Stat's daily tidbits of weird but not worthless factoids, one topic per day!

[Statistikhengst]

20 April 2015:

The Elvis Presley hit "Hound Dog" was written to completion in about 10 minutes time.

 

[Pogo]

20 April 2015:

The Elvis Presley hit "Hound Dog" was written to completion in about 10 minutes time.

By Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller (who wrote gazillions of hits in the 1950s) for Big Mama Thornton.

Using a "black slang expression referring to a man who sought a woman to take care of him",[7] the song's opening line, "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog", was a euphemism, said Leiber[5] The song, a Southern blues lament,[8] is "the tale of a woman throwing a gigolo out of her house and her life":[9] -- Wiki
​

​

Another famous tune that was written in about the same amount of time, a tune that got so popular (second only to Paul McCartney's "Yesterday"), so successful that the royalties pretty much funded the writer for the rest of his life, was "Gentle On My Mind" by John Hartford. He had been sitting at a movie filled with wistful scenes of travel and relationships, came home with all that in his head and just wrote it down. The movie was Doctor Zhivago.

​

 

[Statistikhengst]

22 April 2015:

Why did Thomas Henry Huxley invent the word agnostic in 1869?

He got tired of being called an atheist.

 

[Statistikhengst]

23.04.2015

Ants have five different noses. Each nose detects a specific category of smell.

 

[Statistikhengst]

24.04.2015

London police photographed the eyes of Jack the Ripper's victims...

..theorizing that his image might be recorded in their retinas.

True story.

 

[westwall]

09 April 2015

Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.

Not entirely factual. Francium melts at 80 degrees F, Cesium at 83.2 F and Gallium at 85.6 F. Rubidium melts at 102.8 so while not a room I would particularly wish to inhabit, some do!

 

[Statistikhengst]

09 April 2015

Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.

Not entirely factual. Francium melts at 80 degrees F, Cesium at 83.2 F and Gallium at 85.6 F. Rubidium melts at 102.8 so while not a room I would particularly wish to inhabit, some do!

Uhmmmmm, I think room temperature means a room that humans can survive in.....

Which is now absolute proof that you are an alien!

Come on, admit it!!!

 

[westwall]

09 April 2015

Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.

Not entirely factual. Francium melts at 80 degrees F, Cesium at 83.2 F and Gallium at 85.6 F. Rubidium melts at 102.8 so while not a room I would particularly wish to inhabit, some do!

Uhmmmmm, I think room temperature means a room that humans can survive in.....

Which is now absolute proof that you are an alien!

Come on, admit it!!!

Naaaah, those guys are dweebs!

Here's a self portrait!

 

[Statistikhengst]

09 April 2015

Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.

Not entirely factual. Francium melts at 80 degrees F, Cesium at 83.2 F and Gallium at 85.6 F. Rubidium melts at 102.8 so while not a room I would particularly wish to inhabit, some do!

Uhmmmmm, I think room temperature means a room that humans can survive in.....

Which is now absolute proof that you are an alien!

Come on, admit it!!!

Naaaah, those guys are dweebs!

Here's a self portrait!

I knew it, I knew it!

You are a Zaphrosian, from Zaphros V.

Wunderbar!

 

[westwall]

09 April 2015

Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.

Not entirely factual. Francium melts at 80 degrees F, Cesium at 83.2 F and Gallium at 85.6 F. Rubidium melts at 102.8 so while not a room I would particularly wish to inhabit, some do!

Uhmmmmm, I think room temperature means a room that humans can survive in.....

Which is now absolute proof that you are an alien!

Come on, admit it!!!

Naaaah, those guys are dweebs!

Here's a self portrait!

I knew it, I knew it!

You are a Zaphrosian, from Zaphros V.

Wunderbar!

Close...but no ceegar. And my real name is Cosmo......Cosmo Bazoo from the planet Rupert!

 

[Statistikhengst]

09 April 2015

Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.

Not entirely factual. Francium melts at 80 degrees F, Cesium at 83.2 F and Gallium at 85.6 F. Rubidium melts at 102.8 so while not a room I would particularly wish to inhabit, some do!

Uhmmmmm, I think room temperature means a room that humans can survive in.....

Which is now absolute proof that you are an alien!

Come on, admit it!!!

Naaaah, those guys are dweebs!

Here's a self portrait!

I knew it, I knew it!

You are a Zaphrosian, from Zaphros V.

Wunderbar!

Close...but no ceegar. And my real name is Cosmo......Cosmo Bazoo from the planet Rupert!

Intergalactic translator says:

feed me intergalactic credits, I will say any name you want.

 

[Statistikhengst]

27.04.2015

In the orginal draft of STAR TREK (TOS), the Enterprise was called the U.S.S. Yorktown.

 

[Statistikhengst]

28.04.2015

William Howard Taft was the second US President to own a car, but he was too fat too drive it.

 

[Statistikhengst]

30.04.2015

The skin on the soles of your feet is call the stratum corneum (Latin for "horney layer").

 

[Statistikhengst]

01.05.2015

How did Air Force 1 get it's name?

In December 1953, Pres. Eisenhower's plane, called the "Columbine II" was on a flight over New York City, identified by air traffic controllers simply as "Air Force 8610." With President Eisenhower on board, it nearly collided mid-air with a commercial airliner also flight-numbered 8610. The near-tragedy prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to designate a call sign for any aircraft that the president of the United States is aboard. The Columbine II became the first Air Force One.

Right now, the Columbine II is wasting away in the Arizona desert.

The first Air Force One is wasting away in the desert - CNNPolitics.com

 

[Statistikhengst]

02.05.2015

Roll of a lifetime: Vivien Leigh used her Oscar as a toilet paper holder.

Well, actually, it was the French version of the Oscar: L'Étoile de Cristal

 

[Statistikhengst]

03.05.2015:

The Virginias
​

See for yourself: Virginia extends 95 miles farther west than West Virginia!

In their defense, West Virginians orginally planned to call their newly formed state by another name:

Kanawha.

 

[Statistikhengst]

05.05.2015

The ancient greeks believed that lying would cause massive toothaches.

 

[Statistikhengst]

06.05.2015:

There are over 7,000 varieties of apples in the USA alone.

 

[Statistikhengst]

07.05.2015:


Tears are 0.9% salt.