Useless Facts

[Wyrd Bid Ful Araed]

By the same logic Britain would be a lot better of a candidate for a third Rome.

I'm pretty sure thats exactly the sort of thing we claimed back in the days when we had an empire. How we were descended from the Trojan prince Brutus just like the Romans had Aeneas, how he named the land Bruton after himself, how his line eventually gave us Arthur Pendragon etc, etc.

[Alex Humva]

I was thinking more the legal system, customs, having the City of London (yay for cities within cities within countries within countries!), and generally a lot of Roman stuff in England, but hey, that works too. How factual is debatable, but I'm pretty sure it's better than Russia.

[BioGio]

A couple Russian tsars thought that Constantinople was way cool, so they tried to model themselves after Rome and the Byzantines. It's really a pretty famous saying/idea; I'm surprised you all hadn't heard of it.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Rome#Russian_claims~ BioGio

[The Lord Of Wednesday]

Time for more.-The original Fiat 500, which the new one is based off of, only had 17 HP.-The same car is also credited with killing off a lot of the Italian motorcycle market.-In some versions of Arthurian Legend, the sword in the stone was not Excalibur.-The Peel P50 is the smallest production car ever made, it has no reverse gear and only about 3.3 and 4.2 HP.-Mercedez-Benz pulled out of Le Mans for several decades after a fatal crash in 1955 which killed 83 spectators and injured 200 more, it was the most fatal racing accident in history.-Simo Hayha has the most kills of any human in known history, killing about 705 russian soldiers in the Winter War. He was called "The White Death" and the Russians saw him as enough of a threat that they sent in teams and artillery strikes specifically meant to deal with him, nothing worked, and he even survived an explosive round to his face.-The BMW Isetta was a post WW2 car made for people in the bad post war economy to afford, it had an engine with about 1 cylinder and 19 HP.-Most of the A.I.s that assist the protagonists in Bungie's games are named after legendary swords, specifically those of The Song Of Count Roland, such as Durandal and Cortana (personally I think if there is another guide or A.I. in Bungie's next game, then it will probably be named Joyeuse).

Edited October 14, 2012 by Samhain

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

The shot to the face did manage to put Simo Häyhä into a coma, but he woke up from that coma on the day that the Winter War ended. After the war (and recovery from being shot in the face with an explosive round), he went on to become a dog breeder. He died in 2002.

[Nanosuit User]

The NATO intervention in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. The Libyan government forces lost over 1,500 armored vehicles, thousands of soldiers, 550 anti-air batteries, 440 buildings, 369 ammo dumps, and nearly their entire airforce. NATO losses? 1 British airman... who died in a traffic accident. In Italy. Needless to say, this was enormously helpful to government morale.EDIT: Wait this is not so useless

Edited October 14, 2012 by Death From Above

[The Hip Historian Iaredios]

A couple Russian tsars thought that Constantinople was way cool, so they tried to model themselves after Rome and the Byzantines. It's really a pretty famous saying/idea; I'm surprised you all hadn't heard of it.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Rome#Russian_claims~ BioGio

Thanks.Russia, in a way, continued the empire through their blood line and religion. Also Moscow is placed upon seven hills, just like Rome.

[Wyrd Bid Ful Araed]

So's Sheffield, but they rely more on the reputation of their enormously successful steel industry than trying to claim to be Rome :PAnd while I'm spouting useless trivia about British cities, Birmingham has more canals than Venice. More canals, but none of the charm

[Alex Humva]

My apologies then, I've just never thought of Russia trying to model itself after Rome. From what I understood western Russia had a lot more Islamic and Mongol influences than Byzantium influences.I suppose though that since Byzantium absorbed a lot of Islamic architecture as well, you could argue Russia was actually using Byzantium influences, but that gets a bit tricky to figure out.

Edited October 14, 2012 by Void Prophet Alex Humva

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

I think any British claims to 'the Third Rome' would have to deal with the fact that the Thames served as the inspiration for the nearly-solid and not-at-all-frozen River Ankh in the Discworld.

[The Lord Of Wednesday]

Time for more.-Most pagan religions had their legends and traditions past down orally, though some have been preserved in writing, like the Norse Legends in the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda.-It is said that Excalibur's scabbard would make you essentially unkillable in some respects. Variations include being unable to die by bleeding, or being incapable of bleeding entirely, though from what I heard, the scabbard was lost in a large body of water.-In Norse Legend, whenever there was a thunder storm, it was actually a battle between Thor and the giants, and every time you heard thunder or saw lightning, it was Thor slaying a giant with his hammer, Mjolnir.-Also in Norse legend, it was believed that during a solar eclipse, that the sun was about to be devoured by a menacing wolf named Skoll. Solar eclipses were a sign that Skoll was about to catch the sun goddess Sol. I also heard that vikings would scream at the sky to scare away the wolf as well. Sol being killed by Skoll was also part of Ragnarok I think.-Merlin, in some interpretations at least, was only half-human.-Samhain (pronounced "Sowin") was the root of what we would today call Halloween, albeit it changed considerably through the centuries, though many themes are the same, if not similar.-In Norse legend, the Earth is actually the dead body of a giant named Ymir, the Earth is called Midgard, I also hear that it is also referred to as Mannheim.

Edited October 14, 2012 by Samhain

[Wyrd Bid Ful Araed]

Ah, we're back on myths, are we?The problem with the Prose and Poetic Edda is that they were written years after everyone was Christianised and by a monk so its debatable how much of the more Christian imagery was originally there and how much he put in to avoid being burned at the stake. The 'moral' if you will behind Excalibur's scabbard was that you were supposed to pick the scabbard which made you unkillable over the sword which made you unbeatable as some sort of metaphor for preferring to sheathe your sword. It wasn't so much 'lost' as 'deliberately thrown' in a body of water by Morgaine le Fay who apparently got the metaphorThunderstorms could also be Thor riding over the Bifrost in his goat-drawn chariot. Lightning was the sparks their hooves threw up. Loves his thunder and lightning, did ThorYep, if Sol was ever eaten by Skoll and Mani (the moon) by Hati (Skoll's twin) we were entering the Fimbulventr stage of Ragnarok, the nine years of winter before the battle of Vigrid plain which was the actual end of the world. Fortunatelky Sol has a daughter who survives and becomes part of the new worldYmir's body became the earth, his blood the seas (which is why its salty, see?) his bones became the mountains and his brains became the cloud. The maggots feeding on his corpse became the dwarves/dark elves. Odin and his brothers clearly hated waste

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

See, that's why I like Norse mythology - it's so creatively silly. Take Baldur's death, for example - they got an oath to not harm Baldur with literally everything but mistletoe, which, despite being decidedly pointier than the shrimp they, by inference, got an oath from, was ignored. Loki, for a joke, gets a blind guy to toss a bit of mistletoe at Baldur, probably figuring it'll scratch him a bit and then they'll remember to tell the plant not to hurt him. Instead, the blind guy throws a freaking twig of freaking mistletoe so hard it actually somehow manages to be fatal.The looks on their faces must have been priceless. I mean, okay, sure, some versions say that Loki made a spear out of mistletoe, but go take a look at mistletoe and tell me how good it would be at being made into a spear.

[Wyrd Bid Ful Araed]

Then they went and chained him to a rock in the underworld using one of his son's guts, with a snake forever dripping venom into his eyes. I mean, what buzzkills, right?

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

And the blind guy who throws faster than Thor doesn't get anything out of this except the knowledge that if he ever has children, he is under no circumstances allowed to play catch with them.

[SgtPanda]

I have facts!- Contrary to popular belief, Bonnie Parker of the notorious crime duo Bonnie and Clyde never actually smoked cigars.- Blueprints are blue because in the 1800's, the process used to transfer the lines of technical drawings into permanent prints made the white lines contrast against a dark blue background. The color (and name) became tradition- Prototype Apple motherboards are usually red.- The Granny Smith apple breed was first culminated in Australia, by Maria Ann Smith. It did not become popular until it reached the US around 1870.- The idea for the character Patrick Bateman was inspired by an interview with Tom Cruise and David Letterman; the author of the original "American Psycho" got the idea from Tom Cruise's apparently shallow friendliness.- Dexter Morgan uses the alias Patrick Bateman to buy animal tranquilizers in the TV show Dexter- It's illegal to paint National School Bus Yellow on anything that's not a school bus.

[teslakana]

the "blood" in alfred hitchcock's "psycho" isn't actually blood; its' hershey's chocolate syrup

[CHTrilogy]

Awesome Possum's ego is bigger than Atlas!

[The Lord Of Wednesday]

Now for more.-The protagonists of Bungie's Marathon and Halo (some) were asexual.

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Now for more.-The protagonists of Bungie's Marathon and Halo (some) were asexual.

Wait, is this the technical definition (completely lacks a biological gender) or the somewhat newer one in-line with the trend of having a name for everything (lacks interest/does not express interest in romantic relationships)?Regardless, the song '39 by Queen is about special relativity. It's perhaps not surprising that it was written by the band's resident astrophysicist.

[The Lord Of Wednesday]

Now for more.-The protagonists of Bungie's Marathon and Halo (some) were asexual.

Wait, is this the technical definition (completely lacks a biological gender) or the somewhat newer one in-line with the trend of having a name for everything (lacks interest/does not express interest in romantic relationships)?

Well in Marathon, The Security Officer is male, but has no visible reproductive organs (or at least that is how he was "made", and this is according to a terminal you find in game) though is most definitely male in every other regard. He also lacks a sexual drive because of this.In Halo this was a side effect of the augmentation procedures given to the SPARTAN II program, though I am not 100% certain about SIIIs, it seems to have been removed with the SIVs, (seeing as Demarco will flirt with Sarah Palmer, at least in the first episode of Spartan Ops). However it is stated with spartans that despite this effect, they are not aromantic and are still capable of having children, as the side effect will effect each individual at different levels, or so I remember. Edited November 13, 2012 by Samhain

[SgtPanda]

Regardless, the song '39 by Queen is about special relativity. It's perhaps not surprising that it was written by the band's resident astrophysicist.

Brian May?One billion seconds is equivalent to 32 years (god I love you Uncle John's Bathroom Reader)

[SkyLandOceAnna]

Hippos produce pink milk.

[Jean Valjean]

I wouldn't consider this useless so much as it is awesome, but when Micahel Maguire sang the part of Enjolras during the Tenth Anniversary Concet of Les Miserables, he had a severe cold. He still went on stage and his voice still sounded awesome. Also, in Ferris Bueler's Day Off, Matthew Broderick sprained his ankle in the scene where he was running through the houses to get home, and he was filming that right before he had to go on the one-shot parade scene. Although they planned a backflip and he couldn't do that anymore, he still did that famous parade scene, still sang "Tweist and Shout," and still had an awesome amount of energy,

 

That puts the quality of showmanship today into perspective, when Justin Bieber sprained an ankle and canceled a concert for it. I guess with him the show doesn't go on.

 

24601

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

On a related note, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull fell off of a stage (sometime in 1996, I think) and rather badly injured himself. For subsequent concerts on that tour, he was in a wheelchair and on a rather heavy dose of pain medication, but nonetheless on-stage and performing.

[LewaLew]

If you take a number greater than one without identical digits (like 11, 22, 101, and so forth), like, say 91, and flip the digits (19), then subtract the smaller number from the larger, the difference (72) will always be a multiple of 9. (72/9=8)More examples.201-102=99 (11x9)763-367=396 (44x9)43-34=9

[The Lord Of Wednesday]

Alright, I bet you never guessed these.

 

-To kill an enemy in an FPS game, shoot at it until it dies.

-Sarcasm was not meant to be taken literally.

-To win a race, you usually have to be ahead of everyone else.

-If you are bleeding, then odds are, something is wrong with you.

-Airplanes can fly, most birds can too.

-The gas pedal in your car makes it move.

 

I know, you're dumbstruck by this new information .

[NorikSigma]

A circle has 360 degrees. The 359, 360, 361 digits of pi are... 3 6 0.The voice of Bugs Bunny was allergic to carrots. During one take he had to eat a carrot so he bit off a small part and spit it out.It is illegal to break the law in New York.The word Tsar comes from Caesar, since the old Russian simply adored Rome.In the battle of Leyte Gulf the Japanese Central Force of 4battleships, 6heavy cruisers 2 light cruisers and 11destroyers were stopped by the tiny surface force of Taffy 3(Battle of Samar). The Japanese retreated.The original day for D Day was 4 June but bad weather changed it.Halo and Bungee Studio have a 7 enigma, with many numbers in Bungee's games being associated with the number 7.I have memorised 67 digits of Pi, including the first number 3.The inventor of Vaseline ate a spoonful.of the stuff every day.In most advertisements clock faces show 10:10, or approximately there.Most American car horns sound the key F.

[CHTrilogy]

A.A. Milne, at one point, was actually taught by H.G. Wells!

[Great Being Velika]

King Adolf Fredrick of Sweden died after he ate 14 bowls of pudding after a meal.

Hitting something to make it work is called "percussive maintenance"

In Bern Switzerland, there is a 500 year old statue of a man eating a sack of babies.

A word of the Easter Island native language: Tingo-The act of taking objects one desires from the house of a friend by gradually borrowing all of them.

[Blair the Cat]

Christmas fact:

 

Only female reindeer have antlers in the winter.

[Wyrd Bid Ful Araed]

While we're on deer, when the males are growing those big old antlers they use in rutting they need to get the extra calcium from somewhere. Since milk isn't really an option, they go to the next best alternative: bones. They'll find the carcasses of tiny woodland creatures and crunch them up. I believe this is why some deer species have extended canines in the same manner as predators

[Sybre]

Christmas fact:​

 

On the Christmas where baby Jesus was visited by the 3 wise men, Jesus was actually 2-3 years old by the time those wise men made it.

[The Lord Of Wednesday]

-In a Top Gear special, the 3 hosts (Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May) all had to roughly go along the same path as the 3 wise men (in small convertibles) and go to a manger with the 3 gifts the wise men gave Jesus.

-The Jesus in question was actually a "baby Stig" and Jeremy could not find "Mur" (he admitted that he did not know what it was) so he got a Nintendo DS for Jesus/Stig instead.

Edited December 21, 2012 by Samhain

[Wyrd Bid Ful Araed]

In case you weren't making a joke about Clarkson's pronunciation of it, its spelt Myrrh. Along with the other three gifts of the Magi it has its own verse in the "We Three Kings" song, that goes like this:

 

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume

breathes a life of gathering doom.

Sorrow, sighing, bleeding, dying,

sealed in a stone cold tomb.

 

Christmas fun for all the family!

[SkyLandOceAnna]

-The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

-Coca-Cola was originally green.

-Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the US Treasury.

-It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs.

-Smartest dogs: 1) Scottish border collie; 2) Poodle; 3) Golden Retriever. Dumbest: Afghan hound.

-The Hawaiian alphabet has only 12 letters.

[The Lord Of Wednesday]

Now for more.

 

-In the Dark Ages there was a massive Mongolian expansion across Asia and into Europe. As you would expect, it being the Dark Ages and all, Europe was not fairing well. What stopped the Mongolians you ask? The sudden death of their commander from a heart attack.

-The current Shelby Mustang (the GT500 version) has the most powerful V8 ever put into production (according to Ford anyway).

-There are some interpretations of the Succubus/Incubus demon that says they are one in the same and which one the particular being is depends on the person they want.

-In the beginning of WWII, China actually requested and received assistance from the US to help fight Japan who was currently at war with them. They were a group of airmen whom were called "The Flying Tigers" by the Chinese, and along with training the Chinese pilots they also would go out on combat missions with them.

-More US soldiers died in the 3 days of Gettysburg then in all 10 years of Vietnam combined.

-If one were to make a Civil War wall the same way there is a Vietnam wall in DC, then the wall would be about 11 times larger.

-The world record for most gunshot wounds taken where the person survived is apparently 21.

-The world record for harshest fall survived was 75Gs.

Edited December 21, 2012 by Samhain

[NorikSigma]

No person has jumped higher than 2 metres.Not counting jetpacks et veteran.Santa Claus was created by Coca-Cola for advertisement.(The present SantaClaus.)

[CHTrilogy]

Before James Bond, Daniel Craig was a knight in A Kid in King Arthur's Court.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

Remember when in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Aragorn thinks Frodo's dead? Remember when he kicked that Orc helmet and screamed in emotional agony? Did you ever think to yourself 'What a realistic scream!'?

 

That's because Viggo Mortensen broke two toes kicking that stupid helmet.

 

Also, in Fellowship, Lurtz the Orc threw a dagger straight at Aragorn. Aragorn deflected it. This was unscripted. Lawrence Makoare's vision was obscured by makeup and threw it at Mortensen's face instead of the nearby tree he was supposed to have thrown it.

 

What's so funny about all this is that despite filming these scenes multiple times, Peter Jackson used these takes because they were so realistic.