1201
@qikipedia
Before her death in 1891, the wealthy French socialite Anne Goguet left 100,000 francs to be awarded for the first communication with another planet. Contact with Martians was not eligible, because the existence of life on Mars was ‘sufficiently well known’.
1202
@qikipedia
In a study of 15-year olds, the tendency to claim to know something when they don’t was most common in males from rich families.
1203
@qikipedia
One Arabic equivalent to ‘making a mountain out of a molehill’ is ‘making a wine shop out of a raisin’.
1204
@qikipedia
The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering. TOM WAITS
1205
@qikipedia
In 1962, the Philippine Senate considered a bill that would rename the country "Malaysia".
Before they had a chance to vote, the country now known as Malaysia officially adopted the name.
1206
@qikipedia
A popular textbook on statistical mechanics begins as follows:
1207
@qikipedia
✨COMPETITION TIME✨
This is your chance to win a copy of our brand new book '222 QI Answers to Your Quite Ingenious Questions' as well as our bumper '10,000 QI Facts' box set!
Just RT to enter and we’ll pick a name at noon tomorrow. #competition qi.com/222
1208
@qikipedia
Unborn sea turtles sing to each other in their eggs.
1209
@qikipedia
The most famous French pangram, a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet, is ‘portez ce vieux whisky au juge blond qui fume’ (‘Take this old whisky to the blond judge who is smoking’).
1210
@qikipedia
Contrary to rumours, the Library of Congress doesn’t have a very small stash of Sigmund Freud’s cocaine. They have a very small stash of Sigmund Freud’s friend’s cocaine.
1211
@qikipedia
Word of the day: BELLY-SLAVE (16th century) - someone always thinking about their next meal
1212
@qikipedia
Daylight saving time was first proposed by an entomologist who wanted more after-work daylight to collect bugs.
1213
@qikipedia
In 1743, King Gustav III of Sweden ordered one man to drink an excessive amount of coffee and his identical twin drink an excessive amount of tea to see which died first.
Both men outlived the king.
1214
@qikipedia
Before the recording of this week's new episode of QI, @BillBailey received a very special award.
Can we please have a big round of applause for Bill! 👏
1215
@qikipedia
There is no such thing as an "alpha male" in a wolf pack.
Unrelated wolves in captivity can form a hierarchy, but there is no evidence of this behavior in the wild.
1216
@qikipedia
Approximately 1% of the static on old TV sets is caused by leftover radiation from the Big Bang.
1217
@qikipedia
One of the contenders for the Japanese Word of the Year 2022 is 顔パンツ(Kao pantsu) that literally translates as ‘face underwear’ and expresses the idea that in the pandemic era, not wearing a face mask in public is as embarrassing as not wearing pants.
1218
@qikipedia
What's the favourite tool of a lesbian builder? 🔨
Sandi has the answer. 🤣
1219
@qikipedia
Watching Keeping Up With Kardashians makes you less sympathetic to the poor.
1220
@qikipedia
In 2012, rapper 2 Chainz wanted to sample from Tom Lehrer's 1953 song "The Old Dope Peddler".
When Lehrer wrote back granting permission, he ended the letter "My regards go out to Mr. Chainz. And may I call him 2?"
1221
@qikipedia
Roundabouts are about 90% safer than intersections with lights.
1222
@qikipedia
"To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem." DOUGLAS ADAMS
1223
@qikipedia
HTTP 451 is the error code returned when a web page cannot be displayed because it is illegal to display that content.
It was chosen as a reference to censorship in Fahrenheit 451.
1224
@qikipedia
60% of the world’s seeds are owned by four companies.
1225
@qikipedia
The world’s second largest lake, Lake Superior, is approximately 10,000 years old, whereas the largest lake, Lake Baikal, is 25 million years old.
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves