The fun facts thread.

[Treblaine]

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.

Look, "America" fought just as much for its freedom from French rule as the British did.

They had a taste for freedom after that, most of those who left Europe in search of new opportunities yet in these British colonies you found they had LESS freedoms than had they stayed home in the old country!

I'm British and even I know all the work of the 'Founding Fathers', it wasn't just a case of "waaah taxes" they wanted to make something new, they had BIG plans for a 'United States' and they knew they could only achieve it with independence. America and Britain had to go their separate ways.

They were not arguing FOR representation, they knew that was impossible. They were not arguing for end of taxation either. What they wanted was Independence! Like India would 170 years later, to spite UK going into so much debt fighting the Japanese to keep them out of India.

And that debt of the French-Indian war was repaid when it was needed most in World War 2 with Lend-Lease, such a favourable loan with no interest to be paid back over a 45 year period it was essentially a gift yet retaining the pride of accountability.

 

[GrimTuesday]

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.

Look, "America" fought just as much for its freedom from French rule as the British did.

They had a taste for freedom after that, most of those who left Europe in search of new opportunities yet in these British colonies you found they had LESS freedoms than had they stayed home in the old country!

I'm British and even I know all the work of the 'Founding Fathers', it wasn't just a case of "waaah taxes" they wanted to make something new, they had BIG plans for a 'United States' and they knew they could only achieve it with independence. America and Britain had to go their separate ways.

They were not arguing FOR representation, they knew that was impossible. They were not arguing for end of taxation either. What they wanted was Independence! Like India would 170 years later, to spite UK going into so much debt fighting the Japanese to keep them out of India.

And that debt of the French-Indian war was repaid when it was needed most in World War 2 with Lend-Lease, such a favourable loan with no interest to be paid back over a 45 year period it was essentially a gift yet retaining the pride of accountability.

I get what you're saying, and I agree that what the founding fathers set out to do was noble, but once again, their reasoning behind the revolution was that they wanted to get out from under a "Tyrannical" king (who in my opinion wasn't all that tyrannical), in part because they weren't being represented in Parliament and partly because of taxes. It was for these reasons they waged a revolution, and to me, those aren't good enough reasons to declare independence.

At least India had a good reason for wanting their independence, they were being treated like second class citizens in their own country, this was not the case in the American colonies.

 

[Keepeas]

All the dandies needed something to sip over their conversation about their rather unjust revolution[footnote]Yes I, as an American do think that the grounds for independence were more than a little shaky[/footnote]

woah woah woah...What?
The colonists didn't like the way things were run
and were tired of being treated as lesser beings than the people living in the motherland.
They wanted Representation

hmmm...I don't like the way things are run now...REVOLUTION!....ok maybe that's overreacting
at least we get to vote............I guess that counts for something...right?
[small]...stupid electoral college...[/small]

OT:
"You'll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar"
That's not actually true, some flies will be more attracted to the vinegar.

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

All people are born girls, which is why boys have have nipples.

Yeah, & anyone who says they were born with a penis is a liar!

If I remember right, the clitoris grows into what we call a penis...
Which sort of means that our penis is an overgrown clit...
And the nipples part is right! If a man stimulates his nipples enough, he will soon develop milk in his manbewbs

 

[Henkie36]

In The Netherlands, we have towns called Italië, Amerika (the Dutch way of spelling Italy and America for all people who think that I spelled it wrong) and Zürich.

Polar bears are left-handed (paweded?)

A pigs orgasm can last anything up to 30 minutes. (Damn. I wanna be a pig in my next life)

In all of the AC/DC songs, only four chords have been used. (30 minutes! Thats just unbelievable!)

If you were to scream for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough energy in soundwaves... to heat up a cup of coffee. (Not exactly worth while)

If you poison an ant, he always falls dead on his right side. (Who the hell found this out, and more to the point, why?)

When you bang your head against the wall, you are using 150 calories an hour. (Plainly God mixed things up between pigs and humans)

Right-handed people live on average 9 years longer then left-handed people. (Hmm. Lucky me.)

With all this completely useless information, all I can say is... Damn those pigs!

 

[Xaio30]

All the snow in Sweden is actually really cold, white sand.

 

[Kinokohatake]

The plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces are called aglets.

Their true purpose is sinister.

The Question FTW.

 

[Nuuu]

1: Dreams are the subconsious mind's way of reminding people to go to school naked and have their teeth fall out
2: According to most advanced Algorithms, the world's best name is Craig
3: In Greek Myth, Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to the humans, the jewellery, he kept for himself.
4: Whales are twice as intelligent, and three times more delicious, than humans.
5: Marie Curie invented the Theory of Radioactivity, Cure of Radioactivity, and dying of Radioactivity.
6: The billionth digit of Pi is 9
7: The Schrodinger's cat paradox outlines a situation in which a cat in a box must be considered, for all intents and purposes, simultaneously alive and dead. Schrodinger created this paradox as a justification for killing cats.
8: Space does not exist
9: The Adventure Sphere is a blowhard and a coward
10: The Fact Sphere is the most intelligent sphere
11: The Fact Sphere is the most handsome sphere
12: The Fact Sphere is incredibaly handsome
13: The Face Sphere is always right

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

Back in the 18hundreds every 100meters along the Thames had a device meant to blow smoke up your ass...
As this was apparently that age's CPR...
So someone out there, one day thought, hmmm, that dude almost drowned, lets blow some smoke up his ass!

If water had less density and a bit more air in it, we would be able to breath under water.
Edit: Also! If we could get enough air out the water we should technically be able to walk at the bottom of the ocean as the lungs would be filled with water, and not crushed by the pressure around.

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

Escapist Ate My Post!

Edit: no, wait, there it is!

 

[ShindoL Shill]

An old ordinance declares goatees illegal unless you first pay a special license fee for the privilege of wearing one in public.

this is now my life dream:
go to law school.
pass the mass. bar exam.
become a prosecutor.
sue all the male hipsters in the state who fall under this law.
????
profit.

 

[achilleas.k]

- The human brain can form more neural connections than there are atoms in the viable universe.

Elaborate.
Potential connections?
Connections in a single lifetime?
Because if you're saying that a brain has more neural connections (synapses) at any give time than atoms in the universe, imma callin BS!

EDIT: Also, thanks a lot GrimTuesday. Last time a fun fact thread was around it cost me around 5-6 hours of reading through useless (but fun) crap!

 

[GrimTuesday]

All the dandies needed something to sip over their conversation about their rather unjust revolution[footnote]Yes I, as an American do think that the grounds for independence were more than a little shaky[/footnote]

woah woah woah...What?
The colonists didn't like the way things were run
and were tired of being treated as lesser beings than the people living in the motherland.
They wanted Representation

hmmm...I don't like the way things are run now...REVOLUTION!....ok maybe that's overreacting
at least we get to vote............I guess that counts for something...right?
[small]...stupid electoral college...[/small]

OT:
"You'll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar"
That's not actually true, some flies will be more attracted to the vinegar.

But they weren't being treated as lesser beings, they just didn't have representation due to the impracticality of it, and the taxes were being levied to pay for a war that was fought, in part, on the colonists's behalf.

 

[emissary666]

No driver-less vehicle may exceed 60mph in California

It is illegal to keep an alligator in a bathtub in Arkansas

Phobatriviaphobia is a fear of trivia about phobias

19th century Britian punished failed suicides by hanging

In Michigan, it is illegal to kill a dog using a decompression chamber

In Santa Cruz, Bolivia, it is illegal for a man to have a threesome with a woman and her daughter

In Bromide, oklahoma, it is illegal for children to wear towels as capes and jump from houses pretending to be Superman

In Alaska, it is illegal to whisper in someone's ear while they are hunting moose

It is illegal to put a skunk in your boss' desk in Michigan

Only 55% of Americans know that the Sun is a star and 12% believe Joan of Arc is Noah's wife

Heavy metal music doubles the speed at which termites eat wood

It is illegal to stab yourself to gain the pity of others in Alabama

It is illegal to fish from a camel's back in Idaho

It is illegal to eat oranges while bathing in California

It is illegal to ride down a street in a motorboat in Breton, Alabama

In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, it is illegal to have sex with a truck driver within a toll both

In Nebraska, it is illegal for bar owners to sell beer unless they are brewing a kettle of soup at the same time

One must have a hunting license to catch mice in Cleveland, Ohio

In North Andover, Massachusetts, citizens are prohibited from carrying "space guns"

It is illegal to ride a camel on the highway in Nevada

In 1863 France, a man was given a life sentence for murder; 21 years later, it was discovered he was convicted for murdering himself

It is illegal to mistreat oysters in Baltimore, Maryland

In Oblong, Illinois, it is illegal to have sex while hunting or fishing on your wedding day

In Jasmine Saskatchewan, it is illegal for a cow to moo within 300km of a private home

In Atlanta, Georgia, it is illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or street lamp

Boanthropy is a disease in which one believes they are an ox

It is illegal to buy ice cream after 6pm without a doctor's note in Newark, New Jersey

It is illegal to tie an alligator to a fire hydrant in Detroit, Michigan

It is illegal to make an ugly face at a dog in Oklahoma

hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is the fear of long words; it has 35 letters

Raw peanuts can be used to get high (I'm not telling you how)

Banana's contain Musa Sapientum bananadine, a mild psychedelic

 

[GrimTuesday]

No driver-less vehicle may exceed 60mph in California

It is illegal to keep an alligator in a bathtub in Arkansas

Phobatriviaphobia is a fear of trivia about phobias

19th century Britian punished failed suicides by hanging

In Michigan, it is illegal to kill a dog using a decompression chamber

In Santa Cruz, Bolivia, it is illegal for a man to have a threesome with a woman and her daughter

In Bromide, oklahoma, it is illegal for children to wear towels as capes and jump from houses pretending to be Superman

In Alaska, it is illegal to whisper in someone's ear while they are hunting moose

It is illegal to put a skunk in your boss' desk in Michigan

Only 55% of Americans know that the Sun is a star and 12% believe Joan of Arc is Noah's wife

Heavy metal music doubles the speed at which termites eat wood

It is illegal to stab yourself to gain the pity of others in Alabama

It is illegal to fish from a camel's back in Idaho

It is illegal to eat oranges while bathing in California

It is illegal to ride down a street in a motorboat in Breton, Alabama

In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, it is illegal to have sex with a truck driver within a toll both

In Nebraska, it is illegal for bar owners to sell beer unless they are brewing a kettle of soup at the same time

One must have a hunting license to catch mice in Cleveland, Ohio

In North Andover, Massachusetts, citizens are prohibited from carrying "space guns"

It is illegal to ride a camel on the highway in Nevada

In 1863 France, a man was given a life sentence for murder; 21 years later, it was discovered he was convicted for murdering himself

It is illegal to mistreat oysters in Baltimore, Maryland

In Oblong, Illinois, it is illegal to have sex while hunting or fishing on your wedding day

In Jasmine Saskatchewan, it is illegal for a cow to moo within 300km of a private home

In Atlanta, Georgia, it is illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or street lamp

Boanthropy is a disease in which one believes they are an ox

It is illegal to buy ice cream after 6pm without a doctor's note in Newark, New Jersey

It is illegal to tie an alligator to a fire hydrant in Detroit, Michigan

It is illegal to make an ugly face at a dog in Oklahoma

hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is the fear of long words; it has 35 letters

Raw peanuts can be used to get high (I'm not telling you how)

Banana's contain Musa Sapientum bananadine, a mild psychedelic

The thing I love about these kinds of laws is that you know that someone had to have done these things to attract the attention of the politicians who made these laws.

Also, thanks a lot GrimTuesday. Last time a fun fact thread was around it cost me around 5-6 hours of reading through useless (but fun) crap!

Bwahahahaha fear my thread of procrastination and time sucking evil.

 

[souper soup guy]

The word 'OK' originally was an abbreviation of 'orl korrekt', a deliberate misspelling of 'all correct'.

I heard that ok was an abbreviation used by the democratic party back in the 1800s to support Martin Van Buren. But I may be wrong.

 

[Jun_Jun]

Carrots were orginally purple. The orange carrots arose out of a genetic mutation.

haven't gone through the whole thread to see if anyone has addressed this yet buuut.
Carrots were originally purple until the Dutch specifically bred carrots to be orange (after a couple of mutations probably) to honour the Dutch royal family whose 'royal' colour was orange.

Funnily enough for the romans (and probably a couple of other ancient civilisations) purple was considered the colour of nobility and high status, people wearing the colour purple were highly regarded, this 'rare' purple dye came from oysters (or some other similar clam like creature), sorry this is very vague I remember this from 10th grade ancient history (=_=

 

[The Lugz]

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

fun fact:

A banana is not berry at all, it is in fact an herb

http://www.marigoldlane.com/kitchen/banana.html

another fun fact:

'An herb' and 'A herb' are both acceptable English uses due to the fact herb has two different pronunciations that change it's sound

another fun fact:

neither of those were fun and i'm a giant failure at this!

 

[Killermud]

Pubs in the UK have the right to evict anyone dancing on their property (especially without a proper license), except for Morris dancing [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_dance]. Charles II(I think) had a fondness to Morris dancing so he passed a law stating anyone could morris dance in pubs.

Correct me if I am wrong, Im going by memory on this one.

 

[achilleas.k]

Bwahahahaha fear my thread of procrastination and time sucking evil.

Luckily it's the weekend so it wont eat into my work hours