Well...ya don't say!

[Sofa]

Before Ontario's provincial parliament buildings opened in 1896, that site was home to the University Lunatic Asylum. The moon is drifting away from the Earth 4 cm a year! A day on Earth is getting longer every day because the Earth's rotation is slowing down. Only 900,000,000 years ago, a day on Earth was 18 hours long. You can put a chicken to sleep all by yourself, put it on the ground and tuck its head under its wing for a count of about 100. It will snooze for a couple minutes. When hunting, a polar bear will sometimes cover its black nose with a paw in order to blend completely into the surrounding white ice. The national sport on Naura, a tiny Pacific island, is lassoing birds in flight. When sipping a drink, a man is more apt to peer into the glass or cup, a woman to look above the rim. Nearly 85% of the people killed by lightning are male. A woman skier tends to fall on her back, a man on his face. This is true, because most women have a lower center of gravity. Left-handed males outnumber left-handed females 2 to 1. Most bears are left-handed. A bear in the wild will almost always throw its weight on the right paw and work with the left. The lowly caterpillar has over 4000 muscles in its body, while the human only has 639 or so. In 1978, memory researchers at Princeton University successfully bred an amnesic fruit fly, which forgets odors four times as fast as a normal fruit fly. Two mosquitoes, free of enemies, could produce enough offspring in 1 season to cover the earth with a layer of mosquitoes more than a foot deep. An anteater can flick its tongue 160 times a day, eating 30,000 ants a day. A goldfish has a complete memory span of 8 seconds. In a 6-pack, the containers cost more to produce than the beverage. Growing enough wheat for a 1-pound loaf of bread requires 2 tons of water. In the 1970's, the United States Office of Education paid Boston University $219,592 to teach college students how to watch television. More than half of the 535 first-year teachers in the Dallas School District (8th largest district in the country at the time) flunked a mental aptitude test in 1979. The test was normally given to 13-year-olds. In 1976, a skyjacker grabbed an airline attendant, ordered her to have the plane flown to Detroit, and was told, "That's where we're going." Interesting Quote: "Teenagers these days are out of control. They eat like pigs, they are disrespectful of adults, they interrupt and contradict their parents, and they terrorize their teachers." (Aristotle, circa 350 BC) Loopholes in space? In South Africa one night a drunken man walked out of a tavern and into Ohio. This case has been well documented but never solved. A tropical fish found off Okinawa normally live in groups of one dominant male and several submissive females. If a larger male comes along, the dominant male changes into a subservient female by restructuring its brain and genitalia. If the bigger male leaves or dies, the once dominant male will change back to a male. The restructuring process takes four days. Photograph a live sponge and then grind it into a slurry. Press the slurry through a micropore strainer and you will get what appears to be muddy water. All the individual cells of the sponge have been separated from each other. Let it sit for a few days and the sponge will rise like a phoenix from the muddy water. Compare this sponge with your photograph. It's the same sponge. Ostriches are mentioned in Shakespeare (Henry VI, Pt. II, IV, x) and The Bible (Job xxxix, 13-16). Venus's "day" is longer than its "year". The planet spins on its axis once every 243 earth days and orbits the sun every 224.7 days. A Cubic mile of seawater holds 150 million tons of minerals. Vitamin B12 is found in rain. The odds that a person in a poker game will be dealt a Royal Flush is 649,739 to 1. In 1517, King Francis I of France bought the Mona Lisa for 4,000 Florins. He hung the famous painting in his bathroom. Mickey Mouse was banned in Romania in 1935 because it was felt that he was too scary for children. The Full name for Los Angeles is El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciúncula. For his famous poem The Raven, Edgar Allen Poe received only $10. The manuscript was later sold for $200,000. In France, travel agents are not permitted to advertise on television. The flushing toilet was invented by Thomas Crapper. The United States consumes approximately 60% of the world's resources although it has less than 6% of the world's population. Bamboo can grow three feet in twenty-four hours. The first recorded use of a getaway car was in Paris in 1901. In 1604 James VI of Scotland, I of England wrote an anti-smoking tract. The Titanic was insured for $3,019,400. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. Napoleon suffered from ailurophobia, the fear of cats. Mosquitos have forty-seven teeth. Polar bears can smell/detect humans 32km away. That is about from here to Kakabeka Falls. William K Kellogg invented cornflakes to be a nutritious breakfast cereal for people suffering from mental illnesses. The company he set up to produce them was originally called The Battle Creek Toasted Cornflake Company. The Language of Ratokas from Papua New Guinea only has eleven letters in its alphabet. (a, b, e, g, I, k, o, p, t and u) The average length of film titles in English is 17 letters. Wilma Flinstone's maiden name was Wilma Slaghoopal, while Betty Rubble's maiden name was Betty Jean McBricker. Cows clean their noses with their tongues. The very 1st bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo. Reindeer like to eat bananas. A group of frogs is called an army. A group of rhinos is called a crash. A group of kangaroos is called a mob. A group of ravens is called a murder. A group of owls is called a parliament. A group of geese is called a gaggle. The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds. More people are killed by donkeys each year, than in air crashes. Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming one tenth of a calorie. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes. In one year the average human swallows 7 spiders in their sleep. You can hurt yourself if you run with chainsaws. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb. Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots. The life span of a tastebud is ten days. I, Q, and X are the only letters that don't start a city that ends in -ville in the state of Ohio. If you stretch a standard Slinky out flat it measures 87 feet long. Hacky-sack was invented in Turkey. The pupil of an octopus's or goat's eye is rectangular. Camels milk does not curdle. The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the day to yourself." All porcupines float in water. The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used. There are approximately 450 million chickens in the United States. Pinocchio is Italian for "pine eyes." Assuming Rudolph was in front, there are 40,320 ways to arrange the other eight reindeer. There are more than one thousand chemicals in a cup of coffee. Of these, only 26 have been tested, and have caused cancer in rats. A can of Spam is opened every four seconds. Some toothpastes contain anti-freeze. A duck's quack doesn't echo and no-one knows why. The dial tone of a normal telephone is in the key of "F". Kermit the Frog is left-handed. The white part of your fingernail is called lunula. There are 1,929,770,126,028,800 different colour combinations possible on a Rubik's Cube. Everyone has a unique tongue print. The symbol on the pound key (#) is called an octothorpe. Research indicates that mosquitoes are attracted to people who have recently eaten bananas. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants. The Ancient Egyptians worshiped the sky goddess called Nut. A person weighs less at high tide. In cooking, 6 drops make a dash. Yak's milk is pink. Emu's cannot walk backwards. The longest place name still in use is Taumatawhakatangihangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaunga-horonukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, for a New Zealand hill. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky. In France there is a city called "Y." In Japan there is a city called "O." Benjamin Franklin proposed in 1789 that the symbol of the US be changed from the eagle to the turkey. Only 55% of Americans know that the sun is a star. This sentence ends in a period. Dragonflies have a life span of 24 hours. There are more plastic flamingoes in the US than real ones. The words "assassination" and "bump" were invented by Shakespeare. The first toilet ever seen on TV was on "Leave it to Beaver." In Vermont, USA, it is illegal for a women to wear false teeth without written consent of their husbands. Pigs can become alcoholics. Elephants are the only animal that can't jump. Coca-cola was originally green. The little hole in the sink that lets the water drain out, instead of flowing over, is called a porcelator. The Yo-Yo was originally a weapon in the Philippines. Left-handed people could not become knights because it was thought that they were descendants of the devil. There are as many as 78 scenes in an average X-files episode. 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan, are the only two Disney cartoon features, with both parents of which neither of them die throughout the movie. In Michigan, it is illegal to place a skunk inside your boss' desk. In Kentucky, it is illegal to carry ice-cream in your back pocket. Mailing an entire building has been illegal in the US since 1916 when a man mailed a 40,000-ton brick house across Utah to avoid high freight rates. The average life span of an umbrella is 1½ years. When counting each frame that was painted for the movie 101 Dalmatians, a total of 6.5 million black dots were drawn. Bubble gum contains rubber!

