1. Coca - Cola was originally green. 2. The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with. 3. There are two credit cards for every person in the United States. 4. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only in one row of the keyboard. 5. Women blink nearly twice as much as men. 6. You can't kill yourself by holding your breath. 7. It's impossible to lick your own elbow. 8. People said "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond. 9. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky. 10. The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language. 11. If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die. 12. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents great king from history: Spades - King David. Clubs - Alexander the Great. Hearts - Charlemagne. Diamonds - Julius Caesar. 13. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 14. If a statue of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. 15. If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in the battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. 16. What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers all have in common? Answer : All are invented by women. 17. Question - What's the only food that doesn't spoil. Answer : Honey 18. A crocodile can't stick its tongue out. 19. A snail can sleep for three years. 20. All polar bears are left handed. 21. Butterflies taste with their feet. 22. In the last 4000 years, no new animals has been domesticated. 23. On average,peoples fear spiders more than they fear death. 24. Shakespeare invented the word 'assassination' and 'bump'. 25. Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand. 26. The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated. 27. The electric chair was invented by a dentist. 28. Rats can multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a million descendants. 29. Wearing headphones for an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times. 30. The cigarette lighter was invented before the matches. 31. Like the fingerprints, everyone's tongue print are different. 32. 99% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow. 33. A blue whale ejaculates 300, 000 gallons of sperm. 34. Ostriches are often not taken seriously. They can run faster than horses, and the males can roar like lions. 35. Sloths take two weeks to digest their food 36. Deer can't eat hay 37. The lifespan of a squirrel is about nine years. 38. Human birth control pills work on gorillas. 39. Elephants can smell water from as far away as three miles. 40. Cows are the only mammals that pee backwards. 41. Snakes don’t bite in rivers or swamps because they would drown if they did. 42. Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms per day 43. The longest recorded life span of a camel was 35 years, 5 months 44. In South Africa, termites are often roasted and eaten by the handful, like pretzels or popcorn. 45. Burger King® uses approximately 1/2 million pounds of bacon every month in its restaurants 46. Beer is made by fermentation cause by bacteria feeding on yeast cells and then defecating. In other words, it's a nice tall glass of bacteria doo-doo 47. More people are killed by donkeys every year than airplanes.
[ March 02, 2006, 02:30 PM: Message edited by: Stan the man ]
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
#33 -- I assume that's over a lifetime since the volume occupied by that much whale ejectate would be larger than the whale by a HUGE margin.
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
quote:People said "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.
No. While it may be true that your heart stops for a milisecond, this does not bear at all on people's reaction to your sneeze.
Snopes doesn't destroy your claim, but it does point to the fact that 'Bless You!', or its variants, is an old custom. Certainly, it existed before people were able to measure miliseconds of time...
Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
Numbers 14 & 15 are false as well, I'm pretty sure. . . yep, here's the snopes. I would suspect the rest of the list is poorly fact-checked as well. Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
Here are a list of other words Shakespeare supposedly invented:
48. Sub-saharan Africa is the region with both the highest fertility and the highest infertility in the world, according to the World Heath Organization.
49. By the treaty in which it joined the US, Texas can at any time split into 5 smaller states, thus gaining 8 Senators and dominating the Senate. It's all part of Dubya's plan.
50. The woman is placed on the left in Christian marriage ceremonies because left is considered evil (for example, sinister means both evil and left). Woman are considered more evil than men because Eve caused the fall of mankind.
Minutes after I told a girl about #50 (OK, I'm a terrible flirter), another Cambodian girl (who had not heard me talk about #50) told about a Cambodian belief that left eye twitches are evil. I could have kissed her.
You got me on #32.
Extending #8, the blessing is given because of a medieval belief that at that moment, the Devil can steal your soul.
Posted by Stephan (Member # 7549) on :
Coca Cola was never green according to snopes.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
quote:The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.
Yeah, like North AmericaN, and South AmericaS.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
quote:People said "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.
Nope. They say "Bless you" because what else in the world are they going to say?
You're soooo good-looking Posted by Stan the man (Member # 6249) on :
So much for having a bit o fun. Albeit, I doubted the truthness of some, but I wasn't going to go through each and every one to verify. I have to get sleep sometime today. Speaking of which, I've been awake all night at work. It was a very active work day to say the least. Too many briefings and even more rework to be done.
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
snopes.com is your friend, and it's quick!
-Bok
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
quote:50. The woman is placed on the left in Christian marriage ceremonies because left is considered evil (for example, sinister means both evil and left). Woman are considered more evil than men because Eve caused the fall of mankind.
OH! Now I understand why Mormons aren't Christians-- in OUR marriage cermonies, the man and woman face eachother.
#50 (edited): In Christian marriage ceremonies, the woman is placed on the left hand of the man, because God is supposed to be on his right hand.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Claiming something is a fact means you are saying it is TRUE. Seems to me that's a claim one should be hesitant to make without verification.
'Specially round these parts. Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Actually, MOST of these are false at some level. For example, "North America" and "South America" are two different continents, and neither starts with the same letter as its last. I personally know a contortionist who can lick her own elbow. And matches predate cigarette lighters by some three hundred years, although modern matches are only fifty years old.
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
quote:17. Question - What's the only food that doesn't spoil. Answer : Honey
Well... honey can ferment, under the right conditions; it can also crystalize.
I guess it depends on the definition of the word 'spoil.' I certainly wouldn't sell any of my honey that had fermented or crystallized...
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
I notice none of you kibitzers put up your own fun facts to be sniped at. . .
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
quote:2. The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.
Eurasia?
As for my own fun fact...hm...I'll have to get back to you.
Posted by Rich Lewis (Member # 9192) on :
quote: 17. Question - What's the only food that doesn't spoil. Answer : Honey
A bee expert I interviewed a few years ago was brought to Egypt to examine some crystalized honey found in a container in a recently opened burial crypt. He said it was an incredible find and offered a huge amount of information about the plantlife in the area when the honey was first harvested (bits of pollen are trapped in the honey).
He and the other researchers, however, couldn't help but put some of the crystals in a microwave oven for a moment to bring it back to the liquid honey state. He said it tasted amazing, like three thousand years of history captured in a spoon.
Posted by littlemissattitude (Member # 4514) on :
quote:Originally posted by Stan the man: 20. All polar bears are left handed.
And someone has gone out and checked every polar bear in existence? Not a job I'd want. Posted by Shepherd (Member # 7380) on :
South America does not end with the same letter it starts with.
Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
Which has now been mentioned three times in this thread. Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
51. On average there are 100 million acts of intercourse between men and women on Earth every day. From the same WHO press release as #48.
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
quote:He said it tasted amazing, like three thousand years of history captured in a spoon.
Yuck. Did you point out that the three thousand years of history that honey had seen was all sand and corpses?
Posted by starLisa (Member # 8384) on :
quote:Originally posted by Scott R:
quote:People said "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.
No. While it may be true that your heart stops for a milisecond, this does not bear at all on people's reaction to your sneeze.
Snopes doesn't destroy your claim, but it does point to the fact that 'Bless You!', or its variants, is an old custom. Certainly, it existed before people were able to measure miliseconds of time...
There's a midrash (Jewish legend) that until the time of Jacob, when you sneezed, you died. Just... died. That midrash probably dates from at least 1800 years ago.
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
Thank goodness for Jacob. He made it possible to eat pepper.
Posted by MidnightBlue (Member # 6146) on :
quote:32. 99% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow.
While I'm sure a lot will, I doubt it's anywhere near 99%, especially because the elbow licking thing is well known so just about everyone has already tried it. It didn't occur to me to try again until I read #32. Still didn't, just out of spite. Posted by ricree101 (Member # 7749) on :
quote:Originally posted by littlemissattitude:
quote:Originally posted by Stan the man: 20. All polar bears are left handed.
And someone has gone out and checked every polar bear in existence? Not a job I'd want.
What exactly does left handed mean for a polar bear anyways?
Posted by Artemisia Tridentata (Member # 8746) on :
quote:Originally posted by Morbo: 51. On average there are 100 million acts of intercourse between men and women on Earth every day. From the same WHO press release as #48.
And who's counting?
Posted by Mirrored Shades (Member # 8957) on :
I knew someone who could lick his own elbow. One of the nastiest things I've ever seen, because he had to shove his shoulder way farther back than it should have been able to go... Ick.
Posted by 0range7Penguin (Member # 7337) on :
quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Panagea!!!!!
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
1. Coca - Cola was originally green. Good move, Coke Execs, on the re-thinking of that color! 2. The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with. North and South America aren't really continents -- they are new world upstarts 3. There are two credit cards for every person in the United States. No wonder they are maxed out 4. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only in one row of the keyboard. 'Cause I guess "typewriterer" isn't a word. 5. Women blink nearly twice as much as men. but men wink four times as much 6. You can't kill yourself by holding your breath. But you can kill someone else by holding theirs 7. It's impossible to lick your own elbow. And not really advisable to lick someone else's either 8. People said "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond. Nah, your heart stops first; the sneeze is nature's defibrillator 9. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky. There may just be a market for piggy periscopes... 10. The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language. Perhaps the sheik picked up some sort of sheep disease. Remember, kids -- use protection! 11. If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die. That might make your heart stop for even longer than a millisecond 12. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents great king from history: Spades - King David. Clubs - Alexander the Great. Hearts - Charlemagne. Diamonds - Julius Caesar. OK, so I get the bit about the kings and the queens. But who in the world is "Jack"? All hail the "Jack of England!" 13. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 Who knew? 14. If a statue of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. Did it have to do with unstable horse footing? 15. If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in the battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. Are there any statues of riders who aren't dead? 16. What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers all have in common? Answer : All are invented by women. You guys would be bullet-ridden, burnt up, driving blind, and still using those horrible dot-matrix printers if it weren't for us. 17. Question - What's the only food that doesn't spoil. Answer : Honey And Soylent Green 18. A crocodile can't stick its tongue out. Or chooses not to 19. A snail can sleep for three years. There may just be a market for snail alarm clocks 20. All polar bears are left handed. It's true. I just surveyed a bunch of them, and they all raised their left hands 21. Butterflies taste with their feet. And my feet smell 22. In the last 4000 years, no new animals has been domesticated. I've barely domesticated my kid 23. On average,peoples fear spiders more than they fear death. Which is why I carry suicide cyanide pills with me, to use in event of arachnid encounters 24. Shakespeare invented the word 'assassination' and 'bump'. Hark! What footfall upon the cobbles? Yon swain hath been bumped off in an assassination 25. Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand. Which is why stewardesses are so beloved by polar bears 26. The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated. Perhaps they are all left-handed, too 27. The electric chair was invented by a dentist. Why am I not surprised? 28. Rats can multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a million descendants. I hope they don't have a family reunion in MY basement 29. Wearing headphones for an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times. Especially if you listen to filthy lyrics 30. The cigarette lighter was invented before the matches. If by cigarette lighter, you mean a chunk of flint banged together with a chunk of iron pyrite to create a spark, then, yeah, I guess so. 31. Like the fingerprints, everyone's tongue print are different. Who's taking tongue prints? 32. 99% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow. I must be in the other 1% 33. A blue whale ejaculates 300, 000 gallons of sperm. Leaving a very satisfied Mrs. Whale 34. Ostriches are often not taken seriously. They can run faster than horses, and the males can roar like lions. Seriously? 35. Sloths take two weeks to digest their food Perhaps there's a market for sloth Ex-Lax... 36. Deer can't eat hay Or choose not to 37. The lifespan of a squirrel is about nine years. That's why I keep promising my squirrel that I'll get him a new bike for his 10th birthday 38. Human birth control pills work on gorillas. Which is good, because it is hard to get them to consistently use condoms 39. Elephants can smell water from as far away as three miles. And lemonade from even further away than that 40. Cows are the only mammals that pee backwards. Pee backwards? What does THAT mean? 41. Snakes don’t bite in rivers or swamps because they would drown if they did. And that would be a real shame 42. Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms per day And I didn't even know that earthworms HAD feet 43. The longest recorded life span of a camel was 35 years, 5 months I wonder what the longest recorded life span is for someone who smokes Camels? 44. In South Africa, termites are often roasted and eaten by the handful, like pretzels or popcorn. I'll bet there's got to be a market for pretzels and popcorn in South Africa 45. Burger King® uses approximately 1/2 million pounds of bacon every month in its restaurants Hey piggies! Better look up! Oh yeah, you can't 46. Beer is made by fermentation cause by bacteria feeding on yeast cells and then defecating. In other words, it's a nice tall glass of bacteria doo-doo Actually, it is yeast pee-pee, but who wants to quibble about micro-organism waste products? 47. More people are killed by donkeys every year than airplanes. And what are the security procedures at our nation's barns and stables? Does the Department of Homeland Security know about this? Posted by dantesparadigm (Member # 8756) on :
'nough said
Posted by Katarain (Member # 6659) on :
LOL. Tante just cracks me up. I was holding in most of the giggles until this one:
quote:44. In South Africa, termites are often roasted and eaten by the handful, like pretzels or popcorn. I'll bet there's got to be a market for pretzels and popcorn in South Africa
That's just great. Posted by Dav (Member # 8217) on :
that's hilarious Tante!
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
For me it was
quote:38. Human birth control pills work on gorillas. Which is good, because it is hard to get them to consistently use condoms
that actually got me laughing aloud. Funny stuff, Tante.
Posted by Kristen (Member # 9200) on :
26. Ants fall onto their right side while intoxicated.
Teehee. Can you imagine the research behind that fact? I wonder how the scientists describe their work, "Well you see I am in charge of an elite group. We spend all day getting ants drunk enough to fall over"
Posted by Carrie (Member # 394) on :
I must be an ant.
Posted by 0range7Penguin (Member # 7337) on :
I dont care if you might already be married, Tante, Ive decided to marry you. Posted by JonnyNotSoBravo (Member # 5715) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tante Shvester:
quote:People said "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.
Nope. They say "Bless you" because what else in the world are they going to say?
You're soooo good-looking
How about "Geseundheit"? Posted by Stan the man (Member # 6249) on :
Feeling better now that I got some sleep. Albiet, I have to acclimate myself to the switch of going into 1st shift now. This has finally gone the way intended. I didn't mind so much the critqueing, but no one was having fun with it after that. It was just a slam, which I didn't care for. Critique all you want, just try to have some fun too.
Also:
52. A single chocolate chip gives enough energy to a human being to walk 150 feet. 53. Chocolate was used as medicine during the 18th century. It was believed that chocolate could cure a stomach ache. 54. In 1868, the first box of Valentine's Day chocolates were introduced by Richard Cadbury 55. The amount of Kit Kat chocolate bars that are made at the York factory every 15 minutes are enough to outstack the Eiffel Tower. 56. The name "Snickers" for the popular candy bar was named after a horse that the Mars family owned. 57. When the Pez mint dispenser was first introduced it was meant to replace the activity of smoking.
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
quote:Originally posted by Artemisia Tridentata:
quote:Originally posted by Morbo: 51. On average there are 100 million acts of intercourse between men and women on Earth every day. From the same WHO press release as #48.
And who's counting?
The figure was arrived at by WHO (so yes, WHO's counting) by correlating birth control usage and failure rates, average fertility and infertility rates, and the number of pregnancies and births. I guess post-menopausal women were more of a guesstimate, and homosexual sex is under the radar.
My #48 is at first glance a paradox, but it's not. There are lots of infertile Sub-Saharan African women (because of disease and poor nutrition?), but the women there who are fertile have so many children they make up the difference.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Tante, those were awesome.
SL, not every time someone sneezed. You just never knew which sneeze would be your last. Hence the "God bless you!"
Posted by Stasia (Member # 9122) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tante Shvester:
39. Elephants can smell water from as far away as three miles. And lemonade from even further away than that [/QB]
Posted by KarlEd (Member # 571) on :
I swear I first read that one "fact" as "32.99% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow." I was wondering why they just didn't round up to 33%.
Oh, and Tante wins this thread.
Oh#2, number 41 is unmitigated BS.
[ March 02, 2006, 12:17 PM: Message edited by: KarlEd ]
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
quote:Originally posted by KarlEd: Oh, and Tante wins this thread.
Hooray! I win!
I owe it all to years of practice making smart-alecky remarks.
Posted by sillygoose (Member # 1616) on :
58. 64.32% of all statistics are made up on the spot. Posted by ricree101 (Member # 7749) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tante Shvester: 12. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents great king from history: Spades - King David. Clubs - Alexander the Great. Hearts - Charlemagne. Diamonds - Julius Caesar. OK, so I get the bit about the kings and the queens. But who in the world is "Jack"? All hail the "Jack of England!"
I'll second Tante winning the thread.
quote:Originally posted by KarlEd: Oh#2, number 41 is unmitigated BS.
I'm pretty sure that most of them are.
Posted by Stan the man (Member # 6249) on :
I officially proclaim this to be the lengthiest topic I have ever started. WOOT! All I had to do was get myself torn apart to do it. LOL.
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
Not mine! I was tricked by the Man!
"Once you wanted revolution / But now you're the institution / How's it feel to be The Man?"--"The Ascent of Stan", Ben Folds
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
Just kidding. Where did the list come from anyway?
Posted by Marlozhan (Member # 2422) on :
Well, North & South America do start and end with the same letter if you don't count the North & South as part of the name.
But I suppose that's stretching it.
And I didn't lick my elbow after reading this!
Posted by Stan the man (Member # 6249) on :
A friend of mine on a Mayfield fan site posted it up. I was bored and tired and passed it on. The jokes that I read on there I usually e-mail out.
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
It's all good, Stan.
But I'm disappointed that no one else posted any fun facts, with or without sources.
58. Everyone's a critic.
But Tante, that was very funny commentary. Posted by Stan the man (Member # 6249) on :
Well if there isn't going to be much more, then I have an extra to throw in. Rather than sart a new topic.
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[No No]](graemlins/nono.gif)
.
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Angst]](graemlins/angst.gif)
![[Taunt]](graemlins/taunt.gif)
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
I was holding in most of the giggles until this one:![[Hail]](graemlins/hail.gif)
![[Frown]](frown.gif)