Trivia

Mr. P

VIP Member
Aug 5, 2004
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South of the Mason Dixon
A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.



A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.



A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.



A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.



A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.



A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.



A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.



A snail can sleep for three years.



Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.



All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.



Almonds are a member of the peach family.



An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.



Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.



Butterflies taste with their feet.



Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.



"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".



February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.



In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.



If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.



If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.



It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.



Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.



Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.



No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.



On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.



Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.



Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.



Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.



"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and "lollipop" with your right.



The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.



The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.



The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.



The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.



The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.



The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).



There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.



There are more chickens than people in the world.



There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.



There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."



There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables Vitamins.



Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.



TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.



Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.



Women blink nearly twice as much as men.



Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.



..............There , now you know everything!
 
If memory serves, this same thing was posted a few months ago, and about half the items on the list were found to be false.

Not to be contrarian...
 
Mr. P said:
A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.



A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.



A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.



A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.



A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.



A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.



A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.



A snail can sleep for three years.



Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.



All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.



Almonds are a member of the peach family.



An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.



Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.



Butterflies taste with their feet.



Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.



"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".



February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.



In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.



If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.



If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.



It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.



Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.



Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.



No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.



On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.



Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.



Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.



Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.



"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and "lollipop" with your right.



The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.



The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.



The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.



The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.



The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.



The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).



There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.



There are more chickens than people in the world.



There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.



There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."



There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables Vitamins.



Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.



TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.



Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.



Women blink nearly twice as much as men.



Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.



..............There , now you know everything!



Mr.P...and you have now summed up the world of debate..what is left for the rest of us infidels? :arabia:
 
Santa Claus likes rough sex

George Washington was a total pot head

In 1969, the government forced over 400 men to take an oath of celibacy or face death.

Doing jumping jacks will keep a bear from attacking you

Drinking blueberry koolaid has cured over 500 cases of throat cancer

John F Kennedy was gay

The mosquito we know and love today was originally bred in an Auburn University science lab

Two plus one actually doesn't equal three
 
archangel said:
Mr.P...and you have now summed up the world of debate..what is left for the rest of us infidels? :arabia:
Yeah I know Arch, but we gotta give the "AIRHEADS" something to talk about every so often.. :banned:
 
Mr. P said:
A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

True. There is no significance in this number. The ridges were to prevent 'shaving' when the coins were silver.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

False. There are no muscles in a cat's ear. Each ear's movement is controlled by only 3 muscles.

A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.

True, sort of. The taste buds of a croc are on the roof of its mouth, so it doesn't really have a 'tongue,' per se.

A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.

False. A dragonfly's life span can reach 7 years, though the adult life is usually only a few weeks. Mayflys, however, only spend about 24 hours as adults.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

False. Mythbusters proved this one wrong when they taught goldfish to swim through a maze. Their times got faster since they were able to remeber where the holes were.

A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

True. In computer engineering, it was originally the real-time equivalent of one clock cycle, which was 1/60th of a second in the U.S. and 1/50th of a second elsewhere. It was eventually standardized. It is also a unit of time in physics equal to the time it takes light to travel 1 cm, or approximately 33.3 picoseconds (3.33 * 10^-11 seconds).

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

False. A shark cannot blink at all, since its upper and lower eyelids can't move. They do, however, have a third, transparent eyelid, much like beavers, to protect their eyes from flying chunks of bitten prey.

A snail can sleep for three years.

True, sort of. Some species of mollusk that live in the desert can hibernate for up to three years until conditions are more moist.

Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

True.

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

False. When the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated, there were only 48 states, and only 26 are actually engraved on the memorial.

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

True. The bitter variety of almond closely resembles a peach pit.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

True, though they are not as stupid as this factoid would lead you to believe. This does make them hard to train, however.

Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

False. Though newborn kneecaps are primarily cartilage and don't fully calcify until age 3, babies are born with kneecaps. In fact, most babies walk by age 1, a feat impossible without kneecaps. Crawling would also cause severe ligament damage in the knees without the kneecap. Babies born without kneecaps have a condition known as "Nail Patella Syndrome."

Butterflies taste with their feet.

True, insects can't 'spit' if their food proves to be unsavory, so their taste buds are located on either their antennae or their feet so they can taste something before it hits the mouthparts.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.

True, sort of. "Vocal sound" is too vague a term for this to be completely true. However, cats do have a wider range of sounds, though the exact number is largely up to definition.

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

True, kind of. Dreamt is the only English root word that ends in 'mt.' Several other words end in 'mt,' but all of them are 'dreamt,' with a prefix.

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

False. In February 1865, the moon hit full phase at approximately February 10 at 1627 UTC (GMT). However, since the cycle of the moon is 29.5 days, 1866, 1885, 1915, 1934, and 1961 did not have a full moon.

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

False. Most domesticated breeds of domesticated livestock emerged in the 19th century.

If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

False. No rate of travel is given, meaning this fact was likely made up by somebody trying to prove a point. It also fails to list a reproductive rate. It's obviously not today's, since chinese law only allows one child per two parent family, meaning the population is actually shrinking.

If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.

Doing the math, that's about 12 minutes a day, considering the average human life span minus the first 16 and last few years, the years you probably have no liscence (about 60 years of driving). This seems about accurate, but was likely invented, as I can find no credible source.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

False. It requires a fair bit of concentration or a mental defect that prevents the reflex action, but it is possibl, and no, your eyeballs won't pop out of your head, though particulary hard sneezes may pop a blood vessel. The purpose of the reflex is likely to keep sneezed material from entering your eye.

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

True. Da Vinci is often famous for his artwork and kooky inventions (like the paper mache helicopter), but this fabulous modern invention was also invented by him.

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

True.

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.

True.

On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.

False. The $2 bill is fine, and it's the $10 bill that's in question, but that one's fine, as well. The flag is the Canadian Ensign. The field in the upper left is the Union Jack (British Flag). The "stripes" are a shading effect. If you look closely on the bill, you can see the crest. The flag on the bill is shown here.

flag_red_ensign.gif


Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

False. However, people's eyes are 75% of their full size when born, much larger (proportionally) than the rest of the body. The nose and ears also do not actually grow, but appear larger due to unexplained factors. The common theory is that, since cartilage grows limp with age, drooping ears and noses are stretched and look bigger.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

False. While it may be possible to get one of the ingredients to nitro glycerin from peanut oil (nitro glycerin involves a few organic compounds), this is not pure enough for professional chemical companies. This is a basement recipe at best.

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

Not Really. If exposed to heat, rubber bands deteriorate. If sealed away from moisture, rubber bands would probably last longer int he fridge due to a distinct lack of heat. However, failing to seal them would actually shorten their duration, since moisture damages rubber over time.

"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and "lollipop" with your right.

Try tetrastearates or phyllophyllin.

The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

True as far as I can tell. Of the most commonly used letter, r,s,t,l,n,e, four of them are typed with the left hand.

The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

False. It's actually close to 26 feet.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

True.

The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.

True. This sentence used to be used as a test for new typewriters to see that every letter lever worked.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.

False. While ice at the falls can get up to 50 feet thick, the flow of water has only completely stopped once in 1848 when ice dammed the river upstream of the falls.

The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).

True. Duh!

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

I wrote a computer program to do this, and it came up 242 until I added half dollars. Then it was 292. The remaining combo is a one dollar coin, so true.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

True. The chicken population is approximately 11.5 billion.

There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

True.

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."

Arsenious is at least one other. It's a word meaning "like arsenic."

There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables Vitamins.

False. After a stiff public opposition featuring over 150 women named Betty and a rock band, Bayer held a vote to see if the public wanted Betty in the vitamins. They voted 'yes.'

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

True.

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

False. Several other 10 letter words, such as pepperroot, can be typed using one row. If hyphens are allowed, teeter-totter is the longest. Powertripper is longer than any unhyphenated word, but is not found in any major dictionary.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.

Winston Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace, which contains no public restrooms.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

False. The difference between gender blinking rates is statistically negligible, though people do alter their blinking rates depending on social context.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.

True

You know somebody had to do it. I was just bored enough. Beware internet factiod lists. On a good day, only half of them are true, while the rest are urban legends, false stories (taken from joke sites or tabloids), or just made up.
 
Santa Claus doesn't have any kids because he only comes once a year..and when he does, it's down a chimney.

Smokey the Bear doesn't have any kids because every time his wife gets hot, he beats her with a shovel.
 

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