QI

Sandi Toksvig offers quite interesting facts about thrills and spills with Nish Kumar, Mark Steel, Suzi Ruffell, and series regular Alan Davies.

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- The most thrilling part of a theme park is when you are strapped into the roller-coasters, before it starts. The thrill of anticipation is the highpoint. Prof. Brendan Walker of Middlesex University, the world's only thrill engineer, has done studies of people's responses to big dips on roller-coasters. The level of excitement on the ride is only about 80% of the peak that you hit when you put the seatbelt on. Walker measures this by looking for levels of arousal and pleasure. He worked out that the calorific value expended on a roller-coaster ride is equivalent to a single chip shop chip.

- Tangent: Alan asks Sandi if she has ever been on The Big One in Blackpool. About 20 years ago Alan was filming in Manchester, and he tried to get some of local film crew to go on the ride with him, but no-one would come, which should have told him something. Alan says the experience was absolutely terrifying. When he was on it, a kid next to him, who had been on it lots of times, told him when to smile, and a camera went off and took their picture while they were on the ride. Thus Alan has a key ring of himself on the ride.

- XL Tangent: When Mark's daughter was about eight, he thought he had to do a ride with her, so they went on the teacups. As it started she grabbed Mark's arm and said: "Don't worry, Dad, I can see you're scared." She was right. Alan went on a ride in the USA where you hand upside-down and when you walk underneath it, it makes a terrific noise. Above you is a net, which contains all the hats, sunglasses, wallets etc. of the riders as all these things have fallen from them when they were upside down. Mark also once met the Mayor of Stockport, who was a roller-coaster addict, who was part of a group of "coasterheads" who were allowed to go on rides early.

- Tangent The Oblivion ride at Alton Towers uses a wide car, stops at the edge of a drop, tips you forward so you hang over a hole, and then drops you down. There is also a cafe nearby, so if you are eating there, about every three minutes you hear a constant scream of plummeting people.

- Tangent: Sandi took her children to Disney Land, and her then four-year-old daughter met Pluto, who was played by a 6ft tall man, and there is a mesh where you can see the man's face. Pluto talked to Sandi's daughter, she patted him, and as he left, Sandi's daughter said that Pluto was not a real dog because he didn't have a wet nose. When Suzi was at school, it was the heyday of Mr. Blobby, one of her friends had a little brother, and for his birthday his dad dressed up as Mr. Blobby, who wore a mesh guard, but it was in the costume's mouth, so when the boy saw him he shouted: "Blobby's eaten Dad!"

- Tangent: It would be good to go on a ride with a lot of jerks, because "jerks" is the technical term for sudden changes of acceleration that make roller-coasters more exciting.

- Tangent: Mark was once on a ghost train that broke down, so he had to get out and walk through the tunnels, which was not as exciting. Suzi once went on a ghost walk with her dad, which featured pictures of famous serial killers around this "haunted house". When they got to one of a man wearing the mask from the film Scream, it flinched, it wasn't a picture, and the man climbed out of the picture frame. Suzi's dad was so scared that he ran, kicked open the emergency exit, and she later found him in the gift shop.

- A really dangerous trumpet is a flower called the angel's trumpet. Native to Central and South America, the Poison Garden in Alnwick, Northumberland describes the flow as, "an amazing aphrodisiac, before it kills you." There were Victorian women who kept angel's trumpets, and would put little bits of pollen into their tea to induce a sort of LSD kind of trip. Those who died possibly first succumbed to sexual excitement, then restlessness, overtalkativeness, aggressive behaviour, convulsive sobbing, psychosis and intense dream experiences. One young man amputated his own tongue and penis after drinking just one cup of this tea.

- XL Tangent: At Mark's primary school, a boy did a fart in the playground, and it was so bad everyone else had to go to the other side to avoid the smell. When Nish was once at home with his parents, he let out a "silent-but-deadly" fart. His dad then got out the Yellow Pages because he thought they needed a plumber, mistaking Nish's fart for a burst pipe. The unit of measurement for smell is an olf, which comes from "olfactus", meaning "smell".

- Tangent: When Mark visited the Poison Garden it there is a officious woman who acts as a guide, who told Mark: "Right. Now, assemble here. Whatever you do, don't do anything unless I tell you to do it, because if you touch something and it's poisonous, then you'll end up dead and it will jolly well be your own fault, OK?"

- XL Tangent: Blister beetles, which can be found on the shores of Essex and Devon, have a defensive secretion which since ancient times has been used as an aphrodisiac. However, in tiny concentrations it is also toxic. This is also known as "Spanish fly". The reputation for being an aphrodisiac most likely comes from the fact it irritates your urethra when you pee. This draws blood into the area and causes an erection just before you die. As Nish says: "So, you literally die hard."

