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pounceSILVER Member
All the neurotic makings of America's lesser known sweetheart
9,831 posts
Location: body in Las Vegas, heart all around the world, USA


Posted:
post all your random facts here smile

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.

I was always scared with my mother's obsession with the good scissors. It made me wonder if there were evil scissors lurking in the house somewhere.

Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

**giggles**


Madam FlameBRONZE Member
Satisfying HOPs Lust For Fire
308 posts
Location: Salem, Oregon, USA


Posted:
It has been said that daddy long legs spiders are the most poisonist spiders in the world if only their fangs were long enough to penetrate human flesh, but this is not true. I just saw a show called Myth Busters where these two guys set out to bust urban myths like this. They measured the length of the spiders fangs & they are long enough to penetrate skin. Then they stuck their arm in a tube filled with the spiders and recieved many bites, none of which did anything more than too give a sting and a small raised bump. So never fear!!! Daddy Long Legs are another of God's harmless creatures.

Never settle for normal.devil
Average thinking brings average results.


StoneTBRONZE Member
Member
114 posts
Location: Plymouth, UK


Posted:
Written by: ...{homemadeSA}...


"Jesus wept" ---- is the shortest sentence in the english language!



umm
Surely not?
What about: "I wept."?
Or even: "OK."?
wink

You can get 50% discount on Saudi Arabian Airlines if you are blind. Apparently an implimentation of a blind member of the Saudi royal family biggrin

Mags - watching police torches drawing closer - runs over to his poi:
"Maybe now would be a good time to have another burn, we might not get another chance..."


Madam FlameBRONZE Member
Satisfying HOPs Lust For Fire
308 posts
Location: Salem, Oregon, USA


Posted:
Feefairy brought up something about weird laws & I know America has alot of what we call blue laws, because of the blue paper they were often written on. I looked some of them up. Some are still on the books & some have been taken off. Either way, imagine what would have had to have happened for these to have ever been put on the law books to begin with!!!

-- Women aren't allowed to wear patent-leather shoes in Cleveland, Ohio
- a man might see the reflection of something "he oughtn't!"

-- No woman may have sex with a man while riding in an ambulance within
the boundaries of Tremonton, Utah. If caught, the woman can be charged
with a sexual misdemeanor and "her name is to be published in the local
newspaper." The man isn't charged nor is his name revealed.

-- It is illegal for any member of the Nevada Legislature to conduct
official business wearing a penis costume while the legislature is in
session.



As I find more blue laws or otherwise usless information I'll post it.

Never settle for normal.devil
Average thinking brings average results.


Madam FlameBRONZE Member
Satisfying HOPs Lust For Fire
308 posts
Location: Salem, Oregon, USA


Posted:
I found a huge listing of different phobias on a web site. check these ones out.

Alektorophobia: Fear of chickens.

Anglophobia: Fear of England, English culture, etc.

Bolshephobia: Fear of Bolsheviks.

Chaetophobia: Fear of hair.

Cyberphobia: Fear of computers or working on a computer

Dutchphobia: Fear of the Dutch

Never settle for normal.devil
Average thinking brings average results.


Xopher (aka Mr. Clean)enthusiast
456 posts
Location: Hoboken, New Jersey, USA


Posted:
Hmm, don't know what happened to my last post.

"Go!" is a shorter sentence than "Jesus wept." The latter may be the shortest sentence in the Bible, but the Bible, as you will have observed, is not the English language.

The "Blue Law" is technically the law that says most types of establishments can't be open for business on a Sunday.

According to this, they're not called "blue" because they were written on blue paper. 'Blue' is an 18th Century term for old-fashioned or puritanical. 'Bluenose' is a stuffy, conservative person -- like someone who won't let you spin fire on the beach. Just for a random example.

"If you didn't like something the first time, the cud won't be any good either." --Elsie the Cow, Ruminations


...{SAFE}..."if i jump in the fire, will you?"
633 posts
Location: USA, wishing I was in SA


Posted:
tugela falls in the mountains of the drakensburg , south africa , is the 2nd highest in the world!!!

i like breaking the Law frown , of Gravity wink !


Madam FlameBRONZE Member
Satisfying HOPs Lust For Fire
308 posts
Location: Salem, Oregon, USA


Posted:

The "Blue Law" is technically the law that says most types of establishments can't be open for business on a Sunday.

According to this, they're not called "blue" because they were written on blue paper. 'Blue' is an 18th Century term for old-fashioned or puritanical. 'Bluenose' is a stuffy, conservative person -- like someone who won't let you spin fire on the beach. Just for a random example.




I've seen this site too, however, in the Encyclopedia Britanica, it does say that Blue Laws were written on Blue paper. If I can find the web site I'll post it later. But either way, they're still funny laws to have ever had on the books.

Never settle for normal.devil
Average thinking brings average results.


Xopher (aka Mr. Clean)enthusiast
456 posts
Location: Hoboken, New Jersey, USA


Posted:
Britanicca (how the heck DO you spell that) says that? What year's Brittanica? Or Britannica? Or whatever?

"If you didn't like something the first time, the cud won't be any good either." --Elsie the Cow, Ruminations


Madam FlameBRONZE Member
Satisfying HOPs Lust For Fire
308 posts
Location: Salem, Oregon, USA


Posted:
Oops made a mistake...the encyclopedia is actually The Columbia Electronic 6th Edition Copyright 2004, Columbia University Press. Check out this web site.
www.factmonster.com/ce6/society/A0807990.html

Never settle for normal.devil
Average thinking brings average results.


Xopher (aka Mr. Clean)enthusiast
456 posts
Location: Hoboken, New Jersey, USA


Posted:
OK. Boo-boos get into reference works all the time, you know? The blue-paper story never seemed all that plausible to me. We'll see how it plays out (next couple decades or so).

Blood has about the same salinity as seawater. This is not a coincidence. Don't go shooting up seawater to find out, though; all I'm saying is it won't be the salinity that kills you, not that you won't die.

"If you didn't like something the first time, the cud won't be any good either." --Elsie the Cow, Ruminations


Madam FlameBRONZE Member
Satisfying HOPs Lust For Fire
308 posts
Location: Salem, Oregon, USA


Posted:
Written by: Xopher


OK. Boo-boos get into reference works all the time, you know? The blue-paper story never seemed all that plausible to me. We'll see how it plays out (next couple decades or so).





Yeah, it doesn't really matter what kind of paper they were or were not printed on because either way, they're funny as hell. Here are a few more for everyone's laughing pleasure.

In Illinois, the law is that a car must be driven with the steering wheel.

In Memphis, Tennessee, a woman is not to drive a car unless a man warns approaching motorists or pedestrians by walking in front of the car that is being driven.

In Rochester, Michigan, the law is that anyone bathing in public must have the bathing suit inspected by a police officer !

In Virginia, chickens cannot lay eggs before 8:00 a.m., and must be done before 4:00 p.m.

In the state of Colorado, a pet cat, if loose, must have a tail-light !

In California, a law created in 1925 makes it illegal to wiggle while dancing. ubbloco

Never settle for normal.devil
Average thinking brings average results.


DominoSILVER Member
UnNatural Scientist - Currently working on a Breville-legged monkey
757 posts
Location: Bath Uni or Shrewsbury, UK


Posted:
There are no original parts of Cher left. Probably.

Also, check out www.dumblaws.com

Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I can beat the world into submission.


...{SAFE}..."if i jump in the fire, will you?"
633 posts
Location: USA, wishing I was in SA


Posted:
Written by: Xopher


"Go!" is a shorter sentence than "Jesus wept." The latter may be the shortest sentence in the Bible, but the Bible, as you will have observed, is not the English language.






"go" has no subject. in the true sence of the English language this is the shortest ... since the begining of the english language... ! not the american english language, the English language biggrin

i like breaking the Law frown , of Gravity wink !


Xopher (aka Mr. Clean)enthusiast
456 posts
Location: Hoboken, New Jersey, USA


Posted:
Ahem! Commands are perfectly valid sentences. The subject is understood but not expressed.

And even if you were correct, which you're not, how about "It is," the answer to "Is it _____?" where _____ is just about anything ('red', 'a sheep', 'noblesse oblige', 'the Queen of England'). "Are you the Queen of England?" "I am." Even shorter! "Do you take this man yadda yadda 'til death do you part?" "I do."

All these sentences are recognized as valid by native speakers of English in England, Oz, America, and on the Indian Subcontinent.

"If you didn't like something the first time, the cud won't be any good either." --Elsie the Cow, Ruminations


MiGGOLD Member
Self-Flagellation Expert
3,414 posts
Location: Bogged at CG, Australia


Posted:
there are currently more people that speak klingon than there are speak native Apache. i think i saw that on discovery or something.

"beg beg grovel beg grovel"
"master"
--FSA

"There was an arse there, i couldn't help myself"
--Rougie


Xopher (aka Mr. Clean)enthusiast
456 posts
Location: Hoboken, New Jersey, USA


Posted:
There are more Wiccans than Quakers in the United States.

The Big Reservation in the Southwestern US is about the same geographical size as New England.

Newark, NJ and Queens, NY are tied for the most ethnically diverse place in the entire world. (No, I don't know how they measured this or what criteria they used.)

The English language has more words in it than any other modern language, and more than any language ever except Ancient Greek. It includes borrowed words from just about every language you can imagine, including Irish Gaelic (adj. 'smashing', n. 'slew'), Nahuatl ('chocolate', 'avocado', 'ocelot'), and Ancient Egyptian ('oasis').

"If you didn't like something the first time, the cud won't be any good either." --Elsie the Cow, Ruminations


...{SAFE}..."if i jump in the fire, will you?"
633 posts
Location: USA, wishing I was in SA


Posted:
Written by: Xopher


Ahem! Commands are perfectly valid sentences. The subject is understood but not expressed.





Xopher's arrogance shines through.

homemadeSA continues forward with the thread, mindless of Xopher's attempt to "prove" homemade wrong(?) about a fact???

"go on Xopher, give us another one!"

i like breaking the Law frown , of Gravity wink !


Singed Piper (formerly Mark1)resident bagpiper
342 posts
Location: Vermont, USA


Posted:
Jesus Wept is as a fact, the shortest sentence in the new testament, not the english language... the shortest sentence in the english language is infact "go!" (there are ties, i believe) commands and expletives are recognized as not needing a subject, ergo "Damn!" and "Stop!" are valid sentences. if you want a subject and verb, "I am." is also a valid sentence, with a subject (I) and a verb (am, state of being verb).

Q:What's the difference between the Great Highland Bagpipes and the Northumbrian Pipes?
A:The Great Highland Pipes burn longer.


MiGGOLD Member
Self-Flagellation Expert
3,414 posts
Location: Bogged at CG, Australia


Posted:
ok, lets just drop it, and get on with the random facts, hey guys? get on with stuff like:

scientists have managed to make light go 300 times the speed of light, using a cesium filled chamber. somehow, the light exited the chamber before it had finished entering it.

Deep blue is the only computer to have beaten an international chess grand master

There is a computer somewhere, called deep mountain or something, used for atomic explosion simulations, that can perform more calculations in a second than a human with a pen and paper could in some incredibly long period of time (100000 years or something stupid like that).

"beg beg grovel beg grovel"
"master"
--FSA

"There was an arse there, i couldn't help myself"
--Rougie


Madam FlameBRONZE Member
Satisfying HOPs Lust For Fire
308 posts
Location: Salem, Oregon, USA


Posted:
Thanks Mig for putting this thread back on it's original track. I recently heard that scientists have decided that the color of space is not black or even dark blue, but a green color. Why scientists should care what color space "trully is", is beyond me.

Never settle for normal.devil
Average thinking brings average results.


Singed Piper (formerly Mark1)resident bagpiper
342 posts
Location: Vermont, USA


Posted:
wait a tick, i believe the cesium filled chamber was used to slow light to a speed of 30 kph... a later experiment in the midwest us stopped light entirely this spring... also an effect called quantum tunneling exists, whereby, an object travelling very quickly towards a solid barrier has a non-zero chance of traversing the space occupied by the object in precisely zero time and not actually occupying the space the barrier occupied. this has been tested by splitting a laser beam in two and passing the two beams towards a light sensor, having one contact a 10 micron thick gold plate (not sure of this measurement) before reaching the sensor... the beam that hit the gold plate arrived before the other beam.

Q:What's the difference between the Great Highland Bagpipes and the Northumbrian Pipes?
A:The Great Highland Pipes burn longer.


Nephtysresident fridge magnet
835 posts
Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands


Posted:
Branwell Bronte, brother of Emily and Charlotte, died standing up leaning against a mantlepiece, in order to prove that it could be done.

Young sloths are so inept that they frequently grab their own arms and legs in stead of tree limbs, and fall out of trees biggrin

everyone's unique except me


Tao StarPooh-Bah
1,662 posts
Location: Bristol


Posted:
no way! i just read this entire thread, and got to the end, and right there is the thng i ws going to post!!!

so you know about bramwell bronte, but did you know that the trans siberian express is completely straight except for a small kink becasue the emperor who comissioned it drew the line with a ruler that had a notch in it, and they followed the plan exactly!

I had a dream that my friend had a
strong-bad pop up book,
it was the book of my dreams.


Singed Piper (formerly Mark1)resident bagpiper
342 posts
Location: Vermont, USA


Posted:
being an unofficial fact checker, where did you get your info tao star? i'm looking at a map of the trans-siberian railway, and it doesn't look very straight to me... also, since when was czar Alexander III an emperor?



https://www.transsib.ru/Map/transsib-passenger-eng.gif



by the way, the last three facts were from Douglas Adams, who is highly unreliable when it comes to facts.

Q:What's the difference between the Great Highland Bagpipes and the Northumbrian Pipes?
A:The Great Highland Pipes burn longer.


Singed Piper (formerly Mark1)resident bagpiper
342 posts
Location: Vermont, USA


Posted:
Time for my gigantic fact checking response.....



seawater has an average salinity of 3.5%. blood has an average salinity of .9%. that make sea water four times saltier than blood... not the same... that is why drinking seawater eventually makes you thirstier, whereas drinking a "neutral saline solution"(.9% salt) has basically no effect, positive or negative



the stories of people buying human adrenal glands for drugs are urban legends... if people wanted tu use adrenaline as a drug, there is a perscription drug know as dexamethosone which produces the exact same effects and is much easier to obtain... i know this because, in preparation for a blood sugar test (no i'm not diabetic), I was perscribed two .5 milligram oral pills. and i was jazzed all night



the shortest panagram possible is "Mr. Jock, TV quiz Ph.D., bags few lynx" (26 letters), however some people could argue its coherence



the statement that water is the only substance that is a liquid solid and gas in nature only holds true in normal circumstances. many elements that are solid on the surface of the earth are liquified and vaporized by such sources of heat as volcanic eruption mercury freezes at -38 degrees fahrenheit (not as cold as a VT winter) and boils at 674 degrees fahrenheit (cooler than liquid magma) ergo, at least in small amounts several elements can be in all three common states in nature



the story of Khay Rahnajet and his letter bomb was first featured in a magazine as a JOKE, it never happened. however, it has become so prolific that he is an unconfirmed entry for a darwin award.



you will only sleep one third of your life if you get the recommended eight hours a night... i know i don't, and fewer and fewer people do



by no means is one in five miles of the eisenhower interstate system straight. here's some proof: snopes: https://www.snopes.com/autos/law/airstrip.asp

and some more: a strip of I-91 in VT... find the straight mile: https://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?cou...arch=++Search++



although a large amount of us currency has traces of cocaine on it, it is mostly due to transfer of cocaine from a bill to an atm machine or coke machine's rollers and spread from there to other bills... also, several studies have been conducted to find how much us currency contains cocaine, no two studies have reached even similar answers, so the percentage given is, at best, the result of one study (source: snopes).



the sony camcorders that saw through clothing were using a new technology for night vision, and the clothing they could see through was only that which was very thin and, rather than being opaque, relied on scattering light that hit it, so that the human eye would only see the light reflected off its pigments... therefore the clothing was restricted to extremely flimsy clothing and some swimsuits... not really all that bad, as it only became apparent when using the night vision system in daylight on people with flimsy clothing... ergo only people trying to see through clothing saw anything.



people do not swallow 8 spiders a year, its false folklore, see snopes: https://www.snopes.com/science/stats/spiders.htm



many people can do the foot twirly thing, its just a matter of seperating left and right brain motor control... i can do it the challenge is just that people who have never tried are unlikely to achieve it in one sitting

Q:What's the difference between the Great Highland Bagpipes and the Northumbrian Pipes?
A:The Great Highland Pipes burn longer.


NYCNYC
9,232 posts
Location: NYC, NY, USA


Posted:
Written by: ...{homemadeSA}...


Written by: Xopher


Ahem! Commands are perfectly valid sentences. The subject is understood but not expressed.





Xopher's arrogance shines through.

homemadeSA continues forward with the thread, mindless of Xopher's attempt to "prove" homemade wrong(?) about a fact???

"go on Xopher, give us another one!"




Xopher was simply giving more miscellaneous data. "Go" is a complete English sentence.

In English, when conjugating in the imperative, the subject "you" is understood. The same would be true in French or Italian and many other languages.

Yet another Miscellaneous Fact for you.

I didn't see any arrogance either. At least not in his post.

Well, shall we go?
Yes, let's go.
[They do not move.]


Xopher (aka Mr. Clean)enthusiast
456 posts
Location: Hoboken, New Jersey, USA


Posted:
Singed Piper, nifty pangram! Thanks, though I think its coherence is, as you say, dubious. But way cool anyway.

NYC, I think the definition of 'fact' may be at issue. But this thread is too much fun to get bogged down in that stuff!

Fans of Bambi may be surprised to learn that wolves are actually very social, family-oriented creatures, while deer are selfish and disgusting.

Wolves have a very high body temperature. I can't remember whether a healthy wolf has a body temp of 105F or 115F, but it's hot enough that a human would be really sick to have it.

The Spanish name 'Lopez' means 'son of the wolf' and thus is an exact translation of 'Wolfson'. I'm told, and am not sure I believe, that 'Gonzalez' means 'son of the dwarf warrior'. I know of no corresponding English name.

Speaking of patronymics, in Iceland surnames as we understand them are not used. If your name is Ivar Olafssen, your sister's second name would be Olafsdottir, and your son's second name would be Ivarssen. Phone books are arranged by first name, which if you come to think is just as distinctive as by patronymic.

Mexico has a much larger area than Alaska. The fact that Alaska looks bigger on a Mercator projection map is an artifact of the projection, which makes things far from the equator look much bigger than things close to it. Hint: Mercator was from Germany, a country in the northernmost 1/3 of the world.

'Ronald Wilson Reagan' is an anagram of 'Insane Anglo Warlord'. 'Episcopal' is an anagram of 'Pepsicola'.

"If you didn't like something the first time, the cud won't be any good either." --Elsie the Cow, Ruminations


Nephtysresident fridge magnet
835 posts
Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands


Posted:
Sigh...... piper, you spoilsport, this is meant to be fun, not acurate! smile

So, apparently, a piece of French toast that was partially eaten by Justin Timberlake sold on eBay for $1025

And no, I did not double-check that because I think the world is a more amusing place if it's true!

everyone's unique except me


Singed Piper (formerly Mark1)resident bagpiper
342 posts
Location: Vermont, USA


Posted:
i think its more fun if accurate, that way, if you spout one of these off to a mate at the pub, you don't get your arse handed to you



also you'll be glad to know that abcnews.com verified the french toast fact

Q:What's the difference between the Great Highland Bagpipes and the Northumbrian Pipes?
A:The Great Highland Pipes burn longer.


Xopher (aka Mr. Clean)enthusiast
456 posts
Location: Hoboken, New Jersey, USA


Posted:
Wait, don't we have to call it Freedom Toast? (I'm kidding; I think that whole thing was stoooooopid.)

To me a 'fact' is something that's not only true, but verifiable. So while it may be true that the Goa'uld built the pyramids, it's definitely not a fact.

All mine are true AFAIK. Singed Piper corrected me on one or two.

Back to facts: It may surprise people in Europe and Oz to learn that Americans commonly believe that Columbus discovered that the world was round. This is a myth, apparently invented by Washington Irving.

For the Americans reading this: Western Europe has known the Earth is round at least since the Classical period. What Columbus thought was that the world was smaller than was commonly believed, and that a shorter route to India could be found by going west.

He was wrong. The other people were right. The shortest route to India goes east from Europe, and the world is the size everyone except Columbus thought it was.

"If you didn't like something the first time, the cud won't be any good either." --Elsie the Cow, Ruminations


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