826
@qikipedia
In the USA, there are eleven times as many monuments to mermaids as there are to congresswomen.
827
@qikipedia
The first domesticated bird was not the chicken, but the cassowary.
Adult cassowaries weigh 60 kilograms and are highly aggressive.
828
@qikipedia
Phrase of the day: XĪ MĀO (吸猫; Mandarin slang) - to zone out and enjoy the company of a cat, literally "inhale/sniff cat"
Some people literally bury their faces in the fluff and inhale, but @qikipedia disclaims responsibility in any claw injuries that may result.
829
@qikipedia
Word of the day: JOTTLE (20th century Scots) - to appear busy but not get anything done
830
@qikipedia
The first known chili recipe used human flesh for meat.
831
@qikipedia
England gets more tornados per sq km than anywhere else on earth.
832
@qikipedia
Northern Ireland is facing a clown shortage.
833
@qikipedia
When he died in 1955, Dewey Beard (Wasú Máza) was the last known Native American survivor of both the Battle of the Little Big Horn (1876), and the massacre at Wounded Knee (1890).
834
@qikipedia
In 1952, the Kray twins became the last people to be held in the Tower of London (for failing to report for national service).
835
@qikipedia
A newly discovered species of dinosaur found on the Isle of Wight has been given a name which translates as 'horned crocodile-faced hell heron'.
836
@qikipedia
As he's making an appearance on tonight's QI, it's time to dust off the GYLES BRANDRETH ANECDOTE GENERATOR.
"It was during the London 2012 Opening Ceremony when I did the ice bucket challenge with a trifle-laden Delia Smith..."
Brand new QI, tonight at 10pm, BBC Two
837
@qikipedia
The longest-running lab experiment started in 1927 and measures how fast pitch falls from a funnel. Nine drops have fallen so far, showing pitch isn’t a solid, but a liquid 100 billion times more viscous than water. [📷: John Mainstone, University of Queensland.]
838
@qikipedia
Instead of requesting a traditional wake-up call in a hotel, the French writer Alphonse Allais would have the concierge call the room on either side of his one in order ‘to be gently woken by the sound of your neighbours’ protests’.
839
@qikipedia
A tautological compound is a word with two parts that have the same meaning, e.g. ‘sledgehammer’ (hammer-hammer), ‘pathway’ (way-way), and, if one etymological theory is correct, ‘slowworm‘ (snake-snake).
840
@qikipedia
Last week, a Danish museum gave 534,000 kroner in cash to artist Jens Haaning who was supposed to display it in two glass frames in another museum. The artist pocketed the cash, sent two empty frames to the museum, and changed the title of the artwork to ‘Take the Money and Run’.
841
@qikipedia
The British Army briefly used a phonetic alphabet including "M as in Emma".
842
@qikipedia
The average public swimming pool contains 75 litres of urine.
843
@qikipedia
"When a man loves cats, I am his friend and comrade, without further introduction." MARK TWAIN
844
@qikipedia
Word of the day: SMYSTER (19th century Scots) - to smile to yourself while daydreaming
845
@qikipedia
In Swaziland, witches on broomsticks are not legally permitted to fly above 150 meters.
846
@qikipedia
"Of course there are no cat gods. That would be too much like... work." TERRY PRATCHETT
847
@qikipedia
‘Buccaneer’ originally meant ‘one who barbeques’ from ‘boucanier’ – a 17th century French word for runaway sailors who lived in the forests of Haiti and cooked their meat on a boucan - a kind of Brazilian wooden barbecue.
848
@qikipedia
The Cuban giant owl (which went extinct over 9,000 ears ago) was flightless, stood over three feet tall and weighed nine kilos (imagine a big turkey armed with massive claws).
849
@qikipedia
Children’s dislike of cauliflower and broccoli is connected to the concentration of enzymes produced by bacteria in their saliva. The more of an enzyme called cysteine lyases their mouths produce, the more sulphurous brassicas will taste.
Image: Fir0002/Flagstaffotos
850
@qikipedia
During World War 1, the Germans suspended sausage making in order to increase the supply of cows’ intestines used to line the hydrogen chambers in zeppelins. A single zeppelin required the innards of quarter of a million cows.
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves