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Something to think about when you put your Christmas decorations up. #QI 🎄
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@qikipedia
"We are not nouns, we are verbs. I am not a thing – an actor, a writer – I am a person who does things – I write, I act – and I never know what I am going to do next. I think you can be imprisoned if you think of yourself as a noun." STEPHEN FRY
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Word of the day: ONOMATOMANIA - the frustration of not being able to think of that particular word you're looking for
704
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The Khasi people of India make bridges by shaping live tree roots.
Since the trees and roots are still alive, a living bridge can last as long as the tree lives - hundreds of years.
(Image: Anselmrogers; CC BY-SA.)
705
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"If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be 'meetings'." DAVE BARRY
706
@qikipedia
Word of the day: DETERIORISM - the belief that the worst is yet to come
707
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In ancient Greece, small penises were preferred to large ones.
A small penis symbolized self-control and intelligence.
708
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Self-identified "cat people" are more likely to be neurotic.
709
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It means nothing to me. I have no opinion about it, and I don’t care. PABLO PICASSO, IN 1969 ON THE MOON LANDING
710
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‘Vaccination’ comes from Latin ‘vacca’ (‘cow’), because Edward Jenner immunised against smallpox with the cowpox virus. At the time, horsepox-based immunisation was just as effective, so instead of vaccinating we could have easily been equinating (Latin ‘equus’, ‘horse’).
711
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The word ‘wassailing’, as in ‘Here we come a-wassailing’, comes from the Old English greeting ‘wes hāl’ (‘be well’). It became a drinking salutation (‘waes hail’), then the name for the Yuletide drink (‘wesseyl’) and finally the name for the holiday fun when you were drinking it.
712
@qikipedia
Although English is the most predominant language in New Zealand, it is not an official language of the country. The two official languages are Maori and New Zealand Sign Language.
713
@qikipedia
Word of the Day: AGNOTOLOGY — the study of ignorance and of deliberate spreading of ignorance, confusion, and deceit.
714
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Only one in 15 people who have ever lived are alive now.
715
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The New Jersey volunteer campaign to rescue thousands of stranded horseshoe crabs by flipping them the right way up is called 'ReTURN the Favor’.
716
@qikipedia
The longest cell in the human body is a metre long. The axons in the sciatic nerve are single threadlike cells a few micrometres in diameter that reach from the base of the spine to the end of the big toe.
Image: KDS4444, CC BY-SA 4.0
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In 2006, a robot taste-taster confirmed humans taste like bacon.
718
@qikipedia
Brazilian footballer Argélico Fuchs spent much of his life spelling his name "Argélico Fucks", resulting in headlines such as "Fucks off to Benfica".
719
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Climate change is making albatrosses more likely to divorce.
720
@qikipedia
Word of the day: SESSELPUPSER (German) - literally "armchair-farter", someone who gives orders from the comfort of their office but doesn't do any of the work themselves
721
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Researchers at the University of Glasgow have created a phone that your dog can use to contact you.
722
@qikipedia
During the Crimean War, the inventor of the saxophone Adolphe Sax had an idea for a cannon that would be able to demolish a whole city by firing a 10-metre-wide shot weighing 550 tons. The unrealised weapon was to be called Saxocannon.
723
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Many common nicknames beginning with ‘N’ came about from affectionate phrases where ‘mine’ was used before the first name. So, ‘mine Edward’ gave rise to ‘my Nedward’ and, eventually, to ‘Ned’; and ‘mine Eleanor’ became ‘Nell’.
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If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn’t.
EMERSON M. PUGH
725
@qikipedia
Beatrix Potter may have borrowed some her most famous characters' names from the gravestones in Brompton cemetery near where she grew up. Peter Rabbett, Mr McGregor, Jeremiah Fisher, Mr Nutkins, Mr Brock and Mr Tod are all buried there.
Image: CGPGrey.com, CC BY 2.0
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves