The Random Fact thread

[Corbenik]

Now, I'm not too good at word games and such, but I thought a thread of interesting and completely random and sometimes pointless facts would prove rather interesting.

Basically, you just post a random fact about anything.  Like so:


Men are struck by lightning four times more than by women.

And now it begins.

[Hayaikawa]

world class speedsolvers can solve a rubiks cube in under 10 seconds.

[Fiver]

Real rain doesn't look like rain on camera and so has to be poured from sprinklers on set.
Similarly, real gems shine more subtly than fake ones do, and so if a movie used real gems on camera they would look fake.

[Kay Alett]

Rats can chew through steel. Also any hole they fit their nose through, they can widen to accomodate their body size.

[redyoshi49q]

Penguins were once able to both fly and swim.  They lost the ability to fly because their bones evolved to a lifestyle of swimming and thus became denser over time.

[Kay Alett]

Inuit natives have over 100 words for 'ice' but no words for 'Hello'

*sees an Inuit* "Hey there."
*no response*

[Traumerei]

The average person will spend 2 weeks over their lifetime waiting for the traffic light to change.

Makes me wonder what the average total for being stuck in traffic is >.>

[Wild_Wolf]

If you have 3 quarters, 4 dimes, and 4 pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.

In the average lifetime, a person will walk the equivalent of 5 times around the equator.

Odontophobia is the fear of teeth.

The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottles represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had.

In the early days of the telephone, operators would pick up a call and use the phrase, "Well, are you there?". It wasn't until 1895 that someone suggested answering the phone with the phrase "number please?"

Cats sleep 16 to 18 hours per day.

[Hayaikawa]

male facial hair is rughly as strong as copper wire of the same thickness,


no wonder razors go dull so fast

[Kay Alett]

A shrimps heart is in it's head.

[Ratchet]

The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets

There's no such animal as a panther (yes really!)

There is no mention of an apple in the Garden of Eden in the Bible

[Kay Alett]

There's no such animal as a panther (yes really!)

Care to explain?

[Ratchet]

There's no such animal as a panther (yes really!)

Care to explain?

The name Panther describes a (usually) black variant of a jaguar, leopard or cougar, so its not really a species on its own.

wiki link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_panther

I only discovered this recently as well, when i tried to find some information on 'panthers'.


Ok some more (cat related) facts then  :

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear

Cats purr at the same frequency as an idling diesel engine, about 26 cycles per second. (really useful that one  )

[Corbenik]

There's no such animal as a panther (yes really!)

Care to explain?

The name Panther describes a (usually) black variant of a jaguar, leopard or cougar, so its not really a species on its own.

wiki link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_panther

I only discovered this recently as well, when i tried to find some information on 'panthers'.


Ok some more (cat related) facts then  :

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear

Cats purr at the same frequency as an idling diesel engine, about 26 cycles per second. (really useful that one  )

I really wish I had known this a long time ago.  My fursona used to be a black jaguar.  Everyone kept saying panther.  So I switched.  x.x

[redyoshi49q]

Before more advanced programming languages such as C and Basic were developed, every computer instruction was always followed by the address of the next instruction (the equivalent of a GOTO statement).

In addition, disk access only occurred in one direction, which meant that a programmer could code in a pause in the program by creating a block of "statements" that would do nothing but reference the previous block of disk space as the next command.  After each null command, the computer would have to search the entire disk, go back to the beginning, and continue searching the first half of the disk before it got to the previous command.  Though not the least bit elegant, it did create a controlled pause in programs without the use of a computer clock.

[Furlong]

In the African nation of Gabon, scientists have found 15 natural fission reactors.

[Aurora]

QI to the rescue!

1. the largest animal in the sea is the lions mane jelly fish, NOT the blue whale

2. the french have no word for custard or fluffy

3. the very first television consisted mainly of a hat box some knitting needles and a coffin lid (there are other parts but those are the most memerable)

4. the royal family open their christmas presents on christmas eve

[Edward Vulpes]

Gasoline contains a mixture of distillation by-products known as BTX, or Benzene-Toluene-Xylene. This mixture comprises usually around 10% of total volume, and is about 10% benzene. So, if you put one hundred gallons of gasoline in your car over a course of months, you will put a gallon or more of a proven chronic carcinogen in your gas tank.

Take home-message: don't drink gasoline.

[Aurora]

only two brown owls can go "tawit tawo" not one

the female goes "tawit" and the male goes "tawo"


contrary to popular belief there are in fact six states of matter not 3 or 4

1:solid
2:liquid
3:gas
4:plasma
5:fermionic condensate
6:Bose Einstein condensate

[Ratchet]

Coca Cola used to have cocaine in it (up until 1929) hence the name.

The earth is not perfectly round, its a oblate spheroid (the diameter is greater at the equator than pole to pole)

London underground employs people to collect the human hair that accumulates in the tunnels  "Fluffers" yep really

[Aurora]

I know you'r from scotland ratchet so don't take this to heart (i am scotish too soo I'm not trying to offend in any way)

In the UK it is still leagal to shoot a scotsman with a bow and arrow or crossbow if they pass wind on a sunday in public place (no I'm not making this up!) ot has been canceled out by the fact it is illeagle to carry such a wepeon in a public place

In California Jumping off of a building is punishable by death!

[Kinshi]

Cats sleep 16 to 18 hours per day.

when there's no school, I sleep 15-16 hours per day O.o I didn't know that about cats...

Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy. 

[Ratchet]

I know you're from Scotland Ratchet so don't take this to heart (i am Scotish too soo I'm not trying to offend in any way)

In the UK it is still legal to shoot a Scotsman with a bow and arrow or crossbow if they pass wind on a Sunday in public place (no I'm not making this up!) it has been canceled out by the fact it is illeagal to carry such a weapon in a public place

heard of one like that before, iirc its just in Yorkshire though, and there's a similar one for Welshmen as well 


It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament.  (what would they do, arrest you? )

[Zhono Veranhaut]

Snakes are true carnivorous because they eat nothing but other animals. They do not eat any type of plant material.

[Aurora]

one DNA strand in a single cell of you body is about 2m long if unwound from it's more reconisable chromasome shape but it would be so thin that not even an electron micoscope could detect it because DNA is about 20 atoms thick!