Did you know... (random fact thread!)

[Capnmad]

So I figured it was time I started my own silly forum thread.

This is a "Did you know..." thread. Please share some weird, random, obscure or previously unknown fact or factoid here. It needs not be related to anything else.

For mine:

Did you know we all eat a strand of hair now and then, without even knowing it? It's often in our food, and sometimes will slip by us. If we were to be immortal, though, we'd need to periodically have surgery to remove the ball of hair that formed in our stomachs over time, because hair is made of keratin, which is indigestible.

Next! 😀

 

[ChosenofMystra]

did you know we humans consume a pound of dirt on average in a given year?

 

[Bugman]

Did you know....There are 250,000 sweat glands in a pair of human feet,more then any other part of the body.

 

[goddess_nemesis]

Did you know... that the expression "raining cats and dogs" did, originally, mean exactly that. As far back as the sixteenth century, cats and some dogs would do their hunting on London rooftops. During downpours, the animals would be washed from gutters and over eaves, inspiring the popular euphemism for a cloudburst. 😀

 

[ChosenofMystra]

Did you know the childrens' nursery rhyme "ring around the rosey" was actually a folk chant of sorts to "ward" against the bubonic plague in the dark ages?

 

[milagros317]

Did you know that the record for most pinch-hit home runs in one season is 7, set by Dave Hansen (with the Dodgers, of course). 😀

 

[goddess_nemesis]

Did you know... that cutting off a portion of his ear on Christmas Eve, 1888, had nothing to do with Vincent van Gogh's mental imbalance. He was suffering from a severe ear infection and that drove him to distraction. He felt better when the amputation was finished, largely because he'd passed out.

 

[Bugman]

Did you know...Little Miss Muffet was a real person?She was the daughter of a 16th century English Doctor who thought spiders had healing powers and forced his daughter to eat them. 😱

 

[goddess_nemesis]

Did you know... that because church officials did not know whether St. Patrick was born on March 8th or 9th, they decided to honor him on March 17th - the sum of the two dates. 😀

 

[milagros317]

... that, contrary to popular belief, Thomas Crapper did not actually invent the modern flush toilet, but merely popularized it. (It was Alexander Cummings who invented it in 1775.)

 

[goddess_nemesis]

Did you know... that in 1760, blonde Countess Marie of Coventry, England, died of lead poisoning as a result of the excessive amount of makeup she used. Her death due to vanity gave rise to the popular notion that blondes are dumb.

 

[milagros317]

... that 1729 is the smallest positive integer that can be expressed as the sum of two perfect cubes in two different ways?

10^3 + 9^3 = 12^3 + 1^3 = 1729

 

[Bugman]

Did you know...There are 364 gifts in The Twelve Days of Christmas.

 

[milagros317]

... that ice is less dense than water? (Of course you did, that's way ice floats.)

 

[Cave In]

Did you know Radio waves travel so much faster than sound waves that a broadcast voice can be heard sooner 18,000 km away than in the back of the room in which it originated.

Faacinating...

 

[goddess_nemesis]

Did you know... that the derisive gesture of putting the thumbs in the ears and wiggling one's fingers originated in the Middle Ages as a way of telling a rival that he or she is a jackass.

 

[Bugman]

Did you know lightning is more likely to strike the same place twice then it is a new place once.

 

[Dave2112]

Did you know... that cutting off a portion of his ear on Christmas Eve, 1888, had nothing to do with Vincent van Gogh's mental imbalance. He was suffering from a severe ear infection and that drove him to distraction. He felt better when the amputation was finished, largely because he'd passed out.

Are you absolutely sure about that one? I've read from several sources that Van Gogh was on one of his frequent absinthe binges when he performed his famous self-surgery. In any case, we both agree that the "for love of a woman" story was bullshit, anways.

Ok....Did You Know...that while you sleep, a spider crawls in your mouth and you swallow it an average of six times per year?

Did You Know...that back-up quarterback Frank Reich led the Buffalo Bills to the largest point-defecit comeback in NFL playoff history, after having accomplished the same feat as a back-up in college?

Did You Know....49.9 % of people are below average?

 

[slacker2114]

Did you know....in medevel times, only men who were right-handed could become knights because left-handed people were considered sons of the Devil.

 

[milagros317]

... that Pluto is no longer classified as a planet? Poor Pluto. 🙁

 

[OnnaOtaku]

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
(Hardly seems worth it.)

If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.
(Now that's more like it!)

The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
(Awesome!)

A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes.

A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death.

Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories a hour
(Don't try this at home, maybe at work)

The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the Male's head off.
(Honey, I'm home. What the...?!)

The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human jumping the length of a football field.

The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds.

Some lions mate over 50 times a day.

Butterflies taste with their feet.

The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people.
(If you're ambidextrous, do you split the difference?)

Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump.

A cat's urine glows under a black light.
(I wonder who was paid to figure that out?)

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
(I know some people like that.)

Starfish have no brains
(I know some people like that too.)

Polar bears are left-handed.
(If they switch, they'll live a lot longer)

Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
(What about that pig??)

 

[milagros317]

A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes.

Trying to make us all envy pigs? 😛

 

[OnnaOtaku]

Trying to make us all envy pigs? 😛

Yes! 😛

 

[tkrexx]

Male spiders impregnate females with a foot.

 

[David.s]

Did you know... it's a myth that pigeons spread lots of disease. People actually have a better chance of being struck by lightning than contracting a disease from a pigeon. Pigeons rawk! 😀