Read Online 1,227 QI Facts to Blow Your Socks Off by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson - Free Book Online
Authors: John Lloyd, John Mitchinson
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smallest test tube
has a diameter
10,000 times narrower
than a human hair.
Antarctic islands include
Disappointment Island, Fabulous Island,
Desolation Island, Monumental Island,
Inexpressible Island, Pourquoi Pas Island,
Shag Island, Circumcision Island and
Shoe Island.
In 2008, Usain Bolt
set the world record for the 100 metres
with one shoelace undone.
Every electron in the universe
knows about the state of
every other electron.
Honeybees
always know where the Sun is,
even if it’s
on the other side of the world.
The national anthem of Bangladesh
includes the lines:
‘The fragrance from your mango groves
Makes me wild with joy.’
One in three men in Britain
of Bangladeshi origin
works as a waiter.
Towels are a central part
of the culture in Belarus,
even appearing on the country’s flag.
At a traditional Belarusian wedding,
the bride walks to the church
dragging a towel.
13% of Belarus
is swamp.
In 2011, a 61-year-old woman
gave birth to her own grandson.
The baby was conceived with an egg
donated by her 35-year-old daughter.
The American Psychiatric Association
listed homosexuality
as a mental illness
until 1973.
Sudan is the only country
that still has crucifixion
as an official form
of capital punishment.
By the age of 18,
the average American child
will have seen 200,000
murders on television.
In German,
a
Turnbeutelvergesser
is a boy who’s too weedy
for school sport and ‘forgets’
to bring his gym bag.
Schattenparker
is German for someone
who parks his car in the shade.
Depp
means ‘twit’
in German.
Thud!
the Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett,
is published in Germany as
Klonk!
The Basque word
for ‘cold’ is
hotz
.
The Russian word
for ‘sock’ is pronounced
‘no sock’.
If you say the letters S.O.C.K.S
aloud in English, you will find yourself
pronouncing the Spanish for
‘it is what it is’
almost perfectly.
If you forget the tilde (~)
over an N when asking
how old someone is in Spanish,
you will end up asking them
how many anuses they have.
When Montenegro became
independent from Yugoslavia,
its Internet domain name went from being
.yu to .me
The Irish word
leis
(pronounced ‘lesh’)
has four different meanings.
Bhí leis leis leis leis
means
‘His thigh was naked also’.
A
bourdaloue
was a gravy-boat-like
receptacle that ladies would squeeze
between their thighs
if they needed to urinate at court
in Georgian England.
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and
Donald Rumsfeld
all have slime-mold beetles
named after them.
Since 1700, new beetle species
have been discovered
at the rate of
one every six hours.
The short-circuit beetle is so named
because it eats the lead covering
of telephone cables.
Cartwrightia cartwrighti
is a scarab beetle
described by Oscar L. Cartwright.
As you are not supposed to name
a species after yourself,
he claimed to have named it
after his brother.
Deathwatch beetles
attract mates
by repeatedly banging
their heads on the floor.
During his first teaching job in 1925,
Evelyn Waugh set out
to drown himself at sea,
but turned back
after being stung by a jellyfish.
The Irish name for jellyfish is
smugairle róin,
which literally translates as
‘seal’s snot’.
The French
for a walkie-talkie is
un talkie walkie.
The Eiffel Tower
has the same nickname
as Margaret Thatcher.
It’s known as
La Dame de Fer
(‘The Iron Lady’).
Crime, disease and average
walking speed increase by 15%
as a city doubles in size.
People all over the world
are walking 10% faster
than they did a decade ago.
Airlines all over the world are flying
10% slower than they did in 1960
(to save on fuel costs).
As an apple falls to Earth,
the Earth falls very, very slightly
towards the apple.
Isaac Newton served
has a diameter
10,000 times narrower
than a human hair.
Antarctic islands include
Disappointment Island, Fabulous Island,
Desolation Island, Monumental Island,
Inexpressible Island, Pourquoi Pas Island,
Shag Island, Circumcision Island and
Shoe Island.
In 2008, Usain Bolt
set the world record for the 100 metres
with one shoelace undone.
Every electron in the universe
knows about the state of
every other electron.
Honeybees
always know where the Sun is,
even if it’s
on the other side of the world.
The national anthem of Bangladesh
includes the lines:
‘The fragrance from your mango groves
Makes me wild with joy.’
One in three men in Britain
of Bangladeshi origin
works as a waiter.
Towels are a central part
of the culture in Belarus,
even appearing on the country’s flag.
At a traditional Belarusian wedding,
the bride walks to the church
dragging a towel.
13% of Belarus
is swamp.
In 2011, a 61-year-old woman
gave birth to her own grandson.
The baby was conceived with an egg
donated by her 35-year-old daughter.
The American Psychiatric Association
listed homosexuality
as a mental illness
until 1973.
Sudan is the only country
that still has crucifixion
as an official form
of capital punishment.
By the age of 18,
the average American child
will have seen 200,000
murders on television.
In German,
a
Turnbeutelvergesser
is a boy who’s too weedy
for school sport and ‘forgets’
to bring his gym bag.
Schattenparker
is German for someone
who parks his car in the shade.
Depp
means ‘twit’
in German.
Thud!
the Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett,
is published in Germany as
Klonk!
The Basque word
for ‘cold’ is
hotz
.
The Russian word
for ‘sock’ is pronounced
‘no sock’.
If you say the letters S.O.C.K.S
aloud in English, you will find yourself
pronouncing the Spanish for
‘it is what it is’
almost perfectly.
If you forget the tilde (~)
over an N when asking
how old someone is in Spanish,
you will end up asking them
how many anuses they have.
When Montenegro became
independent from Yugoslavia,
its Internet domain name went from being
.yu to .me
The Irish word
leis
(pronounced ‘lesh’)
has four different meanings.
Bhí leis leis leis leis
means
‘His thigh was naked also’.
A
bourdaloue
was a gravy-boat-like
receptacle that ladies would squeeze
between their thighs
if they needed to urinate at court
in Georgian England.
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and
Donald Rumsfeld
all have slime-mold beetles
named after them.
Since 1700, new beetle species
have been discovered
at the rate of
one every six hours.
The short-circuit beetle is so named
because it eats the lead covering
of telephone cables.
Cartwrightia cartwrighti
is a scarab beetle
described by Oscar L. Cartwright.
As you are not supposed to name
a species after yourself,
he claimed to have named it
after his brother.
Deathwatch beetles
attract mates
by repeatedly banging
their heads on the floor.
During his first teaching job in 1925,
Evelyn Waugh set out
to drown himself at sea,
but turned back
after being stung by a jellyfish.
The Irish name for jellyfish is
smugairle róin,
which literally translates as
‘seal’s snot’.
The French
for a walkie-talkie is
un talkie walkie.
The Eiffel Tower
has the same nickname
as Margaret Thatcher.
It’s known as
La Dame de Fer
(‘The Iron Lady’).
Crime, disease and average
walking speed increase by 15%
as a city doubles in size.
People all over the world
are walking 10% faster
than they did a decade ago.
Airlines all over the world are flying
10% slower than they did in 1960
(to save on fuel costs).
As an apple falls to Earth,
the Earth falls very, very slightly
towards the apple.
Isaac Newton served
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