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QI

QI (Quite Interesting) is a British comedy panel game quiz show for television created and co-produced by John Lloyd. The series currently airs on BBC Two and is presented by Sandi Toksvig. It features permanent panellist Alan Davies and three guest panellists per episode; the panellists are mostly comedians. The series was presented by Stephen Fry from its beginning in 2003 until 2016.

The format of the show focuses on the panellists answering questions that are extremely obscure, making it unlikely that the correct answer will be given. To compensate, the panellists are awarded points not only for the correct answer, but also for interesting ones, regardless of whether they are correct or even relate to the original question, while points are deducted for "answers which are not only wrong, but pathetically obvious" – typically answers that are generally believed to be true but in fact are misconceptions. These answers, referred to as "forfeits", are usually indicated by a loud klaxon and alarm bell, flashing lights, and the incorrect answer being flashed on the video screens behind the panellists. Bonus points are sometimes awarded or deducted for challenges or incorrect references, varying from show to show. QI has a philosophy that "everything is interesting if looked at in the right way". Many factual errors in the show have been corrected in later episodes or on the show's blog.

For its first five series shown between 2003 and 2007, episodes premiered on BBC Four before receiving their first analogue airing on BBC Two a week later. From 2008 to 2011, the show was moved to BBC One, with an extended-length edition of each episode often broadcast on BBC Two a day or two after the regular show's broadcast under the title of QI XL. Series G and H saw the regular show broadcast in a pre-watershed slot with the extended edition remaining within a post-watershed slot. Beginning with the I series, the regular show returned to a post-watershed slot on BBC Two. Syndicated episodes of previous series are regularly shown on Dave. In November 2020 a new compilation series titled QI XS started, with a run-time of 14 minutes per episode. A second series of XS, with an 8-minute running time, started in February 2023. Series of QI are assigned letters in sequence and episodes are themed around topics starting with that letter.

The show has received very positive ratings from critics and has been nominated for multiple awards; QI itself has the highest viewing figures for any show broadcast on BBC Two and Dave. Several books, DVDs and other tie-ins to the show have been released, and international versions of QI have been made in other countries.

Format and concept

The panel consists of four participants: three rotating guests and one regular, Alan Davies, who has the seat to the immediate right of the host. Davies has appeared in every episode, although in "Divination" he was not able to appear at the studio but was still able to play "from beyond". Despite frequent wins, Davies often finishes last due to incurring forfeits.

Questions posed to the panellists are often misleading, obscure, or very difficult. Providing an "obvious but wrong" answer (referred to as a "forfeit") results in a sequence of klaxons, alarm bells, flashing lights, and a score penalty. Davies is often the panellist who gives these answers. In the first two series, Fry produced the given answer on a card to show the panellists, while it also flashed on the large screens behind them (except in the pilot episode and the first show of the first series, when only the cards were used). In the third series and onward, Fry's answer cards were dispensed with altogether, leaving only the screens as proof that such answers had been predicted.

Because the show's creators expected that hardly anyone would be able to give a correct answer without significant prompting, they instead encourage sheer "interestingness", which is how points are mainly scored. As such, tangential discussions are encouraged, and panellists are apt to branch off into frivolous conversations, give voice to trains of thought, and share humorous anecdotes from their own lives. The number of points given and taken away are normally decided by the host or beforehand by QI researchers known as "The QI Elves". For example, in one episode Davies was docked 10 points for suggesting "oxygen" to the question "What is the main ingredient of air?"

Negative scores are common, and occasionally even the victor's score may be negative. Score totals are announced at the conclusion of the show. Fry has said, "I think we all agree that nobody in this universe understands QI's scoring system." John Lloyd, QI's creator, has, on one occasion, admitted that not even he has any idea how the scoring system works, but there is someone who is paid to check on the scores. According to the Series A DVD, guests are allowed the right of appeal if they believe their score is wrong, but none has so far exercised that right.

Buzzers
Panellists are given buzzers to use in signalling a response, each of which produces a different sound when pressed. For the first three series, the sounds were seemingly random things or followed an arbitrary theme in each episode, such as commonly heard everyday sounds in the Series C episode "Common Knowledge." From Series D onward, all four sounds are based on the particular episode's theme, such as in the Series F episode "Films and Fame" (sound clips associated with well-known movies, with Davies receiving Porky Pig's stuttering "That's all, folks!"). The buzzers are always demonstrated at the beginning of the programme, but are usually given a shortened version for repeated use during the episode, mostly in General Ignorance. Davies "always gets the most demeaning sound" for his buzzer.

Sometimes, the buzzers have unique points to them, such as having questions based on them; in most cases they are about Davies' own. For example, one of his buzzer noises in the Series D episode "Descendants" sounded like a Clanger, and the panel had to try and guess what was being said, while in the Series F episode "Fakes and Frauds", all the buzzers sounded like ordinary household objects, but three turned out to be the sound of the superb lyrebird mimicking the noises. In other episodes, they were sometimes changed to suit the theme of an episode; for the Series D episode "Denial and Deprivation", the panellists had to use unique buzzers – two had bells, one flicked a ruler over the edge of a school desk, and Davies squeezed a toy chipmunk – while in the Series G episode "Green", the buzzers were replaced with whistles so the show could be seen to be eco-friendly. On one occasion, points were automatically deducted from Davies' score solely because the buzzer did not match the theme of the episode, or activated the Klaxon.

General Ignorance
In a parody of ubiquitous general knowledge quizzes, the final round is off-topic and called "General Ignorance". It focuses on seemingly easy questions which have widely believed but wrong answers. Whereas in the main rounds of the show, the panellists' buzzer usage is not usually enforced, the "General Ignorance" questions are introduced by the host's reminder to keep "fingers on buzzers". "General Ignorance" was featured in every episode until the I (ninth) series, but featured only occasionally in the J (tenth) and K (eleventh) series before appearing regularly again in the L (twelfth) series. Due to the large number of "obvious but wrong" answers, panellists—especially Davies—usually incur the greatest point losses in this round.

Tasks and themes
In a number of episodes, either the set, the panellists' clothing, the opening theme, or a mixture of all, are changed to match the episode's theme. For example, in "Denial and Deprivation", the set was replaced with an auctioneer stand for Fry and school desks or side tables for the panellists, and the lighting was stripped down; while in "Health and Safety", the panellists wore hard hats, safety glasses, and bright yellow work vests and Fry wore a doctor's white coat and stethoscope.

In some episodes, an extra task is given to the panellists to complete during the course of an episode, which can earn them extra points. Such tasks have included a drawing contest, or spotting an item on the video screens and waving a "joker" card (e.g. Cuttlefish.) Several series have had a recurring task spanning every episode, often involving the use of a joker card to respond to a question whose answer fit a specified theme. Examples include "The Elephant in the Room" (series E, elephants), "Nobody Knows" (Series I, for questions without a known answer) and "Spend a Penny" (Series L, lavatories).

In addition to assigning tasks, Fry performed scientific experiments or demonstrations during certain episodes. He often did so once an episode in the J, K and L series, where they were called "Jolly Japes", "Knick-Knakes" and "Lab Larks", respectively, and usually occurred towards the end of the episode. Such experiments either used simple objects, various chemical compounds, odd contraptions, or a mixture of all. If an experiment's outcome was too fast to be seen, a short "replay" of it was shown, (sometimes with multiple angles) to reveal precisely what happened.

Production

Writer and former BBC producer John Lloyd devised the format of the show, and it is produced by Quite Interesting Limited, an organisation set up by Lloyd. QI was originally seen as being an "Annotated Encyclopædia Britannica ... the world's first non-boring encyclopaedia." As a panel game, it was conceived as a radio show, with Lloyd as chairman. While developing the show with Peter Fincham and Alan Yentob, Lloyd decided that it would work better on television. The three pitched it to Lorraine Heggessey, controller of BBC One at the time. Heggessey passed on the format, opting to commission a similar panel game called Class War, which was never made. When Fincham became controller of BBC One, Lloyd pitched it to him, only to be turned down by his former collaborator. Eventually, he pitched it to Jane Root, then controller of BBC Two, who agreed to develop it. When it was decided that the show would air on television, Michael Palin was offered the job of chairman with Fry and Davies as captains of the "cleverclogs" and "dunderheads" teams, respectively. However, when Palin decided not to take the job, the producers opted to change the format; Fry became the host, with Davies as the only regular panellist. Root commissioned a pilot and a further 16 episodes after that, although budget limitations reduced the first series to 12 episodes.

In October 2015, it was announced that Fry would be stepping down as host after Series M and would be replaced by Sandi Toksvig. Fry described his position on QI as "one of the best jobs on television", but that "it was time to move on". According to Alan Davies, Fry quit because the BBC cut the budget, so that three shows had to be recorded on the same day. "For budget reasons, they ended up making him do three shows in 24 hours", Davies said. Toksvig said that "QI is my favourite television programme both to watch and to be on". Lloyd said that Toksvig will be "the first female host of a mainstream comedy panel show on British television", and that although she is very different from Fry, she "will bring to the show the same kind of wonderful thing that Stephen does, the mixture of real brains and a hinterland of knowledge, plus this naughty sense of humour." He also said it will give the show a chance to "do things in a slightly different way".

Recording

Recordings usually take place over a few weeks in May or June; three episodes are typically filmed per week and sixteen are filmed for each series. Series A–P were filmed at The London Studios, with Series Q onwards being filmed at Television Centre.

In the morning on the day of recording, the studio has to be set up. Seven cameras are used to record QI. To check that images, forfeits, buzzers and lighting are working, the first technical rehearsal is hosted by floor manager Guy Smart with stand-ins for panellists. Fry, who was given the list of questions roughly an hour beforehand, hosted the second technical rehearsal at 2:00 pm. Guests may have time to practise with a set of warm-up questions.

For earlier series, warm-up comedians were used before recording began, frequently Stephen Grant, credited as the "audience wrangler". However, there have been no warm-ups for recent series. Fry recorded and tweeted audience AudioBooms and introduced the guests before the show. Recordings start at either 4:30 pm or 7:30 pm and last up to two hours, although only 30 minutes of footage is used for normal episodes and 45 minutes for "XL" episodes. By 10:00 pm, recording has usually finished and the set has been disassembled. Roughly 16 questions are asked and about half of those make it into the show; about 20% of material researched is used in a QI episode, while other facts may appear in the XL versions, a QI book, on QI's Twitter feed or on their website.

In March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, two episodes of series R were filmed without an audience, due to social distancing requirements. Further series R episodes were recorded with a virtual audience via Zoom.

Questions seen beforehand
The makers of the show insist that the answers are not given to the panellists beforehand. The host is given a list of questions about an hour before the show, for preparatory purposes, but the guests are forbidden to ask for preparatory materials or other help. Alan Davies never does any preparation.

In a 2010 interview with the Radio Times regarding the current state of the BBC, Fry revealed that one of the regular panellists insists on seeing the questions before they appear in the show. "There's only one regular guest who always insists on seeing the questions beforehand and prepares for them. I won't tell you his or her name," he said. "It really annoys me. In fact, one day, I'll make sure that person is given a list from another programme because they don't need them."

Following this comment, people asked Fry to identify the guest and some posted their own speculations. Fry later posted on his Twitter account that it was neither Davies nor Rob Brydon. In a 2022 Q&A at the Oxford Union, regular panellist Dara Ó Briain said that the guest in question was someone who had since died, but was not Sean Lock.

Research
The research for the show is mostly carried out by seven people called the "QI Elves", a team which has included Justin Pollard, Vitali Vitaliev, Molly Oldfield (daughter of Mike Oldfield), Stevyn Colgan and Jenny Ryan. The "elves" devise the questions for the show, and one is on set during filming who is able to communicate with the host during the show to provide and correct information. Other people involved in researching questions and compiling the scripts are John Mitchinson and Piers Fletcher, known (along with Justin Pollard, Molly Oldfield, and James Harkin) as the Question Wranglers, whose research uses both Encyclopædia Britannica and Wikipedia. The QI website also has a forum.

A QI Elves podcast, No Such Thing as a Fish, began on 8 March 2014. The title is taken from an entry into the Oxford Encyclopedia of Underwater Life (although in the opening theme of the first 41 episodes it is incorrectly referenced as the Oxford 'Dictionary' of Underwater Life), which was used on the show. The audio from the first episode in which they discuss how they found this fact is used as an introduction. Regular elves are Anna Ptaszynski, James Harkin, Dan Schreiber, and Andrew Hunter Murray, with occasional appearances from Alex Bell and Anne Miller. Schreiber is the host of the show. The theme song is "Wasps" from the band Emperor Yes, which is based on a fact about bees which was used on QI. The song is written as an exchange between the bees, as they defend their hive from attacking wasps by swarming the wasp, and using their body heat to kill the wasps by overheating. A TV show entitled No Such Thing as the News aired for two seasons in 2016, following a similar format based around news stories and current events. In 2018, an online behind the scenes series that followed the podcasters on their UK tour was released called 'Behind The Gills'.

Episodes
In QI, every series takes its theme from a different letter of the alphabet, starting with the letter "A". Series are referred to by letter rather than number. The first series started on 11 September 2003, and consisted of topics beginning with "A". The second series consisted of topics beginning with "B" and also saw the first attempts to pay attention to a particular theme throughout one episode, e.g. "Birds" (the over-riding theme did not necessarily begin with "B", although the questions always contained an element that did). The only exceptions to the alphabet system have been the Christmas specials, where the topics are often Christmas-based and do not necessarily correspond to that series' letter (although greater attempts have been made to do so since Series D).

Series D was the first to see all the episodes focus upon a single topic or theme, beginning with the series letter (e.g. Danger), and for each to be given an official title connected to the topic/theme. It also saw Fry modify his introduction of the panellists, by incorporating the theme/topic of the episode, with Davies often getting the "demeaning" introduction. This trend has continued with each subsequent series; episodes from previous series were retroactively given titles. A video podcast (featuring the best moments with some out-takes) was planned to accompany Series E, but this was instead turned into a set of "Quickies" featured on the QI homepage of the BBC's website. As this decision was not reached until after recording, the videos are still referred to as "vodcasts" by whoever is introducing them (usually Fry but occasionally a panellist or even the audience.) The series was ended by a special outtake compilation entitled "Elephants".

Points may be given to (or taken from) the studio audience, and six episodes have the distinction of being won by the audience: "Death", the fifth episode in Series D; "England", the 10th episode in Series E; "Flora & Fauna", the 10th episode in Series F; "Greeks", the 14th episode in Series G; "Next", the 15th episode in Series N; and "Quantity and Quality", the 15th episode in Series Q. The audience's win in "Greeks" was only announced during the XL broadcast as their contribution was cut out of the main broadcast. In contrast, the audience lost the fifth episode of Series E, "Europe", receiving a forfeit of −100 when they incorrectly sang the first stanza of the German national anthem, and the fourth episode of Series Q, “Queasy Quacks”, when they received a forfeit for referring to the first patient in a disease outbreak as Patient Zero. Several others have scored points in certain episodes by making appearances on the set or screens; these have included ASIMO (a humanoid robot) and US President Barack Obama.

A special stand-alone episode was filmed between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m. (GMT) on 6 March 2011 as part of Comic Relief's special 24 Hour Panel People featuring David Walliams, who appeared in various old and new panel game shows throughout a 24-hour period. The shows were streamed live on the Red Nose Day website, and parts of each show were shown during five half-hour specials on Comic Relief. The QI episode featured panellists Sue Perkins, Jo Brand, Russell Tovey and David Walliams. Davies admitted through Twitter that he was asked to host the episode when it was not certain if Fry would be available, but Davies declined. Once Fry confirmed his participation, Davies did not hear back from the production team. Unlike the classic format of the show where most questions follow a subject, this episode was instead an hour-long General Ignorance round.

Guest appearances
As of 30 April 2024, the following have all appeared multiple times as one of the guest panellists on the show. This list does not include the unbroadcast pilot, nor the special editions for the Comic Relief and Sport Relief telethons, nor any live stage editions.

47 appearances
 * Bill Bailey

46 appearances
 * Phill Jupitus

42 appearances
 * Jimmy Carr

41 appearances
 * Jo Brand

33 appearances
 * David Mitchell

27 appearances
 * Sean Lock

25 appearances
 * Rich Hall

19 appearances
 * Ross Noble

18 appearances
 * Jason Manford
 * Josh Widdicombe

17 appearances
 * Aisling Bea

16 appearances
 * Clive Anderson
 * Sandi Toksvig
 * Holly Walsh

15 appearances
 * Rob Brydon
 * Sara Pascoe
 * Sue Perkins

14 appearances
 * Jeremy Clarkson
 * Cariad Lloyd
 * Dara Ó Briain
 * Johnny Vegas

12 appearances
 * Sarah Millican

11 appearances
 * Susan Calman

10 appearances
 * Joe Lycett
 * John Sessions

9 appearances
 * Danny Baker
 * Victoria Coren Mitchell

8 appearances
 * Gyles Brandreth
 * Jack Dee
 * Noel Fielding
 * Nish Kumar
 * Lee Mack

7 appearances
 * Ronni Ancona
 * Andy Hamilton
 * Colin Lane
 * Richard Osman
 * Sally Phillips

6 appearances
 * Cally Beaton
 * Bridget Christie
 * Rhod Gilbert
 * Matt Lucas
 * Romesh Ranganathan
 * Liza Tarbuck

5 appearances
 * Tom Allen
 * Stephen K. Amos
 * Daliso Chaponda
 * Zoe Lyons
 * Lou Sanders

4 appearances
 * Maisie Adam
 * Eshaan Akbar
 * Jeremy Hardy
 * Alice Levine
 * Chris McCausland
 * Vic Reeves
 * Mark Steel
 * Jack Whitehall

3 appearances
 * James Acaster
 * Chris Addison
 * Richard Coles
 * Reginald D. Hunter
 * Rosie Jones
 * Lucy Porter
 * Ahir Shah
 * Arthur Smith
 * Linda Smith
 * Sindhu Vee
 * Julia Zemiro

Rich Hall has the highest number of guest appearances in a single series—six times in Series B (half of the episodes that year), while Phill Jupitus has won the most episodes of any guest panellist, with 14.

a. Also made an additional appearance in the unbroadcast pilot.

b. Also made an additional appearance in the 2011 Comic Relief episode.

c. Also made an additional appearance in the live Sport Relief episode.

d. Excluding Series N onwards. Toksvig took over hosting duties from Fry from the start of Series N.

e. Also made an additional appearance in the 2022 Comic Relief episode.

International broadcasts
As of 2011, QI is distributed by Fremantle.

In Australia, QI is broadcast on the ABC. The programme was first broadcast on 20 October 2009 after the surprise ratings success of Stephen Fry in America. The ABC aired QI Series F first, but subsequently, in July 2010, ABC1 began broadcasting QI from the very beginning with Series A. QI has also been broadcast on the pay TV channel UKTV.

In March 2010, QI began a run in New Zealand on Prime. This was also aired on BBC UKTV in New Zealand. On 27 May 2011, Series A of QI was broadcast in South Africa on BBC Entertainment. QI series A-Q has also aired on BBC Entertainment in the Nordic countries.

There have been several attempts to broadcast QI in the United States. US networks that have tried to broadcast the series include Comedy Central, PBS, Discovery Channel and BBC America. Show creator and producer John Lloyd said that one factor in the failure to get the show broadcast is due to the cost. As QI features several images during each episode there are copyright issues. Lloyd said in an interview with TV Squad that: "No country in the world has bought the original show and this is partly a matter of cost. The pictures in the background of the show are only cleared for UK usage, so until the show is bought by a Stateside TV company and the rights cleared for World, the programme (is) unaffordable by smaller countries." Amongst the famous names also to express anger over QI not being shown in the US include comedian John Hodgman, who appeared as a "fifth guest" in the second episode of Series G. In 2013, QI was picked up in the US by the streaming video service Hulu. On 30 January 2015 BBC America announced that they had acquired QI and planned on airing the show, beginning with Series J, on 19 February 2015.

Davies has criticised QI being repeated so often, saying "QI being in a soup of shows on one of these repeat channels ... completely devalues the brand". Davies thought the show would gain more viewers when a new series aired if channels made "an audience wait for a couple of months".

International versions
In 2008, the QI format was sold to the Dutch broadcaster VARA. Also called QI, the Dutch version of the show aired for the first time on 27 December 2008 and was hosted by the writer Arthur Japin with the comedian Thomas van Luyn taking the role of regular panellist. Japin also appeared (in the audience) in a British QI episode, "Gothic", explaining how the name Vincent van Gogh should be pronounced. The Dutch series was discontinued after six episodes.

A Swedish version of QI started airing on SVT1 8 September 2012, and was called Intresseklubben. Comedian Johan Wester hosted Intresseklubben, and Anders Jansson was featured as the regular panellist. A second series covering the letter B started airing in September 2013; Series C was recorded in June 2014 and aired in late 2014, while season D was recorded in June 2015 and started airing in August 2015.

A Danish version of QI, called Quiz i en hornlygte aired on DR2 between 2012 and 2013. The show was hosted by Danish comedian Carsten Eskelund. While not directly branded as a Danish version of QI, it maintained some recognisable elements, such as the difficulty of some questions and awarding points for interesting answers as well as negative points for wrong, but widely believed, answers.

The Czech version of QI was first broadcast on TV Prima on 14 August 2013. The programme is hosted by Leoš Mareš, with Patrik Hezucký appearing as a guest in every episode.

The QI Test
The QI Test was a planned spinoff version of QI that was to be broadcast on BBC Two. Created by Lloyd, Talkback Thames' Dave Morely and former QI Commercial Director Justin Gayner, The QI Test differed from QI in that it would have featured members of the public as contestants instead of comedians and celebrities. It would have been broadcast during the daytime schedules. The pilot was not hosted by Fry and was recorded in November 2009, but a series was never broadcast.

Mistakes and fact correction
Some of the answers on the show have been disputed and shown to be incorrect. In Series A, the show claimed that the longest animal in the world was the lion's mane jellyfish, but this was later corrected in Series C, saying that the longest animal in the world is the bootlace worm.

Members of the public and members of the QI website contact the show to correct information. At the end of the third series, Dara Ó Briain was docked points for having stated, in the previous series, that the triple point of water is zero degrees Celsius, an answer which earned him 2 points at the time. Viewers had written in to say that the triple point of water is in fact 0.01 degrees, and so the 2 points awarded Ó Briain in the previous series were revoked and he received a further deduction of 10 points for "saying a now obvious answer".

Various other retractions are made by the producers of the show on the special features of the DVD releases. The origin of the error may also be explained. For instance, Fry made a mistake when explaining why helium makes your voice higher, in the Series B Christmas special. He claimed that the gas only affected the frequency, but not the pitch, despite them being the same thing; in actuality, the timbre is affected.

Information contributed by a panellist during a discussion, but which has since been found to be false, have also been corrected. In the "Knowledge" episode in Series K it was explained that many facts on the show are later shown to be incorrect. Points were refunded to three panellists who had appeared previously; The largest refund went to Davies, who received in excess of 700 wrongly deducted points. Fry gave some examples of incorrect facts told in previous episodes, such as ones relating to lobster ages, the evolution of giraffe's necks and millipede legs.

More recently, the online forum now includes a "QI Qibbles" blog, which aims to rectify further mistakes in the show.

Welsh word for "blue"
The error that has attracted the most complaints to date was made in Series B, when it was claimed that the Welsh language has no word for blue. In fact it is glas. The error was explained on the "Banter" section of the Series B DVD as a mistake on the part of John Lloyd himself (the show's producer).

Flobbadob
An episode in Series B claimed that the language spoken by children's TV characters Bill and Ben was called "Flobbadob" and was named after the onomatopoeic phrase that supposed creator Hilda Brabban's younger brothers (after whom the characters were named) gave to their bath farts during their early childhood. However, in Series D, Fry read out the following letter written by Silas Hawkins, the son of veteran voice-over talent Peter Hawkins, who provided the original voices of the characters:

"The fart-in-the-bath story was trotted out last year in an episode of Stephen Fry's otherwise admirable quiz show QI. It (the story) first appeared some twenty years ago in a newspaper article, to which my father immediately wrote a rebuttal. This was obviously ferreted out by some BBC researcher. It may be quite interesting, but in this case, it just isn't true."

Fry then apologised and corrected the error, saying "Their language is called 'Oddle poddle'. 'Flobbadob' means 'Flowerpot' in Oddle poddle."

It has later been established that while Hilda Brabban did sell stories about characters named Bill and Ben to the BBC in the 1950s, these bear no resemblance to the Bill and Ben of the Flower Pot Men.

Culture
QI has stated it follows a philosophy: everything in the world, even that which appears to be the most boring, is "quite interesting" if looked at in the right way. The website states that:

"We live, they say, in The Information Age, yet almost none of the information we think we possess is true. Eskimos do not rub noses. The rickshaw was invented by an American. Joan of Arc was not French. Lenin was not Russian. The world is not solid, it is made of empty space and energy, and neither haggis, whisky, porridge, clan tartans nor kilts are Scottish. So we stand, silent, on a peak in Darien a vast, rolling, teeming, untrodden territory before us. QI country. Whatever is interesting we are interested in. Whatever is not interesting, we are even more interested in. Everything is interesting if looked at in the right way. At one extreme, QI is serious, intensely scientific, deeply mystical; at the other it is hilarious, silly and frothy enough to please the most indolent couch-potato."

On 28 December 2009, the BBC Radio 4 panel game The Unbelievable Truth, hosted by frequent QI guest panellist David Mitchell, broadcast a New Year's Special which paid tribute to QI. The show featured Fry, Davies and Lloyd on the panel, as well as Rob Brydon, another regular QI participant.

Content perceived as offensive
In December 2010, panellists on QI made jokes during a discussion about Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived both atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Yamaguchi had died only earlier that year. The Japanese embassy in London wrote a letter of complaint to the BBC about the content of its quiz show after being alerted to the content when viewers in Japan contacted diplomatic staff. Yamaguchi's daughter also made known how upset she was as a result of the comments broadcast on the BBC. She said that Britain, as a nuclear power, had no right to "look down" on her father. In January 2011, the BBC issued an apology for "any offence caused" to Japan by the incident, recognising "the sensitivity of the subject matter for Japanese viewers". In February 2011, the BBC cited a "strength of feeling" in Japan following its atomic bomb joke broadcast in its decision to cancel the filming of part of its Planet Word documentary in the country, which was due to be presented by Fry.

In February 2011, the BBC received several complaints about jokes made in an episode of QI about Margaret Thatcher. Regular panellist Jo Brand commented that Lady Thatcher sounded like "a device for removing pubic hair". Later, panellist Phill Jupitus shouted "Burn the witch!" when a digitally altered picture of Thatcher, showcasing the Thatcher effect optical illusion, was shown on-screen. Several Conservative politicians condemned the remarks; and Lord Tebbit complained that "Lady Thatcher has been treated like this by the BBC for the past 30 years".

In 2011, an episode of QI featuring Jeremy Clarkson was withdrawn due to controversial comments Clarkson had recently made about people dying by suicide by jumping in front of trains. The QI episode did not contain any such statements, but was postponed "to avoid putting Clarkson in the spotlight". The episode, on the subject of "idleness", was broadcast later.

On 11 January 2013, an episode of QI ending with Fry reading a limerick about paedophilia was criticised by viewers, especially as it was broadcast directly before a Newsnight report on Jimmy Savile. The BBC Trust described the incident as "unfortunate and regrettable" and the limerick as "capable of causing offence", but ruled it was not in breach of BBC guidelines.

Gender gap
The BBC has received criticism regarding the lack of women on their comedy panel shows. As a result, the corporation decided to ban all-male panels on comedy shows in February 2014, with BBC's director of TV Danny Cohen stating in an interview with The Observer that "shows without women are unacceptable". In November 2014, Mirror reported stats revealing that 38% of all QI episodes at that time had featured only men, 55.9% featured only one woman, and only the remaining 6.1% had two or three women, out of a total of three guest panellists per episode (the fourth one being regular panellist Alan Davies). Clem Bastow of The Sydney Morning Herald was supportive of BBC's decision, saying that "left to their own devices, the producers of these shows are clearly failing massively when it comes to putting together line-ups that aren't just endless parades of the same old white men," and noted that this could motivate the producers to uncover some new talent. In 2017, creator of QI John Lloyd commented on BBC's decision, telling the Cheltenham Literature Festival that "arguing a BBC quota for women panellists risked being mere tokenism", while his wife Sarah Wallace—director of QI Limited—stated that female comedians are hesitant to appear on the show.

In April 2014, Sandi Toksvig, who was hosting The News Quiz on BBC Radio 4 at that time, had also criticised BBC's decision saying that "recruiting more female hosts would be a more desirable way of correcting the imbalance." She explained that women would feel more comfortable about participating with a female host, and described the fact that many quiz shows are presented by men as "slightly ridiculous". In 2015, when Toksvig took over from Fry as a host of QI, she told the Guardian newspaper: "If I can show that by hosting a programme like this women neither destroy the social fabric of this country [nor] frighten the horses, it's a very good job." Nevertheless, Toksvig has acknowledged Fry's delicate treatment towards his female panellists, and she herself continues to encourage them to be smart and funny when they appear on the show. In 2018, Emma Cox of Radio Times highlighted a notable difference between QI and other "aggressively masculine" panel shows.

In September 2018, while responding to a question on equal pay at the Women's Equality Party's conference, Toksvig revealed that she receives 40% of what Stephen Fry was being paid as the host of QI, and the same amount as panellist Alan Davies. Talent fees for QI are managed by Talkback.

Reception
QI was received very positively by its viewers. It was the most popular programme on BBC Four in 2005, and one of its books, The Book of General Ignorance, became a global best-seller for Christmas 2006.

QI has been supported by nearly all critics. Peter Chapman said, "When the schedules seem so dumbed-down, it's a delight to encounter the brainy and articulate Stephen Fry. He excels in this format, being both scathing and generous." Another critic, Laura Barton said, "QI and its canny coupling of Stephen Fry and Alan Davies, which manages to condense tweedy goodness, cockney charm, pub trivia and class war into one half-hour."

Julia Raeside from The Guardian reviewed the show during its tenth series, calling it "still rather more than quite interesting" and complimenting it for being "one of the last truly popular programmes on mainstream television where comedians are allowed to be clever". Raeside noted ratings were still high, as four million viewers in total watched the first J series episode of QI and QI XL. American critic Liesl Schillinger described QI as "Jeopardy! with Stephen Colbert as host, with Steve Martin and Ellen DeGeneres as guests, working off a game board loaded with unanswerable questions."

Matt Smith gave QI Live a positive review, calling it "funny, educational, and ... quite interesting"; Smith noted there was a "great deal of Fry worship" and that, due to high ticket prices, "only the most dedicated Fry fans ... would come to this show". He commented that "much like the television show, your enjoyment of the stage version will be affected by how you perceive the guests", but went on to say that he enjoyed the line-up in the show he saw.

Media releases
QI has entered a number of different media, and has seen an increasing number of tie-in DVDs, books and newspaper columns released since 2005.

United Kingdom
The first QI book was 2006's The Book of General Ignorance, published in hardback on 5 October by Faber and Faber. (ISBN 9780571233687) Written by producer and series-creator John Lloyd and QI's head of research, John Mitchinson, it includes a foreword by Fry and "Four words" by Davies ("Will this do, Stephen?".) Most of the book's facts and clarifications have appeared on the programme, including its list of 200 popular misconceptions, many of which featured during the "General Ignorance" rounds. On 8 December 2006, the book "became a surprise bestseller over the Christmas period, becoming Amazon's number one Global bestseller for Christmas 2006." By the end of January 2007, it had sold more than 300,000 copies (and subsequently over half a million ), paving the way for subsequent (projected) annual book releases to capitalise on the UK Christmas book market. The Official QI website notes that it will soon be published in 23 countries.

Pocket-sized and audio versions of General Ignorance went on sale the following year. In 2008, a newly revised version was published under the title of The Book of General Ignorance: The Noticeably Stouter Edition. This edition corrected and updated some of the information from the first print, while adding 50 new sections (and extra illustrations) to the original 230. It also included quotes from the series, new "Four Words" by Davies and added a complete episode listing from Series A–F, along with an index.

QI's second book, The Book of Animal Ignorance, was released in the UK (in the same hardback format) by Faber & Faber on 4 October 2007. (ISBN 978-0-571-23370-0) It promised to be a "bestiary for the 21st century," and contains almost completely new quite interesting facts. The book includes "400 diagrams and cartoons by the brilliant Ted Dewan", another Foreword by Stephen Fry and a "Forepaw" by Alan Davies. This publication has also been followed by a pocket-sized version.

On the Factoids feature of the Series A DVD, John Lloyd mentioned an idea he'd had for a QI book of quotations, under the working title Quote Interesting. This book was eventually published in 2008 as Advanced Banter. Similarly, on the Banter feature of the Series B DVD, Lloyd also previewed the title of QI's fourth book, The QI Book of the Dead, which went on sale on 15 October 2009.

7 October 2010 saw the publication of QI's fifth book—The Second Book of General Ignorance. Written by the same authors, this book covers a whole new series of questions on a wide variety of topics, which promises to prove that "everything you think you know is (still) wrong".

The sixth QI book, 1,227 QI Facts To Blow Your Socks Off, a list of facts, was published on 1 November 2012. James Harkin, QI's chief researcher, co-wrote the book with Lloyd and Mitchinson.

QI's first annual, The QI "E" Annual or The QI Annual 2008 was published by Faber and Faber on 1 November 2007, to coincide with the initial airing of the TV show's E series (ISBN 978-0-571-23779-1.) Succeeding years have seen the publication of F, G and H annuals, concurrent with the BBC show's chronology, though retrospective annuals on the first four letters of the alphabet have yet to be published. The covers, which feature various cartoon scenes starring caricatures of Fry and regular QI panellists, are produced by David Stoten (one of Roger Law's Spitting Image team), who also contributed to the annuals' contents. Many of said cover stars are also credited with contributing content to the annuals, which also provide a showcase for Rowan Atkinson's talents as a 'rubber-faced' comic, as well as the comic stylings of Newman and Husband from Private Eye, Viz's Chris Donald, Geoff Dunbar, Ted Dewan and The Daily Telegraph's Matt Pritchett.

France
A French edition entitled Les autruches ne mettent pas la tête dans le sable : 200 bonnes raisons de renoncer à nos certitudes ("Ostriches don't put their heads in the sand: 200 good reasons to give up our convictions") was published by Dunod on 3 October 2007. (ISBN 978-2-100-51732-9) It is released as part of Dunod's "Cult.Science"/"Oh, les Sciences !" series, which also includes titles by Robert L. Wolke, Ian Stewart and Raymond Smullyan.

Italy
An Italian edition entitled Il libro dell'ignoranza ("The book of ignorance") was published by Einaudi in 2007 and in 2009 the same publisher published Il libro dell'ignoranza sugli animali ("The book of ignorance about animals".)

United States
On 7 August 2007, The Book of General Ignorance was published in America by Harmony Books. (ISBN 0-307-39491-3) It features a sparser cover downplaying its links to the TV series, which had yet to be broadcast in the US. The book received glowing reviews from both Publishers Weekly and The New York Times, which recommended it in its "Books Holiday Gift Guide". (It subsequently entered the New York Times' "Hardcover Advice" best-seller charts at No. 10 on 9 December, falling to No. 11 two weeks later where it stayed until mid-January, before falling out of the top 15 on 20 January.)

DVDs
A number of DVDs related to QI have also been released, including interactive quizzes, and complete series releases.

Interactive quizzes
On 14 November 2005 an interactive QI DVD game, called QI: A Quite Interesting Game, was released by Warner Vision International. A second interactive game, QI: Strictly Come Duncing followed on 26 November 2007, once again from Warner Vision International. Both games feature Fry asking questions, and then explaining the answers in full QI-mode.

United Kingdom
A DVD release for the first series was the direct result of an internet petition signed by 1,821 people, which persuaded the BBC of the interest in such a move. Series A, was therefore released by BBC Worldwide's DVD venture, 2 entertain Ltd. on 6 November 2006 (as "QI: The Complete First Series.") It contains a number of outtakes as well as the unbroadcast pilot. Sales over the Christmas period, however (in stark contrast to The Book of General Ignorance, which topped the Amazon.co.uk best-seller list), were not as strong as hoped. A lack of adequate advertising is thought to be to blame (and subsequent episodes of QI have since trailed the DVD), and may have factored in the label change for Series B. Series B was released on 17 March 2008, followed by Series C on 1 September. In 2014, a message on the QI site read "Due to a number of copyright issues there are difficulties releasing further series of QI on DVD".

On 14 December 2015, the Network imprint announced on its website that it had made a deal with FremantleMedia so previously unreleased shows could be made available on DVD sometime in 2016; among the list was QI. The DVD sets, released on 8 May 2017, were split into two initial volumes of series A-D and E-G, containing additional features including a 'Making of' feature, interviews and bloopers. Two additional sets, series H-J and K-M are scheduled for release on 23 October 2017.

Australia
A box-set of series 1–3 (Series A-C) was released in September 2011. Additionally, a single DVD titled "The Best Bits" containing clips from Series G was released on 3 June 2010. Two years later a three DVD set labelled as "Series 9" was released in August 2012, containing the Series H episodes. The Series 9 DVD title was later changed to "The H Series" and The Series J was released also on 5 March 2014.

Online releases
United Kingdom
 * The entire show is available to watch on BBC's iPlayer.
 * Additionally UKTV Play also offers a number of episodes that have been repeated on Dave on its on-demand service.

United States Multiple services have made QI available to stream in the United States, including Acorn TV (Series A through G - unavailable as of 2024) and Hulu (Series I, J and K). By April 2024, twelve seasons (series J-U) had been available through BritBox.

Other media
Since 10 February 2007, a weekly QI column has run in The Daily Telegraph newspaper. Fifty-two columns were planned, originally alphabetically themed like the TV series and running from A to Z twice, but the feature is ongoing and was recently re-launched in the newspaper's Saturday magazine and online. A QI feature has appeared in BBC MindGames magazine since its fifth issue, and revolves around facts and questions in the General Ignorance-mould. A weekly QI-linked multiple-choice question is featured in Radio Times, with the solution printed in the feedback section. QI also has an official website, QI.com, which features facts, forums and other information. It also links to QI's internet show QI News, a parody news show which broadcasts "News" items about things which are "quite interesting". QI News stars Glenn Wrage and Katherine Jakeways as the newsreaders, Bob Squire and Sophie Langton.

title: QI


text:
Metropolitan Borough of Paddington

Paddington was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in London, England. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, governed by an administrative vestry. The parish was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855 and became part of the County of London in 1889. The parish of Paddington became a metropolitan borough in 1900, following the London Government Act 1899, with the parish vestry replaced by a borough council. In 1965 the borough was abolished and its former area became part of the City of Westminster in Greater London.

History
Its area covered that part of the current City of Westminster west of Edgware Road and Maida Vale, and north of Bayswater Road. Places in the borough included Paddington, Westbourne Green, Bayswater, Maida Hill, Queens Park, Kensal Green, West Kilburn, Maida Vale. To the south it bordered the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster, to the east, the Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone.

The borough was abolished on 1 April 1965 by the London Government Act 1963 and its former area merged with that of the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster and the Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone to form the present-day City of Westminster.

Coat of arms
The borough council's coat of arms, granted by the College of Arms on 5 April 1902, was based on the former Paddington vestry seal. The seal featured crossed swords from the arms of the See of London passing through a mural crown, symbol of local government. To these were added the wolves' heads and blue background from the arms of the first Mayor of the Borough, Sir John Aird. Sir John, who was member of parliament for Paddington North, also donated the mayoral badge and chain.

The arms were blazoned as follows: "Azure, two Swords in Saltire proper pommels and hilts Or enfiled with a Mural Crown of the last. Two Wolves heads erased in Chief Argent."

Town hall
Paddington Town Hall, designed by James Lockyer in the Classical style, dated from 1853. The building, originally the Vestry Hall, was situated on Paddington Green. It was enlarged in 1900 and 1920. Following its closure in 1965, it was demolished to make way for the Westway urban motorway.

Population and area
The area of Paddington Metropolitan Borough was 1357 acre, once part of Kensal New Town was added after 1901. The population recorded in the Census was:

Paddington Vestry 1801–1899 Metropolitan Borough 1900–1961
 * Note that the population statistics up to 1891 exclude the area of Kensal Town transferred from Chelsea in 1900.

Borough council
Under the Metropolis Management Act 1855 any parish that exceeded 2,000 ratepayers was to be divided into wards; as such the incorporated vestry of Paddington was divided into four wards (electing vestrymen): No. 1 (12), No. 2 (18), No. 3 (18) and No. 4 (24).

In 1894 as its population had increased the incorporated vestry was re-divided into six wards (electing vestrymen): Harrow Road (12), Maida Vale (9), Church (12), Westbourne (12), Lancaster Gate (15) and Hyde Park (12).

The metropolitan borough was divided into eight wards for elections: Church, Harrow Road, Hyde Park, Lancaster Gate East, Lancaster Gate West, Maida Vale, Queen's Park and Westbourne.

Parliament constituency
For elections to Parliament, the borough was divided into two and a half constituencies: In 1918 the borough's representation was reduced to two seats:
 * Chelsea
 * Paddington North
 * Paddington South
 * Paddington North
 * Paddington South

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Metropolitan Borough of Paddington


text:
Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone

The Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone was a metropolitan borough of the County of London from 1900 to 1965. It was based directly on the previously existing civil parish of St Marylebone, Middlesex, which was incorporated into the Metropolitan Board of Works area in 1855, retaining a parish vestry, and then became part of the County of London in 1889.

Its area was that part of the current City of Westminster which is north of Oxford Street, and east of Maida Vale and Edgware Road. It included the areas Marylebone, Regent's Park, St John's Wood, and Lisson Grove, along with the western part of the district of Fitzrovia.

In 1965 it was abolished and its former area was amalgamated with that of the Metropolitan Borough of Paddington and the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster to form the City of Westminster.

Origins and arms
The name is derived from a chapel, dedicated to St Mary, and founded by Barking Abbey, the holders of the Manor of Tyburn. The chapel was named St Mary-le-Bourne, for the bourne, or River Tyburn. In the borough's coat of arms, the blue and white waves represent this stream; the lily and rose, derived from Barking Abbey, represent the legend that when the Virgin's tomb was opened it was found to contain lilies and roses.

The motto: Fiat Secundum Verbatum Tuum, is from the Gospel of Luke Ch.I v.38 and translates as Be it according to Thy Word.

The arms were granted by the College of Arms on 17 August 1901.

Town hall
Following a competition in 1911, Sir Edwin Cooper was commissioned to design Marylebone Town Hall. The building, in Marylebone Road was built 1914–20. The building is faced with Portland stone and is an example of Edwardian Graeco-Roman classicism, with a tower in the style of Christopher Wren and fluted columns. Cooper also designed the 1938–39 extension in a simpler style to house the public library.

Population and area
The borough covered an area of 1473 acre. The population found in the Census was:

St Marylebone Vestry 1801–1899 Metropolitan Borough 1900–1961

Politics
Under the Metropolis Management Act 1855 any parish that exceeded 2,000 ratepayers was to be divided into wards; as such the incorporated vestry of Marylebone was divided into eight wards (electing vestrymen): No. 1 or Hamilton Terrace (9), No. 2 or St Johns Wood Terrace (9), No. 3 or New Church Street (15), No. 4 or Dorset Square & Regents Park (15), No. 5 or Bryanstone (18), No. 6 or Portman (18), No. 7 or Portland Place (18) and No. 8 or Cavendish Square (18).

The metropolitan borough was divided into nine wards for elections: Bryanston Square, Cavendish, Church Street, Dorset Square & Regent's Park, Hamilton Terrace, Langham, Park Crescent, Portman and St John's Wood Terrace.

Parliament constituency
For elections to Parliament, the borough was divided into two constituencies: In 1918 the borough's representation was reduced to one seat:
 * Marylebone East
 * Marylebone West
 * St Marylebone

title: Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone


text:
Matthew Bloxam

Matthew Holbeche Bloxam (12 May 1805 – 24 April 1888), a native of Rugby, Warwickshire, England, was a Warwickshire antiquary and amateur archeologist, author of a popular guide to Gothic architecture. He was the original source of the legend of William Webb Ellis' invention of the game of Rugby football.

Biography
Bloxam was born on 12 May 1805 at Rugby, son of the Rev. Richard Rouse Bloxam, an assistant master at Rugby School, and his wife Ann, sister of Sir Thomas Lawrence He was one of ten children, his brothers including Andrew Bloxam and John Rouse Bloxam.

Bloxam was educated at Elborow School before attending Rugby School between 1813 and 1820. In 1821 he was articled to George Harris, a solicitor in Rugby. He did not find success in the profession when he went into practice on his own account, and in 1831 he became clerk of the court, a post he held for 40 years.

He is remembered as an antiquarian on Rugby and the surrounding area. In 1836 he successfully located the Roman town of Tripontium nearby. His work was published in two books and many journal articles; although many of his conclusions are now thought doubtful, his collection of archaeological finds still exists. He lived in what is now the Percival Guildhouse, while his brother ran a boarding school next door in what became the public library. A new library replaced the old one in 2000 and a life-size statue of Bloxham engaged in his archaeological work greets visitors to the Rugby museum located in the new library complex.

The Principles of Gothic Architecture
While visiting country churches to consult their registers in the course of his professional work, Bloxam began making the observations which led to his subsequent knowledge of ecclesiastical architecture. While still under articles he began collecting the notes which he was to publish in 1829 as The Principles of Gothic Architecture elucidated by Question and Answer (Leicester, 1829). It was described by Charles Locke Eastlake as "a small but well digested volume admirably adapted for the use of amateurs". The book proved popular, leading to a second edition in 1835. In 1844 the book reached a ninth edition, in which the question-and-answer format was abandoned,  under the amended title of The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture with an explanation of technical terms, and a centenary of ancient terms. A German translation of the seventh edition was published at Leipzig in 1847. At the suggestion of Sir George Gilbert Scott, Bloxam set about preparing an enlarged edition, which eventually appeared in three volumes in 1882, containing additional chapters on vestments and on church arrangements. It was illustrated with wood engravings by Thomas Orlando Sheldon Jewitt.

William Webb Ellis story
Bloxam is the sole source of the story that the game of Rugby football had its origins in the moment when William Webb Ellis picked up the ball during a game of football at Rugby School. In October 1876, in an effort to refute the assertion that carrying the ball had been an ancient tradition, he wrote to The Meteor, the Rugby School magazine, that he had learnt from an unnamed source that the change from a kicking game to a handling game had "..originated with a town boy or foundationer of the name of Ellis, William Webb Ellis". In December 1880, in another letter to the Meteor, Bloxam elaborated on the story: A boy of the name Ellis – William Webb Ellis – a town boy and a foundationer, .... whilst playing Bigside at football in that half-year [1823], caught the ball in his arms. This being so, according to the then rules, he ought to have retired back as far as he pleased, without parting with the ball, for the combatants on the opposite side could only advance to the spot where he had caught the ball, and were unable to rush forward till he had either punted it or had placed it for some one else to kick, for it was by means of these placed kicks that most of the goals were in those days kicked, but the moment the ball touched the ground the opposite side might rush on. Ellis, for the first time, disregarded this rule, and on catching the ball, instead of retiring backwards, rushed forwards with the ball in his hands towards the opposite goal, with what result as to the game I know not, neither do I know how this infringement of a well-known rule was followed up, or when it became, as it is now, a standing rule.

Death
Bloxam died on 24 April 1888, and was buried in the grounds of the chapel at Brownsover.

title: Matthew Bloxam


text:
List of countries by GDP (nominal)

[[File:Countries by GDP (nominal).svg|thumb|upright=2|Countries by estimated nominal GDP in 2024.

]]

Gross domestic product (GDP) is the market value of all final goods and services from a nation in a given year. Countries are sorted by nominal GDP estimates from financial and statistical institutions, which are calculated at market or government official exchange rates. Nominal GDP does not take into account differences in the cost of living in different countries, and the results can vary greatly from one year to another based on fluctuations in the exchange rates of the country's currency. Such fluctuations may change a country's ranking from one year to the next, even though they often make little or no difference in the standard of living of its population.

Comparisons of national wealth are also frequently made based on purchasing power parity (PPP), to adjust for differences in the cost of living in different countries. Other metrics, nominal GDP per capita and a corresponding GDP (PPP) per capita are used for comparing national standard of living. On the whole, PPP per capita figures are less spread than nominal GDP per capita figures.

The rankings of national economies over time have changed considerably; the United States surpassed the British Empire's output around 1916, which in turn had surpassed the Qing dynasty in aggregate output decades earlier. Since China's transition to a socialist market economy through controlled privatisation and deregulation, the country has seen its ranking increase from ninth in 1978, to second in 2010; China's economic growth accelerated during this period and its share of global nominal GDP surged from 2% in 1980 to 18% in 2021. Among others, India has also experienced an economic boom since the implementation of economic liberalisation in the early 1990s.

The first list includes estimates compiled by the International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook, the second list shows the World Bank's data, and the third list includes data compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division. The IMF's definitive data for the past year and estimates for the current year are published twice a year in April and October. Non-sovereign entities (the world, continents, and some dependent territories) and states with limited international recognition (such as Kosovo and Taiwan) are included in the list where they appear in the sources.

Table
The table initially ranks each IMF member including

The links in the "Country/Territory" row of the following table link to the article on the GDP or the economy of the respective country or territory.

title: List of countries by GDP (nominal)


text:
Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras

St Pancras was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in London, England. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, governed by an administrative vestry. The parish was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855 and became part of the County of London in 1889. The parish of St Pancras became a metropolitan borough in 1900, following the London Government Act 1899, with the parish vestry replaced by a borough council. In 1965 the borough was abolished and its former area became part of the London Borough of Camden in Greater London.

Geography
It included Tottenham Court Road, Camden Town, St Pancras, Kings Cross, Somers Town, Kentish Town, Euston, and part of Regent's Park. There are still a few street name signs with "Borough of St Pancras" on them.

Population and area
The borough had an area of 2694 acre. The populations recorded in National Censuses were:

St Pancras Vestry 1801-1899 Metropolitan Borough 1900-1961

Governance
St Pancras was just outside the area of London mortality statistics known as the bills of mortality, and was counted as one of the "five villages beyond the Bills". In 1801 it was included as a metropolitan parish for census purposes and was part of statistical returns for the Metropolis from that date.

The parish adopted the Vestries Act 1831, which provided for election of vestrymen by all ratepayers. The vestry was incorporated as a local authority by the Metropolis Management Act 1855. St Pancras had a local act to regulate the poor law so was unaffected by the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834. The Metropolitan Poor Act 1867 (30 & 31 Vict. c. 6) later provided that the Poor Law Board could add it to a poor law union or install a board of guardians. The parish was transferred from the County of Middlesex to the County of London in 1889. Following the London Government Act 1899, the civil parish of St Pancras also became a metropolitan borough. The vestry was replaced with a borough council.

Unofficial arms of 1902
The corporation designed its own, unofficial, coat of arms in 1902. In the centre of the shield was a depiction of St Pancras. The shield itself was in four quarters. The first quarter was described as a "fimbriated cross" (actually a saltire) representing the martyrdom of Pancras. The fourth quarter stood for Middlesex, and bore three seaxes on red: (the attributed arms of the kingdom of the middle and east Saxons). The other two quarters had a lion and cross crosslets; and blue and silver chequers. These were taken from the arms of the borough of Lewes, in Sussex. The parish church of Lewes was the first in England to be dedicated to St Pancras. At the top of the shield was shown a gold rising sun for the "dawn of Christianity" in the area. The colours used in the design were described as "gold, azure, white and crimson". The motto adopted was Constans Justitiam Moniti (Well Versed In Justice). According to Richard Crosley, writing in 1928, "This motto is unique amongst the mottoes of London in as much as the author has not discovered anyone who can translate it".

Official arms of 1936
In 1936 the corporation received an official grant from the College of Arms. The figure of St Pancras was moved to the crest, on top of the helm. The shield featured elements from the arms of historical landowners of the borough. The scallop shells were taken from the arms of the Russell family, Dukes of Bedford. The elephant's heads were from the arms of the Marquess Camden. The roses and crossed swords represented the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral.

The 1936 arms can still be seen over the entrance of Camden Town Hall. Charges from these arms were used, together with charges from the coats of arms of Hampstead and of Holborn, when the new coat of arms of the London Borough of Camden was designed in 1965.

Politics
Under the Metropolis Management Act 1855 any parish that exceeded 2,000 ratepayers was to be divided into wards; as such the incorporated vestry (later chiefly Board of Guardians) of St Pancras was divided into eight wards (electing vestrymen): No. 1 (9), No. 2 (12), No. 3 (18), No. 4 (15), No. 5 (15), No. 6 (15), No. 7 (18) and No. 8 (18). The metropolitan borough divided into those same wards for its elections.

Parliament constituencies serving this area
For elections to Parliament, the borough was used as the starting base and at first divided into four: Then, from 1918 into three: From 1950 parliamentary representation was reduced to $1 1/2$ seats namely: As such in the south, a seat straddled this Borough and the Metropolitan Borough of Holborn.
 * St Pancras East
 * St Pancras North
 * St Pancras South
 * St Pancras West
 * St Pancras North
 * St Pancras South East
 * St Pancras South West
 * Holborn and St Pancras South
 * St Pancras North

title: Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras


text:
User talk:Donner~enwiki

Hi there... May I ask why you remove the photos from articles? If these images have any problem (copyright, wrong image or whatever) it'd be good to say so in the Summary field (e.g. "Removed image because of copyright"), and not marking the change as minor. andy 10:43, 27 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * Hi, the images I have removed are alright as far as normal copyright is concerned, but I have to check if they are also alright for a Wikipedia-type website, from which they can be downloaded. This will take a while to be confirmed. Didn't thought it would require a comment in the summary box. Will have it in mind for the future.

 * What do you mean with having to check about the images being downloadable? Also, here is a good summary of when to mark an edit minor: How to edit a page. --snoyes 17:41, 28 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Image:VW1938.jpg listed for deletion
An image or media file that you uploaded or altered, Image:VW1938.jpg, has been listed at. Please look there to see why this is (you may have to search for the title of the image to find its entry), if you are interested in its not being deleted. Thank you. —MetsBot 18:46, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Donner. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Donner~enwiki that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name. If you think you might own all of the accounts with this name and this message is in error, please visit Special:MergeAccount to check and attach all of your accounts to prevent them from being renamed.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:30, 19 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 12:15, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Donner~enwiki


text:
Metropolitan Borough of Holborn

The Metropolitan Borough of Holborn was a metropolitan borough in the County of London between 1900 and 1965. The borough included most of Holborn (the parts outside the City of London) as well as Bloomsbury and St Giles.

In 1965 the borough amalgamated with the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras and the Metropolitan Borough of Hampstead to form the new London Borough of Camden.

Formation and boundaries
The borough was formed in 1900 from seven civil parishes and extra-parochial places; all but the first of these were historically part of Holborn: In 1930 these seven were combined into a single civil parish called Holborn, which was conterminous with the metropolitan borough.
 * St Giles in the Fields and St George Bloomsbury
 * St Andrew Holborn Above the Bars with St George the Martyr
 * Liberty of Saffron Hill
 * Furnival's Inn (part)
 * Gray's Inn
 * Lincoln's Inn
 * Staple Inn

Previous to the borough's formation it had been administered by two separate local bodies: Holborn District Board of Works and St Giles District Board of Works. The Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery had not been under the control of any local authority prior to 1900.

Coat of arms
St Giles, St George (patron saint of Bloomsbury) and St Andrew (patron saint of Holborn) were depicted on the borough seal. The several constituent parishes were illustrated in the arms granted to Holborn in 1906, while the supporters, the Lion and the Griffin are from the arms of Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn (Inns of Court).

Charges from these arms were used, together with charges from the coats of arms of Hampstead and of St. Pancras, when the new coat of arms of the London Borough of Camden was designed in 1965.

Visible legacy
Several of the street name signs in the British Museum/Senate House area still bear the "Borough of Holborn" area designation. Holborn Town Hall, built in 1894, still exists, on High Holborn, and still has the coat of arms in the façade.

Population and area
Holborn was the smallest of the twenty-eight metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, with an area of between 405 and 407 acre. Therefore, it was even smaller than the City of London. It also had the smallest population of any of the boroughs throughout its existence. The populations recorded in National Censuses were:

Constituent parishes 1801–1899 Metropolitan Borough 1900-1961

Politics
The borough was divided into nine wards for elections: Central St Giles, Lincoln's Inn, North Bloomsbury, North St Andrew, North St Giles, Saffron Hill, South Bloomsbury, South East St Andrew and St George the Martyr.

Parliament constituency
For elections to Parliament, the borough was represented by one constituency: In 1950 the borough's representation was reduced to half a seat, when it was merged with part of St Pancras:
 * Holborn
 * Holborn and St Pancras South

title: Metropolitan Borough of Holborn


text:
Brown-headed cowbird

The brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) is a small, obligate brood parasitic icterid native to temperate and subtropical North America. It is a permanent resident in the southern parts of its range; northern birds migrate to the southern United States and Mexico in winter, returning to their summer habitat around March or April.

Taxonomy
The brown-headed cowbird was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1775 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in the Carolinas. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-colored plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle, which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name, but in 1783, Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Oriolus ater in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The brown-headed cowbird is now placed in the genus Molothrus that was introduced by English naturalist William John Swainson in 1832 with the brown-headed cowbird as the type species. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek mōlos meaning "struggle" or "battle" with thrōskō meaning "to sire" or "to impregnate". The specific name ater is Latin for "dull black". The English name "cowbird", first recorded in 1839, refers to this species often being seen near cattle.

Three subspecies are recognised:

 * M. a. artemisiae Grinnell, 1909 – interior west Canada and west USA
 * M. a. obscurus (Gmelin, JF, 1789) – coastal Alaska, Canada, USA, and northwest Mexico
 * M. a. ater (Boddaert, 1783) – southeast Canada, east and central USA, and northeast Mexico

Description

The brown-headed cowbird is typical for an icterid in general shape, but is distinguished by its finch-like head and beak and smaller size. The adult male is iridescent black in color with a brown head. The adult female is slightly smaller and is dull grey with a pale throat and very fine streaking on the underparts. Their total length is 16 - 22 cm and the average wingspan is 36 cm. Body mass can range from 30 - 60 g, with females averaging 38.8 g against the males' average of 49 g.

Distribution and habitat
The species lives in open or semiopen country, and often travels in flocks, sometimes mixed with red-winged blackbirds (particularly in spring) and bobolinks (particularly in fall), as well as common grackles or European starlings. These birds forage on the ground, often following grazing animals such as horses and cattle to catch insects stirred up by the larger animals. They mainly eat seeds, insects and rarely, berries.

Before European settlement, brown-headed cowbirds followed bison herds across the prairies. Their population expanded with the clearing of forested areas and the introduction of new grazing animals by settlers across North America. They are now commonly seen at suburban birdfeeders.

In 2012, brown-headed cowbirds in northwest Riverside County, CA tested positive for West Nile Virus.

Brood parasitism
The brown-headed cowbird is an obligate brood parasite; it lays its eggs in the nests of other small passerines (perching birds), particularly those that build cup-like nests. The brown-headed cowbird eggs have been documented in nests of at least 220 host species, including hummingbirds and raptors. More than 140 different species of birds are known to have raised young cowbirds. The young cowbird is fed by the host parents at the expense of their own young. Brown-headed cowbird females can lay up to 40 eggs in a season.

Host response
Some host species, such as the house finch, feed their young a vegetarian diet. This is unsuitable for young brown-headed cowbirds, meaning few survive to fledge. Accepting a cowbird egg and rearing a cowbird chick can be costly to a host species. In the American redstart, nests parasitized by cowbirds were found to have a higher rate of predation, likely due in part to the loud begging calls by the cowbird nestling, but also partly explained by the fact that nests likely to be parasitized are also more likely to be preyed upon.

Unlike the common cuckoo, the brown-headed cowbird is not divided into gentes whose eggs imitate those of a particular host. Host species sometimes notice the cowbird egg, with different hosts reacting to the egg in different ways. Some, like the blue-grey gnatcatcher, abandon their nest, losing their own eggs as well. Others, like the American yellow warbler, bury the foreign egg under nest material, where it perishes. The brown thrasher physically ejects the egg from the nest. Experiments with grey catbirds, a known cowbird host, have shown that this species rejects cowbird eggs more than 95% of the time. For this species, the cost of accepting cowbird eggs (i.e. the loss of their own eggs or nestlings through starvation or the actions of the nestling cowbird) was far higher than the cost of rejecting those eggs (i.e. where the host might conceivably eject its own egg accidentally). Brown-headed cowbird nestlings are also sometimes expelled from the nest. Nestlings of host species can also alter their behavior in response to the presence of a cowbird nestling.

Parasite response
Song sparrow nestlings in parasitized nests alter their vocalizations in frequency and amplitude so that they resemble the cowbird nestling, and these nestlings tend to be fed equally often as nestlings in unparasitized nests.

Brown-headed cowbirds seem to periodically check on their eggs and young after they have deposited them. Removal of the parasitic egg may trigger a retaliatory reaction termed "mafia behavior". According to one study the cowbird returned to ransack the nests of a range of host species 56% of the time when their egg was removed. In addition, the cowbird also destroyed nests in a type of "farming behavior" to force the hosts to build new ones. The cowbirds then laid their eggs in the new nests 85% of the time.

Young cowbirds are not exposed to species-typical visual and auditory information like other birds. Despite this, they are able to develop species-typical singing, social, and breeding behaviors. Cowbird brains are wired to respond to the vocalizations of other cowbirds, allowing young to find and join flocks of their own species. These vocalizations are consistent across all cowbird populations, and serve as a sort of species-recognition password. If a young cowbird is not exposed to these "password" vocalizations by a certain age, it will mistakenly imprint on the host species.

Male behavior and reproductive success
Social behaviors of cowbird males include aggressive, competitive singing bouts with other males and pair bonding and monogamy with females.

By manipulating demographics so juveniles only had access to females, juvenile males developed atypical social behavior; they did not engage in the typical social singing bouts with other males, did not pair bond with females, and were promiscuous. This demonstrates that great flexibility occurs in the behavior of cowbirds, and that the social environment is extremely important in structuring their behavior. Adult males housed with juvenile males were shown to have greater reproductive success compared to adult males housed with other adult males. Being housed with juvenile males honed the reproductive skills of the adult males by providing them with a more complex social environment.

This finding was further studied by comparing the behaviors and reproductive success of males exposed to a dynamic flock, consisting of changing individuals, with males exposed to a static group of individuals. The individuals that stayed with the same group (i.e., static flock) had a stable, predictable relationship between social behavior and reproductive success; the males that sang frequently to females experienced the greatest reproductive success. The adult males that were exposed to a rotating roster of new individuals (i.e., dynamic flock) had an unpredictable relationship between social variables and reproductive success; these males were able to copulate using a much greater variety of social strategies. The males that lived in static flocks had high levels of consistency in their behaviors and reproductive success across multiple years, whereas the males in dynamic flocks experienced varying levels of dominance with other males, differing levels of singing to females, and differing levels of reproductive success.

Relationship to humans
With the expansion of its range and its parasitic behavior, the brown-headed cowbird is often regarded as a pest. People sometimes engage in cowbird control programs, with the intention of protecting species negatively impacted by the cowbirds' brood parasitism. A study of nests of Bell's vireo highlighted a potential limitation of these control programs, demonstrating that removal of cowbirds from a site may create an unintended consequence of increasing cowbird productivity on that site, because with fewer cowbirds, fewer parasitized nests are deserted, resulting in greater nest success for cowbirds.

title: Brown-headed cowbird


text:
Talk:Mesozoic

19th century
The division of time into Eras dates to the 18th century. The 1800s are the 19th century. 'Triassic' is a term introduced in the 1830s. I made the change. Wetman 11:01, 27 November 2003 (UTC)

Age of dinosaurs?
Is age of dinosaurs appropriate? they didn't necessarily rule the earth at the time!--ShurTape 23:33, 25 March 2005 (UTC)

"Age of Reptiles"
There is a series of graphic novels called "Age of Reptiles", so shouldn't that article be here? Scorpionman 15:40, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps a redirect could be included. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dinolover45 (talk • contribs) 16:08, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

copy vio
the climate section is from. I'll remove it. Matt 16:53, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Start/end times of periods
The many dinosaur books I read all give different dates for the beginning and starting points of the Mesozoic periods. The Triassic fluctuates from 248-213 to 235-195 million years ago and the Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary shifts between 145 and 130 million years. What is the right timeline? Personally I think it's this:

 * Triassic- 245-200 mya
 * Jurassic- 200-135 mya
 * Cretaceous- 135-65 mya.

But what's really correct? Jerkov 20:26, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

 * According to the authority on the geologic time scale, the International Commission on Stratigraphy, the dates are as follows :
 * Triassic (251.0 - 199.6)
 * Jurassic (199.6 - 145.5)
 * Cretaceous (145.5 - 65.5)
 * That's not how the article has them. I'll change it. -- bcasterline • talk 03:25, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Okay, thanks. I always thought the Triassic and Cretaceous started a bit later, but I guess we'll always be a few million years off because the dating methods aren't 100 % perfect. Jerkov 14:03, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Yep; the dating of the start and end times of various geologic periods and epochs is very much a work in progress.Erimus 23:02, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

Here's my opinion
 * Triassic (250-200 MYA)
 * Jurassic (200-145 MYA)
 * Cretaceous (145-65 MYA

I also think dinosaurs appeared about 230 million years ago until 65 million years ago and ruled for about 160 million years. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.36.131.120 (talk) 14:47, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Contradiction with "Cenozoic" article
This article reads (in intro), "The continents gradually shifted from a state of connectedness into their present configuration." But the Cenozoic article reads, "the Cenozoic is the era when continents moved into their current positions."

which is correct? they can't both.... — Preceding unsigned comment added by NCartmell (talk • contribs) 00:33, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Interwiki
The first interwiki link (there are two because of a mistake) to the Romanian article isn´t correct, it links to a different type of article on the Romanian Wikipedia. In fact it´s easy to tell, it´s not between Portuguese and Russian, as it normally is. The wrong one is just under "Brezhoneg", the first interwiki link.--Venatoreng 20:42, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Mesozoic real facts
The Mesozoic Era lasted more than 180 million years. During this time, many modern forms of plants, invertebrates, and fishes evolved. On land, dinosaurs were the dominant animals, while the oceans were populated by large marine reptiles, and Pterosaurs ruled the air. For most of this period, the climate worldwide was warm and tropical, and shallow seas covered low-lying landmasses. At the beginning of the Mesozoic, all of the world's continents were joined into the supercontinent of Pangea,The Mesozoic Era is divided into three periods, each lasting many millions of years: the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. The Triassic saw the emergence of many modern invertebrate groups, and on land thereptiles replaced the mammals.In the oceans fishbecame as large as whales. The Jurassic was the height of the dinosaur era, with giants such as Brachiosaurus, Stegosaurus, etc, and mammals tiny and shrew-like. Distinctive plants like ferns, Cycads, Bennettitales, and Cheirolepidiaceae conifers characterized the landscape. During the Cretaceous period, the first flowering plants appeared, birds and fish diversified, and new types of dinosaurs appeared. The climate cooled and unique dinosaurs evolved on different continents. The climate during the Mesozoic is warm; so warm that there are no ice caps at all, even at the poles! Plants grow like crazy in the warmth and moisture, so there is food everywhere for your average hungry 50-ton Ultrasaurus! So what happened to this Dino Paradise? More change! A mass extinction like those in the Paleozoic ended the idyllic Mesozoic Era (if you can call dodging your friendly local T-Rex as idyllic). More than half of all existing life forms disappeared, including virtually all of the dinosaurs. Why? There are many hypotheses, including disease, volcanic eruptions, and giant impacts. As the temperatures in the seas increased, the larger animals of the early Mesozoic gradually began to disappear while smaller animals of all kinds, including lizards, snakes, and perhaps the ancestor mammals to primates, evolved. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Somoman (talk • contribs) 01:58, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

That's pretty much the exact info given in the article, so why are you proposing an entry that already exists? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dinolover45 (talk • contribs) 16:12, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Africa?
Umm, why the heck is there an "Africa" heading, but no other continents listed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.127.53.168 (talk) 18:01, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

It's all Greek to me
There appears to be a contradiction between the Mesozoic Era page and the Cenozoic and Paleozoic pages. All three define the etymology of the era, but the Mesozoic page is different from the other two. Basically, here's the problem... Which of these is not like the others? They all have the same root suffix of -zoic, but it means two different things in three different articles. A casual google search shows that Mesozoic could mean either "Middle Animals" or "Middle Life," but since I'm not an expert in the Greek language (see topic title), I don't know which it's supposed to be. In any case, all three articles should adopt the same meaning. Kni7es (talk) 16:02, 20 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Cenozoic = Greek for "New Life"
 * Mesozoic = Greek for "Middle Animals"
 * Paleozoic = Greek for "Ancient Life"
 * It translates into both, it just depends on the interpretation. Dunkleosteus77   (push to talk)  01:25, 23 June 2015 (UTC)

Did dinosaurs really "rule" the earth?
I have heard the terms "rule", "ruled", or "ruling" in many dinosaur-related articles. "Rule" is somewhat of an unscientific term in this sense. Use of the word makes it sound like dinosaurs owned the earth, which is an impossibility. Not even humans can own the earth, let alone dinosaurs. A more scientific term would be that they were among the most abundant and long-lived classes of vertebrates alive at the time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dinolover45 (talk • contribs) 16:18, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

They were the dominant terrestrial animal at the time, so in a sense, they did "rule" the world Dunkleosteus77 (talk) 17:33, 26 April 2015 (UTC)

this is a good point that probably warrants clearing up. This is sort've an expression and its probably used in many of the sources, but if its possible it should be clarified as to what "ruled" is referring to. Is it a reference to the "food chain?" If so it seems imprecise to say that Dinosaurs ruled the food chain considering the diversity of that category of creatures its unlikely that they were ALL simultaneously at the top of the food chain. OR perhaps is it additionally a reference to their proliferation on the planet, but again such a diverse crowd of beings and were they really more prolific than say..insects at the time? I don't profess to the know these answers but these questions make it seem to me the expression if it should be in the article it should be clarified..that is if any sources of the expression in the article have done so.SoNetMedia's Alfred O. Mega (talk) 16:37, 30 March 2018 (UTC)

Plant diversity
The section on plants needs a lot of work, and in particularly should rely on relevant, preferably recent references (a lot of what we know about angiosperm evolution is quite recent knowledge). I'm hoping someone would have time to expand on it, unfortunately I do not. I don't know if gymnosperms were dominant, still, towards the end of Cretaceous. Flowering plants have certainly been there for most of the Mesozoic, possibly from late Triassic, and probably most orders (I don't have a reliable estimate) and even many of the flowering plant genera we have now had emerged by late Cretaceous. Therefore, most of the evolutionary history of angiosperms is from the Mesozoic, and their importance in the era is very much downplayed in this article. Of course, the overwhelming dominance of flowering plants we now observe is mostly a character of world after the K-T boundary, and some key families such as Poaceae and Leguminosae may have emerged post-KT, but I would not believe that the situation of (taxononic or numeric) dominance of gymnosperms was so clear-cut unless good references can be provided. 137.132.3.8 (talk) 05:42, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

Climate
I don't think a citation is needed to explain why large bodies of water moderate climate. If it wasn't self evident enough, the section goes on to explain it better.

Citation NOT Needed I think. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 38.99.128.243 (talk) 14:22, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Improvements needed in Geologic periods section
The 'Geologic periods' section of this article is somewhat strangely written, departing from the more scientific approach that is common to these articles (and to other sections of this one.) Also, there are some scientific inaccuracies (for example, archosaurs did not go extinct in the Triassic - dinosaurs are archosaurs, and they were very much still around for the Jurassic.)

Examples:

> The Early Triassic lived between

> thus the interior was nothing but arid.

> the reptiles began to get bigger and bigger.

> that had since ruled the freshwater world.

> in which all archosaurs (excluding ancient crocodiles), synapsids, and almost all large amphibians went extinct

Perhaps something of a rewrite might be in order? Roarian2 (talk) 10:52, 24 October 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified (January 2018)
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Request for a small fix on the period box
Greetings and felicitations. Would someone please be so kind as to change the spaced hyphen in "251.902 - 66 million years ago" to an unspaced en dash (i.e., "251.902–66 million years ago"), as per MOS:ENDASH/MOS:DATERANGE. I would, but I can't find where the text is being transcluded from. [Previously unsigned comment added by ——DocWatson42 (talk) 06:07, 6 November 2018 (UTC)]

Infobox image
I noticed my edit to add an image to the infobox was rolled back, with the reason "I don't see how 190 million years can be summed up with artwork". After giving Adding images improves the encyclopedia a read-through, I'm inspired to open a discussion about this.

I hope we can find an image that works well. I believe File:Ciechocinek Formation Reconstruction.jpg is decently characteristic of the timespan: It depicts some dominant life, and the sight would certainly be unique to the Mesozoic. I agree it may not summarize 190 million years, but I do think it could provide a good launch point for the article.

How could the choice be improved? What, generally, should a geologic timespan's lead image depict? ——JavaRogers (talk) 00:14, 3 July 2021 (UTC)

Egregious errors
There are numerous egregious errors in this article. In just a few minutes, I noticed claims such as Temnospondyls evolved during [the Early Triassic] and would be the dominant predator for much of the Triassic (temnospondyls evolved during the Carboniferous, and are hardly the only claimant to the title of "dominant predator"), During [the Middle Jurassic], dinosaurs flourished as huge herds of sauropods, such as Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus, filled the fern prairies, chased by many new predators such as Allosaurus. [...] This epoch was the peak of the reptiles (all of those are Late Jurassic genera, and "the peak of the reptiles" is a vague claim), and The Early Cretaceous saw the expansion of seaways, and as a result, the decline and/or extinction of Laurasian sauropods. Some island-hopping dinosaurs, like Eustreptospondylus, evolved to cope with the coastal shallows and small islands of ancient Europe. Other dinosaurs rose up to fill the empty space that the Jurassic-Cretaceous extinction left behind, such as Carcharodontosaurus and Spinosaurus (none of those are Early Cretaceous genera, sauropods didn't go extinct in Laurasia, the notion of a J-K extinction is now considered unlikely last I heard...). This article needs a careful review and significant rewrites. Ornithopsis (talk) 03:18, 19 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Each of those statements should be flagged or removed if unsourced or flagged with a "failed verification" flag if the source does not support the statement. --Kent G. Budge (talk) 22:49, 19 March 2022 (UTC)

"Secondary Period" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Secondary_Period&redirect=no Secondary Period] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at until a consensus is reached. An anonymous username, not my real name 03:05, 7 March 2023 (UTC)

'Paleogeography and Tectonics' Contradictions and Gaps
The paleogeography section says "the sole major Mesozoic orogeny occurred in the Arctic", and lists several mountain ranges resulting. However, the article for the Chersky Range suggests that this is a suture zone and mentions nothing of an Arctic orogeny. Further, the section does not mention the Nevadan Orogeny, perhaps not considering it to be a "major" event. Also not considered are the Sevier Orogeny (that page states that it had begun no later than the Jurassic), and the Laramide (that pages states it had begun 80 mya, in the Cretaceous). The page for the Andean Orogeny states that that event began in the Jurassic as well. None of the orogenies listed in Category:Mesozoic orogenies are listed. The noted "Arctic orogeny" has been citation needed since July 2022. 2600:4040:9E87:2300:C44B:A416:7CEC:51AC (talk) 18:14, 20 June 2023 (UTC)

"Dodicurus era" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dodicurus_era&redirect=no Dodicurus era] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached. Tollens (talk) 23:29, 1 December 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Mesozoic