- XL: The toxic thrill you can get from toads is a hallucinogenic trip if you lick them. People who have licked the back of Colorado River toads talk about a total fusion with God. Purists however recommend that you milk the toad's glands, dry the venom and then smoke it. The best way to stimulate the toad to get the venom is to stroke it under the chin.

- It is a good idea to make a pensioner walk the tightrope as it can help diagnose early muscle degradation. Tightrope walking involves much more muscle control, coordination and strength than walking on solid ground, so it can reveal potential issues that ordinary walking cannot. Obviously, you don't do it very right up. One of things also used is a force plate, which has a similar sort of effect. One of the best things you can do to ward off dementia is to work on your balance., so people recommend brushing your teeth while standing on one leg.

- XL Tangent: Charles Blondin was one of the greatest tightrope walkers in history - or "funambulist" to use the technical term. He crossed the Niagara Falls via tightrope about 300 times, doing different gimmicks every time. These included cooking an omelette, then eating it while drinking champagne, while sitting at table, which was also balancing. Another time he walked across while carrying his manager. He also somersaulted and crossed blindfolded.

- Tangent: In the village of Tosvkra, Dagestan, every able-bodied person in this village can walk the tightrope. It dates back about a century, but nobody is totally sure how it began. It is rumoured that it was used as a shortcut so that villagers could go and court potential lovers on the other side of a ravine. All the children in the village study tightrope walking at school.

- XL: Santa Claus can help you get rid of your partner by poisoning them. In the 17th and 18th century, a product was sold called Manna de San Nicola, which was reportedly healing oil from the sweat of St. Nicholas's bones. In reality, it was actually a very slow-acting poison called Aqua Tofana. It is believed that one Sicilian woman, Thofania di Adamo (died 1633), who sold it discretely to women who wanted to kill their husbands. It was observed that many young married women became widows, and many of the husbands were known to be disagreeable to their wives. Warnings were issued to tell people how to spot the symptoms. An 1814 cartoon depicting such a crime came with a caption reading: "When the old fool has drunk his wine and gone to rest, I will be thine." If you used Aqua Tofana and there was a post-mortem, it was reportedly undetectable. The theory is that when Thofania was caught, her daughter went on to become the poisoner, and moved operations to Rome. Finally, a sting operation was carried out, and a Roman noblewoman befriended the gang, claiming she wanted some of the poison and got the gang arrested. Mozart is rumoured to have died from poisoning by Aqua Tofana, as there was a lot of arsenic (one of the key ingredients) on the manuscript of "The Magic Flute", the opera he was working on towards the end of his life.

- The panellists are all given loo-roll holders and are asked whether you should hang the paper over or under the holder. The answer is that both method have their merits. Toilet-roll holders were invented by American engineer Seth Wheeler in 1891, and in his patent the paper is show hanging away from the wall. If the paper hangs from the front it is easier to grab, but if it hangs from the back it prevents you from accidentally unravelling the roll. There is a device invented in 1999 called the "Tilt-A-Roll" which allows you to hand the paper over, under, or vertically.

- XL Tangent: Before toilet paper was invented, the Americans used corn cobs, sheep wool, newspapers and catalogues. The Farmers' Almanac was published for years with a hole in it so people could put a string on it and use it as toilet paper after they had finished reading it. 70% of the world's population do not use toilet paper, and are disgusted by the fact that people in the west use it. There are many online forums with people outside of the west complaining about people from the UK and US not washing their backsides with water, and just wipe.

- Tangent: Alan has a bidet, which visitors to his house claim is posh, as if washing his arse is an act of social climbing, leading to Nish to describe Alan as "Jonathan Crack". There are Japanese toilets that wash your arse, which Nish describes as the greatest thing that has ever happened to him.

- XL Tangent: Archaeologists have discovered 2,000-year-old sticks covered in cloth in a latrine pit of an old rest stop on the Silk Road that were used as toilet paper. We know this to be true because they contain the eggs of parasites that lived over 1,000 miles away. This means that disease was travelled along the Silk Road.

- The thing you can do with 20 tonnes of unwanted hair trimmings is clean up oil spills. A hairstylist in Alabama named Phil McCrory was watching the news concerning the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, and he noticed how difficult it was for volunteers to clean the fur of otters that were matted with oil. He thought that if animal fur can trap oil, perhaps human hair can do the same. He experimented by pouring motor oil into his son's paddling pool, stuffing his salon's hair trimmings into his wife's stockings. This method is now used today, using nylon tights and cable ties, to clean up oil spills. It also a good way to recycle hair cuttings. Until 2021, when 550 salons in the UK and Ireland signed up to donate spare hair to oil spills, 99% of the cuttings went into landfill.

