Useless but Interesting

[Eve]

I saw this started on another forum - one fact per post
Let's see how many we can accumulate :)
To start off

1) All polar bears are left handed (or left pawed to be precise :) )

[Amie]

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.

[benhenry]

Astronomers have an odd sense of humor.
The hard-to-study and not-well-known neighboring galaxy to the Milky Way
(because it is directly across from the dense dust lane in the center of our own galaxy)
is called: Snickers.

[Eve]

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words

[benhenry]

:thinking: Rainbows occur at a 57 degree angle of refraction through crystals in the high atmosphere between the source (sun) and line of sight (viewer).

[Eve]

Titanic only had three working funnels. The fourth one was added for luck, because it was lucky for a ship to have four stacks.

[benhenry]

99 bottles of beer on the wall containing Lienenkugels' HoneyWeiss Wheat pilsner beer would contain approximately 9 and 1/4 gallons of delicious fluid. :)

[Eve]

Did you know that flies are attracted to people who have recently eaten a banana ?

[Breezy]

A spider's silk is stronger than steel.

[tbonager]

The man that invented the Eveready battery gave away the company so that he could play with his model trains. As foolish as this may sound, it was the best decision that he ever made. His name was Joshua L. Cowen, The L stood for his middle name Lionel.

[L e s]

Annually, the amount of garbage that is dumped in the world's oceans is three times the weight of fish that is caught from the oceans.

[Suze]

10 percent of all human beings ever born are alive at this very moment.

[L e s]

A women from Berlin Germany has had 3,110 gallstones taken out of her gall bladder.

[benhenry]

Golly. I love this thread. :) Sunflowers turn throughout the day to face the sun- from east in the morning, following the arc of the sun's apparent motion across the sky, to the western sunset at dusk.

[tbonager]

Elmo testified on April 23,2002 during a House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Appropriations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. He was testifying in favour of school music education. He is the first puppet in history to testify on Capitol Hill.

[benhenry]

When a hobo came across a home with a good family that offered him work for a meal and a corner of the barn... he would leave a stack of three flat stones in some unobtrusive place near the residence and visible to those others who knew what it meant, and who would be looking for the symbol; which meant, roughly.... "Good home"

Hippies in the 60s-70s picked up many of the old codes of the road and preserved them for at least one more generation of travelers.

[Breezy]

A crocodile can't move its tongue and cannot chew.
Its digestive juices are so strong that it can digest a steel nail.

[tbonager]

Most toilets flush in the key of E flat.

[Eve]

The longest place name still in use, which is 85 letters long, is "Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipuka- kapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu" which is a name of a hill in New Zealand.


The name "Kangaroo" came about when some of the first white settlers saw this strange animal hopping along and they asked the Aborigines what it was called. They replied with "Kanguru", which in their language means "I don't know".

[tbonager]

The largest web-footed bird is the albatross.

[tbonager]

The Bible is the number one shoplifted book in America.

[Eve]

A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

[tbonager]

Success magazine recently declared bankruptcy.

[tbonager]

acetwothreefourfivesixseveneightninetenjackqueenking Excluding the joker, if you add up the letters in all the names of the cards in the deck (Ace, two, three, four,...,king). the total number of letters is 52, the same as the number of cards in the deck.

[Eve]

The original name for 'butterfly' was 'flutterby'

[tbonager]

The only part of the human body that has no blood supply is the cornea. It takes its oxygen directly from the air.

[tbonager]

It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.

[tbonager]

Women with a Ph.D. are twice as likely to be interested in a one-night stand than those with only a bachelor's degree.



I don't know if it's true but it sounded good.

[Breezy]

Tommy James was in a New York hotel looking at the Mutual of New York building’s neon sign flashing repeatedly: M-O-N-Y. He suddenly got the inspiration to write his #1 hit, 'Mony Mony'

[benhenry]

Cattle always face into the wind together when grazing on a hill; you need to check any facing the wrong way for illness or injury.

[tbonager]

Barbie's measurements, if she were life size, would be 39-23-33.

[tbonager]

The number 2,520 can be divided by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 without having a fractional leftover

[tbonager]

There are 63,360 inches in a mile.

[Eve]

During his or her lifetime, the average human will grow 590 miles of hair.

[tbonager]

The first woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 was Janet Guthrie in 1977.

[tbonager]

The five interlocking Olympic rings are black, blue, red, green, and yellow because at least one of these colors appears on every national flag.

[benhenry]

I love this thread! Our star, the sun, travels in an elliptical orbit around the center of the galaxy; but it also is pulled up and down through the plane of the galaxy, because of the collective gravity of stars and nebulae there...

...the apparent motion to an outside observer... our solar system is riding a horse on a carousel around the galaxy :)

[Breezy]

A fear of beards is called pogonophobia!

[L e s]

Apparently, On average, every chocolate bar contains at least three insect legs.

[tbonager]

The musical Oklahoma! was originally titled Away We Go.

[tbonager]

Because of Davy Jones's popularity as a member of The Monkees, another young singer in London, also named David Jones, was forced to change his name - to David Bowie.

[tbonager]

To make things easier while mixing the American Graffiti sound track, George Lucas and sound designer Walter Murch labeled all of the film reels R and all of the dialogue tracks D, and then numbered each of them sequentially, starting with 1. When Murch later asked Lucas for Reel 2 Dialogue 2 - or more precisely, R2 D2 - Lucas liked the way it sounded so much that he made a note of the name for another project he was writing.

[tbonager]

The final episode of M*A*S*H ranks as the most watched television program of any kind in United States history. An estimated 50,150,000 people tuned in on February 28, 1983. That amounted to 60.2% of all households with a television. Second on the list was the “Who Shot J.R.” episode of Dallas.

[Breezy]

The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. It was the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off.

[tbonager]

A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime

[tbonager]

A rat can last longer without water than a camel can.

[tbonager]

Felix the Cat is the first cartoon character to ever have been made into a balloon for a parade

[Breezy]

The average life expectancy of an ant is 45-60 days.

[Eve]

Number One Single 50 years ago...
UK: Ronnie Hilton - No Other Love
US: Elvis Presley - Heartbreak Hotel
Australia: Dean Martin - Memories Are Made Of This

and if that is toooo long ago . . .

Number One Single 25 years ago...
UK: Bucks Fizz - Making Your Mind Up
US: Sheena Easton - Morning Train (9 To 5)
Australia: Sheena Easton - Morning Train (9 To 5)

and for the 'babies' . . .

Number One Single ten years ago...
UK: George Michael - Fastlove
US: Mariah Carey - Always Be My Baby
Australia: O.M.C. - How Bizarre

[tbonager]

There is enough Iron in A Human being to make one small nail.

[tbonager]

The Lifespan Of A Tastebud Is Ten Days

[L e s]

The Seattle Fault is believed capable of producing an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale?

[tbonager]

German schoolgirl Annika Irmler has licked her way into the Guinness Book of Records with her whopping seven centimetre tongue.

[benhenry]

Put your heels and fanny against a wall and try to pick up a chair in front of you while keeping your bottom pressed against the wall....

many women can do it, but men can't because of the higher center of gravity....

[Eve]

Higher ??

[Eve]

On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year. BE CAREFUL!

[tbonager]

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.

[tbonager]

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.

[tbonager]

Chrysler built B-29's engines that bombed Japan, Mitsubishi built Zeros that tried to shoot them down. Both companies now build cars in a joint plant call Diamond Star.

[benhenry]

Chickens without a rooster on a deadly freezing winter night will peck each other to death stealing feathers to keep their brood warm; instead of huddling together so everyone lives.

[tbonager]

15 million blood cells are destroyed in the human body every second.

[tbonager]

The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet

[tbonager]

Vanna White on wheele of Fortune as long as it has been on has never worn the same dress twice.

[Eve]

Trivia is the Roman goddess of sorcery, hounds and the crossroads.

[benhenry]

Some species of reptiles can spontaneously change sex;
to maintain the male/female ratio in the population.

[L e s]

Until recent years, people living in remote areas of Afghanistan and Ethiopia were immunized against smallpox by having dried powdered scabs from victims of the disease blown up their noses. This treatment was invented by a Chinese Buddhist nun in the eleventh century. It is the oldest known form of vaccination.

[benhenry]

I love this thread.

The expression "groovy" grew out of the early rock music recording engineers who considered a track good enough for cutting into a vinyl disc worth some grooves. Thus: "groovy."

[Eve]

The human brain uses the same amount of power as a 10-watt light bulb:dim:

[L e s]

The sound of a snore (up to 69 decibels) can be almost as loud as the noise of a pneumatic drill (70–90 decibels).

Bet I can beat that :cjlol:

[Eve]

20% of men under the age of 35 snore, compared to just 5% of women.
One theory suggests that prehistoric man learned to snore as a way of scaring off predatory animals while we slumbered!

In Massachusetts, snoring is prohibited unless all bedroom windows are closed and securely locked and it is illegal to go to bed without first having a full bath.

[benhenry]

70% of the men in a survey admitted to peeing in the shower.
( A truly relaxing experience, I might add.)
54% of the women also! :thumbs:

I'm impressed ladies, I thought the percentage would be much lower. :)

[Eve]

In Michigan, it is illegal to chain an alligator to a fire hydrant.

[benhenry]

As an image passes through the eye it is inverted and directed to the back wall of the eye... the retina. The brain interprets the image: transferring the energy of photon collisions with rods and cones into chemical 'impulses' that travel along the optic nerve to the back of the brain where things are inverted again... to be 'seen' normally... (instead of "upside down") :)

[Breezy]

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

[L e s]

Acids in foods such as tomatoes and vinegar affect bean tenderness when cooking. So add acidic ingredients only once the outer shell is tender, about halfway through the cooking time.


Perhaps not so useless :cjlol:

[benhenry]

Yo Ho Ho
15 men on a dead man's chest
Yo Ho Ho
and a bottle of rum.

Nope... it doesn't mean 15 men stomping on a dead guy/
or dancing on a box somehow.

Pirates; privateers, etc... maybe british navy, too, not sure...
anyway the sailors sold 'shares' of their booty chests;
in case they died in battle;
sometimes they needed the money while still alive. :wink:

15 men on a dead man's chest:
the men are drinking rum while dividing up their dead comrade's stuff.

[L e s]

The USA's second national city is Port Angeles, Washington, designated by President Abraham Lincoln. That's where they would move the capital if something happened to Washington, D.C.

[tbonager]

The average airspeed of the common housefly is 4 1/2 mph. A housefly beats its wings about 20,000 times per minute.

[Eve]

Birds do not sleep in their nests. They may occasionally rest in them, but they actually sleep in other places.

[Breezy]

Did you know the first bicycle that was made in 1817 by Baron von Drais didn't have any pedals? People walked it along!

[L e s]

In Tokyo, a bicycle is faster than a car for most trips of less than 50 minutes.



"The Star-Spangled Banner," written by Francis Scott Key, is ranked the most difficult national anthem on Earth to sing.

