Tell me useless info you know!

[Communist partisan]

a walrus skin was once sent to the manchester museum to be stuffed, the guy in charge of stuffing had never seen a walrus before, and didnt know that they had baggy skin, so he stuffed it absolutely full, resulting in the walrus being several times larger than it should be

Hahahahaha! what did they do whith the walrus after that?

It's in the London Natural History Museum.

awesome^^

 

[Wolfy1328]

Horses were brought over from spain when people first sailed to america.

Adolf Hitler only had, well, one ball.

The Kings in suits of cards all stand for famous kings in history.

 

[Cazza]

A small hole is made in chess pieces and a rod of lead is inserted to give the peices it's weight. In modern times lead is not used because of health reasons. The bottom is then covered in fabric to hide the hole.

 

[Do4600]

Also that whole "Everyone thought the earth was flat thing"? Bullshit as well, navigation was based on the priniciple that the earth was round and had been since ancient Greece and Egypt.

huhh, i'd kinda like a source for that

First of all, any fool can climb a small mountain and see the curvature of the earth, second, Pythagoras(570BCE) was one of the first persons in record to have thought the earth was round, third Posidonius(135 BCE) calculated the circumference of the earth to be about 25,000 miles, we know now that's exactly 24,901.55 miles.

yes, several people did hypothesize/believe the earth really was round, but from my understanding, this theory was highly looked down upon by many. again, i would like a Source.

Sorry, it was Eratosthenes(276BCE) not Posidonius, my memory from freshman 101 Geology is little vague. Anyway, since my textbook from that class is in a cardboard box about 300 miles away would accept the University of St Andrews, Scotland as a creditable source? If so:

http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Eratosthenes.html

Or you just look it up yourself.

 

[LandoCristo]

Astrophysicist generally measure astronomical distance in parsecs [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsec], not light years. This also means Han solo was talking a load of gibbering ass when he said he did a speed run in a distance measurement. Many fans have tried to explain this away with black holes or meteor belts, but come on. They'll explain away anything.

Unless he was talking about the effects of relativity, with the Kessel Run being some distance OVER 12 parsecs, and with relativistic effects, it was shortened. Yes, I'm taking a class on relativistic physics.

 

[Death_Korps_Kommissar]

Paris has the most Michelin-rated restaurants in the world. London is second. Based on my memory at least, I think it was something homework related.

Incorrect! I believe Tokyo has more than Paris and London combined. Thank you QI.

 

[Outright Villainy]

Astrophysicist generally measure astronomical distance in parsecs [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsec], not light years. This also means Han solo was talking a load of gibbering ass when he said he did a speed run in a distance measurement. Many fans have tried to explain this away with black holes or meteor belts, but come on. They'll explain away anything.

Unless he was talking about the effects of relativity, with the Kessel Run being some distance OVER 12 parsecs, and with relativistic effects, it was shortened. Yes, I'm taking a class on relativistic physics.

I don't think Star wars would take relativistic mechanics into account. Assuming he wanted to finish a 12 parsec run before he died and rotted into nothing, he'd have to be travelling quite a bit faster than the speed of light; I think you can pretty much throw relativistic mechanics out the window then.

Note the "Explain away anything."

 

[FallenJellyDoughnut]

Astrophysicist generally measure astronomical distance in parsecs [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsec], not light years. This also means Han solo was talking a load of gibbering ass when he said he did a speed run in a distance measurement. Many fans have tried to explain this away with black holes or meteor belts, but come on. They'll explain away anything.

Unless he was talking about the effects of relativity, with the Kessel Run being some distance OVER 12 parsecs, and with relativistic effects, it was shortened. Yes, I'm taking a class on relativistic physics.

I don't think Star wars would take relativistic mechanics into account. Assuming he wanted to finish a 12 parsec run before he died and rotted into nothing, he'd have to be travelling quite a bit faster than the speed of light; I think you can pretty much throw relativistic mechanics out the window then.

Note the "Explain away anything."

Both of you are wrong.
It was all space magic. Everything that cannot be explained in Star Wars = The Force did it.

 

[Outright Villainy]

Astrophysicist generally measure astronomical distance in parsecs [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsec], not light years. This also means Han solo was talking a load of gibbering ass when he said he did a speed run in a distance measurement. Many fans have tried to explain this away with black holes or meteor belts, but come on. They'll explain away anything.

Unless he was talking about the effects of relativity, with the Kessel Run being some distance OVER 12 parsecs, and with relativistic effects, it was shortened. Yes, I'm taking a class on relativistic physics.

I don't think Star wars would take relativistic mechanics into account. Assuming he wanted to finish a 12 parsec run before he died and rotted into nothing, he'd have to be travelling quite a bit faster than the speed of light; I think you can pretty much throw relativistic mechanics out the window then.

Note the "Explain away anything."

Both of you are wrong.
It was all space magic. Everything that cannot be explained in Star Wars = The Force did it.

Why didn't I think of that before?! Good lord, it all makes sense now.

Except midichlorians.

That's still balls.

 

[FallenJellyDoughnut]

Astrophysicist generally measure astronomical distance in parsecs [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsec], not light years. This also means Han solo was talking a load of gibbering ass when he said he did a speed run in a distance measurement. Many fans have tried to explain this away with black holes or meteor belts, but come on. They'll explain away anything.

Unless he was talking about the effects of relativity, with the Kessel Run being some distance OVER 12 parsecs, and with relativistic effects, it was shortened. Yes, I'm taking a class on relativistic physics.

I don't think Star wars would take relativistic mechanics into account. Assuming he wanted to finish a 12 parsec run before he died and rotted into nothing, he'd have to be travelling quite a bit faster than the speed of light; I think you can pretty much throw relativistic mechanics out the window then.

Note the "Explain away anything."

Both of you are wrong.
It was all space magic. Everything that cannot be explained in Star Wars = The Force did it.

Why didn't I think of that before?! Good lord, it all makes sense now.

Except midichlorians.

That's still balls.

Yeah, midichlorians are an exception because they are generally accepted as the result of George Lucas snorting cocaine.

 

[shadyh8er]

The original director of Lucky Star was fired after four episodes.

The opening song for Azumanga Daioh, Soramimi Cake, was chosen after the director requested a song that had "no tone changes or climactic phrases."

 

[Sven und EIN HUND]

The standard issue Claymore Anti-Personel Mine has a 99% chance to kill all soft targets at 150 feet and wound at up to 375 feet rather than CoD's couple feet

.... You realize how damn big that explosion would have to be, right?

 

[Elemental]

The moon is bigger in Asia.

 

[Pummet]

ring around a rosey is a song about death.

To be exact, The black death.

"A pocket full of posies" They were believed to keep the disease away
"Atishoo atishoo" Coughing up blood and the like
"We all fall down" Dead.

Can't remember what the first line means if it means anything at all. Didn't want to Google it because that would discredit my post xD

 

[LandoCristo]

Astrophysicist generally measure astronomical distance in parsecs [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsec], not light years. This also means Han solo was talking a load of gibbering ass when he said he did a speed run in a distance measurement. Many fans have tried to explain this away with black holes or meteor belts, but come on. They'll explain away anything.

Unless he was talking about the effects of relativity, with the Kessel Run being some distance OVER 12 parsecs, and with relativistic effects, it was shortened. Yes, I'm taking a class on relativistic physics.

I don't think Star wars would take relativistic mechanics into account. Assuming he wanted to finish a 12 parsec run before he died and rotted into nothing, he'd have to be travelling quite a bit faster than the speed of light; I think you can pretty much throw relativistic mechanics out the window then.

Note the "Explain away anything."

Again, not when you actually do take relativity into account. When traveling at speeds approximating the speed of light, your time slows down relative to observers at rest, and the distance you travel shrinks relative to you, so what an observer would see as, say 15 parsecs, you would only be traveling for 12 parsecs. And when you take into account time dilation, you can travel across the galaxy in a matter of minutes, assuming that your speed is extremely close to the speed of light.

That said, I really don't think George Lucas had that in mind when he produced Ep. IV.

 

[rabidmidget]

If you drink 3/4 of a can of soda pop--you can balance the can on its rim so the whole can is tilted at about a 45* angle. It impresses people who have never seen it one before.

I love doing that, it causes so many "...wait, what?" moments to people passing by.