1
@qikipedia
"It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people." NEIL GAIMAN and TERRY PRATCHETT
2
@qikipedia
Viking nicknames included ‘desirous of beer’, ‘squat-wiggle’, ‘lust-hostage’, ‘short penis’, ‘able to fill a bay with fish by magic’, ‘the man who mixes his drinks’ and ‘the man without trousers’.
3
@qikipedia
Mark Twain's definition of a classic was "something that everyone wants to have read but no one wants to read."
4
@qikipedia
Statistician Craig Anderson calculated the cost of completing the Euro 2020 sticker book. To get 90% of the stickers - without swapsies - would cost an average of £893.70
5
@qikipedia
In 1665, physician William Simpson recommended regular glasses of wine to prevent plague and ‘many enormous ideas of fear’.
6
@qikipedia
Mars sometimes hums, and scientists don’t know why.
7
@qikipedia
In 1835 a New York newspaper reported a new telescope had revealed bat-winged men living on the Moon. To end the hoax, it claimed the telescope had caught fire.
8
@qikipedia
Banana trees are not trees that bear fruit, they’re technically herbs that bear berries.
9
@qikipedia
Japanese scientists are tackling pollinator loss with drones that shoot pollen-dusted soap bubbles. (Study: bit.ly/3tR7Vlc).
10
@qikipedia
A man from Shaanxi province, China, used a hand grenade to crack walnuts for 25 years. He surrendered the ‘nutcracker’ in 2016 after spotting it on a list of illegal explosives.
11
@qikipedia
In Ancient Egypt lettuce had a phallic shape and oozed milky fluids when cut, making it a potent sex symbol.
12
@qikipedia
In 1949, the rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun wrote a novel about a manned mission to Mars, in which the leader of the Martian government is called ‘Elon’.
13
@qikipedia
The Swedish word for bat is ‘fladdermus’, literally ‘flappy mouse’.
14
@qikipedia
Despite almost turning to ‘soup’ in the cocoon, butterflies can recall trauma experienced as a caterpillar.
15
@qikipedia
Word of the Day - KLEPTOTHERMY: the act of stealing someone else’s body heat.
16
@qikipedia
The ‘seeds’ on a strawberry are actually its fruit, and inside those tiny fruit are its seeds.
17
@qikipedia
Loneliness makes people more sensitive to cold and more likely to order hot soup or coffee.
18
@qikipedia
Because of its use in holy communion, the Vatican has one of the highest per capita consumption of wine of any country.
19
@qikipedia
Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities. ALDOUS HUXLEY
20
@qikipedia
The Nobel disease is a term for a tendency of Nobel laureates to embrace unscientific ideas later in life. For instance, biochemist Kary Mullis accepted astrology, thought the climate crisis was a hoax and said he once spoke with a fluorescent raccoon who addressed him as doctor.
21
@qikipedia
Out of 145 murders recorded in London for the year 1278, two resulted from a quarrel over a game of chess.
22
@qikipedia
An apple a day does not keep the doctor away. A 2015 study found no correlation between eating apples and physician visits. However an apple a day is linked to fewer prescriptions.
23
@qikipedia
Mikhail Gorbachev was a big fan of ‘Twin Peaks’ and asked George H.W. Bush to find out for him who killed Laura Palmer. David Lynch was contacted by the producers on behalf of the president but didn’t tell them the answer.
24
@qikipedia
In 1949, a contest for a new term to replace ‘jazz’ featured such suggestions as ‘bix-e-bop’, ‘swixibop’, ‘ragtibop’, ‘schmoosic’, 'jarb' and ‘le hot’.
25
@qikipedia
Nobody hates tourists more than a fellow tourist. Running into a compatriot abroad is an acutely painful experience. It’s a bit like hearing your own voice. TOM JENKINS (CEO OF THE EUROPEAN TOURISM ASSOCIATION)
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves