Usless Facts

[chrismitchell]

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses.No one in Greece has memorized all 158 verses.

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

Two-thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.

The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."

On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament Building is an American flag.

All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt."

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

There are only four words in the English language which end in "-dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula"--and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: "L.A."

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

Tigers have stripped skin, not just stripped fur.

In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.

Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

The only real person to be a Pez head was Betsy Ross.

When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city.

The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life."

A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the "1" encased in the "shield" and a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.(DON'T try this @ home!)

The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.

Who's that playing the piano on the "Mad About You" theme? Paul Reiser himself.

In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

The name for Oz in the "Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz."

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

Mr.Rogers is an ordained minister.

John Lennon's first girlfriend was named Thelma Pickles.

The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

"Stewardesses" is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.

[chrismitchell]

More useless facts..................


Anyone else know any?



Federal law forbids recycling used eyeglasses in the United States.
Impotence is grounds for divorce in 24 states in the United States.

In ancient times, any Japanese who tried to leave his homeland was put to death.

In Atlanta, GA, it is illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or street lamp.

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

In early Yorkshire, England, a plate holding wedding cake was thrown out of the window as the bride returned to her parent's home after the wedding. If the plate broke, she would enjoy a happy future with her husband. If the plate remained intact, her future was bleak.

Grasping your ears is a sign of repentance or sincerity in India.

In Breton, AL there is a law against riding down the street in a motorboat.

Gift giving is very important in Japan, but extravagant gifts require an equally or slightly more extravagant gift in return

During the time of Peter the Great, any Russian who wore a beard was required to pay a special tax.

[chrismitchell]

And more!


CRAPPY ART

Michel Vienkot from France is a painter. That's not all that odd in itself, however, he paints with somewhat a different style. Specializing in the painting of cows, Michel found himeself oneday without any paint. So, he found himself some cowdung, crushed mulberries, and violets and had all the paint he needed. If this isn't strange enough, Michel is a national symbol for his artwork which sells at about $90-$240 US, and is often times found on national television for his amazing work. Imagine that...

PLAY DEAD

Believe it or not, there are actually scents made that can make your dog believe that you are dog when you actually aren't. For the low low price of $33.80 you can buy a corpse scent kit in either series one or two. The first series is for those that only want their dog to think they've been dead for 30 days and series 2 is for those that want to smell really dead. These scents are used technically for training search and rescue dogs but still, it's an odd thought. Just be glad only dogs can smell it, could be a fun prank for an ex-girlfriend (writes that down).

NOSE ORGASMS

It's hard to believe that your nose actually has erectile tissues. Sceientists from Chicago's Smell and Taste Foundation have discovered that these tissues have become inflamed when someone is well, "in the mood sexually" and the same happens when you lie. Ahhh, so little children apparently do a lot of lying or a lot of stimulating.

CANADA'S COCK

Since we apparently don't have anything on Canada and it's people besides Tom Green humping the leg of his co-workers quite frequently on his MTV show, "The Tom Green Show". We now have this, apparently in Victoria, British Columbia, some freak was found masterbating on a couch in the middle of downtown while holding onto a rooster (male chicken. Does that make him gay or just sick?) His friend stood back and took pictures the hole time. When the police arrived the two claimed they were filming for an art project. Apparently that would be the same kind of art crowding my mailbox and blocked to anyone under 18.

CROTCH BBQ! OWW!

Well, apparently some people in this world just don't understand that there are some things you just don't set on fire. These people would actually happen to be the monks of Yakushido in Shizuoka Japan. Every January in a traditional New Years celebration, they burn all of their decorations to make up for sins. Then, a buddhist priest, (probably a man-hating female) apparently takes a torch and sets their crotches on fire. So, since they burn the decorations on fire to get rid of sins, do you think this may be punishment for a certain President, cough cough *Bill Clinton*? All I know, is I'm keep that crazy fool away from me and anything flamable.

[chrismitchell]

I am on a roll today....


Most lipstick contains fish scales!

Skepticisms is the longest word that alternates hands!

One ragweed plant can release as many as one billion grains of pollen!

The first product to have a bar code was Wrigleys gum!

No piece of square dry paper can be folded in half more than 7 times!

A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle, a group of geese in the air is a skein!

Over 2500 left handed people a year are killed from using products made for right handed people!

There are more than 10 million bricks in the Empire State Building!

If you counted 24 hours a day, it would take 31,688 years to reach one trillion!

Taphephobia is the fear of being buried alive!

A crocodile always grows new teeth to replace the old teeth!

The sun is 330,330 times larger than the earth!

Clinophobia is the fear of beds!

A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second!

Porcupines float in water!

Pinocchio is Italian for "pine eye"!

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

The average life span of a major league baseball is 5-7 pitches!

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

The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds!

The sloth (a mammal) moves so slowly that green algae can grow undisturbed on it's fur!

Cat's urine glows under a black-light! The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1!

Hackney cabs in London must carry a bail of hay by law.

bookkeeper is the only english word to have 3 consecutive pairs of letters.

[Arbiter]

Behemoth is the hairiest person in the world...

[Ianpbaker]

Oi, Oi Matey

[Arbiter]

Awight monkey!!!

How's it hangin ya zany space cadet!

I'm in a funny mood today, the weekend's coming up and I'm in a party mood!

Let's rock!!!

PS - I was busy shouting abuse at you in another thread...

hey!

[Juan Carlos Rey]

Those sentences that hold all the letters are called Pangrams. The only four I know are:

1-A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog (33 letters),
2-Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs (32),
3-Quick wafting zephyrs vex bold Jim (29),
4-Waltz, nymph, for quick jigs vex Bud (28).

