Did you know?... The Interesting Fact Thread

[Poloboy]

This thread needs its own group of myth busters. There's misinformation all over the place.

Originally Posted by Thermopyle

Did you know: That the Chines wall is NOT visible from space!

NASA says it is: link

Originally Posted by dksuddeth

A cheetah's speed is the result of having six more vertabrae in its back than the average wild feline.

Specifically, it actually has more to do with the increased mobility they have in the pelvic girdle (ossa coxae and to some degree femur) and pectoral girdle (scapula/clavicle), which would be attributes resulting from their soft tissue formation, not bone. Being able to extend their shoulders and hips farther, they can achieve much longer strides.

Originally Posted by bendsley

'Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia' is the fear of long words.

Not a word according to the Oxford English Dictionary. What dictionary have you found it in?

Originally Posted by ngdawg

Stomach acid is one of the most corrosive chemicals known

Acid chyme in the stomach (resulting from HCl) has a pH of about 2.5 While this is a strong acid, it is fairly dilute in the stomach. Plenty of the strong acids, when concentrated, can push the pH 0 boundary, which is over 300 times more acidic as pH 2.5


To add my own fact:
The concept of deadly "quick sand" doesn't really work. While it would be difficult to get out of, it can't suck you under because water containing sand is much denser than pure water. Since people can easily float in water, they are significantly more buoyant in a water/sand mixture and float considerably better.
That's also thanks to Mythbusters.

[itch vaccine]

Poloboy, you're just out to attack everyone

http://dictionary.reference.com/sear...ppedaliophobia

a link for "Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia"

Oxford can't always be up to date with new fears

And thanks for the new fact.

[Poloboy]

Not out to attack, just to expand on people's facts

Thanks for the link.

[itch vaccine]

LoL, looks like you know a lot / have just been watching way too many Mythbusters

No probs @ the link.

[abscondo]

Originally Posted by Poloboy

NASA says it is: link

Yep. What's untrue is that the Great Wall is the only man-made object visible from space. There are others as well, none of which come to mind at the moment.

Oh, ok, I spent the 30 seconds required to Google it ... and it turns out there are many. You can see some here.

As usual, Snopes has a good explanation, including the fact that this canard dates back to at least the 1930s.

[sobedrummer]

The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."

what about strengths?

The combination "ough" can be pronounced in nine different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."

[heccubusiv]

Originally Posted by itch vaccine

Poloboy, you're just out to attack everyone

http://dictionary.reference.com/sear...ppedaliophobia

a link for "Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia"

Oxford can't always be up to date with new fears

And thanks for the new fact.

is it just me or is that link not leading to a defination. But after a google search got this link http://www.changethatsrightnow.com/p...?SDID=204:1595

that might be a parody but proves your point

[itch vaccine]

heccubusiv,

wtf..

I could've sworn the definition popped up the other day I did the search..

graggh. sOrry :\

[Stug]

Originally Posted by Phage

How can you say this without specifying font size or spacing? With enough toner and creative kerning I could make a two letter word circle the world 500 times.

Well I can't specify font size because depending on varying screen resolution, what you see as Arial 10, could well be my Arial 8. Also spacing wouldn't be applicable either as I have already stated that this is one contiguous figure/statement of Pi. But if you're desperate for specifics each digit would have to be no larger than 3mm with a 0.1mm kerning area on either side of it.

[Avail]

Did you know that...


...if you lined up every one in China in a straight line and walked along it, you would never reach the end due to reproduction rates.

[byesman]

Hey Avail, if everyone was standing in a straight line, wouldn't that make it hard for them to reproduce? And as for the Great Wall from Space debate, define space. Are we talking atmosphere? Or Outer Space? That makes a difference.

[bendsley]

A group of ravens is called a murder.

This is also true for crows, unless ravens and crows are basically the same thing.

[bendsley]

...if you lined up every one in China in a straight line and walked along it, you would never reach the end due to reproduction rates.

Kind of hard to reproduce if you're standing in a line (assuming shoulder to shoulder here).

[Greazy]

If you're stuck on a liferaft with unpalatable (fresh) water, you can absorb up to 1 pint per day through enemas.

[MiSo]

Originally Posted by Munku

Rather untrue. Also, one major thing about these fact listings, is that often times people are wrong about something and then others get that info and tell it to someone else, and it spreads like wildfire. :/

i've attemted this many times.... cuz i have allergies. and even when trying to hold my eyelids open, i cannot while sneezing.

[Jonsgirl]

Did you know that the T.V. show 'Twin Peaks' budgeted $150 a week for on-screen doughnuts?

[eequeeku]

Originally Posted by bendsley

"Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.

I couldn't resist arising from lurkerhood to refute you on this. There are actually 24 other words I found with this property that equal "almost" in length. I will abstain from listing them.

However, I did find one word longer than "almost":

billowy

I will now rest my tired eyes, as they need it after much diligent reading of the dictionary.

[dxa1]

facetiously is the only english word with all the vowels once and only once in alphabetical order

[dangrad]

How about abstemious? If you want to go backwards try subcontinental.

[Munku]

Originally Posted by MiSo

i've attemted this many times.... cuz i have allergies. and even when trying to hold my eyelids open, i cannot while sneezing.

Sneeze through your mouth and not your nose. Problem solved!

[itch vaccine]

Originally Posted by eequeeku

I couldn't resist arising from lurkerhood to refute you on this. There are actually 24 other words I found with this property that equal "almost" in length. I will abstain from listing them.

However, I did find one word longer than "almost":

billowy

I will now rest my tired eyes, as they need it after much diligent reading of the dictionary.

I heard of "almost" as being* the longest word with letters in alphabetical order

I guess billowy doesn't apply as the double "l" doesn't count?

[kalisto_911]

yeah double L is kind of a cheap trick

[Melinith]

Originally Posted by dangrad

How about abstemious? If you want to go backwards try subcontinental.

Your forgetting the Y.

[hokiesandwich]

you're.
and in a post about knowledge, nonetheless.

[braisler]

Did you know... saliva has wound healing properties? Yep, when your mom told you she was going to kiss your booboo and make it better, she wasn't too far off the mark.

Not going to get into mom slobbering on your wound vs. kissing it.

[Hard8s]

To get blood out of fabric you should use the spit of whomever spilled the blood. You have enzymes that help break down the blood. Someone elses spit won't do as good.

[Pfhorte]

Originally Posted by abscondo

Yep. What's untrue is that the Great Wall is the only man-made object visible from space. There are others as well, none of which come to mind at the moment.

Hmm, seems to me there are a LOT of lighbulbs visible from space. They are man made aren't they?

[c172g]

Here you dictionary fans go:

Bookkeeper has the most pairs of letters in a row in the English language.
The longest word you can spell using only the top letter of the keyboard...typewriter

And finally, according to what I've heard, honey never goes bad. Anything trapped inside of it will be forever preserved. It will be just as sticky & difficult to spoon out of a jar today as it would be in 1000 years.

[roderickpsu]

Did you know that 51% of people are in the majority? That blows my freaking mind!

[Jakes]

Originally Posted by Grancey

Did you know:
Blue reflectors in the middle of a street indicate the location of a fire hydrant.....

I recently moved to indianapolis from cincinnati and was wondering what in the hell those damn blue reflectors were doing in the middle of the road.

[Karkaboosh1]

hydrogen is the least dense element in its gas form, and the most dense element in its solid form.

[stevie667]

Originally Posted by bendsley

It is impossible to lick your elbow. (wondering how many of you might actually try this)

I know someone who can do this

[Artsemis]

Did you know there are traces of cocaine in the majority of American paper money?

Really not that hard to believe if you think about it =p

[franzelneekburm]

Originally Posted by Poloboy

Not a word according to the Oxford English Dictionary. What dictionary have you found it in?

The OED is a descriptive work, it has no power to declare that some combination of phonemes is or is not a word. Odd as it sounds, popular usage is, in the end, the only thing that makes a word a word.

[franzelneekburm]

Originally Posted by fallsauce

Isn't that only true for your own urine? I remember watching a video on Nazi camps and they were talking about it...

No, any healthy person's urine is essentially sterile, in the sense that there are no bacteria in it. It's possible for it to get contaminated from skin contact as it leaves the body, but that would still be quite insignificant; especially when compared to most other bodily fluids, which are chock full of all sorts of pathogens.

Chemically speacking urine is fairly harmless as well, it's mostly composed of urea with small amounts of uric acid. The latter, in large quantities over a long period of time can lead to gout, but you literally would have to down several quarts of urine every day to achieve that effect.

Once outside the body urine will get contaminated with bacteria fairly quickly, one of the effects there is that urea will be broken down back into ammonia, which is toxic. So, I guess, if there's urine drinking to be done, make sure it's fresh...

[franzelneekburm]

Originally Posted by Mr Mephisto

Post an interesting fact. It's as simple as that.

Hmm, seems kinda open-ended, but OK, I'll bite.

Did you know?

The scene in Longus' "Daphnis and Chloe" where Daphnis fetches the single remaning apple from the very top of a tree is actually a reference to a poem by Sappho, the surviving fragment of which consists of only the few opening lines (Lobel-Page fr. 105).

Oh, did you mean "interesting" to other people as well?

[El Kaz]

Around 1.75 millions animal species are now totaly extinct, out of an approximate 12 millions total animal species.
Over 12,000 species are currently labeled as "in danger of exctinction".

[Hard8s]

Originally Posted by franzelneekburm

The scene in Longus' "Daphnis and Chloe" where Daphnis fetches the single remaning apple from the very top of a tree is actually a reference to a poem by Sappho, the surviving fragment of which consists of only the few opening lines (Lobel-Page fr. 105).

What the ??? Who is Longus, and who are Daphnis and Chloe, and why the hell didn't she just go to the store for another apple instead of risking her neck by climbing to the top of the tree for the last remaining apple? And who came up with these names???

oh wait this is a fact thread not a question thread.

Bees communicate with little dances. Each shake is a measure of distance. This is how they all find the soda you spilled.

[franzelneekburm]

Originally Posted by Hard8s

What the ??? Who is Longus, and who are Daphnis and Chloe, and why the hell didn't she just go to the store for another apple instead of risking her neck by climbing to the top of the tree for the last remaining apple? And who came up with these names???

"Daphnis and Chloe" is, while not the earliest surviving novel, probably the earliest surviving novel that's any good. Longus is the author. Daphnis was actually a he, not a she (the guy's very lucky that he didn't have to attend an American highschool). They didn't go to the store because it takes place around the second century, and you know, just isn't as romantic. Being the author Longus was probably the one to come up with the names; probably his own as well, as it's likely to have been a pseudonym.

See, you learn something new every day.

[rickscales]

I don't know if this is true, as I live deep in the heart of Arkansas, but I have heard that on the Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.