605 replies to this topic

[tent163phantoka]

This is a topic for useless and entertaining facts and stories. I'll start us off with some random facts.

• In 1976 Rodrigo's 'Guitar Concierto de Aranjuez' was No 1 in the UK for only three hours because of a computer error.
• Peter Karpin, a German espionage agent in World War I, was seized by French Intelligence agents in 1914 as soon as he entered the country. Keeping his capture a secret, the French sent faked reports from Karpin to Germany and intercepted the agent's wages and expense money until Karpin escaped in 1917. With those funds the French purchased an automobile, which, in 1919, in occupied Rurh, accidentally ran down and killed a man, who proved to be Peter Karpin.
• Police in Radnor, Pennsylvania, interrogated a suspect by placing a metal colander on his head and connecting it with wires to a photocopy machine. The message "He's lying" was placed in the copier, and police pressed the copy button each time they thought the suspect wasn't telling the truth. Believing the "lie detector" was working, the suspect confessed.
• The waffle iron was invented August 24, 1869.
• The alarm clock was not invented by the Marquis de Sade, as some suspect, but rather by a man named Levi Hutchins of Concord, New Hampshire, in 1787. Perversity, though, characterized his invention from the beginning. The alarm on his clock could ring only at 4 am. Rumor has it that Hutchins was murdered by his wife at 4:05 am on a very dark and deeply cold New England morning.
• The same man who led the attack on the Alamo, Mexican Military General, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, is also credited with the invention of chewing gum.

​Please reply!

[Leto]

• The alarm clock was not invented by the Marquis de Sade, as some suspect, but rather by a man named Levi Hutchins of Concord, New Hampshire, in 1787. Perversity, though, characterized his invention from the beginning. The alarm on his clock could ring only at 4 am. Rumor has it that Hutchins was murdered by his wife at 4:05 am on a very dark and deeply cold New England morning.
  

Also, I read somewhere that Socrates invented a working alarm clock based on water pressure, apparently releasing a very loud and irritating whistle in order to call his students to study. Interestingly, he was put to death a short time after he built the first one. History repeats itself?!

[Ghabulous Ghoti]

Let's all read the Book of Useless Information.

[(Daedalus)]

*Incoming Transmission*
Back when suits and hats were common attire and such apparel was hand-made or made by machines assisted by people, mercury was used in part of the hat-making process (I don't remember which part exactly). Extended exposure to mercury without any form of protection can cause severe mental degradation. Because of that, many hat makers, or "hatters," would eventually go mad. Thus was born the phrase "mad as a hatter."

I may have missed a few facts; it's been a while since I read that. Still, I think I got the gist of it.

*End Transmission*

[Tom Mc. Israel]

Twinkies used to be banana-flavored, but unfortunately the decline of the banana market during WWII led to them being vanilla/grease-flavored, as they are today.

[Rahkashi]

- The first artificial satellite was launch October 4, 1957
- The Detroit Tigers are currently loosing the ALCS
- The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is scheduled to make its first commercial flight on October 26, 2011
- There have been over 4000 satellite launches to date
- Your statistical chance of being murdered is 1:20k

[The God of War]

the guy who designed the nike logo was only paid fifty dollars for it.

[UltraHau]

The first artificial satellite might have been a manhole blown off its hole by a nuclear bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

[Promised Land]

WWE Superstar John Cena has been in a world title match at every Wrestlemania ever since 2005. He has won in all but two of them.

[Mr. Fluffy]

The person behind the creation of dynamite also created the Nobel Peace Prize.

[Blendercat Toa of Coldplay]

There are 14000 clocks in the pentagon, 16 miles of hallways, and 1 million e-mails and phone calls sent and received each day.

The first ground-breaking of the Pentagon was exactly 60 years before the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

[Xeren Ozone]

• The original game of "Monopoly" was circular.
• It costs more to buy a new car today in the United States than it cost Christopher Columbus to equip and undertake three voyages to and from the New World.
• One-fourth of the world's population lives on less than $200 a year.
• Ninety million people survive on less than $75 a year.
• The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the English language.
• The word racecar and kayak are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left.
• TYPEWRITER, is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard.
• Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words.
• A snail can sleep for 3 years.
• Did you know you share your birthday with at least 9 million other people in the world.
• The average human eats 8 spiders in their lifetime at night.
• More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes.
• Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
• The continents names all end with the same letter with which they start.
• Shakespeare invented the word "assassination" and "bump."
• According to tests made at the Institute for the Study of Animal Problems in Washington, D.C., dogs and cats, like people, are either right-handed or left-handed --- that is, they favor either their right or left paws.
• A giraffe can go without water longer than a camel can.
• Blue whales weigh as much as 30 elephants and are as long as 3 Greyhound buses.
• Crocodiles and alligators are surprisingly fast on land. Although they are rapid, they are not agile; so if you ever find yourself chased by one, run in a zigzag line. You'll lose him or her every time.
• Birds do not sleep in their nests. They may occasionally nap in them, but they actually sleep in other places.
• Most elephants weigh less than the tongue of the blue whale.
• Butterflies taste with their hind feet.
• Only female mosquitoes bite.

I am the Master of Useless Facts.

[Blue Fire]

The person behind the creation of dynamite also created the Nobel Peace Prize.

In addition, Nobel originally intended dynamite to be used in mines, because the previous explosive ended up killing allot of miners. The dynamite was safer, as it didn't explode whenever it felt like. Just when someone lit a fuse, or pushed a plunger.

-In the Halloween Spirit, the Irish originally carved faces onto turnips.

Edited by Blue Fire, Oct 15 2011 - 10:33 PM.

[Eeko]

'Lolipop' is the longest English word that can be typed entirely with the left hand using conventional typing techniques.
'Dreamt' is the only English word to end in 'mt'
A dime has 118 ridges

Yeah, that's all I got now.

[Xeren Ozone]

The song We Are ODST lyrics are in Danish, while they were originally going to be in Russian. Also, for the Halo: Reach live-action trailer Deliver Hope, every one of Noble Team got a full-body cameo, with the exclusion of Noble Six, however, the ORIGINAL Noble Six was featured in this. Additionally, the person inside Kat's armor, was a Male, because they could not find a Female that fit the armor, and she was originally going to lose her arm, but that was too gruesome for television, so they just made her arm smoke, showing that there would be a problem with it, that would require amputation.

More deh Useless Facts, Halo Trailer edition!

[Takuma Nuva]

I actually did count the licks to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop once. I think it was 436? 463? I wrote it down somewhere. All I remember is that my tongue was raw.

Edited by Takuma Nuva, Oct 15 2011 - 11:42 PM.

[SgtPanda]

-The first song a computer sang was "Daisy Bell" in the 50's.
-No one knows the remix of "Baba O'Riley" that's used as the theme for CSI:NY
-Boy Scouts are lovable gentlemen.
-I'm CANADIAN.
-An aperture is the width of the hole a few blades in a camera lens make. It is measured in f/ stops. The lower the number the wider (or larger) the aperture/

[Tom Mc. Israel]

-In the Halloween Spirit, the Irish originally carved faces onto turnips.

The story of where the jack o'lantern came from is also from Ireland. According to legend, there was a drunk named Stingy Jack who tricked the devil into sparing his soul from Heck. When Jack died and he went up to Heaven, he was denied entry because of his lifestyle of drinking and lying; he went to Heck and begged to be taken in, but the devil refused him, living up to his promise. Instead, however, the devil gave him an ember to keep in a turnip, marking him a denizen of the netherworld. He became known as Jack of the Lantern.

Jack of the Lantern -> Jack O'Lantern

[Indecisive Individual]

The screwdriver was invented before the screw.

Nobel, after whom the Peace Prize was named, was the inventor of dynamite.

@Tom Mc Israel: I AM Irish, and that story offends me.
Therefore, it can only be assumed that it is true.

[Neelh]

-I'm CANADIAN.

Who?

Miku Hatsune was not actually the first Vocaloid. Kaito, Meiko, Sweet Ann, Big All, Tonio Sonika and this other one came before her.
Lariat is another word for lasso, so the song 'Double Lariat' is essentially "Double lasso".
The Caramelldansen is actually a Swedish song, and has been recorded in Englash (Caramelldancing) and German (Caramelltanzen). There has never been a Japanese version of the song.
Walt Disney was afraid of mice.
Bugs Bunny's VA was allergic to carrots, but he had to eat them while acting, as nothing else produced that sound.

[Jeordeon]

Not sure about the legitimacy some of these, but this is what I've heard.

-Einstein's birth parents were cousins.
-Einstein wanted to marry his cousin't daughter, but couldn't, so he married his cousin instead.
-Tongue is the strongest organ.
-Skin is the largest organ.
-TV show Lost = Lord of the Flies by Golding. As a Lost fan, that blew my mind. =/

Yeah, not too exciting.

[Pinkie Pie]

Not sure about the legitimacy some of these, but this is what I've heard.