Another language curiosities:

Long words:

When I was at school the longest word we were told about was «antidisestablishmentarianism» (28 letters). It means, «opposition to the idea that the Church should cease to be formally recognised by the state».

The longest word in the Oxford English Dictionary is: «floccinaucinihilipilification» (29 letters). It means, «the action or habit of estimating something as worthless».

Here is another long word in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost (v. 1): `Thou art not so long by the head as «honorificabilitudinitatibus» (27 letters) . It is interesting that the word alternates vowels and consonants.

«Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllandyssiliogogogoch» (59 letters) is the name of a Welsh village in Anglesea. It means «The church of St Mary in a hollow of white hazel, near to the rapid whirlpool, and to St Tisilio's church, near to a red cave»

Wales also boasts of having a city-district called «Llwchwr», which has no consonants.

Please don´t put long words in German! Those break all world records!

[HarryW]

There's also 'Bwlch' (I think I passed through it on a car journey once) in Wales, not that anywhere in Wales is interesting, it's a God-awful place if you ask me.

Originally posted by Juan Carlos Rey

Please don´t put long words in German! Those break all world records!

I've heard one that was about 125+ letters, it was something about a girl, and a dog...

[parksie]

The word for "tank" is pretty long, too.

[Jeff_1]

1)In santa monica california..it is illegal to shoot a whale that is on the shore with a loaded shotgun no less than two miles away.

2)It is against the law to commit suicide.

3)Reasearchers have discovered that a person who does cocaine is 45% more likely to get cancer than someone who doesnt do cocaine. ( really?? *snorrrrt*
i thought it was good for my allergy )

[parksie]

No, because it's "ple" rather than "tle".

[parksie]

They have to have a similar consonant sound to rhyme. Orange and range don't rhyme because:

Orange: O-rhinge
Range: Raynge

In some us states, its illegal to kill someone with out telling them first.

The smallest working guitar is about the size of a red blood cell, http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases...uitar.ltb.html

Must be a ***** to tune something that small

[HarryW]

Longest palendrome I ever heard of is 'koortsmeetsysteemstrook'. It's Dutch.

[skimboarder]

Originally posted by honeybee
They still rhyme, though!

OK, how about Orange and Range ?

.

I think honeybee is a little high today or something. just because they end with the same letteres doesn't mean they rhyme!

[Guv]

Dynamite used to be a mixture of nitroclycerine and some inert material called Fuller's Earth. Where are peanuts in this recipe? TNT is trinitrotoluene. Is modern dynamite made with TNT. If so are there peanuts in that recipe?

I looked at a few five dollar bills, which only seem to have 26 states on the Lincoln Memorial. Did I count wrong? Are there states on the other sides of the memorial which you are including, but which do not actually show on the five dollar bill?

Originally posted by Guv
Dynamite used to be a mixture of nitroclycerine and some inert material called Fuller's Earth. Where are peanuts in this recipe? TNT is trinitrotoluene. Is modern dynamite made with TNT. If so are there peanuts in that recipe?

Dynamite used to be diatomaceous earth and nitroglycerine. But now they have added several chemicals that stabilize it further, commonly one of these is NH₄NO₃(Ammonium Nitrate, which adds power as well as stability). Dynamite is not made of TNT, dynamite has a detonation rate of between 14,000 and 19,000 FPS, TNT has a detonation rate of about 21,000 - 23,000 FPS. Peanut oil may be an ingredient ingredient in dynamite, rather than raw peanuts. I really don't see a use for it, though.

[chrismitchell]

I am glad to see that the useless facts thread is still going. I am sorry that some of the facts were probably wrong, I get Emailed so much of that Crap that I feel I should share them (to coin the phrase Misery Loves Company!!!).

Here is a question for everyone.............

Speaking of Phrases, are there any phrases that seem to have any relevance on our lives today? (e.g Skin off my Teeth.... We don't have skim on our teeth. etc).

[chrismitchell]

Originally posted by chrismitchell
We don't have skim on our teeth. etc).

That was meant to be Skin on our teeth.... Sorry it is first thing in the morning.

[Jamagei]

up until about a year ago, it was still possible to be hung,
1) piracy on the high seas (CD-RW and a ship, dodgy combination)
2) Spitting on westminster bridge
3) impersonating a chelsea pensioner

also the death penalty hasn't been abolished, or removed form law, just suspended. it can be invoked at any time. (not so useless fact)

[chrismitchell]

Originally posted by Jamagei
also the death penalty hasn't been abolished, or removed form law, just suspended. it can be invoked at any time. (not so useless fact)

Thats quite worrying!

Oh well the nut cases have the power.

[Jamagei]

yeah, but you would have to do something REALLY serious for them to do that (like assasinate the entire government and the royal family) take mira hindly and the other bloke, they would have been hung, but they are still around.

I believe treason is the one of the only crimes that is punishable by death.

and sticking a postage stamp on upside-down is treason!

.: To stick a stamp on upside down is a crime punishable by death!

[Jamagei]

nope, treason is not. not any more.

oh well:

still this used to be the case...scary huh?

[Jamagei]

Hell yeah, politics scare me.i think guy fawkes had the right idea. Why do we celebrate the fact that he failed?

hehe, just a thought, new government, new labour - damn right i've had to work a damn sight harder to keep up with the tax rises.

and you can tell general election is coming up, income tax been cut, national insurance, petrol... what's the bet all these will be back up to norm by june