John Lloyd - 2,024 QI Facts To Stop You In Your Tracks

One of the most interesting (and entirely unexpected) side effects of working at QI is that no one takes ownership of the information they unearth. When we find anything out, our first instinct is to share it you just have to tell someone. And nowadays, we share what we discover with almost a million followers. Quite Interesting Ltd the company behind QI, and the one we all work for is a tiny outfit, with barely a dozen permanent staff, and this joy of finding out and sharing is at the heart of everything we do. Our TV show, BBC2s QI itself, our Radio 4 show The Museum of Curiosity, our podcast No Such Thing As A Fish and our pocket-sized library of QI books are all driven by it. To get you up in the morning, nothing beats looking forward to an interesting day.

In the words of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (17491832), Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking. High-minded though this may sound, during its early years @qikipedia came under pressure from QIs senior management (or Sarah, as we know her). What was the point of it (apart from the undoubted larks, that is)? At first, she was sort of pacified with the words brand-building exercise, but then we came up with the neat idea that it could be used for staff training. And indeed, every new QI researcher since has started out on Twitter. Especially in the days when tweets were limited to 140 characters, it taught concision, good writing and, because the audience is so opinionated, the vital importance of accuracy. Most of all, you learn extremely fast what is and what is not interesting.

On Twitter, if youre not famous, youd better be interesting or funny, or no one will show up. After three years of steady posting, it eventually occurred to one of us no one can remember who that this daily stream of beguiling nuggets could form the basis of a book. (We use all sorts of other sources of course, but this crisp expression of information arose out of our Twitter style.) And so, 1,227 QI Facts to Blow Your Socks Off was born. This was followed by 1,339 QI Facts to Make Your Jaw Drop, 1,411 QI Facts to Knock You Sideways, 1,234 QI Facts to Leave You Speechless, 1,342 QI Facts to Leave You Flabbergasted, 1,423 QI Facts to Bowl YouOver and now this one, 2,024 QI Facts to Stop You in Your Tracks. Add them all together and it comes to a nice round 10,000 facts. In ancient Chinese philosophy, the number 10,000 is used to mean the infinite multiplicity of all forms and beings in existence. While we certainly dont think weve got that far, we believe we can reasonably stake a claim to having assembled the largest collection of interesting one-line facts in the history of the human race.

If you learn each one off by heart, having also read all the background information that can be found by using the Operating Instructions that follow, there is a 99.99% chance that you will become the best-educated and most interesting person you know. Yes, you too can appear to be a genius in just three months, for less than the price of a taxi ride from Piccadilly Circus to Heathrow airport. Start by reading this book, and have fun. Or hail away. You decide. JOHN LLOYD, JAMES HARKIN & ANNE MILLER

Never check an interesting fact.

HOWARD HUGHES (190576) In his day, Howard Hughes was one of the richest people in the world, so his advice is not to be sniffed at. If you agree with him, theres no need to read on. Most of the facts in this book are surprising, and a fair few are scarcely credible. If you doubt anything you see, heres what to do. Go online to: qi.com/2024 In the search box, enter the page number of the fact you want to check. This will reveal our source for each piece of information on the page, like this:

Click on the appropriate link to get all the background details on the fact.

You can read the whole of this book in a couple of hours, but the extra reading provided by the source finder should keep you busy for weeks. This is not just a big book; its also a little window opening onto the universe.

Nobody knows who named the Earth. Zero does not exist in nature. Without zero, modern electronics wouldnt exist.

---

Time is the most used noun in the English language.

---

Time is the most used noun in the English language.

The present moment is the most disorganised the universe has ever been. People who have had their frown lines removed with Botox find it harder to read difficult sentences. An altered state of consciousness can be achieved by staring into someones eyes for 10 minutes.

---

According to its CEO, Apple, Inc. is a conscious being. A glass of Calvados contains seven apples.

There is enough room in the human memory for 300 years of television. Loganamnosis is an obsessive searching for a forgotten word.

---

The word for the inside of the elbow is chelidon. People who dont have a tissue should sneeze into their chelidon, not their hand. A handshake begins and ends every game of curling.

---

All Olympic curling stones come from one uninhabited island 10 miles from Glasgow.

---

All Olympic curling stones come from one uninhabited island 10 miles from Glasgow.

In 2017, Glasgow was voted the most dangerous and also the friendliest city in Scotland. Eyebrows evolved to make humans look friendly to one another. In the 10 seasons of Friends, the six main characters drink 1,154 cups of coffee.

---