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It is obvious that art cannot teach anyone anything, since in four thousand years humanity has learnt nothing at all.
ANDREI TARKOVSKY
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During the Second World War, British officer John ‘Mad Jack’ Churchill took a sword, a longbow and bagpipes into battle.
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A statue of Nelson Mandela installed in Pretoria in 2014 had to be altered when people spotted a rabbit sculpted inside one ear. (Image: PHParsons, CC-SA-3.0)
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In 1926 the White House was sent a raccoon to eat for Thanksgiving, but President Calvin Coolidge and his wife Grace kept 'Rebecca' as a pet.
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In 2021, 😭 became the world’s most used emoji. Previously, 😂 had spent years in the top spot.
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Slugs and snails have tongues covered in thousands of tiny, constantly regrowing teeth. (Image Debivort, CC BY-SA 3.0
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The 19th century naturalist Alexander von Humboldt has over 300 species named after him, as well as places, asteroids and part of the Moon.
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Raindrops are about the same size on all planets - regardless of if they're made of water (Earth), methane (Titan), or liquid iron (WASP-76b).
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In a 2008 study, researchers at Bath Spa University asked volunteers to rank the intelligence of people with various accents.
A Yorkshire accent was rated highest. A Brummie accent was rated lower than staying silent.
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When the US Postal Service was established, it had an eleven pound weight limit but no restrictions on what you could mail.
An Ohio couple therefore sent their baby to visit his grandmother - by post. He only cost $0.15 to mail but was insured for $50.
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Word of the day: CONCILIABULE - a secret meeting of those hatching a plot
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In 2008 thieves in Russia stole an entire church, brick by brick.
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According to Ancient Greek myth, when the goddess Demeter was depressed, an old woman named Baubo cheered her up by flashing her genitals.
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Word of the day: GRAMMATICASTER - someone who is annoyingly pedantic about grammar
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Atheists and agnostics sleep more soundly at night than Catholics or Baptists.
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Deer in headlights don't freeze purely out of fear - their eyes are so light-sensitive they are easily temporarily blinded.
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Glow in the dark mushrooms can produce enough light to read by.
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Humans used to have a bone behind the knee called the fabella, but evolved not to have them. In 2019 the fabella was found to to be making a comeback. No one knows exactly why. (Image Jmarchn and Mikael Häggström CC BY-SA 3.0)
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From 1986 to 2007, all cosmonauts were equipped with a triple-barreled pistol, in case they encountered bears upon landing.
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MIT students are certified as pirates if they complete archery, sailing, fencing, and pistol shooting courses.
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In 1999 a racehorse called Geespot was born. Her parents were named Pursuit of Love and My Discovery.
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When the Moon is directly overhead, its gravity pulls on clouds and makes it rain less.
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A wet man does not fear rain. - RUSSIAN PROVERB
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Word of the Day: GIMCRACKERY — a collection of showy and useless things.
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The Irish phrase for ‘fancy seeing you here’ or ‘you never know what you might chance upon!’ is ‘is fánach an áit a bhfaighfeá gliomach’, which literally means ‘what an odd place to find a lobster’.
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves