801
@qikipedia
The botanist Edward Salisbury once managed to grow 300 plants from the debris he’d collected in his trouser turn-ups, comprising over twenty different species of weeds.
802
@qikipedia
If the average person’s blood vessels were laid end to end they would reach around the Earth almost two and a half times (60,000 miles).
803
@qikipedia
Ever wondered why the F and J on your keyboard have little bumps on them? #QI
804
@qikipedia
Last year, human triphallia — having three penises — was reported for the first time in history.
805
@qikipedia
‘Lord’ comes from a combination of Old English words for ‘loaf’ and ‘ward’, so, etymologically speaking, a lord is someone who guards bread. ‘Lady’ comes from a combination of Old English words for ‘loaf’ and ‘kneader’, so a lady is someone who kneads bread. (h/t @yvanspijk)
806
@qikipedia
After a bad mescaline trip, Jean-Paul Sartre started seeing three or four crabs around him all the time. He would talk to them in the morning (‘Good morning, my little ones, how did you sleep?’) and during the day (‘We’re going into class now, so we have to be still and quiet’).
807
@qikipedia
In September, a bar-tailed godwit flew 8,100 miles for 239 hours without rest from Alaska to New Zealand and set the world record for the longest continual flight by any land bird by distance. [📷: Onioram CC by SA 4.0]
808
@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.
809
@qikipedia
Word of the Day: NANOLEARNING — learning through consuming small chunks of information on the internet, for instance, reading a 178-character tweet about the word ‘nanolearning’.
810
@qikipedia
"Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another." CARL SAGAN
811
@qikipedia
In 2011, Belgians were voted the least cool nationality.
812
@qikipedia
In 2004, Swedish authorities deployed emergency services to provide a "condom ambulance".
If you needed a condom urgently, you could call them for an emergency condom delivery.
813
@qikipedia
"Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes." NEIL GAIMAN
814
@qikipedia
Crabs have evolved at least five separate times.
815
@qikipedia
In 2016, a Florida man threw an alligator through a restaurant's drive-through window.
He was charged with "assault with a deadly weapon".
816
@qikipedia
Word of the Day: PINGLE (Scots) - to work hard in difficult circumstances and not make much progress
817
@qikipedia
Scientists are developing new laser scanning techniques to determine just how fat the fat bears of Fat Bear Week are.
(Image: Katmai National Park and Preserve.)
818
@qikipedia
In 1889, there were 12 postal deliveries a day in London.
819
@qikipedia
Antarctica has just had its coldest winter on record. Between April and September the average temperature was - 61 degrees Celsius.
820
@qikipedia
In 2019 the Royal Horitcultural Society confirmed that the herb previously known as ‘rosemary’ was in fact a species of sage.
821
@qikipedia
✨COMPETITION TIME✨
Win a signed copy of our brand new book ‘Funny You Should Ask Again: More of Your Questions Answered by the QI Elves’ and all the other QI goodies in this photo!
Just RT to enter and we’ll pick a name at noon tomorrow.
Pre-order: amzn.to/3lkSIYu
822
@qikipedia
Tortoiseshell cats are 99.6% female.
Image: Hammersfan
823
@qikipedia
In Maori myths, trickster Maui tried to make people immortal by entering the vagina of the goddess of death and leaving through her mouth when she slept. His friends laughed at him and woke up the goddess, who crushed him with vaginal teeth, and thus brought mortality to people.
824
@qikipedia
Over 5,000 years ago, someone spat out their chewing gum. Then this happened. 🤯 #QI
825
@qikipedia
The word ‘bear’ can be traced to the Proto-Indo-European for ‘brown’, and the word ‘beaver’ can be traced to the Proto-Indo-European for ‘brown-brown’.
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves