Incredibly Useless Facts

[Chreteau]

Thought these were funny ... some at least. Took 'em from ...
http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/2418/useless.htm

INCREDIBLY USELESS FACTS
(author unknown)

* The average cough comes out of your mouth at 60MPH.

* When the Titanic sank there was 7,500 lbs of ham on it. (Not including Leonardo DeCaprio)

* Hanukkah can be spelled in 17 different ways: Channuka, Channukah, Chanuka, Chanukah, Chanuko, Hannuka, Hannukah, Hanuka, Hanukah, Hanukkah, Kanukkah, Khannuka, Khannukah, Khanuka, Khanukah, and Khanukkah, and Chanuccah.

* Petey, the beloved pit bull of "Our Gang" fame is buried at historic Clara Glen pet cemetery in Linwood, New Jersey.

* A humpback whale's milk is 54 percent fat.

* It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

* You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.

* If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

* If you fart consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.

* A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

* Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

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

* Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.

* Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.

* On average people fear spiders more than they do death.

* The strongest muscle in the body is the TONGUE.

* Americans on the average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.

* Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie.

* Did you know that you are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider?

* Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do.

* In ancient Egypt, Priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies,including their eyebrows and eyelashes.

* A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.

* The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times its own weight and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

* Polar bears are left handed.

* There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

* The flea can jump 350 times its body length, that is like a human jumping the length of a football field.

* A cockroach will live nine days without it's head, before it starves to death.

* The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the males head off.

* Some lions mate over 50 times a day.

* During a lion's mating season, they will mate every 25 minutes for three days straight.

* Butterflies taste with their feet.

* Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.

* A cat's urine glows under a blacklight.

* Starfishes haven't got any brains.

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

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

* Percentage of Americans who have visited Disneyland/Disney World: 70%

* Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.

* The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.

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

* The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.

* When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror.

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

* 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.

* Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them would burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired."

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

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

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

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

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

* An ostrich's eye is bigger that it's brain.

* The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.

* 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.

* In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.

* The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites.

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

* The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.

* Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.

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

* No NFL team which plays its home games in a domed stadium has ever won a Superbowl.

* The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver".

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

* Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.

* The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan."

* Spanish moss is related to the pineapple.

* The average mouse pad size is 71\2 inches by 8 inches.

* On average, an iceberg weighs 20 million tons.

* 4 out of 100 American women go pantyless everday.

* The white part of your fingernail is called the lunula.

* Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head."

* The geographical center of North America is near Rugby, North Dakota.

* The infinity sign is called a lemniscate.

* If you stretch a standard Slinky out flat it measures 87 feet long.

* There are only three words in the English language with the letter combination "uu." Muumuu, vacuum and continuum.

* The "Calabash" pipe, most often associated with Sherlock Holmes, was not used by him until William Gillette (an American) portrayed Holmes onstage. Gillette needed a pipe he could keep in his mouth while he spoke his lines.

* The only word in the English language with all five vowels in reverse order is "subcontinental."

* An ostrich's pupil is rectangular.

* Most Americans' car horns beep in the key of F.

* Dirty Harry's badge number is 2211.

* The shortest French word with all five vowels is "oiseau" meaning bird.

* Camel's milk does not curdle.

* "Mr Mojo Risin" is an anagram for Jim Morrison.

* The ball on top of a flagpole is called the truck.

* A person from the country of Nauru is called a Nauruan; this is the only palindromic nationality.

* The word "modem" is a contraction of the words "modulate, demodulate." (MOdulateDEModulate)

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

* The Titanic was running at 22 knots when she hit the iceberg.

* The citrus soda, 7-UP, was created in 1929; '7' was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. 'UP' indicated the direction of the bubbles.

* Because radio waves travel at 186,000 miles per second and sound waves saunter at 700 miles per hour, a broadcast voice can be heard sooner 13,000 miles away than it can be heard at the back of the room in which it originated.

* In the original 101 Dalmatians movie, Pongo has 72 spots, Perdita has 68 and each of the puppies has 32.

* A broken clock is right at least twice a day.

* American car horns beep in the tone of F.

* More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes.

* You were born with 300 bones, but when you reach adulthood you only have 206 bones.

* London is the most universal city for languages. The city has different people who speak 300 different tongues.


AND IF YOU AREN'T PARANOID ENOUGH...