[peterbb]

Where did you get these facts? Elephants aren't the only animal that can't jump, what about octupuses and other sea animals?

[Scott Stephens]

Sadly enough, i read all of those

[Sofa]

Originally posted by peterbb
Where did you get these facts?

these were posted in a 'useless links' link on a juggling website...useless?!?

One more fact...ou can only post 10000 characters per post. i had to cut a few out.

I, as well, read them all

[yoopers]

Originally posted by Sofa

I, as well, read them all

Same here. I take exception to swallowing spiders, though. I always chew thoroughly.

[Catboy]

Thats weird that duck quacks dont echo! I checked my Muppet Christmas Carol and your right, Kermit writes with his left hand and uses most things with his left too.

-Eric

[Unispin]

Originally posted by Sofa



these were posted in a 'useless links' link on a juggling website...useless?!?

One more fact...ou can only post 10000 characters per post. i had to cut a few out.

I, as well, read them all

i read them too!

[phil]

I think it's just an urban myth that ducks' quacks don't echo.

I love this one though...

In Michigan, it is illegal to place a skunk inside your boss' desk.

Only in Michigan? That's one to remember! :P

Phil, just me

[gluteous maximus]

You can hurt yourself if you run with chainsaws.

Just one more reason to hate running!

[john_childs]

It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.

That is not true. When I was raising swine for 4H I taught one of my pigs to sit up and beg for Oreo cookies. When it was sitting up on its hind hams it could look up and see the sky (well it could have seen the sky it was outside and not in the barn looking up at the rafters). Granted, a pigs body is not designed to sit up on its hind haunches like a dog begging for food and it is quite difficult for the pig to maintain that position. Once the little pig got to be bigger I stopped making it beg for cookies because I was afraid that my "little" pig would hurt herself.

A more true statement would be "It is physically impossible for a pig standing on all four feet on level ground to look up into the sky."

Pigs can become alcoholics.

That is true. One of the interesting little pig facts that I picked up while raising the little porkers for 4H was that pigs are the only mammal besides man that will voluntarily become an alcoholic. Pigs have been used in alcoholism studies. I can't verify the accuracy of the "only mammal besides man part". I just saw that note in an article I had about pigs and don't have any references to back it up.

I always wanted to get one of my pigs drunk, but I wasn't old enough at that time to buy beer.

[GILD]

>In South Africa one night a drunken man walked out of a tavern and into Ohio. This case has been well documented but never solved.

i'm kinda curious about this one
any more info?

[gluteous maximus]

C'mon, Dave! You're not foolin' anyone! Do you really expect us to believe that you don't remember that?

[uni_boy50]

is it a bad sign if you not only read them, but find them intersting?

[GILD]

>C'mon, Dave! You're not foolin' anyone! Do you really expect us to believe that you don't remember that?

all i remember is walking out of the tavern and hearing someone ask:"hey! where's your other wheel?"
things went kinda black after that and i'm trying to fill in the blanks

[Scott Stephens]

with all this stuff about pigs

Pigs and Humans are the only animals that can get a sunburn