You Learn Somin new everyday eh?

Author Message
Mass X
  • Total Posts : 4491
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Mar 22, 2004
  • Location: Plymouth, MN
You Learn Somin new everyday eh? - May 20, 2004 00:31
Yes, a list of useless facts..lots and lots of them!



The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television was Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

Coca-Cola was originally green.

The Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters.

City with the most Rolls Royces per capita: Hong Kong.

State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska.

Percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%
Percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%

Barbie' s measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33.

Cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400

Average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000.

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

The world' s youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.

The youngest pope was 11 years old.

First novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.

The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history.
Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne, and Diamonds - Julius Caesar.

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn' t added until 5 years later.

" I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

The term " the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got " the whole 9 yards."

Hershey' s Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it' s kissing the conveyor belt.

The phrase " rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law, which stated that you couldn' t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.

The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the " General Purpose" vehicle, G.P.

The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

The first NFL team that plays its home games in a domed stadium to win a Superbowl was the St. Louis Rams in 1999.

The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League all-stars Game

The nursery rhyme Ring Around the Rosy is a rhyme about the plague. Infected people with the plague would get red circular sores (" Ring around the rosy..." ), these sores would smell very badly so common folks would put flowers on their bodies somewhere (inconspicuously), so that it would cover the smell of the sores (" ...a pocket full of posies..." ), People who died from the plague would be burned so as to reduce the possible spread of the disease (" ...ashes, ashes, we all fall down!" )

Q. What separates " 60 Minutes," on CBS from every other TV show?
A. No theme song.

Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?
A. Their birthplace.

Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested?
A. Obsession

Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter " A" ?
A. One thousand

Q. What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers all have in common?
A. All invented by women.

Q. This is the only food that doesn' t spoil.
A. Honey

Q. There are more collect calls on this day than any other day of the year.
A. Father' s Day

Q. What trivia fact about Mel Blanc (voice of Bugs Bunny) is the most ironic?
A. He was allergic to carrots.

40% of all people who come to a party snoop in your medicine cabinet.

An apple, onion, and potato all have the same taste. The differences in flavor are caused by their smell. To prove this you can pinch your nose and take a bite from each. They will all taste sweet.

The estimated number of M & M' s sold each day in the United States is 200,000,000.

Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave.

Wine will spoil if exposed to light, hence tinted bottles.

A hard-boiled egg will spin. An uncooked or soft-boiled egg will not. (I' m going home to boil an egg tonight)

Domestic cats hate lemons or other citrus scents.

Every citizen of Kentucky is required by law to take a bath at least once a year.

Parker Brothers prints about 50 billion dollars worth of Monopoly money in one year. (which is more than real money printed in a year)

203 million dollars is spent on barbed wire each year in the U.S.

No word in the English language rhymes with " month" .

If you put a raisin in a champagne bottle, it will rise and fall continuously.

The letter J does not appear ANYWHERE in the periodic table of elements.

In Canada, if a debt is higher than 25 cents, it is illegal to pay it with pennies.

Impotence is grounds for divorce in 24 states in the United States.

Federal law forbids recycling used eyeglasses in the United States

If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in U.S. coins without being able to make change for a dollar

If you are hedenophobic, you have a fear of pleasure.

" Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.

If you toss a penny 10,000 times, it will not be heads 5,000 times, but more like 4,950. The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom more often.

The longest word that can be typed solely with the left hand is stewardess

There is only ONE word in the English language with THREE CONSECUTIVE SETS OF DOUBLE LETTERS.... Bookkeeper

Cleveland spelled backwards is " DNA level C."

The # symbols is often referred to as a " number sign" or " pound sign." Its actual name is an octothorpe

The letter " W" is the only letter in the alphabet that doesn' t have just one syllable – it has three.

The letters in the abbreviation e.g. stand for exempli gratia – a Latin term meaning " for example."

Women blink nearly twice as much as men do.

This one is deep...think about the cultural impact this could have: NO WAR HAS BEEN FOUGHT WHERE BOTH COUNTRIES HAD A McDonalds

For the " wrong handed" people...Over 2500 left handed people a year are killed from using products made for right handed people! That means DEATH to Lefties

The sentence " The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog." uses every letter of the alphabet!

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is " uncopyrightable" !

A cockroach can live several weeks with its head cut off - it dies from starvation.

The state of Florida is bigger than England!

The youngest person to give birth was a five-yr. old tribal girl (C-Section of course)
< Message edited by Mass X -- 5/26/2004 1:51:30 PM >

Rikka
  • Total Posts : 933
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Feb 07, 2004
  • Location: Canada
RE: List of Useless Facts - May 20, 2004 05:05
Interesting, some of that I knew, some of that is wrong and some of that I have heard other/conflicting " facts" . All in all, it means some people have WAY too much time on their hands.

No word in the English language ryhmes with orange either (well at least not until I invent/discover " florange" )

Purple and Silver do not have rhyming terms either (I am sure many colours do not either)
< Message edited by rikka -- 5/23/2004 9:32:47 AM >

konrad
  • Total Posts : 431
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Apr 04, 2004
  • Location: PA
RE: List of Useless Facts - May 23, 2004 12:47
Wow, lots of useless stuff. How did you find all that stuff? My favorite was that coke used to be green.....amazing

MuteCity
  • Total Posts : 159
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Jul 31, 2003
RE: List of Useless Facts - May 23, 2004 17:08
Haha, useless facts are always good for a laugh. Thanks mass!
Change coke back to green! ... I' m kidding.

Idekii
  • Total Posts : 52
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: May 22, 2004
  • Location: Somewhere... or nowhere
RE: List of Useless Facts - May 24, 2004 04:17
You know, one of these days some wide-eyed young marketing exec at Coke is going to actually propose that idea, and it will somehow become a reality.

Or not.
" The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves."
-from Oedipus Rex

MuteCity
  • Total Posts : 159
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Jul 31, 2003
RE: List of Useless Facts - May 24, 2004 04:27
Wouldn' t suprise me, they turned pepsi blue.

Rikka
  • Total Posts : 933
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Feb 07, 2004
  • Location: Canada
RE: List of Useless Facts - May 24, 2004 20:44
it is just wrong on so many levels... blue pepsi, green coke. Leave' em alone! There is nothing wrong with the classic.

Mass X
  • Total Posts : 4491
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Mar 22, 2004
  • Location: Plymouth, MN
RE: List of Useless Facts - May 24, 2004 21:20
but didnt that thing say that coke was origionally green..meaning the classic would be green?

Rikka
  • Total Posts : 933
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Feb 07, 2004
  • Location: Canada
RE: List of Useless Facts - May 24, 2004 23:03
SHUSH YOU!
Wait a minute, I did some research, that is not true. Original coca-cola was not green.

And the be all end all, Snopes says:

http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/green.asp


Though this tidbit of knowledge has been widely distributed as part of an Internet " Did You Know?" list, at no time in Coca-Cola' s history has that beverage been green


BAH, the link didn' t work, but it is there.
< Message edited by rikka -- 5/24/2004 11:04:28 PM >

Rikka
  • Total Posts : 933
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Feb 07, 2004
  • Location: Canada
RE: List of Useless Facts - May 24, 2004 23:08
Yeah, I am right again, the one about the kings represented in the deck of cards is also false (that was one I had heard many other substitutes for)

Beginning to wonder how much of this list is indeed true

MuteCity
  • Total Posts : 159
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Jul 31, 2003
RE: List of Useless Facts - May 25, 2004 05:59

RE: List of Useless Facts (in reply to Mass X)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SHUSH YOU!
Wait a minute, I did some research, that is not true. Original coca-cola was not green.

And the be all end all, Snopes says:

http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/green.asp

quote:

Though this tidbit of knowledge has been widely distributed as part of an Internet " Did You Know?" list, at no time in Coca-Cola' s history has that beverage been green

BAH, the link didn' t work, but it is there.



Coke was never green? How depressing. I' ll just pretend

Mass X
  • Total Posts : 4491
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Mar 22, 2004
  • Location: Plymouth, MN
RE: List of Useless Facts - May 25, 2004 17:56
this was the shortest list of random facts. and was the only one i found on 1 page. I blame my laziness

Rikka
  • Total Posts : 933
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Feb 07, 2004
  • Location: Canada
RE: List of Useless Facts - May 25, 2004 22:57
That' s ok, I don' t blame you, I blame the internet and the lazy people who propagate random lies on it

By the way, the ring around the rosy one and the fred and wilma one are also false as well.

MuteCity
  • Total Posts : 159
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Jul 31, 2003
RE: List of Useless Facts - May 26, 2004 00:49
So true...the internet is not only a wealth of information, it' s also a wealth of misinformation.

Mass X
  • Total Posts : 4491
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Mar 22, 2004
  • Location: Plymouth, MN
RE: List of Useless Facts - May 26, 2004 01:59
wait what?! the ring around the rosey one is false?! cursed teacher of mine

MuteCity
  • Total Posts : 159
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Jul 31, 2003
RE: List of Useless Facts - May 26, 2004 02:08
Wow seriously, what is wrong with the ring around the rosy one then rikka? A lot of people think this.

Rikka
  • Total Posts : 933
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Feb 07, 2004
  • Location: Canada
RE: List of Useless Facts - May 26, 2004 04:45
it is completely false. I found several records contrary to the tidbit posted here, and then of course, my new found favourtie site Snopes gave a more thorough lowdown.

Breifly, the rhyme was written long after the plague (like a few hundred years) and there are several variants, the one alluded to in the " fact" is the modern one, which has had many alteration performed on it to date. Hmm, why don' t i just find the site again...


http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/rosie.htm

a few choice passages:

If " few people realize" that " this seemingly happy little nursery rhyme actually refers" to the Black Plague, so much the better, because the explanation presented above is nonsense. " Ring Around the Rosie" is simply a nursery rhyme of indefinite origin and no specific meaning, and someone, long after the fact, concocted an inventive " explanation" for its creation...

the earliest print appearance of " Ring Around the Rosie" did not occur until the publication of Kate Greenaway' s Mother Goose or The Old Nursery Rhymes in 1881. For the " plague" explanation of " Ring Around the Rosie" to be true, we have to believe that children were reciting this nursery rhyme continuously for over five centuries, yet not one person in that five hundred year span found it popular enough to merit writing it down....

" Ring Around the Rosie" has many different variant forms which omit some of the " plague" references or clearly have nothing whatsoever to do with death or disease


Then there are people who claim it is a devotion tio the goddess Shiva (http://hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/essays/rosy.htm)

Mass X
  • Total Posts : 4491
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Mar 22, 2004
  • Location: Plymouth, MN
RE: List of Useless Facts - May 26, 2004 13:51
Ima have to rename this thread Learning Center or somin now...

MuteCity
  • Total Posts : 159
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Jul 31, 2003
RE: List of Useless Facts - May 26, 2004 16:33
Cool site rikka, thanks for the info.

Rikka
  • Total Posts : 933
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Feb 07, 2004
  • Location: Canada
RE: You Learn Somin new everyday eh? - May 26, 2004 20:50
LOL I love the change in name.

RavenShadow
  • Total Posts : 680
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Apr 06, 2004
  • Location: Antigonish, NS (Canada)
RE: You Learn Somin new everyday eh? - May 27, 2004 01:39
Almost all nursery rhymes are dark and evil when you actually work out what it is actually saying
Think what you are telling your kids!!!!
< Message edited by RavenShadow -- 5/27/2004 1:39:26 AM >

Rikka
  • Total Posts : 933
  • Reward points : 0
  • Joined: Feb 07, 2004
  • Location: Canada
RE: You Learn Somin new everyday eh? - May 27, 2004 03:08
Well, that is not always true. Some of them are entirely innocent, and people have twisted the meanings. Don' t forget language has changed a lot over the centuries.

But then you take a look at a lot of original fairy tales, the Brother' s Grimm were pretty twisted.

immortaldanmx
  • Total Posts : 2966
  • Reward points : 9215
  • Joined: Nov 13, 2003
  • Location: Virginia, USA
RE: You Learn Somin new everyday eh? - May 27, 2004 18:14
Yes, many think that. And for those who don' t know, Shiva is the god of destruction in the Hindu religion. And it is the name of a tactical nuke. Just more useless info.
< Message edited by immortaldanmx -- 5/27/2004 6:14:59 PM >
I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.