But I bet you cannot sing the Spanish National Anthem

[benhenry]

Even the most stable stars exist in a precarious balance called hydrostatic equilibrium: the pushme-pullyou of exploding outward energy from nuclear fusion at the core and the crushing gravity of immense mass. When one of these forces outgrows the other; the star will collapse and then explode; or explode forever outward while the core remains a smoldering cinder left behind.

some of us couldn't sing that anthem, even if it had lyrics :wink:

[L e s]

some of us couldn't sing that anthem, even if it had lyrics :wink:


Well spotted Ben :clap:

A slander case in Thailand was once settled by a witness who said nothing at all. According to the memoirs of Justice Gerald Sparrow, a 20th century British barrister who served as a judge in Bangkok, the case involved two rival Chinese merchants. Pu Lin and Swee Ho. Pu Lin had stated sneeringly at a party that Swee Ho's new wife, Li Bua, was merely a decoration to show how rich her husband was. Swee Ho, he said, could no longer "please the ladies." Swee Ho sued for slander, claiming Li Bua was his wife in every sense - and he won his case, along with substantial damages, without a word of evidence being taken. Swee Ho's lawyer simply put the blushing bride in the witness box. She had decorative, gold-painted fingernails, to be sure, but she was also quite obviously pregnant.

[Eve]

Ho Ho for Swee Ho.
Justice Sparrow, how gullible you were
Who knows where Li did lie, maybe she lied



King Louis XIV of France only took three baths in his life and was forced to take all three

[benhenry]

The Walrus was Paul.

[Breezy]

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

[L e s]

Peanuts aren't really nuts but are actually a type of bean?

It takes about 548 peanuts to make a 12oz. jar peanut butter. A peanut contains 26% protein- a higher percentage than in eggs, dairy products, and many cuts of meat & fish contains no cholesterol.

In Lee County Alabama it's illegal to sell peanuts after sundown on a Wednesday?


And to get away from peanuts



The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.

[Eve]

In one hour, an oak tree can lose 990 gallons of water through its leaves.

Aspirin is found in the bark of the willow tree.

[benhenry]

The little fitting that allows the grease to flow through the gun to the joint is called a "zirk"

addendum: this is NOT useless information; but I feel it is of importance enough to override that particular requirement...

Men must be careful when shopping for underwear in this new century.

A carelessly grabbed familiar package may contain an unfortunate surprise for the unwary purchaser later.

No hole up front. Nada. No fly, no buttons, no zipper, no velcro.
Just like wearing a sack. How a person is supposed to number one without taking them off is a mystery to me. How can people manufacture stuff like this without big red warning labels? :cjlol:

[L e s]

Only one satellite has been ever been destroyed by a meteor: the European Space Agency's Olympus in 1993

[Silly Billy]

Vasily Alexeyev is undoubtedly the most famous athlete the sport of weightlifting has produced. From 1970 through 1977 he was undefeated in every major international competition and claimed 22 titles, including eight consecutive world championships and two Olympic gold medals. An irresistable force who routinely hoisted seemingly immovable objects overhead, he dominated the sport with an astonishing count of 80 world records in his career (seven of them set in one night!). He is still heralded as its most prolific champion and, while nearly all of his records have now fallen to his successors, no lifter before or since has come close to that remarkable achievement.

Which records does he continue to hold? The two that, as of this writing, he can never be stripped of...236.5 kg (521.5 lbs) in the press and 645 kg (1422.25 lbs) in the three lift total. The press was discontinued from the Olympic program in 1972.

[Eve]

There is a restaurant for dogs In Tokyo

The average person opens the fridge 22 times a day

[benhenry]

If you hold the two first fingers of your front paws at a level distance from your eyes;
so that you see a little "sausage" (from your fingertips)...
a person looking on will be able to judge your dominant eye;
your fingertips will be slightly off center towards your eye with the best vision.

There is a restaurant for dogs In Tokyo

The average person opens the fridge 22 times a day

heh heh... four cases of beer in two days at my house...
somebody must not be opening their refoodgerators for weeks... :bud:

[Eve]

Blond people have more hair than dark haired people
Dark haired people have more hair than bald people :)

The Roman emperor Caligula made his horse a senator

[benhenry]

Blond people have more hair than dark haired people
Dark haired people have more hair than bald people :)

The Roman emperor Caligula made his horse a senator

heh heh, wait a minute... any kind of a haired person has more hair than a bald person... :lol:

We still make senators out of horses; but we just use one part. :wink:

[Eve]

During his entire life, Vincent Van Gogh sold exactly one painting, Red Vineyard at Arles.

