Fun_People Archive
22 Oct
Totally Suspect Facts

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 97 11:47:10 -0700
To: Fun_People
Precedence: bulk
Subject: Totally Suspect Facts

[Here's a really annoying little collection of "facts."  Why annoying?  First,
 because the grammar is so execrable (e.g. "An ostriches eye is bigger than
 it's brain") and second, because the facts are so wrong...  I've corrected
 most of the grammar, but the suspicious facts remain...  Do you remember in
 grade school there was one teacher who thought he knew everything and would
 come up with some idiotic "fact" like "Eskimos have 4,863 words for snow, but
 no word for knife" and then smugly tell it to you like it was going to change
 your life?  Well, imagine you're at a party with him and he gets drunk...
-psl]

Forwarded-by: Chris Ausbrooks <causbrooks@acic.state.ar.us>
Forwarded-by: Fred Rains
Forwarded-by: Computing Solutions <compsol@aristotle.net>

	TOTALLY USELESS FACTS

The "pound" key on your keyboard (#) is called an octotroph.
[How about "octothorpe"?  See this Fun_Item for more info...
 <http://208.223.32.15/~psl/Fun_People/1996/1996AAO.html> -psl]

The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.

The "dot" over the letter "i" is called a tittle.

Table tennis balls have been known to travel off the paddle at speeds up
to 160 km/hr.

Pepsi originally contained pepsin, thus the name.

The original story from "Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights" begins, 'Aladdin
was a little Chinese boy.'

Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.

Honey is the only natural food that is made without destroying any kind of
life. What about milk you say? A cow has to eat grass to produce milk and
grass is living. [Unlike pollen.  -psl]

The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

Michael Jordan makes more money from NIKE annually than all of the Nike
factory workers in Malaysia combined.

The volume of the earth's moon is the same as the volume of the Pacific
Ocean.

Cephalacaudal recapitulation is the reason our extremities develop faster
than the rest of us.

Spiral staircases in medieval castles are running clockwise. This is because
all knights used to be right-handed. When the intruding army would climb
the stairs they would not be able to use their right hand which was holding
the sword because of the difficulties of climbing the stairs.  Left-handed
knights would have had no troubles, except left-handed people could never
become knights because it was assumed that they were descendants of the
devil.

Ham radio operators got the term "ham" coined from the expression "ham
fisted operators," a term used to describe early radio users who sent Morse
code (i.e. pounded their fist)

The slogan on New Hampshire license plates is "Live Free or Die." These
license plates are manufactured by prisoners in the state prison in Concord.

Chinese Crested dogs can get acne.

Hydrogen gas is the least dense substance in the world, at 0.08988g/cc.
Hydrogen solid is the most dense substance in the world, at 70.6g/cc.

Each year there is one ton of cement poured for each man woman and child
in the world.

The house fly hums in the middle octave key of F.

The only capital letter in the Roman alphabet with exactly one end point
is P.

The giant red star Betelgeuse has a diameter larger than that of the
Earth's orbit around the sun.

The longest place name still in use is:
'Taumatawhakatangihangaoauauotameteaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhe
nua kitanatahu, a New Zealand hill.'

Los Angeles's full name is: "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los
Angeles de Poriuncula" and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size, "LA."

Only 1 in 2,000,000,000 will live to be 116 or older.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

According to Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, it is possible to go
slower than light and faster than light, but it is impossible to go the
speed of light. Also, there is a particle called tackyon which is supposed
to go faster than light. This means if you fire a tackyon beam, it travels
before you fire it.

When you tie a noose, the rope is wrapped twelve times around because it's
the same length as a persons head.

Hummingbirds are the only animal that can fly backwards.

A cat's jaw cannot move sideways.

© 1997 Peter Langston