Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

warpcrafter wrote:Drinking eyedrops will make you poop your pants.

I have to say, this thread is quite interesting. If you do not mind me saying so. We do not mind.

The word 'quiz' was created after an Irishman made a bet that he could introduce a new word to the english language.

He wrote 'quiz' on walls all over town - because no-one could understand why the word had appeared or what it meant, it became synonymous with trying to decipher a puzzle or riddle.




The Soverign Military Order of Malta is the last surviving remnant of the Knights Hospitaller of the Order of St John of Jerusalem (commonly called the 'Hospitallers').

As such it is the only military-religious order still recognised by the vatican (although their work now is as international mediators). They have their own sovereign territory, currency, postage stamps and radio station and are one of only two international bodies formally recognised by the United Nations as neither a state nor an NGO

Rob Liefeld has much to learn about human anatomy...

The image on the left is the original, the one on the right is what Cap would look like as drawn, without his suit, done by some young wag....

A Big Mac in Australia has 480 kcal and 24.9g of fat, but in the US it has 650kcal (largest in the world) and 29g of fat (tied for largest in the world).

If you spell all the numbers and try to find letter "A" you will have to count to One thousAnd.

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

WD-40 stands for Water Displacement, 40th attempt. Name was coined by the chemist, Norm Larsen, while he was attempting to concoct a formula to prevent corrosion by displacing water.

True dat, true dat!

Columbus never actually set foot on mainland America. He instead made his landing somewhere near Cuba!

Bigot was used as a term for something very secret, a document classed as Bigot was above Top Secret.

Delaware has the lowest highest point in North America

Cockroaches contain a "suicide enzyme" (S-Adenosylmethionine, if I remember correctly) which, when activated (Which I guess technically makes it a zymogen) causes near instant death. It yields no actual evolutionary advantage, and is near impossible, in vivo conditions, to activate; extreme stress has been theorized as the activating agent, however you can cut off a cockroaches head (It will live for days after you do this) and it does not activate. Boiling, freezing, cooking, and microwaving fail to activate this enzyme as well (The cockroach used in the trials conducted, at school- I dont torture animals for fun- only for science, only died after being in an oven @ 200C for fifteen minutes. As ecstatic as we were to finally kill the cockroach, when we finally ran the biochemistry tests on it, the enzyme was still inactive)

The largest thing a Blue Whale can swallow is a Grapefruit.

In 2000 the mean population centre for the United States was at Phelps County, Missouri 2.8 miles east of Edgar Springs.

A pic showing its south, westerly movement since independence.

In France, they call a Quarter Pounder a Royale with cheese.

Am I doing this right?

The Electoral College elected Washington unanimously in 1789, and again in the 1792 election; he remains the only president to receive 100% of the electoral votes.

Not all letters in the Cyrillic alphabet are used in every language that is written with it.

Elnicko5 wrote:Cockroaches contain a "suicide enzyme" (S-Adenosylmethionine, if I remember correctly) which, when activated (Which I guess technically makes it a zymogen) causes near instant death. It yields no actual evolutionary advantage, and is near impossible, in vivo conditions, to activate; extreme stress has been theorized as the activating agent, however you can cut off a cockroaches head (It will live for days after you do this) and it does not activate. Boiling, freezing, cooking, and microwaving fail to activate this enzyme as well (The cockroach used in the trials conducted, at school- I dont torture animals for fun- only for science, only died after being in an oven @ 200C for fifteen minutes. As ecstatic as we were to finally kill the cockroach, when we finally ran the biochemistry tests on it, the enzyme was still inactive)

And indeed, contrary to popular belief, Cockroaches will be amongst the first to die in the event of a Nuclear War. I'll read me book and post the tolerances laterer!

You can safely eat a venomous creature, and being bitten by a poisonous creature will not harm you more than a normal bite.

Chimera_Calvin wrote:The word 'quiz' was created after an Irishman made a bet that he could introduce a new word to the english language.

He wrote 'quiz' on walls all over town - because no-one could understand why the word had appeared or what it meant, it became synonymous with trying to decipher a puzzle or riddle.

Okay, that's about the coolest thing I've ever read.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:In 2000 the mean population centre for the United States was at Phelps County, Missouri 2.8 miles east of Edgar Springs.

A pic showing its south, westerly movement since independence.

(image snipped)

Wait, no, this is the coolest thing I've read.



Benford's law observes that number sets drawn from real world info is distributed in a consistent, non-uniform way. That is, if you take a bunch of accounting numbers, around 30% of them will start with a 1, 18% with a 2 and so on. You could convert the figures into pounds or quatloos and the pattern would remain. This is used in auditing financial records and scientific data and has detected fraud on many occasions.

37% of all statistics are made up.

Chick peas are neither chicks nor peas.

Both the ancient Chinese and the Romans used tickling as a form of torture.

Honey is the only kind of food that doesn't spoil

That is true. They found honey in an Egyptian tomb and it was still edible.

Don't know who they got to try it but I'm sure alcohol and a bet was involved.

A special kind of flashbulb used exclusively by Canon makes the flash of their cameras fatal to lizards.

Raindrops are perfectly spherical, not pear or tear shaped!

Mozart had 7 children, however, only two survived and lived til their adulthood. also, one of the only contemporary composers of his time that he actually respected was Franz Josef Haydn. They were good friends, and when news of Mozart's death arrived to Haydn a year later (he was in England at this time), he offered to Mozart's children musical training, an offer Konstanze later took him up on, and which he delivered.

watching amadeus, so I decided to look up some history, albeit I knew that haydn and mozart were friends, C/O my father, who is a prof of mediaeval music. fun facts are fun.

The Hubble Deep Fields are, perhaps, the most inspiring images ever taken.

A universally accepted distinction between a screw and a bolt does not exist.

Beer was "invented" in ancient Mesopotamia in the 6th century BC. It has been said to have been discovered when bread was left out in a bowl during a rainstorm and left to sit for several days. I would be willing to bet it is the best thing ever to come from the bet "A dollar says you wont drink that."