- Hair is so good at taking up the oil because it is very adsorbent. Rather than sucking in oil, it sits on top and covers the entire surface area of the hair. The charity Matter Of Trust co-ordinate donations of hair and wool from salons, pet groomers and farmers, but they specifically ask only for head hair. (Forfeit: Absorbent)

- XL Tangent: Phillip Island near Melbourne, which is home to a large penguin population, gives woolly jumpers to penguins affected by oil spills. In 2014, the charity organising this put a call out for penguin-sized jumpers to be donated. They got so many they had to put out another message asking people to stop donating. Surplus jumpers are put on toy penguins in the island's gift shop.

- The panellists dip their fingers into glasses of water, and are asked if it feels wet to them. The truth is that humans cannot feel wetness. If you think you are detecting wetness on your skin, what you are actually feeling is a change in temperature and texture. Other animals such as spiders and insects have hydro receptors which can feel wetness. What we feel is a perceptual illusion. For example, if you take in laundry on a chilly evening and what you are holding is still damp, it is actually just cold to you. (Forfeit: Yes)

- Tangent: Some skin receptors are triggered by menthol, which gives you an illusion of coldness, which you might experience when drinking cold water after brushing your teeth.

- You can make a trapeze more terrifying by doing it from hot air balloons. At the turn of the 20th century, there were stunt performers who combined ballooning, trapezing and parachuting into a single act. The performers did acrobatics on a trapeze attached to a parachute, hanging from a hot air balloon thousands of feet in the air. The performer was then cut loose from the balloon, still on the trapeze, with the parachute attached, and hopefully the parachute would open as they came back down to Earth. Not surprisingly, fatalities were common.

- Tangent: Dolly Shepherd was a performer who carried out a double jump in 1908 when her partner Louie May's parachute failed to open. She was hanging from a trapeze at 11,000 feet, so she swung over to her friend's trapeze, grabbed it, got Louie to wrap her legs around her, and they both descended on Dolly's parachute. The heavy landing paralysed Dolly, with people saying she would never walk again, but she was back skydiving four months later. During one jump, she nearly landed on an express train, but the driver puffed the steam on his engine, so she was safely blown into a ditch. She lived to the age of 96, dying in 1983, and flew with the Red Devils Parachute Troop to celebrate her 90th birthday.

General Ignorance

- XL: The substance that you often find in a bar which you should use to sterilise an open wound is soap. On an open wound, alcohol would sting awfully, causes tissue damage and dries out the area which can slow the healing process. Rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide is used in medical settings, but always on unbroken skin. (Forfeit: Vodka)

- The Germans call the big mugs they drink out of a Humpen or Krug. "Stein" means stone, which is the ceramic ware the mugs are made out of, but a Humpen or Krug is made out of all sorts of materials. (Forfeit: Stein)

- XL: The country which produces the most Humpen/Krug is Brazil. (Forfeit: China, Britain, Germany)

- Snowboarding was invented in Turkey. In the village of Mesekoy, in the Kachar Mountains. Formerly known as Petran, the story goes that there was a boy who was given the job of cleaning his father's prayer mat, and he realised that if you placed the mat on a snowy slope, he could glide. The hobby took off in the village. The Petran board has a string on the front to help with steering and balance, and they would moult the wood using steam from a kettle. Then they put cow fat on the bottom. The one problem is this form of snowboarding is dying out as it is not seen as cool.

- Almond milk first became popular in the 12th century. Some food historians say almond milk was the single most important ingredient in medieval European cookery. One reason for almond milk is because cow's milk was often unappetising, as this was before the invention of pasteurisation. You could pull strings of bacteria and clumps of earth from your glass, and you could not eat animal products on various fast days. Almonds are the world's oldest domesticated tree. It is believed humans started cultivating them to eat in around 9000 BC. Wild almonds however are bitter and toxic, containing enough cyanide to kill a child.

[i]- Tangent: Cyanide is in apple pips. When Mark visited the Poison Garden, the guide asked people how many pips would be needed to give someone enough cyanide to kill then. A women who was part of the tour group correctly said 50. When asked how she knew, the woman said: "Well, I tried 49 on me husband and it didn't quite work."

Scores

- Mark Steel: -2 points
- Suzi Ruffell: -5 points
- Nish Kumar: -15 points
- Alan Davies: -17 points