Random facts thread

[Beat Shock 581]

If you squeeze your thumb with your index and middle finger like this: (like making an N in sign language)

 

 

it will turn off your gag reflex. (It will feel like you want to gag, but if you squeeze hard, you won't)

Edited October 9, 2012 by Beat Shock

[Indiana_Dash 81]

Do you know that:

- The average person spends about 2 years on the phone in a lifetime.

- Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.

- Children grow faster in the springtime.

[I used to be a stranger 7,993]

The flags of Monaco, Poland, Indonesia, Singapore and the German state of Hesse are all almost identical; they are all divided horizontally, half white and half red.

[Rolls Royce 606]

Did you know that the last year that a tape deck was an option in a car was 2010. I thought it would have been sooner than that, but some Jaguar XK8's from 2005 had tape decks.

[Why-Gnome-Ear-Fifty 400]

YES. I NEEDED THIS THREAD FOR ONE FACT.

 

Tim Tebow's SAT score was an 890. For those of you who don't know SAT scores, that is ABYSMALLY bad, out of a 2400, and he's the baby of every sports news broadcaster.

[~Asuka <3~ 867]

Paradise Lost released their album 'Shades of God' in 1992

 

The Bible Belt does not include Florida

 

I have to fill up twenty characters to make this post.

[Zygen 6,066]

-The smallest country in the world is vatican city

-The leaning tower of Pisa is tilted at about 3.9 Degrees.

-The reasoning why people say bless you when you sneeze has to do with a belief that when you sneeze you are releasing demons from yourself(I think its something along those lines) It also makes your heart stop for a brief moment.

- The least used letter in the English language is actually Q

 

I can't think of anything else.

[Arcus (Silver Lining) Wind 983]

Armadillos, opossums, and sloth's spend about 80% of their lives sleeping.

 

Approximately 20% of the total oxygen in the human body is used by the brain. The brain also uses 20% of the body’s total blood.

[Retro*Derpy 3,186]

1. You have all the muscle fiber you will ever have at birth. Once damaged they can't be replaced.

2. If all your muscles could pull in one direction you could create a force of 25 tons!

3. Muscles account for approximately 40% of your body weight.

4.You take approximately 5 million steps per year using your leg muscles!

I thought they were pretty cool

[Arcus (Silver Lining) Wind 983]

1. You have all the muscle fiber you will ever have at birth. Once damaged they can't be replaced.

2. If all your muscles could pull in one direction you could create a force of 25 tons!

3. Muscles account for approximately 40% of your body weight.

4.You take approximately 5 million steps per year using your leg muscles!

I thought they were pretty cool

 

What is it with you and muscles?

 

If you are right handed, you will tend to chew your food on your right side. If you are left handed, you will tend to chew your food on your left side.

 

If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink more water For when a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism shuts off.

 

Your tongue is germ free only if it is pink. If it is white there is a thin film of bacteria on it

 

The roof of the mouth is composed of the hard and soft palates and the floor of the mouth is formed by the tongue, a muscular structure that contains the organs of taste.

[SpyHunterBG 26]

While we're on the topic of the human body and the like,

-There's an exceedingly rare skin condition called "Water Urticaria," which causes the skin to break out in hives upon contact with water, being either itchy like chicken pox or in severe cases, painful

-The odds of having this condition are 1 in 238,000,000+, and only ~40 cases have been recorded.

-The cause is unknown, and seems to be triggered at random.

 

And, with my beautiful luck, I am one of the 40-ish people that have this. Lucky me.

Edited October 18, 2012 by SpyHunterBG

[Starshine 16,334]

You cannot kill yourself by holding your breath, but it is possible to get yourself killed by breathing too much (overventilation)

 

Now, can you breathe a little bit faster? :­o

[I used to be a stranger 7,993]

More that four times the number of people who have been killed in aviation-related disasters have died from railroad-related disasters.

 

The top four worst aircraft disasters all involve the collisions of two Boeing 747 Jumbo Jets.

[MKT_707Z 34]

The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

 

Mary Stuart became queen of Scotland when she was only six days old.

 

A snail can sleep for three years.

 

Coca-Cola was original green.

[khaine21x3 789]

Do you know that:

- The average person spends about 2 years on the phone in a lifetime.

- Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.

- Children grow faster in the springtime.

 

Varies per country and the last doesn't seem very scientific.

 

The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

 

A snail can sleep for three years.

 

Coca-Cola was original green.

 

Human census is ineffective in muslim countries so we have no real idea how many people are named mohammed

 

There isn't any testimony from dead people on what the color of original formula coca cola is

[Midnight Stars 17]

The least successful chocolate bar in history was 'Synthetic Chocolate'.

 

The average human does NOT swallow 8 spiders in their sleep, contrary to popular belief. This fact was made up, by someone who wanted to test how quickly and effectively a 'fact' can spread.

 

There is a rare occurence in humans called the ventrum, which causes them to have an extra upper lip muscle, allowing them to contort it into a ducklike shape. There are about three recorded cases of ventrums in humans.

 

Or so my ventrum-ed friend informs me.

[Skrinky 25]

In the music video for Nancy Boy by Placebo, the drummer, Steve Hewitt's face is always shown shaking, because at the time he was still contractually obligated to another band on a different label.

[Steamgamer27 170]

FACT : Excessive heat causes not only physical stress, but psychological stress as well, to a degree that causes an increase in violent crime.

 

(“My client pleads not guilty by reason of global warming, your honor.”)

[I used to be a stranger 7,993]

Havergal Brian's Symphony No. 1 "The Gothic", Ludwig von Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 'Op. 125' and Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 "The Thousand" are the largest and grandest symphonies ever written.

 

Brian's No. 1 requires at the minimum 292 performers including full symphony arrangement, five choirs and four brass bands.

 

Mahler's No. 8 requires preferably between 800 and 1200 performers, and a minimum of 650.

 

Beethoven's No. 9 has no maximum for number of performers. Several symphonic and choral groups from Japan hold the world record for performance of a single piece of music, performed with over 8000 people (mostly singers).

[NewCalamity 3,454]

Yes, all of my facts will be military history related. I don't know anything else so leave me alone.

• During the war, Germany's most produced tank was the StuG III (Sturmgeschütz III) with over 9,000 built. The Soviet Union's T-34 however, had over 80,000 produced.
• The first large-scale battle between Germans and Americans took place during the Battle of Kasserine Pass. It resulted in a catastrophe for the Allies, losing over 180 tanks, while Germany lost around 30.
• Highest scoring tank ace for the US was Lafayette Pool with 12 confirmed knock outs.

  While the highest scoring tank ace for Germany was Kurt Knipsel with 168 confirmed kills.

• A certain German Tiger I tank was hit with eleven 76.2 artillery shells, fourteen 45-57mm Anti-Tank artillery shells, two-hundred twenty-seven shots from 14.5mm AT rifles and ran over three mines. After the battle it then returned to base for repairs safely.

These are good fun.

[Rolls Royce 606]

Here's some interesting useless car facts

-The first airbags were tested in 1951, and the first car offered with a passenger airbag was a 1973 Oldsmobile.

-The first car radio was made in 1930 by Motorola.

-The first hybrid car was made in 1901 by Ferdinand Porsche.

-The Volkswagen Beetle was invented by Ferdinand Porsche and Adolf Hitler.

-The first car with air conditioning was a 1948 Packard.

-The 1994 Honda Accord is currently the most stolen car in the United States.

-The most expensive car ever sold at auction was a 1936 Bugatti Type 57C Atlantic at $43.7 million dollars.

-The Bugatti Veyron's fuel economy is 8 city and 12 highway.

[I used to be a stranger 7,993]

The automobile (as in a self-propelled carriage powered by a gasoline internal combustion engine) was invented by the German mechanical engineer Karl Benz and his wife Bertha. He went on to found a company which he named after his daughter, which we know now as Mercedes-Benz.

 

An impeccable moustache man.

Edited October 26, 2012 by Blue

[Lifehax 81]

Turtles can breath out of their ass, but they only use this mechanism if all other breathing passages are blocked.

Quite a stupid fact.

[Jokuc 8,174]

Did you know that it's a tradition in Sweden to watch a special Disney show at christmas with a bunch of clips from different tv shows such as Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse's christmas? The most famous clip is probably this

and this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMEzWPMM0rQ

Edited December 8, 2012 by Jokuc

[Circadian 1,273]

• Edmund Hillary, the first person to climb Mount Everest, did so accidentally while chasing a bird.

The first commercial airline flight took to the air in 1914. Everyone involved screamed the entire way.

The plural of surgeon general is surgeons general. The past tense of surgeons general is surgeonsed general.

Marie Curie invented the theory of radioactivity, the treatment of radioactivity, and dying of radioactivity.

The occupation of court jester was invented accidentally, when a vassal's epilepsy was mistaken for capering.

In Greek myth, Prometheus stole fire from the Gods and gave it to humankind. The jewelry he kept for himself.

Dreams are the subconscious mind's way of reminding people to go to school naked and have their teeth fall out.

In Greek myth, the craftsman Daedalus invented human flight so a group of Minotaurs would stop teasing him about it.

Before the Wright Brothers invented the airplane, anyone wanting to fly anywhere was required to eat 200 pounds of helium.

In 1879, Sandford Fleming first proposed the adoption of worldwide standardized time zones at the Royal Canadian Institute.

In 1948, at the request of a dying boy, baseball legend Babe Ruth ate seventy-five hot dogs, then died of hot dog poisoning.

While the submarine is vastly superior to the boat in every way, over 97% of people still use boats for aquatic transportation.

Roman toothpaste was made with human urine. Urine as an ingredient in toothpaste continued to be used up until the 18th century.

Before the invention of scrambled eggs in 1912, the typical breakfast was either whole eggs still in the shell or scrambled rocks.

The Tariff Act of 1789, established to protect domestic manufacture, was the second statute ever enacted by the United States government.

During the Great Depression, the Tennessee Valley Authority outlawed pet rabbits, forcing many to hot glue-gun long ears onto their pet mice.

William Shakespeare did not exist. His plays were masterminded in 1589 by Francis Bacon, who used a Ouija board to enslave play-writing ghosts.

Pants were invented by sailors in the sixteenth century to avoid Poseidon's wrath. It was believed that the sight of naked sailors angered the sea god.

Diamonds are made when coal is put under intense pressure. Diamonds put under intense pressure become foam pellets, commonly used today as packing material.

Contrary to popular belief, the Eskimo does not have one hundred different words for snow. They do, however, have two hundred and thirty-four words for fudge.

Halley's Comet can be viewed orbiting Earth every seventy-six years. For the other seventy-five, it retreats to the heart of the sun, where it hibernates undisturbed.

It is incorrectly noted that Thomas Edison invented 'push-ups' in 1878. Nikolai Tesla had in fact patented the activity three years earlier, under the name 'Tesla-cize.'

The automobile brake was not invented until 1895. Before this, someone had to remain in the car at all times, driving in circles until passengers returned from their errands.

The most poisonous fish in the world is the orange ruffy. Everything but its eyes are made of a deadly poison. The ruffy's eyes are composed of a less harmful, deadly poison.

In 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves. Like everything he did, Lincoln freed the slaves while sleepwalking, and later had no memory of the event.

The Schrodinger's cat paradox outlines a situation in which a cat in a box must be considered, for all intents and purposes, simultaneously alive and dead. Schrodinger created this paradox as a justification for killing cats.

In Victorian England, a commoner was not allowed to look directly at the Queen, due to a belief at the time that the poor had the ability to steal thoughts. Science now believes that less than 4% of poor people are able to do this.

If you have trouble with simple counting, use the following mnemonic device: one comes before two comes before 60 comes after 12 comes before six trillion comes after 504. This will make your earlier counting difficulties seem like no big deal.