Useless facts

Table tennis balls (ping pong) have been known to travel off the paddle at speeds up to 105.6 mph.
 
Gold and silver mixed together as an alloy is known as "electrum"

The "talent", the unit of measure often mentioned in the Bible and other ancient texts, was about 33 kg or 75 pounds. When you read of a person being given several talents of gold, the amount is equal to several million dollars at today's prices.

The Biblical parable of the unfaithful servant mentions his debt, 10,000 talents, which at today's prices would translate into roughly $5 Billion.

King Tutankamun was (and still is) interred in a coffin of solid gold. Estimated weight is 3,300 pounds. His death mask, also of solid gold, weighs 220 pounds.

Contrary to popular belief, Fidel Castro, dictator of Cuba, never tried out for, nor played for, any professional baseball team.

On the other hand, Mario Cuomo, former governor of New York, did play briefly in the minor leagues.
 
The oldest continually held sport is the Kentucky Derby (1875); the second Westminister Kennel Club (1876).
 
Joz said:
The oldest continually held sport is the Kentucky Derby (1875); the second Westminister Kennel Club (1876).
The original Olympics were held as part of a religious festival. They were open only to men (participants and audience both), and athletes performed their events entirely in the nude.

The Greeks invented dramatic theater, also. These were performed solely during an annual religious festival to the god Dionysus. During the festival, four plays, three tragedies and a single comedy, were performed over a four day period. A different playwright was selected each year. Only a few of these plays survive to this day, e.g., Oedipus the King.
 
A person burns 26 calories in a 1 minute kiss.
There are 26 calories in a Hershey kiss.
 
The record for the biggest heart-shaped chocolate box is 15ft tall, 15ft wide and weighed over 1,300lbs.
 
Jimmyeatworld said:
The record for the biggest heart-shaped chocolate box is 15ft tall, 15ft wide and weighed over 1,300lbs.
And when you're done eating it, you'll weigh twice that. :happy2:

The little hole in a sink that keeps it from overflowing is called a porcelator.
 
Until 1979, hurricanes were assigned women's names. The practice now gives hurricanes names from both sexes, in alternating order.

Six lists of names are prepared in advance, and each list is used once every six years. Five letters — "Q," "U," "X," "Y" and "Z" — are omitted in the Atlantic; only "Q" and "U" are omitted in the Eastern Pacific, so the format accommodates 21 or 24 named storms in a hurricane season. Names of storms may be retired by request of affected countries if they have caused extensive damage. The affected countries then decide on a replacement name of the same gender, and if possible, the same ethnicity, as the name being retired.
 
Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs were written in both directions, i.e., left to right or right to left.

Because their alphabet contained few vowels, (the vowels being implied to the ancient reader), we don't know how ancient Egyptian words were pronounced, only how they were spelled. Egyptologists assume that ancient Egyptian shared many words with modern day Egyptian Coptic and base the pronunciations on Coptic words.
 
Glad to see you back, Karl. ;)

A standard grave measures, 7'8" x 3'2" x 6'.
 
Contrary to myth, the acronym "CRT" stands for "Cathode Ray Tube", not "Computer Readout Terminal"

The colors of Campbell's Soup cans (Red and White) were taken from Cornell University's school colors
 
A wedding ring is generally exempt by law from inclusion among the assets in a bankruptcy estate. That means that a wedding ring can't be seized by creditors, no matter how much the bankrupt person owes. Source: "2201 Fascinating Facts"
 
The lowest point in the continental United States (i.e. lower 48 states) and in the New World is Death Valley (282 feet below sea level)

The highest point in the continental United States is Mount Whitney (14,505 feet)

The two are separated by 76 miles.

The highest point in the United States (and in North America) is Mount McKinley (aka Denali) in Alaska (20,320 feet)

The lowest point on the Earth's surface is the Challenger Deep at the bottom of the Mariana Trench (35,797 feet below sea level)

The lowest point on any land surface in the world is the Dead Sea (417 meters, or about 1,370 feet below sea level)

The highest point in the New World is Chimborazo, located in Ecuador (20,560 feet)

Of course, everyone knows the highest point on Earth, Mt. Everest (29,028 feet)
 
The Romans used geese as watchdogs, instead of, well, dogs! The reason being that geese saved the Romans with their warning cries when the Gauls attacked the citadel of the Capitol.



The word "slave" is derived from the word "Slav". from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14042a.htm...


During the long period of war between the Germans and Slavs, which lasted until the tenth century, the Slavonic territories in the north and southeast furnished the Germans large numbers of slaves. The Venetian and other Italian cities on the coast took numerous Slavonic captives from the opposite side of the Adriatic whom they resold to other places. The Slavs frequently shared in the seizure and export of their countrymen as slaves. The Naretani, a piratical Slavonic tribe living in the present district of Southern Dalmatia, were especially notorious for their slave-trade. Russian princes exported large numbers of slaves from their country. The result is that the name Slav has given the word slave to the peoples of Western Europe.
 
The face of a penny can hold about 30 drops of water.
Nine pennies = 1 ounce.
 
Joz said:
The face of a penny can hold about 30 drops of water.
Nine pennies = 1 ounce.
Contrary to popular belief, the United States penny is not made of copper. It's current composition is 97.5 percent zinc and 2.5 percent copper (copper-plated zinc).

The composition was pure copper from 1793 to 1837.
 
15th post
The Fahrenheit temperature scale gets its name from Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686-1736), a German physicist who invented the alcohol thermometer in 1709, and the mercury thermometer in 1714. In 1724, he introduced the temperature scale that bears his name.

ok... I'm done for a while!!!! :)
 
KarlMarx said:
...ok... I'm done for a while!!!! :)

Party Pooper.
According to the American Numismatic Association, the 1943 copper-alloy cent is one of the most idealized and potentially one of the most sought-after items in American numismatics. Nearly all circulating pennies at that time were struck in zinc-coated steel because copper and nickel were needed for the Allied war effort.

A 1943 copper cent was first offered for sale in 1958, bringing more than $40,000. A subsequent piece sold for $10,000 at an ANA convention in 1981. The highest amount paid for a 1943 copper cent was $82,500 in 1996.
 
The unit of measure, the "meter" was originally defined to be

1 / 10 000 000 of the distance from the pole to the equator. (in 1793)

as of 1983, it was redefined to be

Length traveled by light in vacuum during 1 / 299 792 458 of a second.

It happens, coincidentally, to be exactly the same length as the 1793 definition!
 
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