Be generous. Go on. Share a Fact or two. [Archive]

Burt

05-02-2006, 03:54 AM

Right, we all know amazing things that others don't. So share them with each other.
Brighten up someone's day.

Sharks are the only animals apparently never to fall ill. As far as it's known, they are immune to every disease including cancer!

And

The shortest War ever was between the UK and Zanzibar. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.

Gatac

05-02-2006, 06:34 AM

Italy once fielded a machinegun that didn't eject spent cases, but instead fed them neatly back into the magazine. This required an additional automatic greasing of ammo before being fed into the gun.

By all accounts, it worked, even if it was totally impractical.

(Note that similar systems are commonly used for autocannons built into airplanes, where foreign object damage to the engines from flying cases are a very real danger.)

Also, in the first World War, the German Army built the so-called Paris Gun, a massive piece of (barely portable) artillery that could shoot 150 kilometers far. It was an ineffective terror weapon at best, but the French had the gun destroyed and hunted down every technical drawing of the weapon system after the war - presumably afraid of anything of this scale ever being built again.

(Militaria is full of these things. Really.)

Gatac

richardson

05-02-2006, 10:52 AM

Florida panhandle sand is so clean and perfect that it squeaks when you walk on it. (Personal experience, plus expert opinion. Every time they test worldwide beach sands, Panhandlian sand comes in the top three every time.)

However, WE DON'T NEED MORE TOURISTS, SO please... *Calms down* Stay home.

Hejira

05-02-2006, 11:41 AM

The shortest War ever was between the UK and Zanzibar. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.

Zanzibar is also the bestest map evar. WHEE window smashfest and stuff.

Cats prefer purple.

The Turkish Van breed of cat not only tolerates water, it loves it. Its fur is designed for swimming, so don't pour oil over it or anything.

Alexia

05-02-2006, 12:05 PM

The shortest War ever was between the UK and Zanzibar. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.

Zanzibar is also the bestest map evar. WHEE window smashfest and stuff.

Don't you mean Wii?

Lostoyannaya

05-02-2006, 01:48 PM

1. The whole Lemmings-off-a-cliff-for-no-reason thing is a myth. They only, in fact, used to do it when their population hit a certain number ceiling. Since then, their population has declined and they haven't done it for over one hundred years :D

2. Bulls are colourblind, and therefore do not go after red capes. This is also a myth.

3. Orsen Wells hated the semi-colon so much he once wrote a book without containing a single one.

4. The Cockney expression "'Cor Blimey" in it's original form was "God Blind Me". It was corrupted by the accent and by writers writing it phonetically.

~~Lostoyannnaya :D

Derek

05-02-2006, 02:11 PM

Florida panhandle sand is so clean and perfect that it squeaks when you walk on it.
What's interesting to me is that I had no idea other sand didn't squeak. (I mean, sure, sandbox sand and volleyball sand doesn't, but I figured all beach sand squeaked.)

However, WE DON'T NEED MORE TOURISTS, SO please... *Calms down* Stay home.
And the other interesting thing is that I missed richardson being from the Panhandle. Where are you from, richardson?

Sa'ar Chasm

05-02-2006, 02:52 PM

Fact: Contrary to popular belief, Ottawa isn't the coldest national capital in the world. It just feels like it sometimes (although not this winter).

Derek

05-02-2006, 03:29 PM

Fact: Your mom... never had... a mohawk. She plays... bingo,... bowls,... and she wonders,... "Why can't you chew a nice stick of gum like your father?"

PointyHairedJedi

05-02-2006, 11:18 PM

(Ironic) Fact: Reginald Mitchell, designer of the Supermarine Spitfire, generally held to be one of the most beautiful fighter aircraft ever built, was born near and grew up in... Stoke-on-Trent.
(Stoke's other famous sons includeE.E. Smith, captain of the R.M.S. Titanic, the two Josiahs (Wedgewood and Spode), and some fella called Robbie Williams who fancies himself a singer).

Fact: Lewisian gneiss is the oldest rock in Britain.

Fact: I am a genius.

(One of the above may or may not be a total lie; I'll leave you to guess which.)

richardson

05-03-2006, 01:09 AM

(I'll take number three for 3000!)

There is actually oil in florida.

Ginga

05-03-2006, 02:26 AM

The shortest War ever was between the UK and Zanzibar. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.

Zanzibar is also the bestest map evar. WHEE window smashfest and stuff.

Don't you mean Wii?

No one gave a nod to this utterly fantastic joke? I'm all over any Wii jokes.

Anyway.

Something that no one knows.

Er.

Neon Genesis Evangelion went overbudget after quite a graphic episode. Why? TV Tokyo said, "OMG WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? TOO MUCH BLOOD!" and pulled a giant chunk of Gainax's money.

Or at least, that's what Wikipedia says.

e of pi

05-03-2006, 02:33 AM

Fact: The human body produces two quarts of mucus a day. Ewww..... :shock:

MaverickZer0

05-03-2006, 03:34 AM

Fact: Canada's official National Sport is Lacrosse, even though very few people know how to play.

Fact: If the entire population of China were to march through a gate, single-file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

Fact: My school has seen fit to but five two-thousand dollar air conditioners, yet we still don't have a working bell.

Fact: There is no joy in Mudville.

Go figure.

Sa'ar Chasm

05-03-2006, 04:08 AM

Canada's official National Sport is Lacrosse, even though very few people know how to play.

My cousin knows how to play. He plays professionally in various leagues, depending on whose offseason it is.

Burt

05-03-2006, 07:34 AM

I would have noticed this -
"No one gave a nod to this utterly fantastic joke? I'm all over any Wii jokes."
more, had I heard the news!
Wii?
Wii?
What kinda name is that?
Why does Nintendo hate itself?
I mean I'm all for new and exciting twists, but Wii?
Are they really saying I have to go into a shop and ask if I can have a Wii?

Hejira

05-03-2006, 07:58 AM

Wii is a cool name. It's more of a picture than a word, which is swiit.

(You're a little late, though. Some boards have set aside one thread for Wii jokes, and others have made Wii jokes a bannable offence.)

Zeke

05-03-2006, 02:43 PM

Lostoyannaya

05-03-2006, 05:17 PM

Fact: I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.

What about us shes?

~~Lostoyannaya :shock:

Chancellor Valium

05-04-2006, 07:30 AM

Fact: Lewisian gneiss is the oldest rock in Britain.

Really? I always thought it was the Beatles. (Or the Quarrymen if you want to be picky.)

Fact: I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.

Fact: Zeke is INSANE.

Fact: The last person to un-self-conciously use the verb 'ycleped' in a book was John Buchan, in his mediaeval novel, "Prester John".

KillerGodMan

05-04-2006, 11:13 PM

Fact: Zeke is INSANE.

What rock have YOU been under?

We're ALL insane

Fact: You aren't legally sane unless you have a certificate of discharge from an asylum

Fact: There actually IS a word that rhymes with orange: door-hinge

Fact: Tomatoes, Eggplants, Squash and Pumpkins are classified as 'nightshade'

MaverickZer0

05-05-2006, 01:05 AM

Fact: You can hang yourself from a ceiling fan, it's just really, really hard.

Fact: No, the Hokey-Pokey isn't what it's all about.

Fact: According to most DnD generators, 'sliver' rhymes with 'silver'.

PointyHairedJedi

05-05-2006, 10:03 AM

Really? I always thought it was the Beatles. (Or the Quarrymen if you want to be picky.)
No, they definitely aren't gneiss at all. Unlike gneiss, which is gneiss, even though it was either completely igneous or a bit sedimentary beforehand.

Another gneiss fact: The oldest known crustal rocks in the world is the Acasta gneiss outcrop in Canada's Northwest Territories which is in the region of four billion years old.

Burt

05-05-2006, 08:27 PM

Fact: England has the most well used suicide spot in the world, even overtaking the Golden Gate Bridge - Beachy Head, in Eastbourne on the south coast.
Nice to know we win at something.

Incidentally, that area is said to be haunted, with a ghostly force said to 'make people jump'.
Creepy!
I'd leave that out of the tourist brochure!

Chancellor Valium

05-10-2006, 07:28 PM

Fact: The British Crown is the last monarchy in either Europe or the world to be both anointed and crowned (Can't remember which...I'm leaning towards Europe, but I'm not sure...).

Fact: The Gospel According to St. Mark was originally written entirely in the Historic Present.

e of pi

05-10-2006, 09:08 PM

Fact: The entirety of BattleStar Galactica will cost, on iTunes, 71 dollars and change.
Fact: I am now $71 and change poorer.

richardson

05-11-2006, 02:53 AM

Fact: I only tricked you guys into thinking I was 99 years old.
I'm actually- well, better not say it either...

PointyHairedJedi

05-11-2006, 08:20 PM

It was a fib? Oh, I'm so disappointed now. :(

Fact:"Poo in the hole" isn't a phrase that you really want to hear under any circumstances. :shock:

PointyHairedJedi

05-12-2006, 06:26 PM

Fact: It's been announced that the browser built into the Wii will be... Opera. So that's another item to add to my list of Reasons Why Opera Is Really Cool (bringing it to a grand total of... well, four, but I only started yesterday).

Burt

05-12-2006, 10:35 PM

I'm not really sure why, but I've become quite addicted to 'Wikkipedia', and so have found out the most amazing things, about stuff I shouldn't really care about....which brings me to:

Fact: A banana is classed as a 'Herb', due to the lack of wood in the plant and that it dies soon after picking.

Fact: (I think this will be understood by people most in Britain) You know those little flowerly things that you can pick and blow? And people call them 'Fairy's' and make wish's? Well they are infact Dandelions! Just older! This is something that shocked me and my family.
I've missed so much in my life.

mark726

05-13-2006, 02:32 AM

We have those over here too, I assure you. You're supposed to make a wish before you blow them...spreading dandelions EVERYWHERE.

Fact: It takes, on average, 6 million years for a photon from the center of the sun to make it to the surface...and then only 8 minutes to get to the Earth when it finally gets out.

Hejira

05-13-2006, 07:31 AM

Sounds like it's like waiting to ride the Miscellaneous Big Slide at a Miscellaneous Water Park.

"Damn, big line. Okay, I'll wait wait wait wait GAWD it's hot here, I'm getting sunburnt, what, is Homer Simpson stuck in the pipe or something? Come on come on come on we're almost half way there tick tock tick tock tick tock I could have been on so many other rides by now waiting waiting waiting growing a melanoma MY TURN! WHEEEEEEEEE *splash* That was great!"

Burt

05-13-2006, 10:49 AM

Good god, that sounds like most of the times I've been to a Theme Park. You want to start gnawing off your arm - just to have something to do.
I swear Madonna was at a Theme park when she wrote her last(ish) song 'Hung up'.
"Time goes by, so slowly, slowly....time goes by, so slowly, slowly......."

PointyHairedJedi

05-14-2006, 02:58 PM

Fact: It takes, on average, 6 million years for a photon from the center of the sun to make it to the surface...and then only 8 minutes to get to the Earth when it finally gets out.
The Sun, like most stars, isn't even slightly signposted, so the poor photons have no idea which way is'out'. It's one of the main reasons why the Sun ranks so low as a tourist destination, though the horribly fatal radiation levels probably have something to with that too.

mark726

05-15-2006, 05:41 AM

Fact: It's illegal to sell anything that has the Seal of the President of the United States on it.

Which, given the goings on in Washington, is actually pretty ironic.

Chancellor Valium

05-16-2006, 07:25 PM

Fact: Doctor Who is the longest running science fiction series ever.

Fact: Peter Sellers plays three different roles in the film Dr. Strangelove.

PointyHairedJedi

05-16-2006, 09:46 PM

Chancellor Valium

05-17-2006, 07:28 PM

Fact: Doctor Who is the longest running science fiction series ever.
TV series, certainly. The Perry Rhodan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan) literary series has been published non-stop since 1961 - as of the end of 2005 there are over 2300 installments - and there are several spin-offs to boot. Not bad going at all, really.

multi-format series, actually. I count 1989-2005 publications as canon. Otherwise it's not, and we open the debate over whether the Twilight Zone ran for longer...

PointyHairedJedi

05-17-2006, 08:39 PM

If you want to argue the toss, there have been Perry Rhodan comics so it could be said to be multi-format too. :P

Seriously, you consider the books to be canon? That concept hardly even applies to the series, let alone the novels. And then you've got to consider the webcasts as being canon (REG and all), and that means you've got to consider the Big Finish audios to be canon as well! It's really just easier for everyone if you don't use that word in the first place - causes waay more problems that it could possibly resolve.

Burt

05-19-2006, 01:43 AM

The sky at night, is the longest running TV show, with the same host:
One Sir Patrick Moore.
And I've met him.
And he's nice.

Chancellor Valium

05-19-2006, 09:34 AM

PointyHairedJedi

05-19-2006, 01:01 PM

The sky at night, is the longest running TV show, with the same host:
One Sir Patrick Moore.
And I've met him.
And he's nice.
Did he play the xylophone for you?

Valium, I shall have to look at that later. The net filter at the library doesn't seem to like Geocities at all.

Chancellor Valium

05-19-2006, 02:20 PM

It could take you a few years. Especially the War bit...

Zeke

05-20-2006, 07:17 AM

We have those over here too, I assure you. You're supposed to make a wish before you blow them...spreading dandelions EVERYWHERE.

"I wish for lots of dandelions."

Fact: Napoleon Bonaparte loved geometry. The theorem (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/NapoleonsTheorem.html) named after him, which he may well have really discovered, states that given any triangle, if you erect equilateral triangles on each side, their centres are themselves at the corners of an equilateral triangle.

Lostoyannaya

05-21-2006, 11:11 AM

Fact: Losty finds mathematics harder than defying quantum physics.

Fact: tomato ketchup has 0 calories, no matter how much you eat/drink (depending on your addiction).

~~Lostoyannaya :wink:

Chancellor Valium

05-28-2006, 11:13 PM

Fact: The longest running monarch in the history of the Earth is still Pepy II, who reigned as Pharaoh for 90 years.

mark726

06-07-2006, 06:14 AM

Fact: Your smallest toe is vestigial.

Zeke

06-07-2006, 08:25 AM

Actually, that sounds more like opinion to me. There's no perfect dividing line between vestigial and non-.

Fact: There's exactly one even perfect number for each Mersenne prime. We don't know whether there are infinitely many perfect numbers, or whether any are odd.

mark726

06-07-2006, 05:38 PM

*shrugs* A book told me it, so I assumed it was correct. Apparently, it has been shrinking in size since we lost the ability to grasp things with our feet.

mudshark

06-08-2006, 05:12 PM

Fact: Porcupines float.

1. The whole Lemmings-off-a-cliff-for-no-reason thing is a myth. They only, in fact, used to do it when their population hit a certain number ceiling. Since then, their population has declined and they haven't done it for over one hundred years :D Even when they did, it was purely by accident. Blame Disney (http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.htm) for starting the myth.

Celeste

06-08-2006, 06:04 PM

Fact: In England, in the 1880’s, “Pants” was considered a dirty word.

hehehehe Pants.

PointyHairedJedi

06-08-2006, 10:56 PM

Good heavens, dear lady, your ankles are showing! For the sake of decency, cover yourself at once! :shock:

Fact: It is in fact Ireland, not the UK, that is the largest per capita consumer of tea in the world. The UK is actually the second largest consumer (for which I of course lay the blame solely on Starbucks).

Hejira

06-09-2006, 12:22 AM

Fact: Porcupines float.

Fact: Not when you stand on them.

e of pi

06-11-2006, 12:27 AM

Fact: We have moved. Let the ritual posting of pie images commence!

mudshark

06-11-2006, 05:27 AM

Fact: Not when you stand on them.
Yes ... well, that would tend to interfere with their buoyancy somewhat.

PointyHairedJedi

06-11-2006, 10:10 AM

Fact: mudshark is a Senior Member.

:D

mudshark

06-11-2006, 11:30 AM

And don't you forget it. :p

Chancellor Valium

06-18-2006, 02:23 PM

Fact: The day before D-Day, all the codewords appeared in the Daily Telegraph crossword.

PointyHairedJedi

06-18-2006, 02:52 PM

Really? Well, if Morse had been working for the Germans then we'd have all been buggered.

Was it just coincidence, or something stranger?

Chancellor Valium

06-19-2006, 05:48 PM

Who knows?

And why would you need Morse for a crossword?

PointyHairedJedi

06-19-2006, 08:25 PM

Because he was really good at them. I believe he had a sideline in solving crime too.

EDIT: And, I suppose while I'm at it -

Fact: Barrington Pheloung, who wrote the theme and incidental music for Inspector Morse, included the name of the murderer in morse code at the beginning of each episode, though sometimes deliberately used the wrong one as a red herring.

Chancellor Valium

06-19-2006, 09:20 PM

Fact: The earliest humour is The Satire of the Trades, by the Scribe Ani. Its rubbish, like most ancient jokes.

mudshark

06-21-2006, 01:29 PM

Satirists also figured importantly in the early, pre-Celtic societies in the British isles -- they served to keep the clan chieftains and the priests from getting too full of themselves.