Useless facts

[jillian]

Koalas are not bears!

True. They're in the racoon family!

And red pandas (also called "lesser pandas") are also in the racoon family.

 

[Joz]

The right lung takes in more air than the left.

 

[Semper Fi]

The first condoms were pig intestines and were re-used.

 

[fuzzykitten99]

- ever heard Denis Leary's CD "Lock & Load"? There's a part where he's complaining about coffee shops or something (can't remember what part) but he says www-dot-whatthefuck-dot-com. Well, there is actually a website by that domain www.whatthefuck.com ...and it is run/owned by a former high school classmate of mine named Nick Melnick...he was friends with a guy I dated back in HS.

- I was an extra in Mighty Ducks 2 & 3. I got to meet Joshua Jackson and Emilio Estevez.

 

[Semper Fi]

Oh yeah? Well Darin was an extra in Wargames!

 

[Mr.Conley]

Although many people believe otherwise, Canada is actually a country.

 

[Semper Fi]

Although many people believe otherwise, Canada is actually a country.

Bullshit!

 

[Mr.Conley]

Bullshit!

I was suprised when I found out too. They even have their own government and everything. However, they don't have a military.

 

[KarlMarx]

Who names these things???

That would be Marvin at the National Bureau of Standards.

 

[KarlMarx]

Cool. And the & sign is called an ampersand

The ~ is called a "tilde"

 

[KarlMarx]

SPAM stands for Stuff Posing As Meat








no, not really, but it's funny anyway.

SPAM's original name was "Hormel Spiced Ham". The current name was chosen from multiple entries in a naming contest.

SPAM was introduced in 1937

In America, the residents of Guam and Hawaii consume the most SPAM, per capita. They are also the only two parts of America whose McDonalds feature SPAM on their menus

The two countries, after the United States, that consume the most SPAM are the United Kingdom and South Korea.

In Muslim countries, SPAM is made with turkey to conform with Muslim dietary restrictions

Austin, Minnesota is known as "SPAM Town, USA" and has a SPAM museum

 

[KarlMarx]

Endicott, New York celebrates its 100th anniversary this year

Endicott is named after Henry B. Endicott. Mr Endicott provided financing for Endicott-Johnson Corporation

Endicott is known as the birthplace of IBM and had a large IBM plant at one time.

Endicott was also home to Endicott-Johnson Corporation, one of the largest shoe manufacturers in the country. The company was responsible for nearly all of the shoe and footwear for the United States Army during both World Wars.

 

[KarlMarx]

Only a few of the plants that we eat originated in North America. These are blueberries, sunflowers, cranberries and Jerusalem artichokes.

P.S. I've also heard that the pecan originated in North America, but some sources claim it's actually from Central America

 

[jillian]

Endicott, New York celebrates its 100th anniversary this year

Endicott is named after Henry B. Endicott. Mr Endicott provided financing for Endicott-Johnson Corporation

Endicott is known as the birthplace of IBM and had a large IBM plant at one time.

Endicott was also home to Endicott-Johnson Corporation, one of the largest shoe manufacturers in the country. The company was responsible for nearly all of the shoe and footwear for the United States Army during both World Wars.

Endicott is also home to Pat Mitchell's Ice Cream....the most amazing ice cream ever.

 

[JOKER96BRAVO]

The platypus is the only mammal that lays eggs

It's also the only venomous mammal.

 

[Joz]

..... cranberries.....

Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them. A fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball.

 

[no1tovote4]

Bill Gates' first business was Traff-O-Data, a company that created machines which recorded the number of cars passing a given point on a road.

 

[Joz]

Maine is the toothpick capitol of the world.

 

[Hobbit]

The following useless "facts" are false, and that's my useless fact.

Coca-Cola originally cost 5 cents, was green, and intended to cure hangovers and morphine addictions by being mixed with water.

There never was cocaine added to Coca-Cola, there were, however, trace amounts from the Coca leaf, from which the drink was made.

While the rest may be true, Coca-Cola was never green, was always meant as a non-pharmaceutical beverage, and did, in fact, containe cocain. It was required to by the copyright office to retain rights to the 'Coca' part of the name.

Until the construction of the Three Gorges Dam in China, the Great Wall of China was the only man made object visible from the moon

The Great Wall of China is not visible from the moon. In fact, it's barely visible from space, and is harder to spot than even major highways, due to the fact that it's not that wide and is similar in color to its surrounding environment. If you don't believe me, try to find the Great Wall in an orbital photo sometime. You'd have an easier time finding the Hoover Dam, the NYC landfill, or Route 66. In fact, the Great Wall is very hard to find, even in low orbit (180 miles) and is harder to spot than the runways at Dulles or the components of the Kennedy Space Center.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

Granted it's very hard, as your body reflexively closes your eyes to protect them from flying spittle and anything your head may bump into during the lurch, but with enough willpower, some people have been able to sneeze with their eyes open, and no, their eyes didn't pop out.

The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P.

This was on an episode of "Mail Call" once, and the History Channel would know. The name 'jeep' actually came from a character in the Popeye cartoons, though how it came to be the name of the vehicle is something I can't recall.

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds recieved in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

This one is actually a very well carried false rumor. Of the 'horse' statues in Washington D.C. only about half of them follow this trend.

A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second!

This one is mostly true, but there are actually 3 units of time referred to as a 'jiffy.' This is the current, common standard used by physicists, although I seem to recall Great Britain and the U.S. using different measurements for a jiffy in the past (I think one of them was 1/60 seconds). It is also a unit of time to measure one clock cycle of a computer, significantly smaller than 1/100 seconds.

The platypus is the only mammal that lays eggs

The spiny anteater, also of Australia, is the only other mammal that lays eggs.

Only a few of the plants that we eat originated in North America. These are blueberries, sunflowers, cranberries and Jerusalem artichokes.

Corn is also exclusively North American.

And here's a few more.

Homer J. Simpson's middle name is 'Jay.'

Elephants are the only mammals that cannot jump.

All pandas, not just the racoon-like red panda, are more closely related to racoons than bears.

All new words in the Chinese language created since the founding of the unified Chinese alphabet are compound words, as no new characters have been created. The words for 'camera' and 'computer' literally translate to 'light slicer' and 'electric brain.'

The young Jedi killed fighting clone troopers in front of Senator Organa in "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" is George Lucas' son.

The original model used for the Death Star surface was made from scratch out of thousands of model kits for cars, planes, and ships. High velocity shots, such as those of Red Leader pulling out of the trench after a missed shot, were filmed by putting a camera in the bed of a pickup truck and driving past.

James Earl Jones stutters.

Chinese is actually 55 seperate languages, including Cantonese and Mandarin, the most common ones. Though some are similar, not unlike Portuguese and Spanish, they are distinct languages that were not unified until the standardization of the non-phonetic Chinese written language, which is univeral across the country and is even used by Korea, Japan, and many other east Asian countries. The Chinese language has approximately 56,000 characters, with only about 3,000 still in common use.

 

[Joz]

Most dust particles in your home are dead skin.