Random fun facts

[AFJF]

Got some random facts?  Put 'em here.

Just heard something that blew my mind and thought stuff like this might be cool for a thread becasue we have some pretty interesting folks on the board.

So, having thought my whole life that chitlings were exclusive to the US, it turns out they originated in England.  Am I the only one who didn't know this?

 

http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/chitterlingsorchitlings.htm

 

 

[SAM SAM HE'S OUR MAN]

[Arsis]

Fun fact: the early settlers to the American colonies were so hungry they had to resort to cannibalism.

 

      "Driven thru insufferable hunger to eat those things which nature most abhorred, the flesh and excrements of man as well of our own nation as of an Indian. "

[southparkcpa]

Jets suck.... FACT!?

[peebag]

17 minutes ago, southparkcpa said:

Jets suck.... FACT!?

That's not random nor fun.

You suck ?

[peebag]

In 1976, Cleveland was the bombing capital of the US

https://www.cleveland.com/moviebuff/2011/03/welcome_to_cleveland_1976_ad_b.html

[JustInFudge]

DId you know the average sink holds 15 gallons? 

[peebag]

2 minutes ago, JiF said:

DId you know the average sink holds 15 gallons? 

of what?

[JustInFudge]

Just now, peebag said:

of what?

I mean any liquid I guess

[peebag]

2 minutes ago, JiF said:

I mean any liquid I guess

Woulda been cooler if you said beer

[Jetsfan80]

At Andrew Jackson's funeral, his pet parrot got kicked out for cursing too much.  

That's one of my favorites.  More of an anecdote than a fact, but I think it counts for these purposes.

[Jetsfan80]

The entire collection of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets has been spelled out in DNA by scientists in Cambridge to demonstrate the vast potential of genetic storage. Huge quantities of information could be written into specks of DNA and archived for tens of thousands of years, the researchers claim.

[peebag]

1 hour ago, Jetsfan80 said:

The entire collection of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets has been spelled out in DNA by scientists in Cambridge to demonstrate the vast potential of genetic storage. Huge quantities of information could be written into specks of DNA and archived for tens of thousands of years, the researchers claim.

do you have a link for that?  Sounds interesting!

 

[Jetsfan80]

10 minutes ago, peebag said:

do you have a link for that?  Sounds interesting!

 

I do, and it is indeed fascinating!

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/jan/23/shakespeare-sonnets-encoded-dna

[The Crimson King]

• Crystal City, TX promotes itself as the Spinach Capitol of the World and everyone there brings that up. It is a small town near ... uh ... well it isn't near anything. 
• Chad Bentz of the '04 Expos and '05 Marlins was the only one who played high school ball in Alaska and made MLB
• The New York Rangers have won a Stanley Cup in the past 26 years
• Billy Crystal's babysitter as a child was Billie Holiday
• Pink Floyd was once known as the Screaming Abdabs
• Oshane Ximines is the only athlete with a last name starting with X to play in the NFL, MLB, NHL or NBA
• Elephants are the only animal that cannot jump (resulting in low rebound totals for elephants in basketball)
• Basenji dogs cannot bark, only produce a yodeling like sound (which is why basenji led bands often cover Hocus Pocus)
• My sister-in-law more than makes up for the basenji's inability to bark
• In 2016, more Mozart CD's were sold than Adele or Beyonce CD's (really)
• Some of us have way too much time on their hands

 

 

[Jetsfan80]

 

• 11 of the 12 men who have walked on the moon had been Boy Scouts in their youth.
• There is estimated to be $475 trillion worth of gold dissolved in the world's oceans.
• For $70,000 per night, you can rent the entire principality of Liechtenstein.
• The recipient of the first silicone breast implant was a dog named Esmeralda.
• 35 % of worldwide sock production takes place in one Chinese city (Datang, Zhuji)
• An Australian man (Otto Nothling) broke the national javelin record within the first three times he threw one, and then never threw one ever again.
• J.R.R. Tolkien typed all 1,200 pages of The Lord of the Rings with two fingers.

[peebag]

A woman (Marion Stokes) began recording the TV news and other shows beginning in 1979 until her death in 2012 amassing a total of 71,716 vhs and betamax tapes.

[munchmemory]

4 hours ago, peebag said:

A woman (Marion Stokes) began recording the TV news and other shows beginning in 1979 until her death in 2012 amassing a total of 71,716 vhs and betamax tapes.

What a perfect COVID-19 binge watch.

[SAM SAM HE'S OUR MAN]

On 6/17/2020 at 11:17 PM, The Crimson King said:

Elephants are the only animal that cannot jump

[Jetsfan80]

• The last English woman tried for witchcraft was convicted in 1944.
• All the ants in the world weigh about the same as all humans in the world.
• Bananas have more trade regulations than AK-47s.
• Mozart kept a fart diary.
• Queen Elizabeth I of England invented the gingerbread man.
• There are fewer people in the world than there are LEGO figures.
• Guinness isn't black, it;s very dark red.
• It would save 600,000 lives each year if everyone washed their hands properly.

[SAM SAM HE'S OUR MAN]

3 hours ago, Jetsfan80 said:

Mozart kept a fart diary.

[SAM SAM HE'S OUR MAN]

3 hours ago, Jetsfan80 said:

The last English woman tried for witchcraft was convinced in 1944.

[Jetsfan80]

• In 2009, a search of Loch Ness for the monster resulted in finding 100,000 golf balls.
• 95 % of the spiders in your house have never been outside.
• 13 Americans have died as a result of a laxative overdose.
• Male chess players will adopt riskier strategies when playing against beautiful women.
• McDonald's is the world's largest distributor of toys.
• A man in China once sent virtual assassins to kill his son's World of Warcraft character.
• There are 60  people in Venezuela whose first name is Hitler.
• Yoda's first name was Minch.
• Sheep can see behind themselves without moving their heads.
• Leo Fender couldn't play the guitar.
• Without bats, there would be no tequila.  
• Falling in love, on average, costs you two close friends.
• Work is 3 times more dangerous than war.

[SAM SAM HE'S OUR MAN]

On 6/18/2020 at 1:57 AM, Jetsfan80 said:

The recipient of the first silicone breast implant was a dog named Esmeralda.

[SAM SAM HE'S OUR MAN]

On 6/19/2020 at 10:06 PM, Jetsfan80 said:

13 Americans have died as a result of a laxative overdose.

[Jetsfan80]

• Until 1913, children in America could legally be sent by parcel post.
• In the 19th century, sausages were marketed as "Bags of Mystery".
• Tennessee Williams choked to death on a bottle cap.
• Henry Winkler ("The Fonz") never learned to ride a motorcycle.
• The first manager of a McDonald's franchise was named Ed MacLuckie.
• 2/3 of the world's population has never seen snow.
• The world's biggest frog is bigger than the world's smallest antelope.
• In 1672, an angry mob of Dutchmen killed and ate their prime minister.

[Barry McCockinner]

New York Penal Law 240.35(4) prohibits two or more people wearing masks or any face covering from congregating in a public place. 

[Jetsfan80]

• In a 2005 survey, 20 % of people admitted to taking Derbisol, a drug that doesn't exist.
• In 2007, 210,000 Americans were injured by lawnmowers.
• Vaccinations don't work on octopuses.
• The world's oldest living tree is older than Stonehenge.
• India's Mars probe cost less money than the movie Gravity
• In 2013, a PayPal error briefly made a man in Pennsylvania the richest person in the world.
• 80 % of US Presidential elections have been won by the taller candidate.
• Toothpaste is addictive for bears but toxic to dogs.

[kelticwizard]

Nero was 35 miles away when fire broke out in Rome and the violin would not be developed for many centuries.

[Jetsfan80]

9 hours ago, kelticwizard said:

Nero was 35 miles away when fire broke out in Rome and the violin would not be developed for many centuries.

It's still possible, though unlikely, that he played a stringed instrument of some sort:

 

https://www.history.com/news/did-nero-really-fiddle-while-rome-burned#:~:text=According to a well-known,in a time of crisis.

Quote

For one thing, the fiddle didn’t exist in ancient Rome. Music historians believe the viol class of instruments (to which the fiddle belongs) was not developed until the 11th century. If Nero played anything, it would probably have been the cithara, a heavy wooden instrument with four to seven strings—but there is still no solid evidence that he played one during the Great Fire. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote that Nero was rumored to have sung about the destruction of Troy while watching the city burn; however, he stated clearly that this was unconfirmed by eyewitness accounts.

 

[peebag]

[SAM SAM HE'S OUR MAN]

On 6/22/2020 at 1:53 PM, Jetsfan80 said:

In 2007, 210,000 Americans were injured by lawnmowers.

[Jetsfan80]

• The Pentagon has an emergency plan to deal with a zombie apocalypse (link below)
• Woody Harrelson's father was a hitman.
• Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.
• It takes around 12 honey bees their entire lives to make a teaspoon of honey.
• Male kangaroos flex their biceps to impress females.
• When impoverished and young, Picasso kept warm by burning his own paintings.
• You are twice as likely to be killed by a vending machine as a shark.  @JiF @The Crusher
• Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin cut a hip-hop song with Snoop Dogg (video below).

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/pentagon-zombie-apocalypse-training-plan-2016-3

 

 

[kelticwizard]

This is a quote but also true.  Dennis Miller:  "Custer was considered a military genius until five minutes before the Battle of Big Horn".

[SAM SAM HE'S OUR MAN]

11 hours ago, Jetsfan80 said:

Woody Harrelson's father was a hitman.