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one of many "origins" for the Rule of Thumb comes from brewing beer... when a brewer could put his thumb into a vat of wort, without instantly removing it because of burning himself, he knew it was safe to put the yeast into the mix, in order to create the beer


because of its exoskeleton, an ant can carry up to 6 times is body mass.

the average man will shave 24.5 feet of facial hair during his adult lifetime

Super cooled liquid Heleium Will "crawl" up and out of the beaker it is being held in

Ancient Romans cleansed themselves by spreading oil on their bodies then shaving it off with a large dull sickle/razor called a strigil.

Caesar's troops constructed a bridge large enough to ferry 40,000 men across the Rhine, in ten days, using only lumber they cut on site, twice.

The first steam engine was invented by Heron in the 1st century. It was deemed only useful as a toy and never developed further.

The hands on Michaelangelo's David are out of proportion.

avantgarde wrote:The hands on Michaelangelo's David are out of proportion.

As is Mary in his Pieta.

Wine is considered to have been discovery, and beer invention, as noted earlier.

The Mona Lisa has no visible facial hair—including eyebrows and eyelashes.

Almost all animals and plants can synthesize vitamin C internally, except for: Humans, simians (specifically the suborder haplorrhini), guinea pigs, a number of species of passerine birds (but not all of them), and many (perhaps all) major families of bats.

There are four main types of pelvis:

Gynaecoid: Normal female pelvis, round with enlarged transverse diameter
Android: Normal male pelvis, Heart shaped
Anthropoid: Long anterior to posterior diameter
Platypelloid: Long transverse diameter

Between AD 800 and 1300 the regions around the fjords of southern Greenland experienced a mild climate, with trees and herbaceous plants growing and livestock being farmed.

The film "Krakatoa, East of Java" dramatising the 1883 eruption of the Krakatoa volcano ignores the fact that Krakatoa is west of Java.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Between AD 800 and 1300 the regions around the fjords of southern Greenland experienced a mild climate, with trees and herbaceous plants growing and livestock being farmed.

That explains a lot. One of life's great mysteries, solved!

The UH-60A Blackhawk helicopter began life as Sikorsky's entry into the Army's Advanced Attack Helicopter program. Originally dubbed the S-67, it featured a 5 bladed main and tail rotor system, Tactical Armament Turret (TAT) with a 30mm cannon and wing pylons mounting etiher 16 130mm TOWs, 2.75 in. rockets or sidewinder air-to-air missiles. It set an air speed record or 216 knots (249 mph). It also featured retractable langing gear and speed brakes on the trailing edges of the wings. It's the granddaddy of what I fly today so I foud it interesting. Here's a picture.

CaptainCommunsism wrote:

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Between AD 800 and 1300 the regions around the fjords of southern Greenland experienced a mild climate, with trees and herbaceous plants growing and livestock being farmed.

That explains a lot. One of life's great mysteries, solved!

It explains that Greenland was a hell of alot hotter than it is now in the age of 'global warming'

A south western Greenland Village today (in summer):
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Ittoqqortoormiit_top_hg.jpg

Certainly no trees and only a few herbacious plants.

Only five countries (USA, USSR, UK, France and Italy) have won more Summer Olympic gold medals than Hungary.

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.

It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs.

In October 1983, the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (International Bureau of Weights and Measures) defined the meter as the distance that light travels in a vacuum during 1/299,792,458 s.

Left-handedness occurs more frequently in both identical and fraternal twins, and several groups of individuals with neurological disorders (such as people with epilepsy, Down's Syndrome, autism, mental retardation and dyslexia).

Members of the British Parliament may not eat or drink in the chamber; the exception to this rule is the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who may have an alcoholic drink while delivering the Budget statement.

There are 117 possible patches for Jr. Girl Scouts.

Frazzled wrote:There are 117 possible patches for Jr. Girl Scouts.

Wow! That's a hell of a broken OS. How long does it take to download and install them all?

the reasons why Fire stations traditionally have "the pole" is because the firefighters live upstairs, and in the days before the automobile, the fire-engine was drawn by horses; well, after the completion of a firefight, the horse would follow the firefighters up the stairs to the second floor.

Kilkrazy wrote:

Frazzled wrote:There are 117 possible patches for Jr. Girl Scouts.

Wow! That's a hell of a broken OS. How long does it take to download and install them all?

No patches demonstrating you've achieved something to put on your uniform. I have the lesser known "most in need of a shave" patch.

of all the teams in the NHL, only one in the league's entire history has ceased to exist (bonus points for those who know the answer to that)

Guam is the 32nd largest island of the United States.

Transylvania was first referred to in a Medieval Latin document in 1075 as ultra silvam, meaning "beyond the forest"

The world's first skyscraper was constructed in 1885 using steel-skeleton construction in Chicago.

The PS2 is the best-selling console to date, having reached over 140 million units in sales by mid-2008.

Since 1930 Liverpool has experienced negative population growth every decade, at its peak over 100,000 people leaving the city between 1971 and 1981

In cricket before the umpire will award a dismissal and declare the batsman to be out, a member of the fielding side (generally the bowler) must "appeal". This is invariably done by asking (or shouting) the term "Owzat?" which means, simply enough, "How is that?"