* It has been recommended by dentists that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet (two meters) away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush!

* The soft plastic headphones used on airplanes create a warm, moist environment in the ear canal that is ideal for breeding bacteria. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.

* On a plane, if the passenger in your seat on the incoming flight had serious gas, then you are sitting on a cushion full of disease-causing microbes.

* Homely criminals get 50% longer jail sentences on average than good-looking criminals.

* Four sunken nuclear submarines sit at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. One, a Russian sub resting in deep water off of Bermuda, holds 16 live nuclear warheads. Scientists and oceanographers are unsure what the impact of the escaping plutonium will have, but warn that corrosion could create the proper chemical environment for a massive nuclear chain reaction.

* In 1994, electromagnetic interference (EMI) from a nearby cellular telephone activated a power wheelchair at a scenic vista in Colorado,sending the passenger over a cliff.

* If the government has no knowledge of aliens, then why does Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, implemented on July 16, 1969, make it illegal for US citizens to have any contact with extraterrestrial or their vehicles.

* More people working in advertising died on the job in 1996 than died while working in petroleum refining.

[Paco103]

* A broken clock is right at least twice a day.

Only if it's a 12 hour clock, and only if it doesn't distinguish between am and pm!

[the_red_chimp]

* A broken clock is right at least twice a day.

Only if it's a 12 hour clock, and only if it doesn't distinguish between am and pm!

Assuming the "brokenness" isn't the clock hands being removed.

[Chreteau]

It's the 21st century. They're all digital now.

[the_red_chimp]

then it wouldn't be right at all.

[tiffybird24]

ok just out of curiosity....who really has enough time to figure all these things out? is there an ocupation for people to just sit around and discover useless information?

[the_red_chimp]

Professors.

[tiffybird24]

i guess that is what they are there for.

[Fried Squirrel]

Not much use for them anywhere else.

[Chreteau]

You're just saying that 'cause I'm black.

[rchif0]

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

Couldn't "Be," be the shortest sentence using the same verb, just in a command way? If you can say, "I am," to say that you do indeed exist, isn't it gramatically correct (albeit sort of illogical) to tell someone else to do the same thing, aka "Be."

[tiffybird24]

you know i thought that "No." was the shortest complete sentence in almost any language.

[Paco103]

Language rules are overly complex and pointless. If you can say it in every day speech, such as ending a sentence in a preposition "Where are you from?", then why is it wrong in writing? Who here would possibly find "Where from are you?", or "From where are you?" more acceptable than "Where are you from?"

And by that same rule, wouldn't "I am" be an improper sentence, seeing as how it ends in a preposition?

[the_red_chimp]

From where do you originate?

[Chreteau]

Another incredibly useless fact ... Paula can ______ the _____ off of a ______ with her _______.

[HatePirate]

Paula can ______ the _____ off of a ______ with her _______.

Oh my!

[alien8ed]

In the sentence "I am" the word "am" is just a plane ole verb? And what about the sentence "I do?" As for praying manti...snopes.com suggests that this fact is also...exagerated

http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/mantis1.htm


=8=

[notlih]

honestly are these the best things we can talk about?

WARNED FOR BEING A HUGE DOUCHE!

[Chreteau]

honestly are these the best things we can talk about?

Honestly, do we need you censoring our speech?

If you don't like what you read, move on to the next thread.

[the_red_chimp]

^_^ Mr notlih is so cool ^_^

[notlih]

oh yeah i forgot that some people are too sensitive on this board. so heres my apology. i guess when i get on to this site i would like to enjoy a conversation with someone about anything interesting, or even read one. instead ive been reading pathetic conversations about almost nothing. (oh im not calling either of YOU pathetic, so dont go crying.) hahaha i guess ill shut up now, maybe im falling into your trap.

[notlih]

ill take your advice, considering the red chimp has authority here.

[Chreteau]

i guess when i get on to this site i would like to enjoy a conversation with someone about anything interesting, or even read one. instead ive been reading pathetic conversations about almost nothing.

Instead of whining about what you don't like, how about you do something constructive and start a conversation thread that you think might be interesting?

[the_red_chimp]

ill take your advice, considering the red chimp has authority here.

sounds like a good idea.

[notlih]

wow you sound like a badass

HEY GUYS I'M ON THE INTERNET!!