The fun facts thread.

[GrimTuesday]

We haven't had one of these in forever, so I figured, why the hell not, they're fun and they're educational, although not in any productive or practical way for the most part.

Did you know that...
Coffee became popular in colonial America in the 1770's due to the British cutting off much of the tea trade to North America. 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] (if you really think about it, the Colonies didn't have that much of a reason for rebellion) so they turned to coffee. Oddly enough, as the demand for coffee grew in the US, it lessened in Britain where tea reigned supreme and has ever since the war of 1812.

the character Ermac from the Mortal Kombat series was originally a bug in the pallet swap function and when you looked at the fight audit, it says you fought ERMAC, which was a shortened version Error Macro.

Thomas Jefferson's original vision for America was actually the idea of many small farm communities that were worked in a communal fashion, similar to communism. He later realized this wouldn't work all that well after the failure of The Articles of Confederation (which were too weak) and as the country expanded.

Your turn, tell me something new that I haven't heard before.

Fun fact: OP thinks that he, I, and the rest of America are "dandies," which ironically is a word that only a "dandy" could use, unless of course you are referring to the Dandy Warhols Come on now, sugar. Bring it on, bring it on, yeah.

By dandies, I was referring to the upper class people who who you would expect to be sitting around sipping tea and talking about the political events of the day.

Knock, knock.

Um, hey guys, nice BDUs. What's the military doin' at my door?

"We're going to stay here for-"

-a few days?

"No, as long as we want. And we want all the information you have on your brown neighbors. What are they, Indian? Pakistani? I can never tell. But you're gonna help us spy on them. Or you can negotiate with my gun."



Shaky cause for rebellion, my ass.

This didn't actually happen all that often up until the colonists started being jackasses and commiting acts of vandalism and generally being unlawful. It was a direct response to the action of the Sons of Liberty and those sorts of groups who committed unlawful acts.

 

[Marcosn]

Octopi have no spine, and therefore can fit through a hole the size of a post box slit.

Here's another fun fact. The plural of octopus is octopuses, not octopi, even though the latter is used. Here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus#Etymology_and_pluralization], have a look. It's quite interesting (at least I think so).

I tell people that so much but yet they always argue that I'm the one that's wrong ¬_¬ Octopodes is an amazing word though ... not as good as quaff.

 

[Azaradel]

There is a species of Giant Salamander called Hellbender

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Hellbender.jpg/800px-Hellbender.jpg
Still looks pretty cool, but just not badass enough to live up to a name like Hellbender.

 

[Mafoobula]

Fun fact: Cheesecake isn't a cake, it's a pie. It's batter poured onto a crust, like lemon meringue or chiffon pies.

 

[intheweeds]

A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.

No it isn't. Goldfish do not get pregnant. They lay eggs rather then carry live young.

I heard it was a twat.

Again, it isn't. For reasons I've already mentioned. Sorry, but you wasted those four days.

Quite correct. Goldfish lay eggs. Although there are several species of fish who do have live births and some of those *can* look like goldfish which I suppose is where this particular "fact" started.

There are certain breeds of tropical fish that do sort of both as well. Cichlids carry their eggs in their throats and spit out a bunch of live babies when they hatch. So i guess they sort of could be considered pregnant. They sure look it when they have a batch.

Fun fact from me: The gestation period of an african elephant is 24 months.

 

[Sassafrass]

At racing speed, a Ferrari 599 does 1.7 miles to the gallon, a Lamborghini Murcielago does 4.1 miles to the gallon and an Audi R8 does 5 miles to the gallon.

A BMW M3 is more ecomnomical than a Toyota Prius at an unknown average speed, with the Prius doing 17.2 miles to a gallon and the BMW M3 doing 19.4 miles to the gallon. And a link to video evidence of these claims. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmxUsGiGp3w]

 

[SecretsOfMoon]

Speaking of cars, the most successful car in FIA World Rally Championship to date is the Lancia Delta Integrale with total of 10 drivers' and manufacturer's championships between 1987 and 1993, no one's ever managed to beat that. And since someone was a bit unsure about the fun facts about the Ford GT 40, it won Le Mans '64-'67, but was pretty much outhandled by Prosches and Ferraris everywhere else.

 

[Berethond]

El Paso, TX is the "safest big city in America" shares the border with the most dangerous city in the world, Juarez Mexico.

http://urbantitan.com/10-most-dangerous-cities-in-the-world-in-2011/

Whats that internet? Number one is Bogota?

Get your facts straight and stop being so freaking discriminative against Mexicans.

To be fair, Juarez is number 2. That's not much better.

 

[dreddfan]

The first person to use an ATM in the UK was comedy actor Reg Varney. The first person who used a mobile phone in the UK was comedian Ernie Wise.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

In Albania, there word for C*ck is Car

If you could live forever, after a few thousand years, a year would pass like it was a few minutes.

The reason dogs spin around when they sit down is because when dogs lived in the wild they did it to check for snakes and other prey.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

The name for the character of Pac-Man comes from a Japanese onomatopoeia for the movement that the mouth makes while eating ("paku-paku", somewhat analogous to "chomp"). He was slated to be named "Puck-Man" in the American version, but test cabinets were routinely vandalized, scratching out part of the "P" to form an "F".

Wolves cannot bark as loudly as dogs.

If you are one-in-a-million, then there are 1,331 people exactly like you in China.

 

[Jjtricky]

Fun Fact: This place is a toilet

Seriously though:

Dolphins don't drink

Alcohol does not warm you up

The number of the devil coiuld be 616

The Creation of Adam accurately portrays the Brain (will try to find the Cracked article)

In Albania, there word for C*ck is Car


The reason dogs spin around when they sit down is because when dogs lived in the wild they did it to check for snakes and other prey.

That is AWESOME. Always wondered that!



Oh and ...

The name for the character of Pac-Man comes from a Japanese onomatopoeia for the movement that the mouth makes while eating ("paku-paku", somewhat analogous to "chomp"). He was slated to be named "Puck-Man" in the American version, but test cabinets were routinely vandalized, scratching out part of the "P" to form an "F".

(Hopefully) back-to-back Scott Pilgrim references FTW

 

[Mavinchious Maximus]

in a county in Washington state it is illegal to harm a Sasquatch.

 

[Insanity72]

The popular shows "Family Guy" and "American Dad" almost never came into existence, Seth McFarlen only survived to this day because he missed his plane and had to wait until the next flight. The plane he was supposed to be on crashed and nobody survived.

 

[Xman490]

Germany and Japan have cultures that are (some of) the most "Americanized" of the world, thanks to World War II takeovers.

 

[Von Strimmer]

Apples can keep you awake more effectively than coffee.

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

Goddamn it you and your bloody avatar again. There goes anything educational I learned from this thread.

And no I no longer have an interesting fact because of reasons stated above

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

In Star Wars, Queen Padmé Amidala's decoy was played by Keira Knightley (it's surprising that few people know this). When the real Amidala appeared dressed as her decoy, Keira Knightley's voice was dubbed over Natalie Portman's voice.

\

this always bugged me, i never KNEW that to be true but everytime that scene happened i would go "wtf...what is going on?!?!"


OT: fun fact, The elephant is the only animal with 4 knees

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

It is illegal to ship live bees to England.
...nothing is mentioned of -dead- bees, however.
Either way, good luck getting that through customs.

if someone tried that, i would burn em alive

fuck bees. and fuck people who try to spread them to other places


whoever invented the hybrid african honey bee deserves to be burned alive, that thing is a monster

 

[CoDzombieDude]

There is a wasp called the Tarantula Hawk that actually hunts tarantulas for food.

It's sting is also one of the most painful among insects, lasting for 3 minutes of intense pain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula_hawk

EDIT: Wikipedia describes the pain as "Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair drier has been dropped into your bubble bath."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmidt_Sting_Pain_Index

 

[game-lover]

Fun Fact:

Oral sex was illegal in 18 states under old sodomy law until 2003 when they were invalidated.