Friday, 26 April 2024
Life, the universe, pies, hot-pink bunnies, world domination, and everything
Requested by Silver Lining, who probably can’t remember the previous thread of this type.
ATTENTION: NEW RULE!
Henceforth (starting on July 11), anyone posting a piece of information here must say where the information came from. Reason: Including the source will help other MBers decide how accurate a factoid is and whether it is worth repeating.
–Your beneficent Administrators
Date: July 10, 2009
Categories: Nonrandom Craziness, The Universe
Ooh! I love random factoids! Bo is my favorite Muse!
Pitcher plants digest bugs in pools of digestive juices in their “pitchers”, but some flies actually fly in and eat these bug smoothies.
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(Eh-heh 
I found this on a web-page devoted to coconuts. Yes, the page was called “Random Coconut Facts…” I find that very funny.))
-Pacific Islanders used to believe that the world was a giant coconut
-Edison used coconut fibers as one of his attempts of making a filament. (Obviously) It didn’t work.
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Yes, that is very funny.
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How do you know the world isn’t a giant coconut?
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*finally finds out how he knows*
Because if the world was a giant coconut, than we would dig for milk, not oil! Unless… The oil is equal to milk! Then, we would have some sort of genetically enhanced, super coconut! Or perhaps, the coconut is a metaphor for the world. Who knew that coconuts were so deep?!
*doubts himself*
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-There’s a place in Missouri where you can rent a turtle.
-You can burn 150 calories an hour by banging your head against the wall.
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In Juneau, Alaska, owners of flamingos are not allowed to let their pets into barber shops. No joke.
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Wait. So if you have a flamingo and a puppy, you can’t bring your puppy into a barber shop?
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Errr… maybe it’s just flamingoes. I’m not sure.
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I think it’s illegal in some U.S. state to cross its border with a duck on your head.
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That would be the Minnesota-Wisconsin border. 
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But WHY?
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Good question. What if I wanted to go from Minnesota to Wisconsin with one of my ducks on my head? 
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Darn it! I’ve always wanted to cross the Minnesota-Wisconsin border with a duck on my head!!! 
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Would it be illegal for me to cross the border with you on my head?
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Would you be able to carry a 124-pound person on your head?
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-Bank of America was originally called Bank of Italy until someone realized it was the United States. (from the May/June 2007 issue of Muse (or it might have been 2008))
-In West Virginia, you CAN take roadkill home for dinner.
-In some town in Georgia (I don’t remember the name), every citizen must own a rake.
-In Greece, video games are outlawed.
-Chewing bubble gum and blowing bubbles is one way to keep yourself from crying while cutting up an onion.
-A lump of gold the size of your thumb nail can be hammered into a sheet the size of a tennis field (or is it a football field)?
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Tennis court.
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Video games were once accidentally outlawed in the city of Athens, but the law was amended.
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hey wait. All of those facts were in my school agenda!
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Mine, too!
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“In West Virginia, you CAN take roadkill home for dinner.” What does that mean? You can take Roadkill home for dinner anywhere, can’t you?
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Perhaps it means in WV you can *legally* take roadkill home for dinner. Mayhap it’s not legal in every state. XP
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It seems strange that it wouldn’t be. After all, it’s cleaning off the roads, and providing food… Although I guess it might be considered a health hazard?
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Yeah, I think it’s the fact that it wouldn’t be very sanitary to eat roadkill.
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In Minnesota (where I live):
Mosquitoes are a public nuisance.
(Well, it’s true.)
It is illegal to stand around any building without a good reason to be there.
(Oh noes! 
I’m a fugitive!)
A person may not cross state lines with a duck atop his head.
(Ah.)
It is illegal to sleep naked.
(…Seriously?)
All men driving motorcycles must wear shirts.
(I don’t believe it.)
Citizens may not enter Wisconsin with a chicken on their head.
(Hehe.)
All bathtubs must have feet.
(Yeah, right…)
Residents of even numbered addresses may not water their plants on odd-numbered days excluding the thirty first day where it applies. (Cottage Grove)
It shall be the duty of any policeman or any other officer to enforce the provisions of this Section, and if any cat is found running at large, or which is found in any street, alley or public place, it shall be the duty of any policeman or other officer of the city to kill such cat.
(Hibbing)
Red cars may not drive down Lake Street.
(This is in Minneapolis.)
Driving a truck with dirty tires is considered a public nuisance. (Minnetonka)
Placing tacks on a sidewalk is considered a public nuisance. (Minnetonka)
Any person who persuades another to enter a massage therapist business after 11:00 PM is guilty of a misdemeanor.
(Minnetonka)
Hamburgers may not be eaten on Sundays.
(St. Cloud)
You’re not allowed to park your elephant on Main Street.
(Virginia)
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Okay, that was sort of wrong. Sorry.
Here, to make this not a PoPo:
Sneeze travels out of your mouth at over 100 miles (161 km) an hour.
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LONG. It was sort of LONG.
*headdesk*
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6- Do you go to, or have you been to M**** Middle School? Because every fact except the first on was in the school planner this past year. (Past as in it is now summer vacation.)
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Uh, isn’t that giving a little too much information?
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I don’t think so. Although I might have gone to a middle school in the same district.
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(Thank you, GAPAs! *choklit*)
In MA…
At a wake, mourners may eat no more than three sandwiches.
Snoring is prohibited unless all bedroom windows are closed and securely locked.
It is against the law to put tomatoes in clam chowder.
—————————
Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is considered an insult.
It was once against the law to have a pet dog in a city in Iceland.
The names of Popeye’s four nephews are Pipeye, Peepeye, Pupeye, and Poopeye.
Every time you lick a stamp, you’re consuming 1/10 of a calorie.
In Las Vegas, it’s illegal to pawn your dentures.
The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year.
Recycling one glass jar, saves enough energy to watch T.V for 3 hours.
In the White House, there are 13,092 knives, forks and spoons.
Slugs have 4 noses.
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I got these from a website called strangefacts .com.
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Some of these “facts” sound fishy to me.
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I shall be the judge of that!
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You and agrrrfishi.
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Light from the sun takes eight minutes to reach your eyes.
Sir Ernest Shackleton and Galileo Galilee had the same birthday, February 15.
One of the stewardesses who survived the sinking of the Titanic later became a nurse for the British military and was serving on the Titanic’s sister ship, the Britannic, when it hit a mine in World War I. Once again, she survived.
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I think our legislators might’ve been a little drunk when they wrote these…
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A little?
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With today’s politicians, it’s amazing there aren’t more of these.
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8.1- Oh, you’re right. Sorry.
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9- I definitely would’ve voted for the law banning tomatoes in clam chowder. Clam chowder is supposed to be white and creamy. *insert large fight between the two clam chowder armies here*
11- The sunlight one just made me think of a terrible pickup line: “Sunlight may take eight minutes to reach one’s eyes, but it didn’t reach my heart ’til I saw you.” As soon as I can go into a bar, that’ll be the first pickup line I use.
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Did you know that it’s illegal to flirt or respond to flirting with your eyes or hands in San Antonio? (Much Ado, forget which issue. Probably doesn’t matter, given that nobody knows about it.)
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Well, okay, I googled ‘Weird laws’ and that’s what came up. Perhaps not that accurate. Decide for yourself.
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Marbles don’t float in ketchup. -Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego.
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I’ll have to test that.
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♦Until the nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia.
♦Over 2500 left handed people a year are killed from using products made for right handed people.
♦Taphephobia is the fear of being buried alive.
♦Windmills always turn counter-clockwise. Except for the windmills in Ireland.
♦The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
♦In England, in the 1880’s, “Pants” was considered a dirty word!
♦Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel, “Gadsby”, which contains over 50,000 words — none of them with the letter E!
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More people are killed by lightning strikes than sharks each year.
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On three seperate occasions- in 1664, 1785, and 1860- thee were shipwrecks where only one person survived the accident. Each time that one person’s name was Hugh Williams. -The Book of Useless Information
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Oooh, who wrote that book? I need it!
Um, to make this an un-pointless (pointful? non-pointless?) I will know state an amazing fact that Jay Leno brought to attention: The equator is long enough to wrap around the earth once.
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In Tennessee, in Memphis restaurants, it is illegal to give any pie to fellow diners. It is also illegal to take unfinished pie home. All pie must be eaten on the premises.
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20- But how many more times were there shipwrecks whose only survivor was not named Hugh Williams?
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I think Hugh Williams would make a good character for one of the RRRs. The indestructible man!
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I have no idea, it be hilarious if there weren’t any. And Robert, not only is he indestructible, but he’s immortal! There’s almost 200 years between the first and last wrecks!
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If I book a cruise and see “Hugh Williams” on the passenger list, I’m waiting for the next boat.
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SSSS alert!
Yay, I get to go whitewater rafting!
I’m your guide, Hugh Williams.
-> ABANDON SHIP! *jumps in water*
-> 
Huh?
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Maybe we should warn Midnight Fiddler.
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Yes, we should…
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That’s hilarious! And yes, there should be a story about him.
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Post 11- Hugh Williams and the stewardess of the Brittanic! The indestructible duo!!
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21- (From the same website) In Memphis, it is illegal for a woman to drive by herself; “a man must walk or run in front of the vehicle, waving a red flag in order to warn approaching pedestrians and motorists.”
SOURCE: totallyuselessknowledge.com/laws
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Somehow, I’m highly doubtful that anyone follows that law.
I mean, honestly!!
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Gee, that’s sexist…
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That’s way sexist! Who would do that???
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Obviously no one! I’m sorry for putting that one up. It’s obviously not real and/or valid. Again, sorry.
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That’s okay. It’s funny if you have a… good sense of humor.
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Maybe it’s Memphis, Egypt..
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That had better be false.
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See comment 24.
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Haha I love this law. No, no one follows it.
But it’s so FUNNY.
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Regarding all these silly alleged laws, here is a comment from Snopes.com:
“We could spend the rest of our lives trying to track down and verify all these wacky laws, an effort which in nearly all cases reveals only that the alleged laws never existed or fell off the books so long ago that no one can demonstrate they were ever real. ”
As for the specific “law” mentioned in Comment 23 — which doesn’t even make sense with the speed of modern cars — the best anyone has come up with is the 1865 Locomotive Act (amended in 1878): it “restricted the speed of horse-less vehicles to 4mph in open country and 2 mph in towns. Act required three drivers for each vehicle – 2 to travel in the vehicle and one to walk ahead carrying a red flag.” The act was repealed in 1896.
This act was in England, by the way. The description came from a public education site sponsored by the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, among others. [dcsafetycameras.org/factFigures/redFlag.aspx]
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In Superman’s first appearances in comics, he could not fly, but only “leap tall buildings in a single bound”. The flying was added in an animated series because it was easier to animate.
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Massachusetts
* It is illegal to wear a goatee without a license.
* North Andover prohibits its citizens from carrying “space guns.”
* State legislation forbids dueling with water pistols.
* In Boston, it is illegal to take a bath unless one has been ordered by a physician to do so.
* In 1659, the state outlawed Christmas.
Maryland
* In Baltimore, it is illegal to wash or scrub sinks, no matter how dirty they get.
* Every person who has bowled since 1833 may be fined $2 for each offense.
* In Halethorpe, it is illegal to kiss for more than one second.
* It’s illegal to mistreat oysters. ((Does frying them in butter and then eating them count?))
* It’s illegal to play Randy Newman’s “Short People” on the radio. (I’ve heard it. They’ve got good reason. It’s along the lines of, “Short people got no reason to live”.)
Same place as Fishy.
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It’s illegal to take a bath? Woah, I hope that law was repealed a while ago…
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Oh, that rule was in the 1600’s when they thought bathing was deadly. They outlawed Christmas because they thought it too frivolous and joyful. Puritans, puritans, puritans. When will they ever learn?
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Wait, so if I lived in North Andover, I couldn’t carry around my phaser that is conveniently located on the DVD shelf? GASP.
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Fishing is the favorite activity of the actor who plays Draco Malfoy.
-from my dad, who saw an interview
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My dad heard on the radio that January 23 is the most depressing day of the year because people have settled back into their schedules after the holidays. What I want to know is why not January 22? Are we actually happier on January 22?
My dad was born on January 23, and he is not depressed, btw. Neither is his birthday, at least not in our house.
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More people ,each year are killed by vending machines then sharks.
More people ,each year are killed by goats then plane crashes.
I heard the shark one from a movie called Sharkwater.
A pig excretes sweat through it’s nostrils.
Elvis Presley got a “C” in 6th grade music class.
Virginia extends further west then West Virginia (look on a map).
These ones are from: http://www. amusingfacts. com
One billion seconds is about 32 years.
The average day is actually 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.09 seconds.
We have a leap year every four years to make up for this shortfall.
Every U.S. bill regardless of denomination costs just 4 cents to make.
The most overdue book in the world was borrowed from Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge, England and was returned 288 years later. (imagine the late fee!)
Natural gas does not have any odour. In order to detect a gas leak, some gas companies add a chemical that smells similar like rotten eggs.
A galactic year is 250 million Earth-years. This is the time it takes for our solar system to make one revolution around the Milky Way Galaxy.
The stapler was invented in Spring Valley, Minnesota.
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((Does a GAPA want to delinkify the URL in “iamisthbest”‘s post?))
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Yes, that’s probably a good idea. I’ve delinkified it now.
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But it said i had to cite where i got the info, so i did.
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We do delinkified links here on MB, so as to avoid spambots and such. If you put spaces between all the dots in the URL, it delinkifies it. Exceptions are for links within MB, to threads and comments.
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Yes, but you may have neglected to read the rules. You’re not allowed to post links to other sites. You have to put spaces between some of the letters or characters, like this: w w w . example . com.
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Oh, ok Thanks and sorry
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It’s perfectly fine. As long as you know.
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The late fee on a library book never exceeds the price of the book, unless I am thoroughly mistaken.
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The average day is not 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.09 seconds, the average day is 24 hours. It takes the Earth 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.09 seconds to complete one rotation, but because it revolves around the sun, it takes the extra bit of time that makes it 24 hours. Leap years are caused, I believe, by the Earth’s revolution, not rotation.
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Leap-Years: I’ve done some math, (by that I mean plug it in to the google calculator) and every four years there are 23.2505667 excess hours. We add a day to catch up. I know that it will take a long time, but don’t the .7494333 hours mess with time? Back when they didn’t use leap years, it took awhile, but it caught up. I know this would take MUCH longer, but still!
*scans internet*
AHA!!! I’ve got it. 1700, 1800, 1900 were not leap years. This is to account for the excess days created every 400 years.
*clears throat*
IN CONCLUSION, Every four years there is a leap year, EXCEPT when you come up to a number divisible by 100, but not 400.
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In orbit on the space shuttle, a traveler will see 16 sunsets and 16 sunrises a day.
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That would be amazing! *thinks of Le Petit Prince*
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31.1- I agree. The funny thing is, I read that book myself for a school assignment. Of course, it was English, so it was called The Little Prince.
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I also read it in English ( I almost typed Engkush), my French is not that good, but I just prefer to call it by it’s original name.
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There is such a thing as hpb surgery. (I googled hpb) Of course, it’s some weird acronym (which I have forgotten, unfortunately) that has nothing to with 
‘s, but… *worries*
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Hepato-pancreat[ic]o-biliary surgery is surgery on the liver and pancreas. That would be deep bunnification indeed.
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-The words ‘do not fear’ or ‘do not be afraid’ can be found 365 times in the bible. That is one for ever day of the year (except on leap years)
-The shortest verse in the Bible is ‘Jesus wept’ (Or he wept. I can’t remember)
(I got those from some one who goes to my church and she really knows her stuff. )
– In Ancient Egypt, if a family’s cat died, to mourn the family would shave off their eyebrows
– Blackbeard’s (the pirate) real name was Edward Teach. He would braid rope into his long hair and beard and set it on fire before going into battle. Many people surrendered before the fight began. He also was only a pirate for two years.
– Sir Frances Drake was the first Englishman to circumnavigated the globe. He also became a pirate and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth the first.
(The stuff on Egypt and pirates came from books)
-While he was running for office, the Whigs presented President Harrison as a humble, Ohio farmer who had been born in a log cabin. In fact, Harrison was a wealthy, educated man from Virginia whose family owned a large estate.
-Just weeks after taking office, Harrison died of pneumonia
-The Whigs Throw Tyler (Harrison vice-president turn president) out of their party because he did not do what they wanted Harrison to do.
(That is what I call karma. I got that from my social studies book)
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“Do not be afraid” (or “Be not afraid!” in the King James version) is almost always the first thing an angel says when it appears. Clearly, angels are scary.
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Angels ARE scary! Particularly if they’re weeping and made out of stone.
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“Don’t blink. Don’t even blink. Blink and you’re dead.“
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agreed.
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They fly, they appear out of nowhere, and some of them are “Six-winged and many-eyed”, so yes, I’d say angels can be scary.
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Elephants are the only animal that cannot jump.
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SFTDP
This was from a hall meeting sheet at my camp.
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For real? Platypodes can jump? Why, I never knew that!
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I wonder if I can see a giraffe jump.
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That is obviously not true. Perhaps it is the only Chordata, but you can’t tell be that Flat worms can jump! Let alone Porifera…
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The first person to circumnavigate the globe was not Ferdinand Magellan, but Enrique of Malacca, a Filipino slave of Magellan who was taken from the Philippines. He later returned when Magellan was shot by arrows somewhere and became the first person to circumnavigate the globe. (I think I already said that.)
From: The Cartoon History of the Universe by Larry Gonick. 
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Mosquitoes are more likely to bite people who have recently eaten a banana.
That was from the book Children’s Miscellany.
35- Actually, the shortest Bible verse is “He said”. I forget where I learned that.
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Huh, I always thought it was “Jesus wept.”
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Chewing gum is illegal in Singapore.
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Oh, and that came from a quiz on a website for a magazine called New Moon Girls. My friend goes on that website, and she told me that one.
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Yep, and it’s also illegal to not flush the toilet. That would be an embarrassing ticket to get!
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It’s also illegal to spit and it’s illegal to feed the pigeons. Because spitting causes tuberculosis, and feeding the pigeons is feeding unwanted animals. From a humor column in Scientific American.
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Did you know that a female lumberjack is called a lumberjill? It’s true. I get most of my facts and/or factoids from a book called Bathroom Reader for Kids Only.
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SFTDP but werefor you knowing (Thats from a book called The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex. That line was said by a Boov. It’s an alien. I can’t describe it beyond that) that an ostriches eye is bigger than it’s brain? That the # thing is an octothorpe? I could ramble on all day about the factoids I know from books.
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LOVE that book.
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Whoops, sorry. That was kind of pointless. I’ll make up for it by saying that in some parts of England, black cats are considered lucky, while white ones are just opposite. I don’t know where I got this one from.
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Somewhat related to post 28-
NASA’s three worst losses of human life all occurred within the same week, January 26-February 2nd, although decades apart.
(3 people asphyxiated on Apollo 1 on January 27, 1967, 7 people died on January 28, 1986 when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, and 7 others burned up on re-entry in the Space Shuttle Columbia on February 1, 2003.) This is is sometimes known as Tragedy Week.
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So, if you’re going to be on a rocket, don’t go during January 26-February 2, and most certainly don’t go if one of the other passengers is named Hugh Williams. 
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And especially don’t go if the first initial of the rocket is “C”.
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Now I’m listening to the song “Lost in the Blue” by the Minstrels of Mayhem which is a good song and all about the Columbia disaster.
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Do you know of anywhere I can listen to that?
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An arctic tern spends the summer in the Arctic, when the sun is up all day long, then flies to the Antarctic in time for their summer, repeating the process as long as it lives. Consequently, the arctic tern spends more of its life in daylight than any other living creature.
(Source- Eyewitness Video, “Arctic and Antarctic”)
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Hello again! Werefor you knowing that the original 7-Up (the soda) recipe contained horseradish? Thats a lot easier to say than some of the stuff they put in there.
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A punk is a baby elephant.
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SFTDP, but I just found this on Amusingfacts .com, and it was so cool I had to share it: Ringo Starr once appeared in a Japanese advertisement for apple sauce. Ironically, his name means “apple sauce” in Japanese.
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The yo-yo was originally a weapon, with sharp edges. “Yo-yo” means come-come in, uh, I forget what language.
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Filipino.
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Tagalog, to be specific. I don’t think Filipino is a language.
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If it had sharp edges, how did they catch it when it came back?
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They didn’t. It stopped and they had to wind it back up again.
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I love this thread.
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The astronomical body Pluto was named by an 11 year old girl who lived in England. An American probably wouldn’t have thought of the name because at the time, “Pluto” was more commonly associated with a laxative known as “Pluto Water” rather than the Roman god.
I swear. It’s in Neil Tyson’s book The Pluto Files.
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Kellog’s corn flakes were not the first American breakfast cereal. Popcorn was served for breakfast at the Kellogs’ Battle Creek Sanitarium decades before the process for making corn flakes were invented. Unofficially, the only reason the company sold corn flakes at its beginning was that Kellog didn’t know how he would get people to buy boxes of pre-popped popcorn.
Source: Good Eats
I’ve tried some, and it’s quite delicious. Just pour some milk over lightly salted corn, as you would over cereal, and sprinkle a bit of sugar on top.
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I LOVE Good Eats!!!!
Edamame are unripe soybeans.
Source: I’m not sure. I’ve completely forgotten. But I’m pretty sure it’s correct. Maybe good eats… probably.
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Yes, it is correct, although I’m not sure about the unripe part no wait, yeah that’s right.
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The Romans worshiped a god of the sewer and a goddess of the door hinge.
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How about a goddess of things that stick in drawers?
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Hehehehehe. I can see that someone has read a certain book…
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Drew Barrymore was only seven years old when she became the youngest-ever host of SNL.
-Movie screen thingie before the previews come on
hee hee hee
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August 8th is Sneak Zuchini on Your Neighbor’s Porch Night (Ace Of Cakes)
Google search of Cake day:
May 11th is Eat what you want day
Google search of Egg day:
May 22nd is Egg day
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Did you know that…
111,111,111 X 111,111,111 = 12, 345, 678, 987, 654, 321? –A random fact in my school-issued agenda
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And that 111X111=12321
1,111X1,111=1234321
ect, ect.
Really, not that random.
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Etc. Etc. ((Sorry. It really bothers me when people make that mistake because ECT are my initials.))
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The term “zero gravity” is misleading, while there is indeed gravity inside a spaceship in orbit, it is one-millionth of what it is on Earth.
Close enough.
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Today is the birthday of the invention of the bar code.
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I see Google is giving a proper salute.
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The American political party currently known as the Democrats was originally called the Republicans.
Confusing, isn’t it?
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Well, the Democratic-Republicans, not just the Republicans. Furthermore, the Democratic-Republican beliefs synced up more closely with modern Republican beliefs–there was a shift in ideology at the collapse of the Federalist party in the early 19th century (when they took a large hit at the election of Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican, and a final blow at America’s winning of the War of 1812 (see: Hartford Convention), and the D-Rs, which before had been somewhat synonymous with the Anti-Federalist party, absorbed a lot of the abandoned Federalist beliefs. The Era of Good Feelings it was called, and the only period in American history with a single political party.
Sorry, I’m in a history sort of mood.
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You’re doing the new nation in social studies, too?
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APUSH. We just had a unit test over the period from the Constitutional Convention through roughly the Panic of 1819.
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Yes, that’s about where we are, too.
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* concurs *
George Washington was not the first president of the united states. For a while the head of congress held that title.
(several times from different sources)
calico cats are female 90% of the time while orange ones are male 75% of the time
( a cat vet we used to go to )
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42 facts!!!
1) Bill Clinton was our forty-second president.
2) In The Hunger Games, Gale submitted his name forty-two times.
3) I have 42 buddies on AIM.
4) Specialist period at our school is 42 minutes.
5) At the Boston Tea Party the Sons of Liberty threw 342 barrels of tea into the harbor ( not really 42, I know )
6) There are 42 dwarf planets.
7) It takes 42 Earth days for Uranus to rotate around its axis.
8) “42” is a song by Coldplay.
That’s all I have for now – who has more? I want to hear them please!
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Really? In The Hunger Games? How come I don’t remember that… The guide and the games are my favorite books!
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Just to nitpick, I think 6 is actually 42 at most, at least in our solar system.
And, for a factoid:
Fear of chopsticks: Consecotaleophobia
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SFTDP: Piggy, I HAVE to know who on earth that is on your icon – I’m thinking it’s some character from the Harry Potter films…
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Nope. Try again…
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No Face. From “Spirited Away”. Which I haven’t seen in about six years. That is sad.
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Sophie told me it was the Albino or whatever from “The Princess Bride.” Okay. I remembered another 42 fact: There are 42 days in an eyelash’s lifespan. Yes, an eyelash. Weird eh?
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The deepest spot in the ocean is the Marianas Trench in the Pacific. If Mount Everest were placed at the bottom of the Trench, its summit would still be a mile underwater.
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The four living descendants of Adolf Hitler have made a pact not to have children, in order to end the Hitler line.
Some people can breathe a little through their tear ducts.
Clint Eastwood is allergic to horses.
– Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, I think
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I think I’ve exhaled through my eyes a few times, but I can’t breathe in with them.
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This girl Pseudo knows once claimed she could breathe through her eyes, then covered her mouth with her hands and made breathing sounds while bugging her eyes out. I wonder if she was aware of that.
Who has more 42 facts?
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60-Umm. I don’t think Hitler had any descendants; relatives have altered their names but I think there are more than six. I think I might have exhaled through my tear ducts once when I was trying to clear my ears with a cold but I never could breathe through them.
According to a study by a Seattle-based company, austrians are the sixth-smartest people in the world, coming after Asian countries. I read it in the Heute, a newspaper, but I’ll see if I can find an english article online from a more reputable source before I start doing a victory dance.
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According to Wikipedia (though I don’t know if you’d call Wikipedia a reputable source – well, it was an article about a book that had conducted a study about this. But anyway,) Hong Kong people have the highest average IQ (107). Hong Kong isn’t really a country though (technically it’s an SAR) and the country with the highest IQ is South Korea, with an average IQ of 106. China is ranked 11th with an average of exactly 100.
Austrians have an average IQ of 102, 5th ranked among countries but 6th ranked if you include Hong Kong.
The US is ranked 17th with an average IQ of 98. No offense. I’m sure that statistic doesn’t include MBers – you’re all outliers and don’t count XD. I’d be offended my IQ was only 107. Which it is not.
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Same here. XD
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Austria, not Australia. It confused me too. She used to have an avatar that said “Austria: No kangaroos” and it confused me greatly.
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I said Austria, didn’t I? You are talking to me, right? Didn’t I say Austrians?
*is confused*
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I think you did… *is equally confused*
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Hm, look at that. So you did.
Funny, last night I was so sure it said “Australia”. I even checked like three times…
Oh, well. That’s what I get for posting late at night…
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42% of the population in the United States is a current or former smoker.
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Cairo didn’t have a telephone book until 1978.
Egypt has 42 districts.
(Both from social studies class.)
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A 1983 recording of Richard Strauss’ Eine Alpensinfonie with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic became the first compact disc ever pressed.
(From Wikipedia page on Eine Alpensinfonie)
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It is theoretically impossible to prove that the moon exists.
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Really?
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Mm-hmm.
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Well, it’s impossible to prove anything exists, not just the Moon specifically.
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Yes, but in most cases, if it’s impossible to prove something exists, it’s impossible to prove that you/I/he/she exists. The Moon is different.
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SFTDP
….You know what, that was stupid of me to say.
Let me just say before this discussion goes any further: It was late, I was tired, and this whole theory originated from a bit of a joke.
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Yes. You’re lying in a pod of red slime in an alien spacecraft right now, being fed stimuli through computers. There is no Moon. Or spoon. 
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The nation with the most robots per capita is South Korea.
The nation with the highest number of homes connected to the Internet per capita is also South Korea.
The nation with the highest number of cellphone users per capita is Lichtenstein.
The nation that consumes the most ice cream is Australia.
Gosh, I love geography.
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We do?
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Wait, are you from Australia?
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The minimum wage in 1938 when you had worked for your employer for 2 years was 42 cents an hour.
42 black Americans were lynched in 1933. ( Wonderfully random, amazingly obscure, horribly horrendous. )
42 years passed between Frances Perkins ( First female appointed to a presidential cabinet position ) resigning and some other female cabineter appointed by Lyndon Johnson.
( Yes. I read a book about Frances Perkins recently. )
Theodore Roosevelt was the United States’s youngest President at 42 years old.
( I FEEL SO COOL!! )
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To pass an Army physical fitness test, an 18-year-old male must be able to do 42 push-ups in 2 minutes.
42 toys were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame this week.
PLEASE, MY FRIENDS, PLEASE…FIND RANDOM 42 FACTS AND POST THEM ON HERE! PLEASE!
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Numbers 35:6: Six of the towns you give the Levites will be cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone may flee. In addition, give them 42 other towns.
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SFTQP, whoa. 42 facts rock.
Isaac Newton was born on the same day as Galileo Galilei ( Galilee? ) died, in 1642.
In “The Wave,” Clarktown’s high school football team beats Gordon High 42-6.
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SFT…I don’t even know what it is, at this point. Am I the only one on here? PLEASE don’t zap me, GAPAs, I haven’t posted on here for 8 days!
————————————————————————————————-
The maximum workweek in 1940 was 42 hours a week.
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My Grandpa played the bagpipes for poeple in the morgue, then he died, how coincidental.
-My Grandma
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In the first comic the Hulk appeared in, he was colored gray, but the printer couldn’t keep the shading consistent, so the shade of gray that he appeared varied throughout the issue. Since green was less of a problem to print, the Hulk was colored green starting with the next issue.
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An onion, an apple and potato all have the same taste. The differences in flavor are caused by their smell.
The can opener was invented 48 years after cans were introduced.
A square piece of dry paper can’t be folded in half more than 7 times.
Over the last 150 years the average height of people in industrialized nations increased by 4 inches.
Eskimos use refrigerators to keep food from freezing.
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Oh, I just saw the rule about sources. Those facts came from the “did you know” thing in my school planner.
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*John Dillinger once broke out of a federal prison by making a fake gun out of soap. He carved the gun with a plastic spoon he stole from the cafeteria and used shoe polish to paint it black. The guard, thinking that the soap gun was real, gave Dillinger his own gun which he knew was loaded. Dillinger was then escorted by this guard out of the prison.
*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.
*The word “Checkmate” in chess comes from the Persian phrase “Shah Mat,” which means “the king is dead”.
*Only 47 decimal places of pi would be sufficiently precise to inscribe a circle around the visible universe that doesn’t deviate from perfect circularity by more than the distance across a single proton.
*There are coffee flavored PEZ.
Those are all from totally useless knowledge .com.
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The supposed tradition about equestrian statues is one of those bits of folklore that refuses to go away. I’t not true. See snopes.com/military/statue.asp.
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Really? Interesting. I didn’t know that.
Fact(oid): Coffee flavored PEZ taste disgusting.
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Sigh…. and some of my friends know 159 digits.
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But memorizing pi is fun. I know 31 digits, I think.
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Ewww!
In 1934, 42% of the world’s iron ore was located in the United States.
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A 42 fact for you. 42 is a perfect score on the International Math Olympiad.
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Thanks ever so, speller73!!!
At the beginning of Island of the Blue Dolphins, there were 42 men in the tribe of Ghalas-at.
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SFT(eternal)DP.
On the Old Town Trolley Tours in Boston, one bus has a capacity of 42 people.
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*The angle at which light reflects off water to create a rainbow is 42 degrees.
*There are 42 decks on the USS Enterprise.
*The right arm of the Statue of Liberty is 42 feet long.
www (dot) ellen burgess (dot) com
www (dot) medieval (hyphen) castles (dot) org
When a victim refused to reveal sensitive information, he or she would be subject to the thumbscrew. The victim’s hands were placed in the device and the torturer would crush the victim’s fingers slowly.
*The place where Dracula’s body is being kept is unknown. According to tradition, they are in a coffin underneath a monastery in Snagov Lake. Of course when archeologists went to confirm the legend, they found several corpses but all of them had a head – contrary to the well documented fact that Vlad the Impaler’s head was removed by the Turks and then taken to Constantinople.
Of course the monastery wasn’t completely searched and that leaves room for possibility of the corpse being hidden in an undiscovered chamber. Nevertheless, the legend also states that the corpse was in fact buried underneath the entrance of the [name] monastery – which was dug and nothing found. It is also believed that the corpse of Vlad the Impaler himself simply disappeared. When archeologists found an empty coffin with ancient crosses and some prayers, paranormal fanatics were fascinated. The origins of this mysterious coffin are unknown and whether it belonged to Dracula or not – is a mystery. Additionally, the monastery of [name] is very near a lake which makes it extremely humid and thus; most corpses decomposed making them completely unrecognizable. Dozens of corpses have been found underneath the monastery, but of course; all of them had a head as I stated above. Except the empty one, obviously.
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Apparently, it is very easy to hypnotize a chicken.
That is from a book called Children’s Miscellany
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One of the (supposedly optional) essay topics for the University of Pennsylvania is to write page 217 of your 300-page biography. Why couldn’t it have been page 42?
This comes from the University of Pennsylvania’s application Supplement, 2010. If you look up their admissions page you can find it quite easily.
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Thanks Keiffer! *is relieved not to have to post a double post*
VERY interesting 42 fact I found in the Boston Globe, get over here KaiYves please, and tell me if you’ve heard of this yet!
The planet GJ 1214b is 42 light years away from Earth. It is almost covered with oceans thousands of miles deep. There MIGHT be life on it, however, some scientists believe that the atmosphere is too dense and hot to support life. It will eventually pass in front of our sun.
I hope there’s some form of life on it!
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I just found this out on Wikipedia – our house is at 42 degrees on a line of latitude or longitude! ( I don’t know which ).
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Elvis Presley died at 42 years old. Sorry for the TRIPLE post *coughsomeonecomeandpostonherecough*
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I DON’T CARE WHAT IT SAYS, I NEVER LAID A FINGER ON HIM.
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Two:
There is a pineapple in every episode of Psych.
If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand 7′ 2″ tall.
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The first pulsars were thought to be signs of extraterrestrial intelligence and nicknamed “LGM”, for “Little Green Men”.
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42 fact– The other day my friend and I were playing Words With Friends (Scrabble) on our iPods. I suddenly realized that both of our current scores were 42. The word that I had just put down was “Answer.” Scariest coincidence ever? Yes.
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87- I walked into a room to ask my brother for his laptop (Which he didn’t want to give me), just as “I Hate You (My Friend)” started playing from the TV. So he started singing along to give me an answer: “No on here likes you, go away, get a clue.”
And me? I just fell over laughing at the coincidence.
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I had a really random fact, but I forgot. Grrr!!!
Here’s one, anyway:
In California in the 60s, some rabid female fans ate some grass that Ringo Starr walked on.
I like the phrase “rabid fans”
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Yeah, is that not insane?! When later asked about it, Ringo replied, “I just hope they don’t get indigestion.”
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I love that line.
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Did you know: The heart of a shrimp is in its head?
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In April 1801, John Adams appointed 42 justices of the peace to the District of Columbia.
Soccer Starr is 42 on the “Who’s Posted How Much?”
This is approximately my 825th post.
I think I post too much.
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There are 42 episodes in Season 1 of Classic Doctor Who.
And I’ve got over 3,000 posts, so…..I wouldn’t sorry too much about 825 being posting too much.
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Random Factoid: I have 60 more posts than Pseudonym. I have 330 post so far.
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*gasp* THANKYOUTHANKYOUFORTHE42FACT!
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Yayness!
Don’t worry, no one can post TOO much.
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You were soccer starr, though, so I don’t know if they mean you as just starr now.
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Yeah, I think I’m counted as starr now as a much lower place, but oh well!
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The last episode of the first season of every one of Aaron Sorkin’s shows is titled “What Kind of Day Has It Been?”
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*looks up Unity, Destiny, Tranquility on Wikipedia*
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(It’s the American components of the International Space Station. Tranquility is going up on the next flight.)
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Here’s a fact/opinion: Scientists name distant, mysterious planetswe know nothing about things like R27Q-45 and parts of spaceships that we know all about things like Unity, Destiny, and Tranquility. *fumes about non-creative scientists*
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Random factoid: Andromeda episodes (in the first few seasons) are usually 42 minutes long (sometimes 44 min, but you get the picture).
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On the April Bunny Thread, it took me exactly 42 seconds to scroll down through post 84.
(Bunny Thread, April 2, 2007)
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42 was Jackie Robinson’s number; it is the only number to have been retired by all the teams in Major League Baseball.
Al Smith was the 42ed governor of New York State.
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Are you doing that essay contest too???
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Link in LBK’s name!
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Thanks!
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When Paul was writing Yesterday, he thought of the melody first. Since he didn’t have any lyrics, he sung “Scrambled Eggs,” so that was the working title. I don’t remember where I got this. One of the many, many things I’ve read about the Beatles. I think it’s accurate though, because I’ve seen it in a couple places. * rambles *
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Yes, and the working lyrics were, “Scrambled eggs, oh my dear you’ve got such lovely legs….”
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Saint Cornelius is the patron saint of twitching.
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In curling, the stone weighs 42 pounds. SFTDP.
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SFTTP. Post here, Keiffer, since you’re calling me “obsessed” with the thread.
In the first radio address from the White House, the address was broadcast over 42 stations.
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The space shuttles were all built at Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.
(That explains so much…)
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Lady Gaga’s first name is Stephenie!!!!!! Wow. I didn’t know that.
Oh, and she’s bisexual.
My older sister is watching a video on YouTube. That’s where it’s from.
(Sorry if that’s not okay or whatnot, but it came as a surprise to me.)
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Disneyland and Disney World, despite being located on separate coasts in separate states, both happen to be located in an Orange County.
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Two 42 facts for Maggie: As of today, there are 42 days left in my school year.
In the King and Queen of Hearts’ court, rule number 42 is that all persons exceeding the height of a mile are not allowed. (Or something like that, sorry for not having a direct quote).
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The Pantanal Swamp in Brazil, the largest swamp in the world, is 42,000 square miles.
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According to the A=1, Z=26 rule, the letters x-k-c-d add up to 42.
Enc told me that.
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The original series of Doctor Who ran for…. 42 years.
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No it didn’t. It ran for 26 years. 1963-1989
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Oh. Then I read something that wasn’t correct.
Random fact to fill the gap: I am not 42 years old.
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ENC I LOVE YOUR AVATAR! <3 <3 <3
Oh what a PoPo.
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Which one? I changed it to a weeping angel recently, or do you mean the Daleks?
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You’ve changed it to two different weeping angels. One had blondish hair, and now your on to an upright one covering it’s eyes. That, or it’s actually come to life. Eep.
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And now it’s no longer covering its eyes. 0_o
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It’s Dr. Horrible, from what I can see.
DOCTOR HORRIBLE WAS ON GLEE… IT MADE MY LIFE
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FACT: There are no poisonous snakes in Maine.
FACT: Bears. Eat. Beets.
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Bears eat beets? Where did you learn that?
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AHAHA Dwight.
Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.
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*computer booting up sound*
“Hey, Dwight, want an Altoid?”
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If you put “the meaning of life, the universe, and everything” into google, the calculator will read 42 and, if put into an eqution will treat it as 42 and give you the correct answer.
same thing if you put in “number of horns on a unicorn”
If you try to find directions from china to japan (or visversa I can’t remeber) in google maps one of the directions will involve kakayking across the ocean…. It might be 42!
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When I used “the number of horns on a unicorn”, Google treated it as one. Or is that what’s supposed to happen?…
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Ernie Harwell spent 42 years as a Tigers announcer.
Bonus points if you actually know who that is. I just saw it watching baseball.
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REALLY REALLY sad 42 fact.
42% of college graduates never read another book after they graduate college. ( I read this in Entertainment Weekly )
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That is awful.
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Agreed.
What if we read enough books after college to make up for them?
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I accept this mission!
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No offense, but I find that really hard to believe.
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I concur. Entertainment Weekly is about as believable as, say, the internet.
FALSE FACT ABOLISHED
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I think that opinion is supported by the fact that Entertainment Weekly thought cupcakes were “out”.
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It was this columnist who was writing an article on summer books you should be reading. And I refuse to abolish the fact.
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In my opinion, it doesn’t matter who’s right, since false facts are still facts. And it is a very random fact, be it false or not.
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False facts are not facts at all. The very phrase “false fact” is an oxymoron.
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Yes, trueness is still considered part of the definition, last I heard. But also, to be fair, you can’t automatically judge whether something is factual because it appeared in “Entertainment Weekly.” (You’re certainly entitled to be wary, however. Even when the facts are technically correct, interpretation or presentation might distort their meaning.)
Anyway, here are a couple of statistics I found in a brief search. In 2007, according to information from the publishing industry itself, 27% of U.S. adults said they had not read any books for pleasure; the figure was 31% in Canada.
The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy found that “the percentages of adults who reported reading less than once a week or never was 15 percent for newspapers or magazines, 38 percent for books, and 20 percent for letters and notes.”
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That article also said that 57% of Americans read for pleasure at least occasionally.
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Really? I was taught that it was something that was simply proven, so in theory it could be proven inaccurate, making it a false fact. But yes, I wasn’t judging the source but that it just seems so unlikely. I’m also apt to be skeptical about your facts, Lady B, again because it just seems so unlikely. But those sources seem legitimate, which saddens me.
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While there’s nothing wrong with being skeptical, I don’t understand why you think those statistics unlikely. I didn’t find them surprising at all.
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OH GOODNESS I FAIL AT READING COMPREHENSION -_- Sorry. (That’s what summer does to my brain.) That’s actually extremely realistic, never mind.
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It turns out that STEPHEN KING writes a column in Entertainment Weekly and that STEPHEN KING was the one who used that fact. Does that make it sound more credible to any of you?
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Isn’t he the political pundit No, sorry. That’s Stephen Colbert. My mistake.
The fact that he’s an author does not lessen my skepticism, I’m sorry to report. I seem to steadfastly hold to the idea that the entire world is like my family.
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Like your family in what way?
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Everyone reads… We have over three tall Ikea bookshelves full of books… My parents both have MBAs… My sister and I have both skipped grades… Y’know, the usual.
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Well, whether or not he’s a good author, he might not be as skeptical of the poll that he is referring to as, say, a Museblogger is.
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I know that my cousins, at least, will be among that percentage.
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“Why are you reading? It’s SUMMER.”
~ Random person
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Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is fear of long words.
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floccinaucinihilipification:
1, to estimate something as worthless; 2, to cause something to become worthless by estimating it as worthless
From the Latin ‘floccin non facio’, meaning “I don’t give a hoot”. Lit: “It is not worth a wisp of hair.”
Longest word in the english language to not include an ‘e’.
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SFTDP.
Random fact: you just lost the game!
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What if you’re not playing the game?
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Since you knew what I meant, you know of the game. You should know that a rule of the game is that knowing of the game is equivalent to playing.
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But I’ve already won.
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How?
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There’s an xkcd comic…
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CAKE IT. I’ve been going for quite the while with the game….
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The infinitive would be “floccinaucinihilipilificate”, not “floccinaucinihilipilification”.
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Maine’s coastline is aproximately 3478 miles long. That is bigger than the state of Rhode Island.
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Um… miles are not a measure of area.
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Possibly she means larger than the perimeter of Rhode Island?
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Yeah, I did. Sorry…
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SFTDP Oh, and it came from a school report that I had to do. Or, more accurately, my school textbook.
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Ok, if lifes a game, what is a game, who are you playing against, what are the rules, and you cant win life if in the end you always die. Plus you only get one life.
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42 people have run the Boston Marathon 25 consecutive times.
-Some runner’s magazine, or Sports Illustrated, or The Boston Globe…I don’t really remember.
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Venus Flytraps are native to North Carolina, and most pitcher plants that thrive in temperate climates are tiny compared to most tropical-dwelling pitchers.
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