951
@qikipedia
In the 1820s the water in the river Thames was portrayed as ‘monster soup’.
Image: Wellcome Collection CC BY-NC 4.0
952
@qikipedia
During the French Revolution, being guillotined was referred to as ‘being given the patriotic haircut’, ‘sticking your head through the cat-flap’, ‘poking through the window’, and ‘sneezing into the basket’.
953
@qikipedia
Mount Thor in Canada has the world's longest vertical drop.
If you fell off it, you would fall for over a kilometer before you hit anything.
(Image: Peter Morgan; CC BY-NC-ND.)
954
@qikipedia
In 1997, a container ship ran aground off the Isles of Scilly, and a container carrying a million plastic bags drifted ashore. Its doors burst open, and the foreshore became awash with the bags bearing the words ‘Help protect the environment’.
955
@qikipedia
The tiny town of Rabbit Hash, Kentucky has only ever elected dogs as mayor.
The current mayor is a French bulldog. He took over from a pit bull named Brynneth Pawltro.
(Image: Artur Malinowski; CC BY.)
956
@qikipedia
"We are stuck with technology when all we really want is just stuff that works. How do you recognize something that is still technology? A good clue is if it comes with a manual." DOUGLAS ADAMS
957
@qikipedia
The James Bond theme music was written by composer Monty Norman. He based it on his earlier piece, a composition (with words) for a stage production of V.S. Naipaul’s novel ‘A House For Mr. Biswas’, where the tune is played on a sitar.
youtube.com/watch?v=g6EuzG…
958
@qikipedia
Despite almost turning to ‘soup’ in the cocoon, butterflies can recall trauma experienced as a caterpillar.
959
@qikipedia
Plankton don’t swim, they float. Anything that looks like plankton but actively swims is called nekton.
960
@qikipedia
"[Australians] spend half of any conversation insisting that the country's dangers are vastly overrated... and the other half telling you how six months ago Uncle Bob was driving to Mudgee when a tiger snake slid out from under the dashboard and bit him on the groin." BILL BRYSON
961
@qikipedia
Rod Stewart, Freddie Mercury and Elton John considered forming a supergroup called "NOSE, TEETH & HAIR".
962
@qikipedia
Eating the head of a sea bream called sarpa salsa can cause hallucinations. It was used as a recreational drug during Roman times.
963
@qikipedia
America’s last remaining washboard factory sells 40 percent of its products to bluegrass and folk percussionists.
964
@qikipedia
Seals regulate their body temperature by keeping their heads and tails off the cold wet floor, in what is known as the ‘banana pose’. 📷: Ibex73
965
@qikipedia
TROLL once meant "to sing loudly and clearly" - as in, "to troll the ancient Yuletide carol".
966
@qikipedia
There are more ancient Egyptian obelisks in Rome than in Egypt.
967
@qikipedia
What one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life. C.S. LEWIS
968
@qikipedia
The Disney film ‘Bambi’ is based on Felix Salten’s novel written in 1923. In the 1930s, it was banned by the Nazis as a political allegory on the treatment of Jews in Europe, and many copies of the novel were burned.
969
@qikipedia
60% of the world’s seeds are owned by four companies.
970
@qikipedia
Crabs have evolved at least five separate times.
971
@qikipedia
Roundabouts are about 90% safer than intersections with lights.
972
@qikipedia
When jelly babies first grew popular in the Victorian era, they were marketed as ‘unclaimed babies’.
973
@qikipedia
In 2008, Barry Farrimond, the actor who plays Ed Grundy in The Archers invented an officially recognised new knot, the Farrimond friction hitch.
974
@qikipedia
It takes more than 4 times as much water to produce a kilo of chocolate than it does a kilo of chicken.
975
@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.
@qikipedia
A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves