The fun facts thread.

[teisjm]

Fun fact:
When you say the word "poop" your mouth makes the same motions as your ass does, while pooping.
Bonus fact:
The same is true, for "explosive diareha"

 

[RuralGamer]

The song "Black Betty", made internationally famous by Ram Jam and the like, may have its origins in an 18th century marching song.

The reason a lot of bullpup weapons cannot be safely used by left-handed people is because the ejection port is positioned is such a way the shell casings would be spat in their face. Ouch...

The AK-47 is one of the most influential objects of the 20th century; it has found its way onto the coat of arms of Zimbabwe and East Timor and the flags of Mozambique and the Hezbollah, as well as being the logo for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. It apparently has also given rise to the name boy's name Kalash in parts of the world. It has its own museum in Izhevsk, Russia.

Ah, pointless military facts...

 

[FamoFunk]

The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottles represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had.

The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

UK - It is illegal to be drunk on Licensed Premises (in a pub or bar).

Facebook was originally named TheFaceBook

The earliest record of hat-wearing comes from a cave at Lussac-les-Châteaux in central France. The rock drawings there are 15,000 years old and we?ve been putting things on our heads ever since.

 

[Segadroid]

Facebook was originally named TheFaceBook

On a slightly related note, an Arab father named his daughter 'Facebook' "as a memorial to social network bringing down corrupted systems".

 

[nickyv917]

All polar bears are left-handed

 

[Azaradel]

Many insects have ocelli ("simple eyes"), in addition to their compound eyes. These tend to be larger in flying insects such as bees, wasps and dragonflies and usually occur in triplets.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Vespa_mandarinia.jpg/250px-Vespa_mandarinia.jpg

Asian Giant Hornet.
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lk9iwxURtf1qibfxpo1_500.jpg
Just thought you'd like to know...
Vespids and dragonflies are both filed under my list of things that are fucking beautiful, but I wouldn't touch to save my life.

What? I thought it was interesting!

Don't ask me why I've got nothing better to do than amass useless facts about insects, though...

There is a restaurant in Stockholm that only offers all-garlic products. They even have a garlic cheesecake.

I must make sure that my sister never finds out about that place.

Especially seeing how close to Stockholm we actually live.

 

[HerbertTheHamster]

The only words in the English language which rhyme with orange are grammatically incorrect or pronounced wrong.

also a not-fun fact as a bonus, Nazi Germany saved Europe from Stalin.

 

[GrimTuesday]

All of George C. Scott's lines in Dr. Strangelove were filmed without his knowledge. Scott wanted to play the character completely straight, but Kubrick wanted him to do it in a very over the top way, so what he did was tell Scott that the over the top takes were just practice takes and wouldn't be filmed, and then he secretly taped them Scott never spoke to Kubrick again.

The entire plot of Dr. Strangelove all boils down to males waving their dicks in each others faces, in fact, the big table in the War Room was actually a giant poker table.

General Ripper's full name is Jack D. Ripper.

The First day that Slim Pickens showed up to set, one of the crew remarked that he showed up in costume (cowboy hat, fringed vest, ect.), someone had to inform him that Pickens dressed like that all the time. Pickens was told to just play the role like himself, he wasn't even informed that the movie was a comedy.

 

[Jake0fTrades]

Defenestration: The act of throwing someone or something out of a window.

Americans invented Toilet Paper. YOU'RE WELCOME.

 

[GrimTuesday]

Brian Eno's fully name is Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno.

 

[Treblaine]

All the dandies needed something to sip over their conversation about their rather unjust revolution *(if you really think about it, the Colonies didn't have that much of a reason for rebellion)

*[Yes I, as an American do think that the grounds for independence were more than a little shaky]

I'm a Brit and I think that's dumb.

We didn't deserve any of those colonies as most of the Americans wanted to leave, then that is the end of the matter. Canadians wanted to stay so they stayed. Shame we had to have a bloody war to sort it out and it's a DAMN GOOD THING that we didn't have that with India. India also did not have many "good reasons" to leave except for the most important one: they WANTED independence.

It is not a matter of cold legalistic reason, it's a matter of the peoples' choice. That's Self-Determination. That's The Chicago Way Democracy.

Northern Ireland voted on staying part of the UK and (by quite a close margin) voted in favour though the various republican movements fought long and hard for a republican majority.

One thing the Argentinian Junta didn't get was though they had good "reasons" to invade The Falklands they lacked the most important one: the will of the actual people who lived there. Who did NOT want to become subjects of a South American military dictatorship, weirdly enough they wanted to be part of Thatcher's Britain but that was their choice.

Self-Determination has been the guiding principal of the dismantling of the British Empire after the Second World War, after destroying Hitler's attempts at empire building it would have been hypocritical in the extreme to continue ruling from afar places that did not wish to be ruled by Britain. Many chose to stay, but many others peacefully ceded to varying success.

Now the American Civil War, that's a case where arguably the will of the people were ignored, but America at that time was one united country, the will of the people is as a whole. One bay overrun by pirates cannot cede simply because that's where all the pirates are. The South was not some overseas territory ruled from afar, Washington DC was literally only a day's walk away from the Confederate Capital of Richmond VA.

Although the war didn't start over slavery, could that really continue to be tolerated by the North? How can you have self-determination of the people when people are being enslaved by the millions?

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

Female crabs are called 'hens' and males 'cocks'. Because you would definitely think that bottom-feeding crustacean were in anyway akin to poultry.

 

[Treblaine]

I have a whole playlist full of these "scientific facts"

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE69B2921C18CAB52&feature=viewall

 

[mafia690]

Honey is the only food that doesn't spoil.

 

[Eveonline100]

snip

In Texas, one MUST acknowledge a supreme being before being able to hold public office.

what do you mean by a supreme? as in supreme being(god) supreme court or something else
fun fact Halo CE actully has a health system

 

[Knusper]

The collective pronoun for midges is a wisp.

 

[Tsaba]

- According to suicide statistics, Monday is the favored day for self-destruction.

Never thought I'd be able to post a Garfield pic on the escapist, I think I can scratch that off the list of things to do.

 

[spielburg]

In certain parts of Holland gravity is reversed.

Yeah, been there done that. I had to spend my entire week's salary on weed though...

 

[subject_87]

The strawberry is not really a berry but citrus fruits and bananas are. ^^

...And as such, 'banana trees' don't technically exist; they're actually shrubs.

Also, horses are more susceptible to stomach issues because they're physiologically unable to vomit.

 

[GrimTuesday]

All the dandies needed something to sip over their conversation about their rather unjust revolution *(if you really think about it, the Colonies didn't have that much of a reason for rebellion)

*[Yes I, as an American do think that the grounds for independence were more than a little shaky]

I'm a Brit and I think that's dumb.

We didn't deserve any of those colonies as most of the Americans wanted to leave, then that is the end of the matter. Canadians wanted to stay so they stayed. Shame we had to have a bloody war to sort it out and it's a DAMN GOOD THING that we didn't have that with India. India also did not have many "good reasons" to leave except for the most important one: they WANTED independence.

It is not a matter of cold legalistic reason, it's a matter of the peoples' choice. That's Self-Determination. That's The Chicago Way Democracy.

Northern Ireland voted on staying part of the UK and (by quite a close margin) voted in favour though the various republican movements fought long and hard for a republican majority.

One thing the Argentinian Junta didn't get was though they had good "reasons" to invade The Falklands they lacked the most important one: the will of the actual people who lived there. Who did NOT want to become subjects of a South American military dictatorship, weirdly enough they wanted to be part of Thatcher's Britain but that was their choice.

Self-Determination has been the guiding principal of the dismantling of the British Empire after the Second World War, after destroying Hitler's attempts at empire building it would have been hypocritical in the extreme to continue ruling from afar places that did not wish to be ruled by Britain. Many chose to stay, but many others peacefully ceded to varying success.

Now the American Civil War, that's a case where arguably the will of the people were ignored, but America at that time was one united country, the will of the people is as a whole. One bay overrun by pirates cannot cede simply because that's where all the pirates are. The South was not some overseas territory ruled from afar, Washington DC was literally only a day's walk away from the Confederate Capital of Richmond VA.

Although the war didn't start over slavery, could that really continue to be tolerated by the North? How can you have self-determination of the people when people are being enslaved by the millions?

I'm not saying that there were any good reason why Britain should have retained the colonies, I'm just saying that the reasons that were given as to why the revolution was justified were rather shaky. The main reason was because of Taxes. Of course, what many people gloss over is the fact that these taxes were really meant to pay off the debt incurred fighting the French Indian War, which was fought to keep the colonialists safe from the attack French and their Indian allies. Prior to this, the colonies had been taxed fairly little, and to me, the idea that the colonist had to help pay off the debts caused by the British army keeping them safe, seems logical. Of course then people bring up the no taxation without representation thing, which to me seems foolish because logistically it is entirely impractical for the colonists to send their representatives to London because of how far removed they would be from the actual colonies, it would be like having a person who lived in Britain representing you.

Yes geographically it makes sense that the colonies would have split from Britain eventually, however, I think that the reason's that were given for the rebellion weren't severe enough to warrant a somewhat long and bloody war.