-Einstein's birth parents were cousins.
-Einstein wanted to marry his cousin't daughter, but couldn't, so he married his cousin instead.
-Tongue is the strongest organ.
-Skin is the largest organ.
-TV show Lost = Lord of the Flies by Golding. As a Lost fan, that blew my mind. =/

Yeah, not too exciting.

Just to clarify on the bold. It's the strongest in relation to it's size.

When a ball rolls down a hill, the temperature of the hill goes up very slightly.

[Jeordeon]

-Tongue is the strongest organ.

Just to clarify on the bold. It's the strongest in relation to it's size.

Are you sure? My tongue can bench press 112, and my arms can only bench 50.

Seriously though, yes, I knew this. Would that make the heart the second strongest though?

[Jimothy]

-A supercomputer FINALLY found an end to pi
-Ronald Regan wanted to create an anti missle defense system in Space which was consequintly named Star Wars
-There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet
-The Olest Yoga teacher is 92
-Bionicle spelled backwards is Elcinoib

[Jeordeon]

-A supercomputer FINALLY found an end to pi
-Ronald Regan wanted to create an anti missle defense system in Space which was consequintly named Star Wars
-There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet
-The Olest Yoga teacher is 92
-Bionicle spelled backwards is Elcinoib

An end to pi? Source please? That is very disappointing. =(

And I thought the oldest Yoga teacher was like 96 or so?

[Knave]

Four cars and ten light posts are depicted on the back of the American ten dollar bill.

[Jeordeon]

Four cars and ten light posts are depicted on the back of the American ten dollar bill.

I counted 0 cars and 4 light posts.

[ReckoningReckoner]

- Hippo Milk is pink.

- Bell had originally intended the phone greeting to be "ahoy" instead of "hello".

- The "&" symbol is called an ampersand, and comes from the slurring of the latin phrase "and per se and"

Edited by iPenguin, Oct 16 2011 - 08:15 PM.

[BBCCD]

The continents names all end with the same letter with which they start.

North America and South America

[ReckoningReckoner]

The word "metaphor" comes from the compound of two Greek words which literally translates to "to carry from one place to another."

This means the word metaphor is actually a metaphor.

[-Toa Lhikevikk-]

- Edison had originally intended the phone greeting to be "ahoy" instead of "hello".

Nope. Alexander Graham Bell was the one who wanted it to be "ahoy" or "hoy hoy," Edison was the one who popularized "hello."

I sometimes answer my phone with "hoy hoy" myself, actually.

[Derpenstein]

The Horseshoe crab has sky-blue blood

[ReckoningReckoner]

- Edison had originally intended the phone greeting to be "ahoy" instead of "hello".

Nope. Alexander Graham Bell was the one who wanted it to be "ahoy" or "hoy hoy," Edison was the one who popularized "hello."

I sometimes answer my phone with "hoy hoy" myself, actually.

Fix'd!

Thanks. I got them mixed up.

Edited by iPenguin, Oct 16 2011 - 08:16 PM.

[Transcendence]

I'm GAY

No really, I am.

Edited by The Change, Oct 16 2011 - 08:30 PM.

[Jeordeon]

I'm GAY

No really, I am.

I somehow already knew that.

The technical name of Mad Cow Disease is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. Spread the word.

[Jonestown Bartender]

The iron in your heart was created in a star.

You were once (at least on the very basic chemical level) part of a nuclear reactor a million miles around.

[Jeordeon]

The iron in your heart was created in a star.

This never ceases to amaze me.

[Ghostie]

The average human eats 8 spiders in their lifetime at night.

False. Spiders aren't stupid enough to crawl into your mouth and down your throat.

[Xeren Ozone]

The iron in your heart was created in a star.

You were once (at least on the very basic chemical level) part of a nuclear reactor a million miles around.

Pffft. Yeah right. Proof please?

The average human eats 8 spiders in their lifetime at night.

False. Spiders aren't stupid enough to crawl into your mouth and down your throat.

1, some are. 2, some humans are stupid enough to eat a spider before bed.

Edited by Xeren Ozone, Oct 16 2011 - 10:13 PM.

[Jeordeon]

The iron in your heart was created in a star.

You were once (at least on the very basic chemical level) part of a nuclear reactor a million miles around.

Pffft. Yeah right. Proof please?

Let me see if I can remember this correctly.

A star is a massive ball of combustion, atoms constantly being fused together in its core and releasing energy. The core has intense pressure, crushing atoms together to make this reaction. When a star burns out, the pressure in the core becomes so intense that it creates a supernova, within which atoms are combined again and again into molecules, such as iron, lithium, etc., which over time combine into even more complex molecules. Through this process, over billions of years, these atom formed everything around us, including the atoms we're made of.