Read QI: The Book of General Ignorance - the Noticeably Stouter Edition Online
Authors: John Lloyd,John Mitchinson
Tags: #Humor, #General
Ignorance is like a delicate, exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom has gone
.OSCAR WILDE
QI stands for Quite Interesting. We do not claim to be Quite Right.
If you have better answers to any of these questions, or if you have new questions of your own, we’d love to hear from you. Join us online at www.qi.com.
The book is the distillation of many people’s attempts to understand the world around them, but owes most of all to the QI research team, a collection of people with high curiosity levels, low boredom thresholds and a knack for asking difficult questions. Special thanks are due to Piers Fletcher, Justin Gayner, Chris Gray, James Harkin, Mat Coward, Justin Pollard, Garrick Alder, Molly Oldfield and Dan Schreiber. They’d make the world’s best pub quiz team.
We also doff our caps to the professionalism and taste of our publishers Julian Loose, Stephen Page and their colleagues at Faber & Faber; to our production partners, Sarah Chaloner, Beatrice Gay and the team at Talkback Thames; and to Mark Freeland and Peter Fincham at the BBC, for having the courage of their convictions.
John le Carré once complained that having a book made into a movie was ‘like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes’. With that in mind, we should acknowledge the hundreds of scientists, philosophers, historians, inventors, saints and visionaries whose original work we have diced, skimmed, boiled and puréed to make the book you now hold in your hands.
aardvarks, colour-blindness of
1
Abel, Frederick
1
acorns, taste of
1
Adams, Douglas
1
Adams, John
1
Aethelstan
1
Afghanistan
1
cannibalism in
1
cave painting in
1
flamingos in
1
hailstorms in
1
hares in
1
loofahs in
1
tulips in
1
voodoo in
1
African mammal, most dangerous to humans
1
Agincourt, Battle of
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agoutis
1
Ainu people
1
air, main ingredient of
1
aircraft carriers, landing on
1
airplane pilots
1
alcohol
1
as diuretic
1
effect on brain cells of
1
hangover cure
1
Irish miracle
1
James Bond ‘s favourite
1
in Milky Way
1
tigers’ aversion to
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Alcott, Louisa May
1
Alexander the Great
1
algae
and colour of water
1
eliminating
1
growing on sloths
1
and oxygen production
1
see also
blue-green algae
Algeria
1
Alkemade, Nicholas
1
alligators
1
etymology of ‘allegation’
1
Amazonian Indians
1
America, naming of
1
Ameryk, Richard
1
amoebae
1
Andaman islanders
1
Anderson, E. N.
1
Andromeda (M31)
1
Animalens
1
animals
ability to see colour in
1
on the Ark
1
best-endowed
1
bravest
1
first domesticated
1
first in space
1
longest
1
most dangerous
1
number of neck bones in
1
sounds of
1
Anti-Christ, number of
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Antigonus of Carystus
1
Antrim, William
1
ants
large brains of
1
nests of
1
strength of
1
Anubis
1
Apicius
1
appendix, uses of
1
apricots, in Jaffa Cakes
1
Arab–Israeli conflict
1
Arabia
1
Archer, Jeffrey
1
archers
1
Archimedes
1
Arctic
1
goose eggs in
1
ice sheet
1
Arens, William
1
Aristarchus of Samos
1
Aristophanes
1
Armstrong, David G.
1
Armstrong, Lance
1
Armstrong, Neil
1
bagpipes invented in
1
loofahs in
1
marmots and
1
tulips in
1
Asquith, Herbert
1
‘assassin’, etymology of
1
Assassins
1
Assyria
1
asteroid belts
1
Atacama Desert
1
Atkinson, Rowan
1
Atlas, King of Mauretania
1
atoms
composition of
1
number of, in universe
1
attention deficit disorder (ADD)
1
Auer, Karl
1
cannibalism in
1
cave paintings in
1
depression in
1
diamonds in
1
discovery of
1
etymology of ‘pom’
1
flamingos in
1
separation, consequences of
1
Australian aborigines
1
,
2
,
3
,
4
,
5
Ayalla, López de
1
Ayers Rock
1
bacteria
anti-bacterial agents
1
as distinct from viruses
1
effect of silver on
1
and penicillin
1
radiation resistance
1
and stomach ulcers
1
stored in the appendix
1
and tooth decay
1
Baffin Island
1
bagpipes
Nero plays
1
origins of
1
Baker, Thomas
1
Balfour, Arthur James
1
Bali, tigers in
1
ball-point pen
1
bananas
Ecuador as largest exporter
1
growth of
1
walking, in Colombia
1
banisters, misidentification of
1
Bannister, Roger
1
barnacles
flight of
1
penises of
1
Barry the Great (dog)
1
Bartley, James
1
basketball
1
Bayeux tapestry
1
beans
1
Beatles, The
1
bees
buzzing of
1
discover world’s roundness
1
Belgium
1
Belize
1
Bellsye, Dr
1
Belushi, John
1
Benedict XVI, Pope
1
Benfica, motto of
1
Berlioz, Hector
1
berries, definition of
1
Berthier, Alexandre
1
Bett, Henry
1
Bible
and animals on Ark
1
birth of Jesus in
1
on eating of chameleons
1
and Immaculate Conception
1
number of commandments in
1
Bich, Marcel
1
big-eyed wolf spider, blindness of
1
Billington, Isabella
1
Billy the Kid
1
bird eggs, smallest
1
birds
fighting
1
guano, as commodity
1
largest
1
milk production in
1
most common
1
neck bones of
1
smallest in Britain
1
Biró, György
1
Biró, László
1
bison
1
Black Death
see
bubonic plague
Black Sea
1
blackberries
1
blackboard, writing implement for
1
Blake, Quentin
1
Blorenge
1
Bludworth, Thomas
1
blueberries
1
blue whales
1
as loudest individual animal
1
size of
1
Boisbaudran, Lecoq de
1
Boleyn, Anne
1
Bond, James
1
Bonnie Prince Charlie
1
Boomerang Nebula
1
boomerangs, uses for
1
bootlace worm
1
Bose, Satyendra Nath
1
Brahms, Johannes
1
brandy, Nelson preserved in
1
Brazil nuts
1
Brendan, Saint
1
Brer Rabbit
1
Brett, Dorothy
1
Britain, Battle of
1
Brontë sisters
1
Brooke, Rupert Chawney
1
Brookes, W. P.
1
Brown, Dan
1
brown bear
1
Brunty, Patrick
1
buffaloes
1
bug, origins of dual meaning of
1
Bugs Bunny
1
Bulgaria
1
bulls, colour-blindness of
1
Bunsen, Robert Wilhelm,
Burney, Venetia
1
Burke and Hare murders
1
Buteo, Johannes
1