The colour blue has a calming effect. It causes the brain to release calming hormones

The magic word 'Abracadabra' was originally intended for the specific purpose of curing hay fever.

[L e s]

Unusually for the era in which he lived, Leonardo (Da Vinci) was a vegetarian, for humanitarian reasons. He apparently equated the murder of animals on a par with the murder of humans. (Not that this stopped him from dissecting humans to study anatomy and to map out where the human soul was, nor from taking a job as a designer of military weapons at one stage.)

[benhenry]

Farmboys in western KS have showed me over and over again how to split an apple with their bare hands.
I haven't quite mastered it yet...
But I'm hitting about 70%

The trick is to keep one slightly long thumbnail...
this is held to start the split in the 'valley' between two bumps in the top, around the stem.
then; holding the apple firmly palmed into your two hands;
a quick piercing and twisting clockwise;
rapidly and forcefully... you have to get it on the first go;
so it is a little bit psychological to get it the first time...
visualize the apple divided into two neat halves in your hands;
just slighlty apart from vertical.

The apple will split nicely right alongside the core
just as if you'd planed it with a knife... :)

[L e s]

A "jiffy" is a unit of time: 3.3357 times 10 raised to the -11 (3.3357x10^-11) seconds. So named for the length of time it takes light to travel a cm in a vacuum.

[benhenry]

Arlo Guthrie was invited to Jimmy Carter's inauguration. He had a conversation with Chip Carter. They discovered an opened record of Arlo's original recording of "Alice's Restaurant" in the items left behind during the Ford/Nixon departure. An 18 minute and 20 second song.

Exactly as long as the famous 18 minute and 20 second gap in the Nixon recordings. :)

[Eve]

You are more likely to be killed by a Champagne cork than by a poisonous spider.

Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.

[Silly Billy]

[QUOTE=Eve]You are more likely to be killed by a Champagne cork than by a poisonous spider.[QUOTE]

The Brown Recluse Spider is a problem in Australia. EvE is it found in New Zealand?

Because Brown Recluses like to live in heated homes, bites occur year round. And in just hours, a bite from the highly venomous Brown Recluse spider can create blisters and cause tissue damage to both people and pets within hours after the initial bite. Necrosis (death of cells) sets in quickly and the result is a very painful and gruesome "flesh-rotting" wound. Bites from Brown Recluse spiders can cause amputations, severe pain and in rare cases, death. Swift action is needed to minimize tissue damage and reduce the spread of the cell-killing venom.

This victim saw the Brown Recluse spider on her foot as she got out of the shower. This foot no longer exists because she had to have it amputated below the knee. Necrosis like this can be prevented or reversed by a special first aid kit.

[Eve]

Ughh - no Bill we do not have that Brown Recluse Spider. I have been bitten a couple of times by a white tail - painful and horrible sight but not with the extreme results that can happen.
Give me a champagne cork any day !! :)
In New Zealand we are also fortunate not to have any land snakes as our friends in Australia do.
New Zealand is home to around 2000 species of spiders and although all spiders bite very few of those found in New Zealand are actually dangerous to humans. The katipo (Latrodectus katipo) is perhaps the most venomous but most people will never see one due to their shy nature and the habitat in which they live. The closely related Australian immigrant the redback (Latrodectus hasselti) is also known to occasionally bite the unsuspecting causing a painful bite, swelling and numbness which may lead to nausea, vomiting and if left untreated potentially death. Another Australian immigrant species, the white-tailed spider (Lampona cylinrata), has become well known for it's painful bite. In addition, several victims have required treatment after the bite caused flesh to rot (a state called necrotising fasciitis). It is highly likely however that this is a result of the spider having injecting (along with venom) a virulent, although common, soil bacterium.

[Silly Billy]

Legend has it that St. Patrick expelled the snakes from Ireland. Did he get as far south as New Zealand, or do you have another saint with the same legend?

[MaKa]

Sonora Louise Smart Dodd

Just like Mother's Day, Father's Day is celebrated in every part of the world. In the United States, Canada and most countries in Asia, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday inJune. Although Father's Day is not observed on the same day in some countries (like Spain and Belgium where Father's Day falls on March 19th, Sweden on the second Sunday of
November, and New Zealand on the first Sunday of September), expressing gratitude and appreciation for dads with a special day seems to be universal. Today, Father's Day is not only a day to honor fathers, but one to show respect for all father figures. Families honor grandfathers, stepfathers,uncles and other adult male figures that are special to them.

Sonora Louise Smart Dodd, of Spokane, Washington, was 27 when she listened to a Sunday sermon about Mother's Day in 1909 and wondered why there was no corresponding day for fathers.
(Mother's Day observances began in 1908 in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, according to Hallmark Cards in Kansas City.) She was just 16 when her own father, Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, was widowed when his wife died in childbirth with their sixth child. Mr. Smart was left to raise
the newborn and his five other children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington state.

Sonora Dodd began her campaign after that sermon. She believed that the nation did not show enough respect to fathers, citing such popular songs of the day as "Everybody Works But Father," she promoted Father's Day out of love for her father.

"One group of men conventioneers laughed and said they didn't want a Father's Day," according to an article in The Spokesman-Review. "A national fishing day would be better, they told her." She persuaded the Spokane Ministerial Association and local YMCA to pass a resolution
in support of Father's Day, and the first local Father's Day was observed on June 19, 1910 ,in Spokane, Washington. Mrs. Dodd wanted Father's Day to be celebrated on the first Sunday in June, her father's birthday. However, the Spokane council could not get the resolution through the first reading until the third Sunday in June.

States and organizations began lobbying Congress to declare an annual Father's Day. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson approved of this idea, but it was not until 1924 when President Calvin Coolidge made it a national event to "establish more intimate relations between fathers and their children and to impress upon fathers the full measure of their
obligations." In 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day.

Sonora Smart Dodd was honored for her contribution at the World's Fair in
Spokane in 1974. Mrs. Dodd died in 1978 at age 96.

[Silly Billy]

Fastest Hat Trick (scoring three goals) in Ice Hockey

William Mosienko (Born - November 2, 1921 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) was a Canadian hockey Right Winger who played 14 seasons in the National Hockey League for the Chicago Blackhawks. He is most famous for scoring three goals in 21 seconds in a game for the Blackhawks, which set an NHL record that still stands.

[Silly Billy]

The U.S. standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is four feet, eight and a half inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the U.S. railroads.

Why did the English people build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the prerailroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Why did the wagons use that odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing the wagons would break on some of the old, long-distance roads, because that's the spacing of the old wheel ruts.

So who built these old rutted roads? The first long-distance roads in Europe were built by Imperial Rome for the benefit of its legions. The roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts? Roman war chariots made the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagons. Since the chariots were made for or by Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Thus, the standard U.S. railroad gauge of four feet, eight and a half inches derives from the specification for an Imperial Roman army war chariot.

Specs and bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right. Because the Imperial Roman chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two warhorses."

Funny? Sure. True? Yes and no. Follow the line of development with me and you'll see what I mean.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000218.html

[Eve]

:cjlol:

Very interesting, although it is not something I have ever wondered about.
Still very interesting though :)

[L e s]

The U.S. standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is four feet, eight and a half inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the U.S. railroads.

Why did the English people build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the prerailroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Why did the wagons use that odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing the wagons would break on some of the old, long-distance roads, because that's the spacing of the old wheel ruts.

