Qi how many commandments

The thing you would say is, "Eureka! Archimedes famously shouted this when he discovered that as he went in the bath, the water spilled out, thus resulting in him discovering that you can tell the density of a substance by putting it in a bath full of water and seeing how much water flowed out. Archimedes put the tiara in the bath and showed that the crown was not made of pure gold because it was not as dense as it should have been.

The statements include, "You tend to be too critical of yourself", "You have considerable un-used capacity that you have not yet turned to your advantage," and "At times you have serious doubts about whether you have made the right decision or the right thing. He is using what are known as "Barnum statements" or "Cold reading" - these statements are used by fake psychics and mediums.

Other examples of Barnum statements include "Rainbow statements" which cover so many people they can be used to describe anyone, such as, "You have a very generous and giving nature, although if you are honest about it there are times in which you have acted in a very selfish way.

These questions are also known as "Forer questions", named after the psychologist Bertram R. He got his students to fill out a questionnaire with these kind of questions, and all of the papers were identical. The 4,year-old practice really does involve swallowing swords. You can swallow a sword 40cm long without noticing any physical difference, according to the Society of Sword Swallowers. The most common medical complaint from sword swallowers is sore throats.

He also jokingly claims that if you pull the tail of a Pekinese dog, its eyes pop out. This mythical being, that was half sheep and half plant, was used to explain how cotton was spread in the 16th century. Marcus jokes that a "Tartary" is a brothel. McCulloch brought it as a tourist attraction for his new settlement at Lake Havasu. It was the third biggest tourist attraction in America. Forfeit: He thought he was buying Tower Bridge. There were several shops and entertainments on the bridge, so it was quicker to take a boat across the river than crossing the bridge.

In the USA, 19th Century dairy lobbies, in particular the powerful ones in states like New Hampshire demanded that margarine should not be coloured yellow and, in some places, managed to insist it should be coloured red to put people off buying it.

Forfeit: Margarine. In the list of commandments that were given to Moses, there were 14 different commandments, as listed in the books of Exodus in particular Chapter 20 and Deuteronomy. Other commandments are listed throughout Exodus.

Less well known commandments include, "You shall not suffer a witch to live", "You shall never vex a stranger" and "Whosoever lies with a beast shall be surely put to death". Forfeit: 10; 9; 8. The French do not want them because they forbid adultery, the Germans do not want them because they forbid killing, and the Italians do not want them because they forbid stealing. When the angel goes to Jews, the people ask how much the commandments are.

When the angel says they are free, the Jews take ten. Naturally flipped, coins obey the laws of mechanics and are determined by their initial conditions. What do you get if you cross Stephen Fry with a mystery Scots conman?

That is what the QI presenter is offering if you can prove him wrong about a so-called Glasgow con-artist featured on his show. Viewscreens : Charming picture of a pig's face. Sean As well… she wasn't really a lady, she was a pig. Jimmy [ looking at viewscreen ] Yeah, if that's her, that is a pig. Stephen No no no. There was a very famous… in fact, there were a number of famous pig-faced ladies in the nineteenth century. Alan Might be a curiosity in a tent, and have….

Stephen Thank you, that's it. Say that again so that the ladies and gentlemen can hear. Alan My favourite sort of curiosity. A tented curiosity. Stephen A tented curio… it was a big draw in the nineteenth century for people to go, pay money to see the pig-faced lady. Sean The thing, obviously, about those freak shows is, rather than pay to go into the tent, why don't you just wait for them to finish work and they go down the shops? Marcus You don't get all the build-up, though, do you?

It's not the same thing. Jimmy Was it, was it a bearded lady that they shaved? Stephen No, not a monkey, monkeys would have to be huge, it'd have to be a gorilla. Stephen No, a pig would be too small to be convincing as a woman.

Sean You're thinking about little pigs in cartoons. Stephen Yeah but they're not going to stand up on two legs, though, and… look like a human. Sean You put a dress on most things, they can pull it off. Stephen They would get a bear drunk, shave the bear's face…. Jimmy Get a bear drunk? And shave it? They've got this show backwards, that's what you want to see! I don't care about a pig-faced woman, I want to see a man trying to shave a bear! Viewscreens : Beatrix Potter-style illustration of a pig in a dress.

Jimmy 'There! Have another drink, I'm not going to do anything to ya! Sean [ points to viewscreen ] And then, then they stick his arm in a beehive.

Marcus When they got them drunk, was this, like, paraletic, so it would then pass out and they'd shave it, or drunk enough to persuade it that this… would work? Stephen One or the other. Drunk enough for it not to wipe your face off with it… one swipe of it's claw. Jimmy With it's claw. Alan [ impersonates a punch-drunk boxer receiving a hot towel ] I got it.

God, what've I got? It's a bootiful life I got. Alan Water softens beard bristle up better than shaving foam. Sean …like it's, it's stopping bullets hitting your face. Stephen They have, of course, bearded ladies you've mentioned, there's been a long tradition of those. There was one rather sweet story of a bearded lady who fell in love with a contortionist in the, erm…. Jimmy This sounds like an old joke, doesn't it?

Stephen I know, it really does sound like a joke, but it wasn't a joke…. Stephen He wouldn't marry her because he couldn't really face the idea, every morning, of staring at a bearded woman, but also if she shaved they couldn't get married because they wouldn't have enough income, because her income came from the fact that she was a very successful bearded lady, and er….

Jimmy So he shaved a bear and married that? Stephen No, some else suggested that she shave and cover herself in tattoos and she became the first tattooed lady and they married and lived very happily ever after.

Sean But if he was a contortionist, they could've had sex and he could be in a different room. Stephen That's, indeed, the nature of exactly that. Samuel Gumpertz was considered the king of the freak show people at Coney Island , he had a show that included Ursa, the bear girl, Bonita…. She just looks like a bear. If anything, I'm turned off. Sean Salamanders can go in fire, can't they? Stephen Yes, that was the legend, presumably that's what happened. Marcus How long can a salamander go in fire?

Stephen Well there you have it anyway, the pig-faced lady was neither pig-faced nor a lady, she was in fact a drunken bear with a shaven head. Marcus Did he put a creepy black-and-white cardboard cutout of himself in the middle of the place? Stephen Guy de Maupassant, nineteenth century French writer, like many French writers… a surprising number of French writers and artists in the nineteenth century objected to something new that hit Paris in ….

Stephen … the Eiffel Tower , they absolutely loathed it, Guy de Maupassant loathed it so much, his favourite restaurant was…. Alan Oh, so he didn't have to look at it. The Jules Verne restaurant. Stephen So, exactly, it was the one place in Paris where he couldn't see the Eiffel Tower , was inside the Eiffel Tower. Marcus Could he not just ask for, perhaps, a chair facing the other way?

Stephen But he was a French writer trying to make a point and therefore a git. Stephen You are on fire, you are a salamander. He did indeed sell it, congratulations, many points! Alan [ mimes the awkward gait of a salamander ]. Jimmy [ to Alan ] That's quite a good salamander. Stephen Actually in this case it was scrap metal dealers. He claimed that he had the single right given to him by the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphy to the sale and he could personally decide who would get the scrap metal rights and he told this to two scrap metal dealers, and they both realised that as he was a French official he could be bribed, and so they paid him a large bribe for the rights to it.

He told them that it was going to be pulled down and that he had the rights to dispose of the structure. Jimmy It was never a permanent thing, was it, they put it up for, like, a couple of years….

Stephen It wasn't, exactly, so it was a pretty convincing con. Come on, if you want to go faster, you gotta scream louder'. You've moved on'. Alan Do you think they try lots and lots of people and eventually someone bites? It's just brilliant. Stephen He sold the White House to an American… er…. Stephen He then tried to sell the Statue of Liberty to an Australian and that's where it fell down. But, er, he went…. Alan [ Australian accent ] Ah now, come on mate….

Alan [ Australian accent ] How am I gonna get it home? Where's the guarantee? And they paid one million pounds as a sort of down payment on the Ritz. Stephen Now, you are the detective for these questions coming up. Er, we all think we can spot a con, tell me how you would have dealt with these situations…. You become suspicious of three buxom young women who are coming out of the telephone exchange, carrying heavy suitcases and jangling.

Where is the jangling coming from, is it coming from a the telephone exchange, b the suitcases, or c their bosoms? Stephen Right, and we're in Miami in This was a very well-known scandal at the time. These women were…. Stephen … responsible for the money that got collected from the phone boxes and their job was to put the money into these counting machines, and they worked out that, er, as long as they stole the money before it went into the counting machines, the phone company had no idea of how much money there was.

So they would take money and put it…. Stephen … in their breasts and then put it into the counting machine. Once it's in the counting machine, it's accounted for, but over a number of years, no-one quite knows how much they got away with, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars, in their breasts.

Viewscreens : Monochrome photo of a woman with piles of change stuffed into her bodice. Stephen And eventually they got found out, though… there we have a picture Jimmy Looks like she's gone to a really bad strip club. That'll do ya, might be cold, sorry about that'. That's what…. Stephen That was a headline. It was a huge story…. Stephen Yes it would be, I'm afraid it would be exactly that. Stephen You seem to know their ways very well.

I'm impressed. Alan I liked it when Saddam Hussein was found in a hole, that was one of my personal favourite ones. I laughed for hours. Sean It's not real, it's your imagination. I'm just doing that [ repeats mime ]. Stephen I can, oddly enough, but unfortunately my nipples are going in the wrong direction, they're dropping an inch a year, it's terrible.

However, I have…. Sean Can you get a pencil underneath them? Stephen I can get Colin Montgomerie under them. Jimmy [ laughs ] He must've been livid about that. Stephen No no, there are people who believe, there are people who insist on believing that it is sort of fakesome but it is genuine. People do…. Sean What if, when it comes out, it's got a bit of meat on the end?

Jimmy I think the, the actual secret of doing it is to do it really quick and if it gets caught on anything, just jab it. Stephen What do you think the most common complaint is when they go and see doctors?

Stephen It's a sore throat. Pretty obviously, but they genuinely do suffer from sore throats. Erm, and they pop it down, and there's a limit, 61 centimetres, any longer than 61 centimetres you could gravely injure yourself but anything less than 40 centimetres and you are not recognised as a sword swallower by the association of sword swallowers. Marcus What if you're short? I mean, surely height…. Stephen You'd think, but unfortunately the society of sword swallowers has laid down 40 centimetres….

Jimmy Yeah because if you're a midget you're going to stab yourself through the arse. Alan [ mimes swallowing a sword, using the stick handle of his face mask as a prop ] I mean, how do you not just gag immediately?

Stephen That's, that's the point, if there's a trick to it, not a trick to it but the secret of it is you have to learn how to overcome your gag reflex, it's the first…. Sean That's a very horrible, hard thing to do, I have that with the… that's why I can't wear contact lenses because I actually gag when I touch my eye. Jimmy [ mimes swallowing a contact lens ]. Sean You know, if you pull a Pekinese's tail it's eyes pop out, you know that? Jimmy That's the rest of my week sorted, I'm buying a Pekinese.

Sean It's like that… I touch my eye and actually go [ gags ] brrrrrrgh. It's a four thousand year old art, it seems, sword swallowing, it's not a trick at all, it's a real skill, that's the point. And so we reach the toast of conmen, fraudsters and swindlers everywhere, General Ignorance.

What's New London Bridge doing in Arizona? Alan [ presses buzzer, which plays the sound of a ringing phone ] [ slowly, sensing forfeit ] it was bought as a tourist attraction and, er, it's the third most popular tourist attraction in America.

Sean And it acts as a dry way of getting across some water. Alan Nothing's… nothing's gone off, what's the…. Stephen No, sometimes the obvious answer is the truth. Jimmy Is it true that they thought they were buying Tower Bridge? Search Forums. Post new topic. View posts since last visit. View your posts. View unanswered posts.

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