576
@qikipedia
75 acts are competing to represent San Marino at @Eurovision 2022. That’s more than three acts for every square mile of San Marino.
577
@qikipedia
In 1900, Argentina had a tax on unmarried men - but men whose proposals were turned down were exempt from the tax.
Enterprising women promptly set up businesses where they would reject men's proposals so they could be exempt from the tax.
578
@qikipedia
Last year, a nine-year old female macaque at the Takasakiyama Natural Zoological Garden violently overthrew the previous male leader.
She is the one of the first known female macaques to contest leadership of her troop.
579
@qikipedia
Your cat can tell if you are upset. It simply does not change its behavior.
580
@qikipedia
In Nahuatl, the language spoken by the Aztecs and still spoken in Mexico, gold is ‘coztic teocuitlatl’ (‘yellow divine excrement’) and silver is ‘iztac teocuitlatl’ (‘white divine excrement’).
581
@qikipedia
Some ancient insects have been found preserved in amber halfway through a fart. [Image: G. Poinar]
582
@qikipedia
Word of the Day: SLEEVEEN (Irish English) — an untrustworthy person.
583
@qikipedia
There is no such thing as ‘a daddy longlegs’. There are at least three different creatures that answer to that name: the cellar spider (an arachnid); the harvestman (an arachnid but not a spider); and the crane fly (an insect, picture below).
Image: neurovelho, CC BY-SA 3.0
584
@qikipedia
The invention of glass spectacles in the late 13th century lengthened the professional life of scholars and craftspeople by fifteen years or more, by enabling them to read or practise detailed work for longer.
585
@qikipedia
The English word ‘fact’ originally meant an action or deed, particularly an evil one (from the Latin ‘facere’ - to do). It only acquired the sense of ‘something known to be true’ around 400 years ago.
586
@qikipedia
It is illegal to mispronounce "Arkansas" while in Arkansas.
587
@qikipedia
"We are always living in the final days. What have you got? A hundred years or much, much less until the end of your world." NEIL GAIMAN
588
@qikipedia
In Sweden, the @ symbol is sometimes called a 'kanelbulle' - a cinnamon roll.
(Image: Marco Verch Professional Photographer; CC BY.)
589
@qikipedia
One in eight Britons reports that they feel tired all the time.
590
@qikipedia
In 2017, the Swiss village of Bergün/Bravuogn made it illegal for tourists to take photos there because "it is scientifically proven that beautiful holiday photos on social media make the viewer unhappy because they cannot be there themselves".
(Image: Adrian Michael; CC BY-SA.)
591
@qikipedia
"I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees, and unmechanised farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unrefrigerated), but detest French cooking; I like, and even dare to wear in these dull days, ornamental waistcoats." J. R. R. TOLKIEN
592
@qikipedia
Isaac Newton was such a bad teacher that no one enrolled in his classes.
Since his contract required he teach, he sometimes lectured at an empty room.
593
@qikipedia
According to a study by Cardiff University, both men and women are judged to look better when they are wearing a face mask.
594
@qikipedia
What one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life. C.S. LEWIS
595
@qikipedia
In 2006, The Ig Nobel Prize in Literature went to the Princeton psychologist Daniel Oppenheimer for his paper ‘Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly’. @improbresearch
596
@qikipedia
The word ‘paraphernalia’ comes from Greek ‘para’ (besides) and ‘pherne’ (dowry) and originally meant a woman’s own property (apart from dowry) which she retained at least some control of in her marriage.
597
@qikipedia
In 2018, a woman in Crimea stole 70,000 rubles from a fortune-teller who had predicted that she would come into some money soon.
598
@qikipedia
Word of the day: SCOFFLAW, n. a US term for one who treats the law with contempt, especially a law that’s difficult to enforce.
599
@qikipedia
John Harvey Kellogg, the co-creator of Corn Flakes, fostered 42 children but was so repelled by sex he never consummated his marriage.
600
@qikipedia
‘Presbyterians’ is an anagram of ‘Britney Spears’.
Image: Glenn Francis, CC BY-SA 4.0
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves