useless facts

[Aktungbby]

/\ Bē aőha pungos rűsïr nuykeā rubber hose sönia vala!:arrgh!:

[Rockstar]

William Halsey Jr. earned his naval aviator rating at 52. He is the oldest person to do so in the US Navy.


I guess you can teach an old bull a new trick. :salute:

Here’s more trivia and useless facts :)

I have an autographed autobiography ‘Admiral Halsey’s Story’ © 1947.

Regarding the “Bull” part. Page 1 para 2 below

“Still, I don’t want to be remembered as “Bull” Halsey, who was going to ride the White Horse. “Bull” is a tag the newspapers tied to me. I was named for my father, so I started out as “Young Bill”; then I became plain “Bill”; more recently I suppose it is inevitable for my juniors to think of me, a fleet admiral and five times a grandfather, as “Old Bill.” Now that I’m sitting down to my autobiography, it is Bill Halsey whom I want to get on paper, not the fake, flamboyant “Bull.”

[Jimbuna]

Some Maryland residents are taxed for the rain.

[Platapus]

In 1952, the CIA became the first civilian agency in the US to have an Inspector General

[Jimbuna]

Scientists have partially revived disembodied pig brains.

[Platapus]

In Middleton Wisconsin, there is a museum dedicated to Mustard

[Jimbuna]

Astronauts in space are exposed to the same amount of radiation as 150 to 6,000 chest x-rays.

[Platapus]

Ramen noodles became popular in Japan due to US imports of Wheat Flower post WWII

[Jimbuna]

Beaver bum goo is occasionally used to enhance vanilla flavorings.

[Jimbuna]

The U.S. almost went to war with Canada over a pig.

[Platapus]

Foxes use Earth’s magnetic field to hunt their prey. Foxes leap up and pounce on their prey. They can leap in any direction, but they’re more likely to jump towards the northeast.

[Jimbuna]

Tornados used to be called "twirlblasts" and "twirlwinds" in the 18th century.

[Platapus]

Moles have the ability to dig up to 18 feet in one hour.

[Jimbuna]

The Sundance Kid took his nickname from the town of Sundance, Wyoming.

[Jimbuna]

Eating your offspring may be a sign of good parenting in some species.

[Platapus]

Alpaca females only ovulate after mating. This is unlike other livestock animals whose ovulation is triggered by the presence of sperm.

[Jimbuna]

The word "MacGyvered" is in the Oxford English Dictionary.

[Aktungbby]

Eating your offspring may be a sign of good parenting in some species.biting the head off your mate is considered good breeding in some species!??:hmmm:

[Eichhörnchen]

I never watched a single episode of Big Brother

[Platapus]

Meliponiculture is the science of raising sting-less bees for honey production.

[Eichhörnchen]

Or 'Brookside'

[Jimbuna]

Kentucky has more bourbon than people.

[Platapus]

Avocados are in the same family as cinnamon.

[Rockstar]

Kentucky has more bourbon than people.

In May of 1964, the United States Congress declared bourbon whiskey a “distinctive product of the United States.”

[Jimbuna]

Jupiter's red spot is getting taller and smaller at the same time.

[Platapus]

The gryoscope was so named, in 1852 from (Greek skopeein, to see) the Earth's rotation (Greek gyros, circle or rotation)

[Jimbuna]

95 million Americans watched the O.J. Simpson verdict on television.

[Platapus]

In 2020, the 45-year-old Genichi Mitsuhashi was the first student to graduate from the master course of ninja studies at Mie University in Japan.

[Jimbuna]

61 million people were using pagers in 1994.

[Jimbuna]

The 1993 Cheers series finale was the most watched television episode of the decade.

[Platapus]

Red squirrels make mushroom jerky to prepare for the winter.

[Jimbuna]

Aladdin was the best-selling VHS tape.

[Jimbuna]

The NSA thought Furbys were a security threat.

[Platapus]

The NSA thought Furbys were a security threat.


They were which is why people could not take them to work in certain facilities.

[Platapus]

We know about staying away from yellow snow. But...


There is also pink watermelon snow that has a sweet smell and taste. But...


The rosy hue is often due to algae, which can make you sick if you ingest it.

[mapuc]

Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman who was allowed to study medicine in the United States as early as 1847.
It was not easy for Blackwell to be admitted to the study either. She had applied to 11 different universities, when it turned out that Geneva Medical College in New York was a little less averse to the idea.
They chose here to let the 150 male students vote on whether she should be admitted. If just one person voted no, she would be rejected. However, the students thought it was a joke, so they all ended up voting for admission.
They were therefore somewhat surprised when Blackwell later arrived, ready to teach.

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Barbie Dream House was the best-selling toy in 1999.

[Jimbuna]

A 90s survey found that more children recognized Mario than Mickey Mouse.

[Rockstar]

The three inch diameter holes cut into the upper and lower flaps of the Douglas Scout Dive Bomber (SBD) Dauntless were a required modification to stabilize the dive and prevent such severe buffeting solid flaps caused that many thought could break the tail section off.

[Aktungbby]

/\ Dick Best & Co. didn't think that was such useless information at Midway in 1942!:doh::ping::ping::oops: Weird how stabilizing one weapon platform with little holes, an aircraft, radically destabilized 4 launch platforms with severe buffeting ie: 4 Jap carriers: big-holing Akagi, Hiru, Soryu, & Kaga...within minutes of each other to turn the tide of war...

[Rockstar]

Without its bomb load the Douglas SBD Dauntless was also known as a good fighter that could hold its own against and shoot down Jap Zeros.

[Jimbuna]

Tetris was played in space.

[Platapus]

The music in Tetris is actually a Russian folk song


https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/icJW7bRtv7MMpfUGChrSYf-970-80.jpg.webp

[Rockstar]

Tetris is a product of the Red Menace mind control branch.

Or so the voices in my head told me. :D

[Eisenwurst]

A Chiko Roll contains no chicken.

[Jimbuna]

Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" was originally a B-side.

[Platapus]

If you used the balance type scale normally found in doctor's offices, you would weigh exactly the same on the moon as you would on earth.

[Jimbuna]

The Supreme Court has its own private basketball court with an amazing nickname "the highest court in the land."

[Jimbuna]

Walmart has a lower acceptance rate than Harvard.

[Rockstar]

Dock Phillip Ellis Jr. threw a no-hitter against the San Diego Padres on June 12, 1970, and later stated that he accomplished the feat while trippin’ on LSD.

I can only remember bits and pieces of the game. I was psyched. I had a feeling of euphoria. I was zeroed in on the [catcher's] glove, but I didn't hit the glove too much. I remember hitting a couple of batters, and the bases were loaded two or three times. The ball was small sometimes, the ball was large sometimes, sometimes I saw the catcher, sometimes I didn't. Sometimes, I tried to stare the hitter down and throw while I was looking at him. I chewed my gum until it turned to powder. They say I had about three to four fielding chances. I remember diving out of the way of a ball I thought was a line drive. I jumped, but the ball wasn't hit hard and never reached me.

Yep, that’s sounds about right :yep: :har:

[Jimbuna]

Cows moo with regional accents.

[Jimbuna]

A U.S. town had a 3-year-old mayor.

[Sean C]

Some of us also elected a dog, Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller II (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor_Max_II), as mayor. :yep:

[Jimbuna]

Barry Manilow didn't write his hit song "I Write the Songs."

[Jimbuna]

Flowers like Viagra.

[Jimbuna]

There's an American town with a population of one.

[Platapus]

Why is polling day (erroneously called election day) on a Tuesday in most places in the US?


It was borrowed from New York state and it allowed people to observe the Sabbath, travel to vote, and return home for Wednesday, which was observed as Market Day.

[Ostfriese]

Ostfriesland (Eastern Frisia) is not the easternmost Frisia - Nordfriesland (Northern Frisia) lies further to the East.

[ExFishermanBob]

Edinburgh's Waverley railway station is the only one in the world named after a novel (what's more, the Waverley in question was an Englishman).

[Ostfriese]

Fluorine is so reactive that it reacts explosively with hydrogen even if both their temperatures are below 20K, at which fluorine is a solid and hydrogen a liquid.
However, with steel fluorine reacts only on the surface, creating a very thin layer of iron fluoride which then protects the rest of the steel from fluorine - so fluorine can be stored in steel containers.

[Ostfriese]

Heavy water (Deuterium oxide, D2O) has a sweet taste, according to several studies. So far, no one has found an explanation for this.

[mapuc]

Heavy water (Deuterium oxide, D2O) has a sweet taste, according to several studies. So far, no one has found an explanation for this.

Could it be so that this heavy water D20 is activating the part of the tung where taste for sweetness are ?

Markus

[Eisenwurst]

In Sydney it's illegal for Grandmothers under 18 to enter discos.

[Ostfriese]

Could it be so that this heavy water D20 is activating the part of the tung where taste for sweetness are ?

Markus


Yes, but nobody has yet found an explanation why it does that.

[Jimbuna]

Lobsters communicate with their bladders.

[Platapus]

In the US, the mechanical lever operated voting machines were first used in the 1892 election. They remained in use in the US until 2010.



118 years!

[Jimbuna]

Dolly Parton once lost a look-alike contest.

[Rockstar]

Tok Pisin is one of the three national languages of Papua New Guinea. A Pidgin English that was developed in the early 1800's as a result of increased travel and economic activity between the Melanesians and Europeans.

[Jimbuna]

High heels were originally for men.

[Rockstar]

The worlds population is projected to reach 8 billion people today 15 November 2022

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

https://i.ibb.co/nLTfzsq/2-E6-EAD35-DB66-4838-BE28-27-B7-DAA86503.jpg

[Jimbuna]

Latin America has flowers that look like lips.

[Platapus]

President Ronald Reagan designated July 16, 1983, a one-time commemoration known as National Atomic Veterans Day. It honored atomic veterans, or “American military service members who participated in nuclear tests between 1945 and 1962, served with United States military forces in or around Hiroshima and Nagasaki through mid-1946 or were held as prisoners of war in or near Hiroshima or Nagasaki,” according to the White House.

President Joe Biden brought back National Atomic Veterans Day on July 16, 2021. And in December of that year, he signed legislation into law making it an annual commemoration of atomic veterans’ service.


:salute:

[Jimbuna]

George H.W. Bush loved skydiving.

[Platapus]

The current world record for the fastest speed on a snowmobile is 172.2 mph (277.13 kph).


Yikes!

[Aktungbby]

George H.W. Bush loved skydiving.He should have! his first time was nearly 'for keeps':Kaleun_Salute: https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/biographies-list/bios-b/bush-george-h-w/_jcr_content/body/media_asset/image.img.jpg/1490211054858.jpgWith his engine on fire, Bush flew several miles from the island, where he and one other crew member on the TBM Avenger bailed out of the aircraft. However, the other man's chute did not open and he fell to his death. It was never determined which man bailed out with Bush. Both Delaney and White were killed in action. While Bush anxiously waited four hours in his inflated raft,https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/George_Bush_being_rescued_by_the_submarine%2C_the_ U.S.S._Finback%2C_after_being_shot_down_while_on_a _bombing_run_of_the..._-_NARA_-_186382.tif/lossy-page1-375px-George_Bush_being_rescued_by_the_submarine%2C_the_ U.S.S._Finback%2C_after_being_shot_down_while_on_a _bombing_run_of_the..._-_NARA_-_186382.tif.jpg several fighters circled protectively overhead until he was rescued by the lifeguard submarine, USS Finback. During the month he remained on Finback, Bush participated in the rescue of other pilots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgbUJppfVUI Considering my 1st Lt. USAF dad bailed out of 3 crippled, battle fatigued B-29 aircraft serving in the Ferry Command; didn't participate in invading Japan thanks to the A-bomb; and was deemed "essential to the war effort" and deferred making K-ration instant-coffee by 1950; which probably kept him from getting shot down in an out-dated/obsolete B-29 over Korea by Migs!!?? Bottom line: thank goodness for good 'chute-packers! I arrived in '51 and am posting this by dumb luck alone(a really useless fact!??:O:) Although the Superforts are remembered today as the bombers which raised hell over Japan in the war's closing months,the earlier operations in 1944 were not always a great success,particularly those launched from China.The B29 was an immature aircraft at the time with a number of teething troubles,not least engine fires and failures. There were times when losses through mechanical failure outweighed those in combat.If you were one of these early B29 crewmen,you weren't expected to survive your tour,it was as simple that,and very few did.This would all have been easier to take if the raids that were being mounted were doing serious damage,but unfortunately they weren't doing that either.The bombers would drop thier loads from extremely high altitudes on these early missions,and bombing accuracy was accordingly abysmal.What wasn't appreciated at the time was that the bombers flying at such extreme altitudes were flying up in the jetstream,facing winds of incredible speeds which the bombsights couldn't compensate for,hence the woeful accuracy.It also put extra strain on the already dubious reliability of the B29, which contributed to the poor reliability these early 29's experienced.All this makes it very hard to come up with accurate figures for the number of bombers the Japanese brought down,and how many were lost,atleast in part,to mechanical failures. http://www.koreanwar-educator.org/topics/b29s/p_b29s_losses_damage.htm Case in point:Our Gal (44-61932) - When 40 to 70 MiGs attacked a B-29 formation, aircraft 44-61932 was damaged to the degree that the crew bailed out over Wonsan Harbor near Tri-yom-do on October 24, 1951. US Navy aircraft flew RESCAP over the crew. All but two were rescued.

[Jimbuna]

Bill Clinton is a Grammy winner.

[Platapus]

Ohh winner


(wipes off glasses) :)

[Jimbuna]

:haha:

[Jimbuna]

George W. Bush is an artist.

[Jimbuna]

Barack Obama was nicknamed "O'bomber" by his high school basketball team.

[Platapus]

in 1943, Mary Babnik Brown donated her 34 inch long hair to the war effort in WWII. Brown's hair was used in scientific equipment to make precise measurements of humidity, paramount in the production of military aircraft and other war equipment.


It is a myth that her hair was used in the Norton Bombsite, despite Reagan sending her a personal letter, in 1987, thanking her for donating and helping with the bombsite.

[Jimbuna]

Donald Trump is a germaphobe.

[Platapus]

Jacqueline Cochran was the first woman to break the sound barrier on 18 May 1953.



She still holds more distance and speed records than any pilot living or dead, male or female.

[Jimbuna]

Joe Biden overcame a debilitating stutter by reciting poetry

[Jimbuna]

George Washington was a redhead.

[Platapus]

It’s a common myth that turkeys can’t fly (most likely because they feed on the ground), but wild turkeys have been known to fly up to 55 mph in short bursts. For domesticated turkeys, this is unfortunately not the case. They’re bred to be heavier in weight, almost twice as much as a wild turkey.

[Jimbuna]

John Adams was the first president to live in the White House.

[Platapus]

Only male turkeys gobble. That's why male turkeys are called gobblers and females are called hens

[Jimbuna]

Three presidents died on the Fourth of July.

[Platapus]

Wild Turkeys spend most of their time on the ground, but when it’s time to sleep, they fly up into trees. This is because turkeys can’t see well at night, and to protect themselves from predators, they roost at dusk and fly down at dawn.

[Jimbuna]

Thomas Jefferson designed the swivel chair.

[Aktungbby]

Wild Turkeys spend most of their time on the ground, but when it’s time to sleep, they fly up into trees. This is because turkeys can’t see well at night, and to protect themselves from predators, they roost at dusk and fly down at dawn.That is NOT useless information this close to Thanksgiving; a whole 'rafter' of them(20+) march across a mountain road for years every morning commute, practically on cue; and I'm a 'gonna bag one and gobble it down come Thursday!:Kaleun_Salivating:

[Ostfriese]

Atoms and it's main mass contributers, protons and neutrons, are for the most parts empty (more than 99%)


If the empty parts could be removed and quarks (of which three form a proton or a neutron) and the gluon field energy (which keeps the quarks together) could be efficiently stacked, the entire universe could easily fit into a small tea spoon.

[Ostfriese]

Gold is a very soft metal, it can easily be dented, which is why people in the old wild west bit nuggets. If their teeth left a dent in the nugget, it was (mostly) gold. It's also the reason why jewelry is never made from pure gold (24 K) but always from alloys.

Gold can also be rolled into very thin foils. It's one of very few materials that can be flattened into layers of less than 1000 atoms by using only mechanical processes. These gold foils are transparent.

[Platapus]

Gold can also be rolled into very thin foils.




single ounce of gold can be flattened into a 100 square foot sheet

[Platapus]

You can tell a turkey’s emotions by the color of their heads. Colors can change from red to blue to white, depending on how excited or calm they are. The more intense the colors are, the more intense their emotions.

[Jimbuna]

Thomas Jefferson was an ice cream addict.

[Jimbuna]

James Madison was the shortest president.

[Platapus]

One certain way to find out if a turkey is male or female is by checking their droppings. A male’s poop will be shaped like the letter J, while the female’s is more spiral-shaped.

[Jimbuna]

Martin van Buren was the first president born a U.S. citizen—and the only president to learn English as a second language.

[Jimbuna]

William Henry Harrison gave the longest-ever inauguration speech, but had the shortest-ever presidency.

[Platapus]

Among the more surprising facts about turkeys is that they have three-times better vision than humans. They can also see in color, and their eyesight covers 270 degrees.

[Jimbuna]

John Tyler had 15 children.

[Platapus]

In the USA, 46 million turkeys are killed each year for Thanksgiving

[Jimbuna]

James Buchanan was America's only "bachelor" president.

[Platapus]

In November 1926, Vinnie Joyce of Nitta Yuma, Mississippi, sent President Calvin Coolidge a live raccoon to be served as Thanksgiving dinner. However, the President became so smitten with the furry animal that he pardoned and adopted it as a pet He named it Rebecca.



Racoon for Thanksgiving??? Must be a Mississippi thing. :06::Kaleun_Sick:

[Jimbuna]

Abraham Lincoln grew his beard based on advice from an 11-year-old girl.

[Jimbuna]

The "S" in Ulysses S. Grant is the result of a clerical error.

[Platapus]

The S in Harry S Truman does not stand for anything. That's why it should be written without a period

[Jimbuna]

Ulysses S. Grant once received a speeding ticket for driving his horse-drawn coach too fast.

[Jimbuna]

William Howard Taft ate possums.

[Platapus]

According to a survey conducted on behalf of the coupon site RetailMeNot, 12% of all Black Friday shoppers admit they hit the stores whilst under the influence of alcohol.

[Jimbuna]

Honeybees flap their wings 230 times every second.

[Jimbuna]

Warren G. Harding lost the White House china in a poker game.

[Jimbuna]

Five-star general Dwight D. Eisenhower never saw combat.

[Platapus]

The highest survived horizontal G-Force on a human happened in 2003, when race driver Kenny Bräck' instruments recorded 214Gs in his race car crash.


Normally, the lethal zone for humans is about 50Gs


https://www.google.com/search?channel=fs&client=ubuntu&q=kenny+br%C3%A4ck+crash+at+214+g#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:bb11260a,vid:Hy8fgGiI1WA

[Jimbuna]

John F. Kennedy survived five near-death experiences before his assassination.

[Platapus]

An F1 race car averages about 5 mpg during a race.

[Jimbuna]

Richard Nixon had a private bowling alley installed in the White House.

[Platapus]

Top fuel drag racing takes place on a 1,000 foot long track, not a 1/4 mile.

[Jimbuna]

Jimmy Carter was a major movie buff.

[Platapus]

Everything about Top Fuel Drag Racing is insane!


One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic-inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower (11,000 HP) than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.


:o

[Jimbuna]

Ronald Reagan wore hearing aids.

[Platapus]

Everything about Top Fuel Drag Racing is insane!


Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 11.2 gallons of nitro methane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.

[Jimbuna]

In Scotland Strangers Are Welcome to Use Your Toilet

[Platapus]

Everything about Top Fuel Drag Racing is insane!


A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to merely drive the dragster's supercharger.

[Jimbuna]

Do Not Walk Around Carrying Wood Planks in London.

Section 54 of the Metropolitan Police Act 1839 says it all. It is an offence to carry planks across the pavement in London and offenders could be fined up to £500.

[Platapus]

In the DPRK, photographs of Kim Il-sung could only be published if they were taken from his left side

[Jimbuna]

Residents of Beverley, East Yorkshire are not allowed to hang their washing outside.

[Platapus]

Everything about Top Fuel Drag Racing is insane!


With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle.

[mapuc]

In the folklore of Austria and Bavaria, the female figure Perchta existed, who in winter went around at night and into people's houses for the traditional twelve days of Christmas until the evening of the Holy Three Kings on 5 January.
Perchta knew if the children had been good and worked hard, and if they had, they would find a small silver coin the next day. If not, she would cut open their bellies, remove the stomach lining and intestines, and put straw and stones in the hole instead.

Markus

[Jimbuna]

You Cannot Import Polish Potatoes to Britain.

[Aktungbby]

Order 2004 to prevent potato ring rot; actually U can get Polish potatoes in the UK.:hmmm:

[Platapus]

In 1910 Charles Foster Willard was the first airplane pilot to be shot down when an annoyed farmer broke his propeller firing a squirrel gun

[Jimbuna]

Dueling is legal in Paraguay. It is legal so long as both parties have been registered as blood donors.

[Platapus]

Everything about Top Fuel Drag Racing is insane


Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.

[Jimbuna]

Ketchup leaves the bottle at a measured speed. It leaves the bottle at a rate of 25 miles per year.

[Platapus]

Everything about Top Fuel Drag Racing is insane


Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.


44 amps to each spark plug and there are two per cylinder. :o:o

[Jimbuna]

A baseball has a lifespan. Baseballs from the Major League Baseball association can last up to 7 pitches.

[Platapus]

Everything about Top Fuel Drag Racing is insane


So how long do these spark plugs last?


About 1/2 of a race. The spark plugs are consumed in about a second and a half at full power. For the rest of the race, the engine is dieseling between the high compression and the exhaust valve being heated to about 1,400 degrees.



The only way to stop the engine is to kill the fuel supply

[Jimbuna]

There is a town called Calama has never experienced rain. It is found in the Atacama desert of Chile.

[Platapus]

Everything about Top Fuel Drag Racing is insane


Dragsters will reach 300 MPH faster than you could read this sentence.

[Jimbuna]

Lightning strikes the earth 100 times each second.

[Platapus]

Everything about Top Fuel Drag Racing is insane


In order to exceed 300 MPH in 4 seconds, dragsters must accelerate an average of over 4 G's. In order to reach 200 MPH well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8 G's.


When the parachutes deploy the drivers get hit with the same G forces but in the other direction

[Jimbuna]

Possums do not play dead. They pass out from fear of their predators.

[Jimbuna]

The match was invented after the lighter. The first match was made in 1826. However, the first cigarette lighter was made in 1823.

[Platapus]

Everything about Top Fuel Drag Racing is insane


How durable to the engines need to be?


Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under full load.

[Jimbuna]

The five colours on the Olympic flag were carefully selected.
This is because at least one colour on this flag can be found on any flag in any country.

[Platapus]

Everything about Top Fuel Drag Racing is Insane


Top Fuel dragsters generate about 11,000 horsepower. This power would be useless unless it can be applied to the wheels.


Wheels are inflated to 5-7 PSI. The rules mandate a minimum PSI of 5 for safety reasons.



The outside of the tire rotates at a slower speed than the axle which causes the tire to "wrinkle" thereby increasing the amount of traction.

[Jimbuna]

A kiss stimulates 29 muscles and chemicals.

[Platapus]

Everything about Top Fuel Drag Racing is Insane


Top Fuel dragsters do not have any forward gear transmissions for three really good reasons


1. No transmission could survive the power
2. No human could shift fast enough
3. Centripetal force elongates the tires effectively increasing the "gearing" to the rear wheels. The tires are specially designed to have predictable elongating to maximize the gearing effect during the entire <4 second run.

[Jimbuna]

Ancient Egyptians slept on stone pillows.

[Ostfriese]

In the 19th century British army officers brought foxhounds with them to colonial India, to hunt jackals.
India turned out to be far too hot for foxhounds, and they all died, having never hunted a jackal.

[Platapus]

Everything about Top Fuel Drag Racing is Insane


To reduce tire slippage, dragsters need down force.
Unfortunately that big wing does not help at zero speed when the race starts.


To generate down force at the start of the race, the dragster uses the exhaust headers. They are angled in a specific way. The power of the engine exhaust at full power generates about 1,000 pounds of force downward!!!


That top wing at top speed generates 12,000 pounds of down force!!!!


Yikes:o

[Ostfriese]

Jackie Chan once played in a movie with Bud Spencer (Flatfoot in Hong Kong). Needless to say Chan (only a stuntman back then) was one of the many guys beaten up by Bud Spencer.

[Jimbuna]

Coca-cola was originally green.

[Platapus]

Everything about Top Fuel Drag Racing is Insane


So how much does each drag race cost?


Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, & for once, NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000 per second.

[Jimbuna]

36% of the American population has stated that God has spoken to them.

[Platapus]

So how fast is a Top Fuel Dragster?


Putting this all into perspective:
You are driving the average $140,000 Lingenfelter twin-turbo powered Corvette Z06. Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged & ready to launch down a 1,000 foot strip as you pass.



You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the 'Vette hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line & pass the dragster at an honest 200 MPH. The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment.


The dragster launches & starts after you. You keep your foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums & within 3 seconds the dragster catches & passes you.


He beats you to the finish line, a 1,000 feet away from where you just passed him. Think about it - from a standing start, the dragster had spotted you 200 MPH & not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1000 foot long race!


https://wediditforlove.com

[Jimbuna]

You can buy a toupee for your dog in Tokyo.

[Platapus]

While Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, the actual date of the big event is lost to history. There's no mention of December 25 in the Bible and many historians say Jesus was most likely born in the spring. Some historians posit the date was originally chosen because it coincided with the pagan festival of Saturnalia, which honored the agricultural god Saturn with celebrating and gift-giving.



Cultural appropriation? :)

[Jimbuna]

Only one sport has ever been played on the moon.

Golf.

[Ostfriese]

Bolivia has a navy despite having been landlocked since 1884.

[Rockstar]

A new study shows that more than 97% of people exposed to greenhouse gases CO2 and H2O, die within 100 years.

[Jimbuna]

There is a Superman in every episode of Seinfeld.

[Jimbuna]

2 out of 1000 children are born deaf in the United States.

[Platapus]

The tradition of Christmas trees goes all the way back to the ancient Egyptians and Romans, who decorated using evergreens during the winter solstice to signify that spring would return. So if you deck your halls with a green tree, wreaths or evergreen garland, you're honoring history.

[mapuc]

Are you tired of grammatical errors on signs in the city? In 2017, the English city of Bristol was 'plagued' by a man who, under the cover of the darkness of the night, ran around the city and added missing genitive apostrophes on shop signs. He described himself as a 'grammar vigilante', and believed that while it was illegal to alter the signs, the grammatical errors were a greater crime.

Markus

[Platapus]

Brew a cup o' tea when trimming your tree this year to pay homage to its origins. When Prince Albert of Germany got a tree for his new wife, Queen Victoria of England, the tradition really took off across the pond.

[Jimbuna]

Driving to space at a speed of 60 mph would only take an hour.

[Platapus]

The Christmas wreath first originated as a symbol of Christ. The holly represents the crown of thorns Jesus wore at his crucifixion and the red berries stand for the blood he shed. So when you see a wreath this holiday, you'll remember the reason for the season.

[Jimbuna]

Every three seconds, there is a birth taking place somewhere in the world.

[Aktungbby]

...actually every 1 second; if U consider an amoeba's dividing in 2 as a "birth"...:hmmm:

[Jimbuna]

The Arizona capitol building roof holds around 5 million pennies.

[Platapus]

There are no centipedes that have 100 legs

[Platapus]

We all know the same few handfuls of Christmas songs play at stores and on the radio in a loop all season long. But one of them has been adapted more than others. "Silent Night" earns that title, as most recorded Christmas song in history. It's had more than 733 different versions copyrighted since 1978.

[Jimbuna]

The Apollo 11 crew was prepared for the chances that they may not be able to return from their voyage. In an attempt to financially prepare their families, they signed many trinkets that their families could sell if the mission failed.

[Aktungbby]

We all know the same few handfuls of Christmas songs play at stores and on the radio in a loop all season long. But one of them has been adapted more than others. "Silent Night" earns that title, as most recorded Christmas song in history. It's had more than 733 different versions copyrighted since 1978. There's only one version that really counts; no IMHO 'bout it!:D
https://youtu.be/M_rFWaWcpsQ https://www.animatedimages.org/data/media/847/animated-norway-flag-image-0008.gif:yeah:

[Platapus]

It can be hard to visualize how long the different eras when there were dinosaurs.


For instance, despite movies, a Stegosaurus could never have fought a T-Rex


They did not live anywhere close enough. How far apart were they?


Put a Stegosaurus, a T-Rex, and a Human on a time line.



The T-Rex is closer to the human than it is from the Stegosaurus.....20,000,000 years closer to the human.

[Jimbuna]

The longest recorded tennis match lasted for 11 hours.

[Platapus]

In many Eastern European countries, particularly in Ukraine, finding a spider or a spider's web in your Christmas tree is a symbol of good luck! That's because these countries have the legend of the Christmas spider, which tells that a poor widow lived in a small hut with her children. They found a pinecone in summer and cared for it diligently until it became a pretty tree! Unfortunately, they couldn't afford to decorate the tree for Christmas, but upon waking up on Christmas day, they found the tree covered in elegant cobwebs that shone gold and silver in the sunlight. And since that day, the widow and her children never lived in poverty again!

[Jimbuna]

Shakesphere's epitaph is cursed.

[Platapus]

Some might say that she has killer looks. And they would be right


https://www.postoast.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Best-female-sniper-Soviet-sniper-Lyudmila-Pavlichenko.jpg

Soviet sniper Lieutenant Lyudmila Pavlichneko is known to be the most successful female sniper with 309 confirmed kills, including 39 Axis snipers.

[Jimbuna]

All swans in England belong to the Queen.

[Platapus]

The name ‘sniper’ dates back to the 1770s when ‘to snipe’ meant shooting snipes which was a highly challenging game bird for hunters. In 1824, the term ‘sniper’ got attested for the first time.

[Jimbuna]

A pineapple plant can only produce one pineapple a year.

[Rockstar]

In 1971, this ferret played a key role in the construction of particle accelerators at Fermilab's Meson Laboratory. As sections of vacuum chamber were connected together, Felicia would run through them, dragging a string. After she had carried the string all the way through, researchers would use the line to run a rag doused in cleaning solution through the long, narrow tubes.

Particle physics is seldom this adorable, and Felicia became a media star — until her retirement in December of 1971 (scientists replaced her with a vacuum-chamber-cleaning robot). She died the next year of an intestinal abscess. But her memory lives on.

https://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/VCVol3No35_pic1b.jpg

[Jimbuna]

Peas are the oldest vegetables.

[Rockstar]

All because it was travelling 25 MPH faster than it was supposed to be.

J002E3 is an object in space discovered on September 3, 2002, by amateur astronomer Bill Yeung. Identified as the S-IVB third stage of the Apollo 12 Saturn V rocket. The stage was intended to be injected into a permanent heliocentric orbit in November 1969 but is now believed instead to have gone into an unstable high Earth orbit which left Earth's proximity in 1971 and again in June 2003, with an approximately 40-year cycle between heliocentric and geocentric orbit.

It is thought that J002E3 left Earth orbit in June 2003, and that it may return to orbit the Earth in the mid-2040s.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7c/96/15/7c9615bc58bf8617a583a47520a8c44d.gif

[Aktungbby]

It is thought that J002E3 left Earth orbit in June 2003, and that it may return to orbit the Earth in the mid-2040s. When civilization is scheduled for destruction...and no one will notice! :hmmm: Scientists in the 1970s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) created a method to determine when the fall of society would take place.

That method indicated the fall will be some point near the middle in the 21st century around 2040, https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/climate-change/563497-mit-predicted-society-would-collapse-by-2040/:oops::timeout: :damn::dead:

[Jimbuna]

The winning lottery combination was once foretold in a fortune cookie.

[Jimbuna]

25% of bones in human adults are located on their feet.

[Rockstar]

When civilization is scheduled for destruction...and no one will notice! :hmmm: https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/climate-change/563497-mit-predicted-society-would-collapse-by-2040/:oops::timeout: :damn::dead:

I saw this on Joe Rogan podcast so you know its true or at least something to think about ;). I don't think it wouldn't be the first-time a civilization has collapsed. Think about it, the earliest known writing Cuniform is only 5000 or so years old. The oldest known bones of homo-sapien the species to which all modern human beings belong is said to be 180,000 years old.

In the last 180,000 years there has been 16 cataclysmic/extinction events that could've devastated our current civilization. 'BP' years Before Present

144,000 BP The Salian Climate Shift
120,000 BP Alika 2 Megaslide and Tsunami
117,000 BP Terminal Substage 5E Climate Shift
104,000 BP Greenland Blitz
84,000 BP Odderade Event & OSIS 21
72,000 BP Toba Super Eruption
65,000 BP Heinreich Event 6
52,000 BP Heinreich Event 5 & OSIS 14 &15
40,000 BP 1st Phase Australian Megafauna Extinction
39,000 BP Heinreich Event 4
26,000 BP Final Extinction of Australian Megafauna and Onset of Late Wisconsin Ice Age
23,000 BP Heinreich Event 2
12,900 BP Onset of Younger Dryas Climate Catastrophe
10,000 BP End of Wisconsin Ice Age
4,320 BP Burkle Crater Event & Tsunami. (Noah's Flood?)

[Jimbuna]

68% of plant species are endangered.

[Eisenwurst]

Coconuts are $ 4.90 at Coles.

[Ostfriese]

Among the Bond villains Auric Goldfinger is one of the most famous (second only to Ernst Stavro Blofeld).

In the movie of the same name Goldfinger was played by German actor Gert Fröbe, who spoke so little English that he had to be dubbed by British actor Michael Collins. The famous "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!" was therefore not said by Fröbe.

Fröbe, however, got his chance to voice a bond villain: for the German dub of "Goldfinger" Fröbe dubbed himself.

[Jimbuna]

Redwoods are the tallest trees.

[Platapus]

Boy horses are colts until their fourth birthday

[Jimbuna]

A potato's skin is much healthier than its core.

[Platapus]

Hollywood Talkies


The movie Casino holds the record for the movie with the most dialogue.


That movie consisted of 67,678 individual words (of which three of them are not the F word :har:)


Not coincidentally, Sam Rothstein is the character with the single most dialogue in a film, speaking 26,798 of those words.

[Jimbuna]

Strawberries are the only known fruit to grow their seeds externally.

[Platapus]

We have been lied to!!


Botanists do not consider strawberries, blackberries and raspberries as true berries. Real berries are formed from an ovary of one flower, with small seeds embedded within the fleshy fruit.


Trust no one. Beleve nothing.

[Jimbuna]

Scientists can’t explain what causes four-leafed clovers.

[mapuc]

American L. A. Vaught published a (pseudo)scientific book in 1902 that no fewer than 42 human characteristics were reflected in people's heads, noses, ears and chins. So you could use the shape of the head to see what personality a given person had. The book is equipped with caricatures that depict which head shape to trust and which to avoid.

https://i.imgur.com/OhLKSlam.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/zerRzTcm.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/iADfhilm.jpg

Markus

[Platapus]

January was named after the Roman god Janus.

Janus had two faces which allowed him to look forward into the coming year and backward into the past year.

[Jimbuna]

A rare pink dolphin resides in Louisiana.

[Platapus]

NYC's Time Square New Year’s ball dropping first took place December 31, 1907.

[Jimbuna]

Rainbows at night exist.

[Rockstar]

Research into the hypoalgesic effect of swearing has shown that the use of profanity can help reduce the sensation of pain. This phenomenon is particularly strong in people who do not use such words on a regular basis.

https://archive.ph/20130814145404/http://www.keele.ac.uk/pressreleases/2011/title,66305,en.html

[Jimbuna]

About 80,000 plant species are edible.

[Ostfriese]

Women's clothing usually buttons right over left, meaning the right frontal part of clothes goes over the left.

Men's clothing usually buttons the other way around, left over right.

The reason for that dates back to the middle ages (and probably much earlier). Men usually did the fighting, and they fought with a shield in front of them. Shields were held in the off-hand, which for most men was the left hand, so the left side of the torso was usually facing the opponent. If a weapon bypassed the shield somehow, it was important that it could not easily bypass the clothing as well, so men's clothing had to be buttoned left over right (meaning the opening between the two sides would not face the opponent).

[Platapus]

It was my understanding that it was because men dressed themselves and women had someone help them dress. Since most people are right handed, Dressing yourself is more easily done left over right while a right handed person dressing someone else will also left over right from their perspective

[Platapus]

When police officers arrive at the scene of a crime and emotion or adrenaline threatens to override their training, in some jurisdictions dispatchers or other officers will use the code word “Q-TIP.” It’s an acronym for “Quit Taking It Personally,” and it’s intended to remind them to maintain control of the situation.

[Jimbuna]

Ripe cranberries can bounce.

[Jimbuna]

The Arabic word for fingers translates to ‘banana’.

[Platapus]

Not strictly Q-Tips, Japanese cotton swabs are sometimes found as black-tipped sticks. Why black? According to one Japanese travel blog, the color makes it easier to see what kind of wax or other assorted gunk you’ve pried out of your orifices.

[Ostfriese]

Not strictly Q-Tips, Japanese cotton swabs are sometimes found as black-tipped sticks. Why black? According to one Japanese travel blog, the color makes it easier to see what kind of wax or other assorted gunk you’ve pried out of your orifices.


Not sure if I really wanted that many details :D

[Platapus]

No one ever claimed that useless facts were pleasant.

[Jimbuna]

The world’s most dangerous tree is called the manchineel.
This is native to the tropical southern North American and northern South America. Every part of the tree contains toxins that can cause blisters and skin breakouts on human skin just from touch.

[Jimbuna]

The Terminator was sold for a dollar.
The first of the five movies of the Terminator franchise earned a total of $78.3 million worldwide at the box office. However, the rights for the movie was sold for a mere dollar.

[Ostfriese]

No one ever claimed that useless facts were pleasant.


That's both a statement and a useless fact :D Sorry, couldn't resist.

[Aktungbby]

The world’s most dangerous tree is called the manchineel.
This is native to the tropical southern North American and northern South America. Every part of the tree contains toxins that can cause blisters and skin breakouts on human skin just from touch.

Hardly useless facts to the Spanish Conquistadors in early 1500's Florida and the American Southeast. Dubbed "la manzanita de muerte" in Ponce de Leon's journals; Florida's fierce Calusa tribesmen used the tree's deadly sap, including a poisoned arrowhead that killed Ponce de Leon, to poison water sources in advance of the smallpox-infecting Euopean invaders which accounted for many Indian fatalities well into the 18th century's as touted by Sir Jeffery Amherst advocating infected blankets to eradicate Indians during his tenure as Governor of North America...IE: "biological warfare" meets "chemical warfare 101"...:hmmm:??!!

[Jimbuna]

Nicotine is poisonous to insects.

[Platapus]

Good news ladies


On average, men have longer tongues than women at 8.4cm :O:

[Aktungbby]

Good news ladieshttps://www.96fm.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2020/04/Rolling-Stones-original-colour.jpg?w=859...an' they still can't get no satisfaction!:arrgh!:

[Aktungbby]

Nicotine is poisonous to insects.https://static-02.hindawi.com/articles/ijpedi/volume-2011/584589/figures/584589.fig.001.jpg https://media.tenor.com/MN1bnUIBKFcAAAAC/smooth-grasshopper-smoking.gif

[Ostfriese]

The human tongue is a muscle - the only muscle in the entire human body that's just connected to something else at a single point.
All other muscles have at least two connections to the rest of the body.

[Jimbuna]

A plant that consumes rats can be found in the Philippines.

[Platapus]

In US Clubs, only 8% of strippers are men, compared to 92% women.

[Jimbuna]

The smell of freshly cut grass is noted to be the grass screaming in distress.
This smell is a chemical that grass uses to call other critters to come and rescue them. The chemical compounds that the plant releases can also be used to poison an enemy and alert surrounding plants.

[Aktungbby]

In today's paper: the US state department says it has adopted Turkey's preferred spelling of the country's name: Republic of TURKIYE. So I'd guess in our bilateral communications with our ally Erdogan who keeps the Russian warships from transiting Bosphorus, even as he shelters oligarchs superyachts, we're now 'talkin' Turkiye'...:03: NATO and the United Nations had already switched last year.

[Ostfriese]

The ancient Romans only knew honey as a sweetener (which was even back then an expensive commodity). For a long time, especially during the imperal time (starting in the first century BC) they also used something they called defrutum.

This was produced by pouring wine into bowls made from lead, then putting it into the sun. After a while only a syrup (or even white crystals) were left which tasted sweet and where used to sweeten wine (Roman wine was much more acidic than modern wines and contained less alcohol).

Unfortunately, defrutum was not just sugar. The heat and bacteria oxidised the alcohol (ethanol) first to acetaldehyde (ethanal) and then to vinegar (acidic acid), which reacts with lead to lead(II)acetate, a white, crystalline substance which has a sweet taste. High amounts of lead can even today be found in skeletal remains of ancient Romans.

Sources from the Roman time suggest that there was an unusually high rate of infertility among the higher classes - infertility is one of the consequences of lead poisoning.


Lead acetate was used to sweeten wine for centuries and the practice only ended halfway through the 19th century when the toxicity of lead compounds became fully understood.

[Jimbuna]

Baby kangaroos are born the size of an inch.

[Aktungbby]

Sources from the Roman time suggest that there was an unusually high rate of infertility among the higher classes - infertility is one of the consequences of lead poisoning.


So much for the defrutum of my lecherous vino-ways!:wah: Nuthins' worse than a case of E.D. at at a 'toga party'...!?https://www.bucksfargo.com/files/2016/08/toga-party.jpg

[Platapus]

Tuvan throat singers can produce as many as four pitches simultaneously. The result is a singer that can effectively sing two or more notes at once – literally harmonizing with himself or her self.



https://youtu.be/qx8hrhBZJ98

[Jimbuna]

The little finger contributes 50% of our hand strength.

[Platapus]

What's the matter with class.


Or actually what matter is glass?



Scientists are not sure what kind of matter glass is. A sheet of glass is not solid even though it may appear that way. Bizarrely, it sometimes behaves like a liquid and a solid at the same time. Glass atoms are caught in the same way as a gel’s—slow-moving atoms that never get anywhere because they block each other’s way.



It also tries to act like a crystal too.



In other words, glass is neither solid nor liquid, has properties of a gel, and is something of a crystal suffering arrested development

[Jimbuna]

Flies hum in the key of F.

[mapuc]

What's the matter with class.


Or actually what matter is glass?



Scientists are not sure what kind of matter glass is. A sheet of glass is not solid even though it may appear that way. Bizarrely, it sometimes behaves like a liquid and a solid at the same time. Glass atoms are caught in the same way as a gel’s—slow-moving atoms that never get anywhere because they block each other’s way.



It also tries to act like a crystal too.



In other words, glass is neither solid nor liquid, has properties of a gel, and is something of a crystal suffering arrested development

Your interesting useless facts about glass made me remember this thread

https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=254216

Markus

[Sean C]

99% of drivers in Virginia don't know that the left lane is the fast lane ... apparently.

[Jimbuna]

The webs of spiders were once used as bandages.

[Platapus]

In the movie Le Mans (1971), other than background sounds, the first words of dialogue do not occur until minute 36 of the movie.

[Rockstar]

99% of drivers in Virginia don't know that the left lane is the fast lane ... apparently.

Having had to drive through Norfolk on several occasions. I discovered Virginia drivers also think the hard shoulder is a passing lane.

[Ostfriese]

Most strawberry-flavoured food items do not contain strawberries. If all those items were produced with real strawberries it would require the anual worldwide strawberry harvest to be about four to five times larger than it actually is.

[Jimbuna]

Mosquitoes are unable to penetrate silk.

[Platapus]

Wild elephants live longer than elephants in zoos. Zoo-born African and Asian elephants live for only 17 and 19 years respectively. Compare that to the average 56 years enjoyed by those in the wild

[Jimbuna]

Square watermelons cost more than round ones.
A square watermelon can be bought for $85. They are mostly expensive due to the intensive labor that is put into shaping them.

[Ostfriese]

A barn is not only a large building a farmer keeps his tractors and other stuff in, but it's also a unit used in science.


In fact, a barn is the cross sectional area of a typical atomic nucleus and is defined as 100 square femtometers (10^-28 m² / 1.550003* 10^-25 square inches).

[Jimbuna]

A tomb found in London is said to be a time machine.

One of the tombs in the Brompton Cemetary has an en entryway that features a keyhole. However, the key to this chamber has been lost for years.

Local legend believes that there is a secret in this chamber due to the gold Egyptian hieroglyphs that is decorated on the door. This has lead others to believe that it may be a time machine or a time chamber of some sort.

[mapuc]

It was a taxi driver who received the first speeding ticket in the United States. It went to Jacob German, who in 1899 drove at a staggering 19 km/h in New York, where the speed limit was 13 km/h. He was therefore caught up and arrested by a police officer on a bicycle and had to spend the night in jail for his misdeed.

Markus