The fun facts thread.

[Rhymenoceros]

The first bomb dropped by the Allies onto Berlin in WW2 killed Berlin Zoo's only elephant.

England has a higher population density than Japan.

The traditional cat "meow" is only used when "speaking" to humans.

That ca one explains the video of a cat barking out the window till it notices the human recording it

 

[JohnDoey]

Fun Fact:It's illegal to use a lasso to catch a fish in Tennessee.
Cats will sometimes bring humans dead animals in order to teach them to hunt.

 

[JohnDoey]

Double post FTW!!!

 

[Tallim]

taxi drivers in New South Wales are required by law to carry a bale of hay in the boot to feed their horse.

Same applies to London Cabs.

On a similar note in England if you arrive at an Inn in a horse and carriage they are legally required to open up and serve you. No matter what the time of day/night.

And it is still illegal to eat mince pies on Christmas Day in England.

 

[x EvilErmine x]

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!

Potential connections, sorry should have made that clearer.

- The star Betelgeuse on Orion's belt is as large as our solar system and it's output has dimmed by about 15% in the last decade, suggesting that it's going to go supernova soon.

Betelgeuse is about 1180 times the size of our sun (which we'll just call R for now) which means reaching around the orbit of Jupiter. Now on the other hand <url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VY_Canis_Majoris>Canis Majoris, the biggest currently known star, is probably around 2000 R, going past Saturn. What we define as "our solar system" is a damn lot bigger than that.

That was my fact by the way. You may disagree, but I find astronomy facts damn fun.

Yep got that part wrong, i was vaguely recalling the fact at the time but after a bit of research i found out that i recalled incorrectly p

Oh when you say our solar system is a lot bigger are you talking about it's boundary being all the way out to the heleopause?

 

[instantkarma5]

Australia has the largest populations of camels in the world.

 

[Sectan]

Don't know if this has been said before, but since Atoms are 99.999(Lots of 9s)% empty space, If they could be compacted, the whole human race could fit into a sugar cube. Still sounds a bit crazy to me.

 

[Mandalore_15]

-The olympic games used to give out medals for things like architectural design, painting and poetry.

Really? Would you mind backing it up with references.

Here you go [http://olympic-museum.de/art/artcompetition.htm].

Any patent that has been around since 1890 has looooooooooong since expired my friend!

Parker Brothers bought the rights in 1966. They own the name and concept.

That's all fine, but they can't own any patent on it, as they expire after 20 years. It's possible they could still have copyright though (so long as the original author died less than 70 years ago).

 

[lRookiel]

If fleas were human size they could jump over the empire state building

 

[shadow_Fox81]

the first plane with radar stealth capabilities was built by english furniture makers and its stealth was an accident.

 

[redisforever]

In Alaska, it is also illegal to push a moose out of a moving plane.

Haha! I don't think I even want to know the story behind that one.

Hmm... useless facts I know.

Legos were originally wooden toys (this part I already knew). "Lego" is from a Danish phrase, "leg godt", that means, "play well" (saw this on wiki).

Toyota originally made automatic looms instead of cars.

Nintendo was founded in 1889, and originally made playing cards. Then they had a variety of business interests, including a cab company and a love hotel.

Nintendo is the oldest video game company on Earth.

 

[spikeyjoey]

Narwals have a vestigial pelvic bone. This means that at some point, Narwals walked on land. Therefore, Unicorns.

best. fun fact. ever

 

[spikeyjoey]

The irish invented the monorail and the australians invented the rotary washing line

 

[Rhaff]

In Denmark it is legal to beat a swede with a stick to repel them, if they are in the process of crossing Øresund on foot (ocean between Denmark and Sweden). The law originates from a time when Denmark and Sweden were constantly at war, and during the winter Øresund would freeze, allowing people to cross without the use of ships.

 

[spikeyjoey]

Apples can keep you awake more effectively than coffee.

if thats true thats very interesting.. how do you know that?

 

[FallenTraveler]

Narwals have a vestigial pelvic bone. This means that at some point, Narwals walked on land. Therefore, Unicorns.

that literally just made my day. Favorite animals are narwhals.

Fun fact: It is possible to make a real life Nyan Cat... well out of cardboard. See! http://www.youtube.com/user/Fallinguptogether#grid/user/2A09146284F5BF34

 

[Harry Kim]

if you hang a wet towel on a chair it works as a humidifier during the night.
this has been another useless fact.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

-Grenades and artillery shells are not commonly designed to cause damage with the blast wave caused by their detonation (though this can certainly be deadly, its casualty radius is small as the force of the blast dissipates quickly). Typically, an anti-personnel grenade or general-purpose artillery shell will rely on shrapnel (small metal pieces of the casing sent in all directions by the explosion) to achieve damage. The iconic "pineapple" grenade used by American infantry in WWII originally relied on its casing to fragment into shrapnel (hence the scoring on its surface), but its fragmentation pattern proved too inconsistent; contemporary frag grenades generally consist of a thin outer shell, and just beneath it, a good length of segmented wire wrapped around its explosive core, which results in an even pattern.

-While the Barrett M82A1 (the most commonly depicted .50BMG rifle) is frequently seen in works of fiction being used like any other sniper rifle, in actuality it weighs thirty pounds, making it very difficult to fire accurately while standing.

-The primary weapon of the A-10 Thunderbolt (known as the "Warthog" for its relative ugliness for a turbine-powered aircraft) is a tremendously powerful rotary cannon that fires 30mm depleted uranium shells. It can only fire a continuous burst for eight seconds before it will begin to melt. It is scary as fuck. (1:10)

jesus christ thats a scary plane gun.
also, i think the Barrett is an anti-tank rife, therefore using it on a person is
a) a waste of ammo and
b) going to blow the other side of whatever body part you hit off.

and the british grenades were frag grenades, but the german equivalent was a concussive grenade designed to blow all of the crap around the soldiers into the soldiers.

also, farmers in belgium and france still find active shells in their fields and have to put up red flags to show there are shells in the area and, if possible, place them on the roadside for collection by the army.

 

[Rhaff]

ancient west africans around(2000-1500 b.c) visited the Americas and left the Olmac civilization beating columbus a couple thousand years

I would very much like to see some kind of reference for that. Until then I call bullcrap.

Water doesn't necessarily need to be heated to boil.

True, one way to boil water without heat, is to put it in a vacum (take a syringe with some water, seal the open end, and pull the thingy out, this will result in the water boiling.[/quote]

 

[Rhaff]

Edit: whoops double post, sorry.