So who built these old rutted roads? The first long-distance roads in Europe were built by Imperial Rome for the benefit of its legions. The roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts? Roman war chariots made the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagons. Since the chariots were made for or by Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Thus, the standard U.S. railroad gauge of four feet, eight and a half inches derives from the specification for an Imperial Roman army war chariot.

Specs and bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right. Because the Imperial Roman chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two warhorses."

Funny? Sure. True? Yes and no. Follow the line of development with me and you'll see what I mean.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000218.html



Very interesting :)

For a informative new look at the Romans from a non Roman view point look out for a book or a TV program balled "Barbarians". Find out what the Romans were really like, not what they wanted us to think of them. Did you know that from Augustus onwards the Emperors stayed in power by virtue of the fact they gave free food to every male citizen of Rome. Excellently narrated by Terry Jones (ex Monty Python)

Terry Jones' Barbarians takes a completely unique approach to Roman history. No one nowadays would try to tell the story of the British Empire from the point of view of the British, but it's still the case that the story of the Roman Empire is always told from the perspective of Rome. Well, not any more!

Accompanying a 4-part BBC2 series, also fronted by Terry Jones, this is the story of Roman history as seen by the Britons, Gauls, Germans, Hellenes, Persians and Africans. And suddenly the Romans don't look at all familiar. In place of the propaganda spectacles the Romans pushed on our noses, we'll see these people as they really were. The Vandals didn't vandalize - the Romans did. The Goths didn't sack Rome - the Romans did. Attlia the Hun didn't go to Constantinople to destroy it, but because the emperor's daughter wanted to marry him. Show an Asterix comic to an ancient Gaul and - surprise, surprise - he wouldn't realise that it was supposed to be about him. His life was more sophisticated than a Roman's, not more primitive.

Terry Jones travels round the geography of the Roman Empire - through Europe and Africa - bringing wit, irreverence, passion and the very latest scholarship to transform a history that seemed well past its sell-by date, and make it relevant to living with the new American world empire.

[Eve]

I am currently watching the British/American TV Series "Rome", historic events viewed through the eyes of 'ordinary men' From what I have seen they were far from ordinary and how they had time to fight any battles between all those extra 'activities' makes me wonder a bit. The free food they had given to them I think perhaps had an extra ingredient in it. They were certainly fit and active. :) Rabbit food perhaps.



The man that invented the Eveready battery gave away the company so that he could play with his model trains. As foolish as this may sound, it was the best decision that he ever made.He was Joshua L. Cowen. L stood for Lionel - as in Lionel trains. The first Lionel train that he produced was a flatbed car that ran on batteries.

He sold them as eye catching displays for shop windows. However, people quickly wanted them for their homes, particularly for under the Christmas tree.

By 1906, he had introduced the transformer and famous three rail track. In 1907, he introduced the first locomotive.

The rest is model train history.

[L e s]

According to a 1999 survey conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, of those people who snore, 19 percent snore so loudly that they can be heard through a closed door.


Hmmmmmmmmmm . . . . . . only through one door :cjlol:

[tbonager]

According to a 1999 survey conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, of those people who snore, 19 percent snore so loudly that they can be heard through a closed door.


Hmmmmmmmmmm . . . . . . only through one door :cjlol:



They must have heard my wife!!!!!

[Eve]

Greater Auckland (New Zealand) is the second largest city in the world by area, the first being greater Los Angeles.
Bet you didn't know that :)

All owls lay white eggs

You can not tickle yourself

[benhenry]

From The DaVinci Code...

One of the characters was taken to a roof in France that contained sculpted
gargoyles to help conquer her fear of them.

Her grampa had her listen to the rain that was falling, collecting and pouring out the mouths of the statues; and making a gargling sound.

Knowing the humourous origin of the scary characters' name cured her phobia. :)

[tbonager]

From The DaVinci Code...

One of the characters Sophie was taken to a roof in France Notre Dame Cathedral that contained sculpted
gargoyles to help conquer her fear of them.

Her grampa Jacques Sauniere had her listen to the rain that was falling, collecting and pouring out the mouths of the statues; and making a gargling sound.

Knowing the humourous origin of the scary characters' name Gargariser cured her phobia. :)

Hope this is right?!

[Eve]

The oldest person to live was Jeanne Louise Calment, she lived for 122 years until she died of smoking related complications.
Don't Smoke!

Giraffe's tongues are 22 inches long and black with pink dots.

You can't fold of piece of paper in half more than 7 times.

[benhenry]

Hope this is right?!

From The DaVinci Code...

One of the characters Sophie was taken to a roof in France Notre Dame Cathedral that contained sculpted
gargoyles to help conquer her fear of them.

Her grampa Jacques Sauniere had her listen to the rain that was falling, collecting and pouring out the mouths of the statues; and making a gargling sound.

Knowing the humourous origin of the scary characters' name Gargariser cured her phobia.


... Terry, thanks, you made it much better. :)

[benhenry]

The oldest person to live was Jeanne Louise Calment, she lived for 122 years until she died of smoking related complications.
Don't Smoke!



hummm... Don't Smoke... because you might not live passed 122 years old?!?
:lol:

I just quit cigars because my new friend has a little girl...
now I wonder if that was the right thing to do or not... :)

[Silly Billy]

You may not wish to try this at home, or any other place. But there may be daredevils amoung you who will consider it a hoax and try to disprove the conclusions.

http://johnmm.bol.ucla.edu/sexualphysics/procreation.htm

[Eve]

You may not wish to try this at home, or any other place. But there may be daredevils amoung you who will consider it a hoax and try to disprove the conclusions.

http://johnmm.bol.ucla.edu/sexualphysics/procreation.htm
Hot stuff but I suspect Dr Marshall is employed by Weetbix

[L e s]

Abraham Lincoln's son was invited to the assassinations of three U.S. Presidents:

The night that his father was shot, Robert Lincoln was invited to accompany his parents to the theater. He declined.

When President Garfield was shot in a Washington, D.C. train station in 1881, he was present at Garfield's invitation.

When President William McKinley was shot in 1901 at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, Lincoln was present at McKinley's invitation.

Although Robert Lincoln was not an actual eyewitness to any of these assassinations, after McKinley's death, Lincoln let it be known that he wanted no further invitations from any US president. Three presidents had unknowingly invited him to be present at their assassinations.

Interestingly enough, Robert Lincoln would not have been able to attend these events had not the brother of John Wilkes Booth saved his life years earlier.

Lincoln Kennedy coincidences (http://www.near-death.com/experiences/reincarnation08.html)

[Eve]

In Alaska it is illegal to whisper in someone's ear while they are moose hunting.

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

Humans are the only animals that use a smile as an emotional response.

It's illegal in Newcastle, WY to have sex in a butcher shop's meat freezer.

[L e s]

It's illegal in Newcastle, WY to have sex in a butcher shop's meat freezer.http://www.smileyarchiv.net/durcheinander-erstaunt/durcheinander-erstaunt0061.gif



The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.

Apples are more efficient than caffeine in waking you up in the morning.

Adolf Hitler's mother seriously considered having an abortion but was talked out of it by her doctor

Narcolepsy is the uncontrollable need to sleep.http://img172.echo.cx/img172/1552/sc0656ah.gif

[Eve]

An F1 car is made up of about 80000 components?

Mexico City sinks several inches every year?

There is an island in Thailand named after James Bond?

The average mosquito has 47 teeth?

In some parts of Argentina they speak Welsh?

At any given time about 0.7% of the world's population are estimated to be drunk?

Kowloon in Hong Kong means Nine Dragons?

The coins thrown into the Fontana di Trevi are collected for charity?

There are 80 entrances to the Colosseum in Rome?
Here are a few I saw
http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/1857/1003886wincerl0.jpg