish equivalent to the phrase ‘in the middle of nowhere’ is ‘gdzie psy dupami szczekają’, literally ‘where dogs bark with their arses’.
728
@qikipedia
There is a three-way bridge in Michigan. It is called the "Tridge".
(Image: Phil Squattrito; CC BY.)
729
@qikipedia
Chinese people learning English often memorise the word ‘ambulance' by associating it with a Chinese phrase ‘An bung neng si’, which means ‘I can’t die’.
730
@qikipedia
Batman once had an enemy called Hatman who was obsessed with stealing headwear.
731
@qikipedia
Word of the day: PRECRASTINATION - doing something too quickly or too early to get it out of the way
732
@qikipedia
After the Glastonbury Festival 2019, scientists tested the nearby Whitelake River for traces of illicit drugs and found that the levels of cocaine were high enough to disrupt the lifecycle of the European eel.
733
@qikipedia
Victorian Christmas cards were often secular in theme and their content could be quite morbid: many featured dead birds or anthropomorphic frogs in various states of jeopardy.
734
@qikipedia
Since the word ‘album’ comes from the Latin for ‘white’, the Beatles ‘White Album’ is a tautology.
735
@qikipedia
In 1665, physician William Simpson recommended regular glasses of wine to prevent plague and ‘many enormous ideas of fear’.
736
@qikipedia
Word of the day: INEMURI, a Japanese term for sleeping at work (literally ‘sleeping while present’), which is considered completely acceptable and often regarded as a sign of diligence.
737
@qikipedia
In the USA, Orthodox Jews make 18% of altruistic kidney donations (where a living donor gives an organ to a recipient he or she doesn't know). They are just 0.2% of the population.
738
@qikipedia
Short men really are more aggressive.
739
@qikipedia
Stephen Hawking was born on the anniversary of Galileo Galilei’s death (January 8) and died on Albert Einstein’s birthday (March 14).
740
@qikipedia
The British Army briefly used a phonetic alphabet including "M as in Emma".
741
@qikipedia
There are two types of tickling. The light, feather-like tickle that does not induce laughter is called knismesis, and the intensive, laughter-inducing one is called gargalesis.
742
@qikipedia
From 1559 to 1779, this fountain in Treviso, Italy was filled with free wine during festivals.
One breast provided white wine and the other provided red wine.
(Image: Didier Descouens; CC BY-SA.)
743
@qikipedia
According to a study from the University of Vienna, you not only look like your dog, you look like your car.
744
@qikipedia
CYMROPHOBIA is fear of the Welsh.
745
@qikipedia
Cambridge University researchers have discovered that conical ceramic pots, previously classified as storage jars from Ancient Roman sites, were actually portable toilets.
746
@qikipedia
Word of the day: FREUDENFREUDE - joy in other people's success
747
@qikipedia
There is no such thing as an "alpha male" in a wolf pack.
Unrelated wolves in captivity can form a hierarchy, but there is no evidence of this behavior in the wild.
748
@qikipedia
British shoe sizes are measured in barleycorns, a unit based on the length of a grain of barley (an inch was ‘3 barly cornes dry and rounde’).
Image: Alexander Klepnev
749
@qikipedia
According to a 1655 book, a Silesian village was once terrorised by an incredibly smelly vampire, who vomited fire, threw dung at people, came into houses at night and made sounds like a hog. The villagers believed it was the spirit of a deceased man called Johannes Cuntius.
750
@qikipedia
Word of the day: BELLY-SLAVE (16th century) - someone always thinking about their next meal
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves