Leave a random fact!

[cosmocrazy]

Today, i drove a golf ball 200 yards.

It feels great when you strike a golf ball sweetly!

[sarongsong]

Pleonasm is the use of more words than necessary to express an idea clearly.

[Susannah Dingley]

Playing golf can damage your hearing. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7811143.stm)

[Gigabyte]

I have been accused of being pleonasmic at times.

[sarongsong]

I'll bet that term wasn't used, tho! :)

[Gigabyte]

I've never heard that term used before.

[Gigabyte]

The African Queen was filmed mostly on location in Africa, where almost all the cast and crew suffered from malaria and dysentery—except director John Huston and Bogart, neither of whom ever drank any water.

[parallaxicality]

The first lesbian vampire novel, Carmilla, predates Dracula by 25 years.

[sarongsong]

"The Maltese Falcon" marked John Huston's directorial debut.

[Seeka]

Bram Stoker was Irish, born in Dublin :D

[tdvance]

He was also on the Ringworld Throne till a Ghoul killed him and took over.

[Gigabyte]

Hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away.

[cosmocrazy]

Playing golf can damage your hearing. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7811143.stm)

I have witnessed the intense sound from these golf clubs as they strike the ball, and it is very loud... painful! Especially in an enclosed driving range environment.
Fortunately "hot face" drivers have been banned from competition use since Jan 2008 so there are fewer clubs on the market that deafen you now.

[Sarawak]

Member PlayStationX has made two posts, but has a post count of one.

[sarongsong]

The Space Power Facility at Sandusky, Ohio is the world's largest vacuum chamber; 100 feet in diameter by 122 feet tall. (http://www.physorg.com/news101571341.html)

[Seeka]

Mercury, since it has no atmosphere, has a black sky.

[Susannah Dingley]

Mercury is named after the Roman messenger of the gods. However, if the planet were to be named after a chemical element instead, then Iron rather than Mercury would be a more appropriate name. The fact that Mercury contains a high proportion of iron accounts for its high density: it is the second densest planet in the Solar System – after Earth, but only just!

[parallaxicality]

Wall*E was the most critically acclaimed film of 2008

[Seeka]

If you played a guitar on Mercury you would not be able to hear it as Mercury does not have an atmosphere to transmit the sound!

[cosmocrazy]

If you played a guitar on Mercury you would not be able to hear it as Mercury does not have an atmosphere to transmit the sound!

Mercury would be a good place for me to play my keyboard then...! :lol:

[Seeka]

Ill join you and sing cosmocrazy!

[cosmocrazy]

Me and Steff are forming a band on Mercury!:lol:

anybody else like to join us, no groupies though!.. oh heck ok then just a selected few then! :lol:

Oh poo..this is the random fact thread..:doh:

[Seeka]

Horses cannot vomit, food & water only go one way in, never in reverse.

[cosmocrazy]

Horses cannot vomit, food & water only go one way in, never in reverse.

I'll remember that next time i'm standing behind one! :lol:

[Seeka]

Cosmocrazy has the playing level of a pro in golf;)

[cosmocrazy]

Steff has made me blush..:o

[Sarawak]

Another poster has ignored my request to join his friend's list. This has caused me to question my value as a person.

[cosmocrazy]

Ive had 3 do the same to me so far.

[tdvance]

It is not fun to play golf with a single-digit handicapper. Way too much swearing in my experience.

[Sarawak]

My favorite philosopher is Onslow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onslow_(Keeping_Up_Appearances)).

[sarongsong]

The Bhagavad Gita is a part of literature's longest poem; India's Mahabharata (Sanskrit, ‘Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty’). (http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Mahabharata.aspx)

[tdvance]

Galileo tried to prove the earth moved by computing the distances to stars with parallax. He had incorrectly assumed all stars were about the same brightness as the sun and based on that, that Sirius for example had to be close enough to detect parallax with his homemade telescope. When he failed to detect any parallax at all, he hid the fact lest the council of the church use it as ammo against the "Earth Moves" idea. It turns out, most stars that are visible to the naked eye are much brighter than the sun and rather far away. Sun-like stars cannot be seen beyond a rather meager distance.

[Salty]

Robert Hienlien wrote his philosophy in novels.

[Seeka]

My car is officially for sale as of 1 hour ago

[Sarawak]

Ostriches can't fly.

[sarongsong]

Trebuchet can remedy that fact! :)

[mfumbesi]

In all recorded history of Ostrich farming no Ostrich has ever been seen putting it's head in the sand.

[Salty]

The weather in Texas is usually determined by which way the wind blows.

[Gigabyte]

Rain is usually determined by how much water falls from the skies.

[Buttercup]

The Zip Code 12345 is assigned to General Electric in Schenectady, New York.

Interesting (a post from 2006).

I miss "my" Bad Boy. :cry:

[Gigabyte]

Gruesome lives! (http://www.bautforum.com/1409886-post82.html)

[cosmocrazy]

Robinson talks to himself on some threads.

[tdvance]

Tchaikovsky did not write saxophone parts for his music (as the conductor of my community band reminds me when he hears "too much saxophone" in a band arrangement of Tchaikovsky).

[Susannah Dingley]

The Zip Code 12345 is assigned to General Electric in Schenectady, New York.
Interesting (a post from 2006).

I miss "my" Bad Boy. :cry:
In the UK, 01234 is the telephone area dialling code for Bedford.

[sarongsong]

Absinthe is 70% alcohol (140 proof).

[Salty]

My dog Buffy can mouth sounds which resemble, "I wanna go oud".

[parallaxicality]

By far the highest proportion of Guantanamo inmates (74 out of ~250) are from Yemen. The next largest group are from China.

[parallaxicality]

Absinthe is 70% alcohol (140 proof).

and 30 percent loony juice.

Drinking undiluted essential oil of wormwood is potentially fatal.

[sarongsong]

and 30 percent loony juice...Maybe not:
April 30th, 2008
...The laboratory tests, unfortunately for Bohemians everywhere, found no compound other than ethanol that could explain absinthe’s effects nor its potent toxicity. “All things considered, nothing besides ethanol was found in the pre-ban absinthe samples that was able to explain the syndrome of absinthism, the researchers say...
chemspider (http://www.chemspider.com/chemistry-news/arty-with-a-capital-f-and-the-myth-of-absinthe.html)

[Susannah Dingley]

Plants do not produce methane. (http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090114/full/news.2009.25.html) They only take up methane from the soil and release it into the atmosphere. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7827106.stm)

[Gigabyte]

Large quantities of methane gas have been detected on Mars, Nasa scientists have announced in Science journal.

The gas could be produced either by geological activity or by life. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7829315.stm)

[cjameshuff]

How do you get a red and black tree?

Well, it's a bit complicated to describe in a single post. Wikipedia has a reasonably detailed article on the subject:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_black_tree

[Gigabyte]

The Murutic languages are a family of 15 closely related Austronesian languages and 21 dialects, spoken in the northern inland regions of Borneo by the Murut people.

[Sarawak]

Well, it's a bit complicated to describe in a single post. Wikipedia has a reasonably detailed article on the subject:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_black_tree

Ah. I was thinking of a different type of tree.

Random fact:

The northernmost point on the island of Ireland is not in Northern Ireland.

[tdvance]

The east end of the Panama Canal is to the west of the west end.

[Seeka]

I have 355 CDs organised in Alphabetical order

[cosmocrazy]

I don't keep anything in alphabetical order, but I do have a gallon whisky bottle nearly full of loose change. (and for the smarty pants of you, yes the whisky was emptied out first! and no not all of it in my tummy!:liar:):lol:

[Gigabyte]

The east end of the Panama Canal is to the west of the west end.

I can't hardly believe this. Earlier, before you posted that, I was going to post about how the east end of the Panama canal is on the Pacific ocean. And the western end is on the Atlantic.

So I get all busy and don't, and just now log in, and there it is, in your own form of course. Fantastic.

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

You cannot unsee what you saw, especially on the Internet.

[Gigabyte]

That phrase is frequently used as a warning, before entering a web site with disturbing images.







































They actually mean it when they say it.

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

Redundant post is redundant.

[sarongsong]

There are 200,000 homeless veterans in the U.S.

[Seeka]

My electricity was out for 2 hours 53mins today because of a storm.

[Halcyon Dayz]

São Tomé Island is an island in the Gulf of Guinea.

Saotome is a Japanese family name.

[parallaxicality]

Isaac Asimov died of AIDS contracted from a bad transfusion

[Susannah Dingley]

The Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen (1873–1950) and his son Eero Saarinen (1910–61), also an architect, shared the same birthday (August 20).

[tdvance]

I'm the mathematical great grandson of Frobenius. (proved Sylow theroems, invented characters and representations for groups, and has plenty of mathematical entities with his name on them). Of course, the "mathematical genes" are a bit diluted after this many "generations".

[Gigabyte]

One might wonder, exactly what does "mathematical great grandson" mean, in this case?

[tdvance]

My advisor was H. N. Ward. His advisor was Brauer. His advisor (oops I the mathematician miscounted) was Frobenius. Thus, Frobenius is my mathematical grandfather.

[Gigabyte]

I actually understand that!

[sarongsong]

Andrew Jackson was the only U.S. president to pay off the national debt.

[Susannah Dingley]

If R is a commutative ring with prime characteristic p, then the mapping which takes each element x in R to the element xp in R is a homomorphism, called the Frobenius endomorphism of R.

That’s all I know about Frobenius at the moment. :rolleyes:

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

Tdvance needs to tell us his Erdos number.

[sarongsong]

Highest geographical location in Florida is Britton Hill at 345'.

[Susannah Dingley]

The highest point in England is less than 1000 metres above sea level. That is the peak of Scafell Pike in the Lake District, Cumbria – at a lofty altitude of 978 metres.

[tdvance]

Andrew Jackson was the only U.S. president to pay off the national debt.

I thought Jefferson did too.

[tdvance]

Tdvance needs to tell us his Erdos number.

Infinite--I have never written a joint article.

[sarongsong]

I thought Jefferson did too.Although he detested the idea of a national debt:
...President Jefferson inherited a national debt of $83 million...[it was] $57 million when he left office...
mises.org (http://mises.org/story/1419)

[Joe Boy]

Culex Tarsalis mosquitoes prefer to bite birds over humans. When they overpopulate due to wet conditions the cross over to biting humans is what propagates "sleeping sickness" in humans. The bird is the resevoir for the "sleeping sickness" virus also known as "western encephelitis". (honest)

[sarongsong]

Liberia's capital, Monrovia, was named after U.S. President James Monroe.

[Salty]

I'm in way over my head, here, but I will bumble along: I have never seen a Sasquatch.

[sarongsong]

The bullet that struck President Reagan first ricocheted the presidential limousine.

[connor240287]

When you die your hair still grows for a couple of months

[Salty]

My older dog, She-She, learns from Buffy, (who mouthed what sounded like "I wanna go oud.").

A day or two after I posted that, She-She grunted what sounded like, "I onna o ow". Which I liberally translated as "I want to go out." She doesn't make as many sounds as Buffy does, so I allowed for that.

[parallaxicality]

When you die your hair still grows for a couple of months

Not true. What happens is that your skin dehydrates and contracts around the follicles, exposing underlying length and giving the illusion of growth.

Despite currently being governed by a mixed-race President, 20% of Americans still disapprove of interracial marriage.

[connor240287]

Really? I thought it was true
ahh well
lets see if I have any more luck with this one.

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair

[Susannah Dingley]

Lack of zinc in your diet can make you aggressive. This is why the famous writer on lateral thinking, Edward de Bono, once proposed to the British Foreign Office that zinc-rich Marmite was the solution to the conflicts in the Middle East – give those people Marmite to compensate for their zinc-deficient diet of unleavened bread, he says, and they will stop fighting.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/de-bonos-marmite-plan-for-peace-in-middle-yeast-740189.html

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

85% (http://www.gallup.com/poll/3742/new-poll-gauges-americans-general-knowledge-levels.aspx) of men compared to only 69% of women know that America's freedom was won from England.

[Sarawak]

85% (http://www.gallup.com/poll/3742/new-poll-gauges-americans-general-knowledge-levels.aspx) of men compared to only 69% of women know that America's freedom was won from England.

The questions in that poll are easy.

[Salty]

A knowledge of chemistry is helpful, in different branches of science and manufacturing.

[sarongsong]

A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

[Susannah Dingley]

A lot of knowledge gives you power.

[sarongsong]

"Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac."
- Henry Kissinger

[tdvance]

Clint Eastwood's real name is almost that: Clinton Eastwood.

[sarongsong]

Elisha Otis didn't actually invent the elevator, he invented the brake used in modern elevators. (http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blelevator.htm)

[Salty]

Darwinism is 19th century biology. We need more 21st century science, to describe the development and setbacks of this planet and the life on it.

[chrissy]

I've been so ill and still am poorly now. :(

[sarongsong]

Here, chrissy, have some Synonym Toast (http://www.scholastic.com/wordgirl/synonym_toast.htm)---hopefully it'll take your mind off things while your body does its business. :)
_____________________________

Walt Disney holds the records for number of Academy Award nominations (59) and number of awarded Oscars (26).

[chrissy]

Thanks Sarongsong, that was addictive.

[sarongsong]

There were two bodies buried in Grant's Tomb.

[Sarawak]

The first Egyptian pyramid is over 4600 years old.

[Susannah Dingley]

A pyramid in the shape of a regular tetrahedron with sides of length x units has a volume of x3/(6√2) cubic units.

[Gigabyte]

No physical theory of local hidden variables can ever reproduce all of the predictions of quantum mechanics

[parallaxicality]

A pyramid in the shape of a regular tetrahedron with sides of length x units has a volume of x3/(6√2) cubic units.

A tetrahedron is not a pyramid. A pyramid is a four triangles connected to a square base.

[korjik]

magnetic reconnection happens

[Gigabyte]

Natural examples of electric currents include lightning and the solar wind, the source of the polar auroras (the aurora borealis and aurora australis).

[tdvance]

A tetrahedron is not a pyramid. A pyramid is a four triangles connected to a square base.

Actually, a solid pyramid is any filled polyhedron, a point not in the plane of the polyhedron, and all line segments connecting that point to points of the polyhedron. So, a tetrahedron is a pyramid.

[sarongsong]

The exiting temperature of a 5.56mm bullet shot from an AR-15 automatic rifle is 513° F/267° C. (http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2009/jan/21/cats-n-water-rainbow-gold-bullet-heat/)

[Sarawak]

The radius of the earth is not 8371 km.

[sarongsong]

Elvis' cape-and-sequins outfits were inspired by Liberace's use of same.

[sarongsong]

There are four sovereign city-states:
Monaco
San Marino
Singapore
Vatican City

[parallaxicality]

The title of the novel "The Swiss Family Robinson" refers not to their surname but to the idea that they were a family of Robinson Crusoes. Their actual surname is never given in the novel.

[Sarawak]

There are four sovereign city-states:
Monaco
San Marino
Singapore
Vatican City

Free Derry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Derry) is no longer a sovereign city-state, if it ever was :)

[Salty]

Ice is the solid state of H2O. Which ice is now is now changing to the liquid state of H2O, and dripping off my car and off the roof of my house.

[Sarawak]

Ice is the solid state of H2O. Which ice is now is now changing to the liquid state of H2O, and dripping off my car and off the roof of my house.

I misread that at first as "onto the roof of my house," which made me wonder what your car was doing parked on the roof.

[Susannah Dingley]

“Onto the roof of my house” in Finnish is (minun) taloni katolle – (my) + gentive singular of talo (house) with first-person-singular possessive suffix + allative singular of katto (roof). There are 12 grammatical cases in modern Finnish: nominative, partitive, genitive, accusative, inessive, elative, illative, adessive, ablative, allative, essive, translative. A further three cases are obsolete or archaic: abessive, instructive, comitative.

[stktos]

When Red Blood Cells flow through the smallest of capillaries in our body they resemble the form of the caramel and chocolate candy Rolos. One stacked on top of another in single file.

[Gigabyte]

The value of the copper and nickel in an American nickle (5 cent coin) is worth over 10 cents.

[sarongsong]

Scoobey-Doo: "Huh?!" :confused:

$0.0262935 is the melt value for the 1946-2009 nickel on January 28, 2009. (http://www.coinflation.com/coins/1946-2007-Jefferson-Nickel-Value.html)

[Sarawak]

Clearly Robinson meant that the value of the copper and nickel in an American nickle is worth more than 10 Hong Kong cents.

[parallaxicality]

kosher animals were taken onto the Ark in sevens. All other animals were taken two by two.

[Gigabyte]

I was hoodwinked! Dang it.

http://www.coinflation.com/nickel_coin_metal_value_reaches_all_time_high.html

This is however no consolation for being wrong. Please ignore the random untrue fact. Maybe I can get a moderator to move it to the other topic.

[Gigabyte]

Oh haha! Too late!


The value of the metals in an American nickle is more than 10 American cents.

[parallaxicality]

The first package tour was organised by Thomas Cook in 1851 to transport Temperance Society members between such eternal tourist hotspots as Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham

[Salty]

Different annotations for Greenwhich Mean Time are GMT, Zulu and Universal Time (UT).

[Salty]

I misread that at first as "onto the roof of my house," which made me wonder what your car was doing parked on the roof.

You'll be alright.

Also, I hope that Chrissy is feeling better.

[tdvance]

Zulu time and Zulu time are about 3 hours apart.

[sarongsong]

"It's all happening at the zoo, Lou." :)

[Susannah Dingley]

Different annotations for Greenwhich Mean Time are GMT, Zulu and Universal Time (UT).
You mean appellations.

[Sarawak]

Web fora didn't exist during the second world war.

[Salty]

You mean appellations.

...Yes, thank you.

This will be my random fact post for today. I still have a skeptic hangover from my recent visit to BA's Texas is Doomed blog.

[parallaxicality]

Garden slugs are almost all hermaphroditic; however, should a slug's penis become stuck during mating, its partner will bite it off, leaving the slug functionally female for the rest of its life.

[Sarawak]

I did not know the previous fact.

[sarongsong]

The New York State Department of Transportation estimates that 60,000-70,000 deer collisions happen per year in New York.

[Buttercup]

It's a loved one's 50th birthday. We're having coconut layer cake & neapolitan ice cream {that is if the cat doesn't swipe it all first, lol!}.

[Gigabyte]

The New York State Department of Transportation estimates that 60,000-70,000 deer collisions happen per year in New York.

Deer are the most dangerous animal known to civilized man. They kill and injure more people than every other dangerous animal combined. Every year.

Oh sure, you could say it is really the people running in to them at fault, but still, deer are deadly.

[Susannah Dingley]

I have seen red deer in Scotland.

[sarongsong]

Deer are the most dangerous animal known to civilized man. They kill and injure more people than every other dangerous animal combined...Mosquitoes are #1, with ~2,000,000 human deaths/year.

[WalrusLike]

Mosquitoes are #1, with ~2,000,000 human deaths/year.

Really?? I wouldn't have thought running into one would be that dangerous. ;)

(actually I know that it isn't really a joking matter... and I support Bill and Melinda for positive steps to improve that situation)

Did you know that crocodiles will regularly swirl their tail when in knee deep water to keep it muddy... so their prey doesn't see them. And think about small boats in croc water... if the crocs just get fractionally smarter they could easily tip most boats and get a feed.

[Gigabyte]

Deer are the most dangerous animal known to civilized man.

I guess I should have made it "in the United States". They aren't really that dangerous. Running into them in a car is really dangerous.

Of course a mosquito bite won't kill you either. It's the disease they carry that does the dirty work.

And if a mosquito is an animal, so is a bacteria or virus. (They aren't plants or minerals are they?)

[tdvance]

A mosquito is an animal, but a bacterium is a prokaryote. A virus is...a virus.

[Gigabyte]

So, what kills all them millions of people? A prokaryote? A virus?

But such questions tend to suck all the fun out of a thread.

[parallaxicality]

Tetris and the Rubik's Cube were both invented by Communists

[tdvance]

Interesting that Erno Rubik is still alive and makes money the capitalist way from his puzzle company! Are you sure he's a communist?

[sarongsong]

Diving queen Guo Jingjing was the highest paid female athlete in China in 2008, grossing $22 million.

[parallaxicality]

The liquid metal Francium is the rarest element in nature. The Earth's crust is estimated to include less than 30 grams of it. However, if one could bring together enough in one place, one could float a cannonball on it.

[parallaxicality]

Interesting that Erno Rubik is still alive and makes money the capitalist way from his puzzle company! Are you sure he's a communist?

He was subject to a Communist regime in Hungary when he created the Cube.

[Sarawak]

He was subject to a Communist regime in Hungary when he created the Cube.

I was subject to a Communist regime once, but please don't call me a Communist!

A sphere is the surface with the smallest area for a given amount of enclosed volume.

[sarongsong]

The largest pyramid is not in Egypt.

[parallaxicality]

The only Tears For Fears song to reach #1 in the UK was "Mad World"- when it was covered by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules for the film "Donnie Darko" in 2003, 21 years after its release.

[sarongsong]

The small area between the eyebrows is the glabella.

[Salty]

I am off duty tonight because of client change to my schedule, our Scheduler told me, Monday.

[Sarawak]

Winter is noticeably colder than summer in most non-equatorial regions.

[Gigabyte]

The object formerly known as the "planet" Pluto is depressed over finding out it is now a "dwarf planet". A press release claims Pluto prefers the term "little planet", and that the word "dwarf" is insulting.

[parallaxicality]

The untrue fact and random fact threads appear to be blurring together...

[Gigabyte]

Doh!

Need ... coffee ...

[Gigabyte]

brain ... not ... working

[parallaxicality]

the technical term for navel-gazing is Omphaloskepsis

[Gigabyte]

The first of the Indiana Jones Bantam Books series, Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi, features the Omphalos as the MacGuffin.

[tdvance]

I noticed one morning at work that when I arrange my computer desktop, I tend to put windows that are heavy in graphics or in pointing and clicking on the left side of the monitor, and those involving lots of text or typing on the right--and if I purposely switch them around, it feels funny. Sending a message out to some at work showed I'm far from the only one.

[Salty]

My laptop is protected from internet viri not only by Windows updates, but also by the the fact that it's Windows98 and most viri are going for the more recent versions of Windows.

[sarongsong]

Turritopsis nutricula [a jellyfish] reverts to a sexually immature stage after reaching adulthood and is capable of rejuvenating itself. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article5594539.ece)

[parallaxicality]

"hoax" is a contraction of "hocus pocus", which was in turn derived from the Latin "Hoc est enim corpus meum", "This is my body."

[sarongsong]

(enim is unaccounted for in the above translation.)
_________________________________

Ephebiphobia is 'fear of teen-agers'.

[Salty]

A modification of our atmosphere produces nitrous oxide, which sometimes produces an atmosphere of laughter.

[mgmirkin]

Magnetic field lines cannot be "cut (http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/qa_gp_elm.html#stopmag)" and "reconnected," nor can magnetic field lines be "open," for much the same reason magnetic monopoles (http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/em/lectures/node35.html) do not exist.

IE, the same number of magnetic "field lines" must enter a given surface as exited it. The lines must "close" or loop back at some point (just like an electric circuit). They are never left "flapping in the breeze."

Regards,
~Michael

P.S. Try Hall MHD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetohydrodynamics#Hall_MHD), no "reconnection" or "field line breaking" required... Seems more in line with the spirit of Maxwell's equations.

[Sarawak]

Olympus Mons on Mars is widely regarded as the tallest known mountain in the solar system. Heights of mountains on earth are usually measured above sea level. For obvious reasons, some other method must be used on Mars.

[sarongsong]

US windmills can generate up to 25GW of energy.

[parallaxicality]

The outcome of a game of Candy Land is predetermined before it begins.

[Sarawak]

Vlad the Impaler was from Wallachia.

[parallaxicality]

The first word in the dictionary, excluding the letter A, is "a", the indefinite article. The second word in the dictionary, excluding acronyms and initialisms, is "a'a," a word of Hawaiian origin used by geologists to mean lava possessing a rough and stony appearance. "Aardvark" is the third.

[Gigabyte]

The name comes from the Afrikaans/Dutch for "earth pig" (aarde earth, varken pig).

[parallaxicality]

The fourth word in the dictionary is "aardwolf" which is derived from the Afrikaans for "earth wolf."

[Sarawak]

Aardvarks are not pigs.

[chrissy]

My lizard is asleep on my shoulder. :)

[parallaxicality]

Aardvarks are not pigs.

and in fact are not related to any other mammal.

[sarongsong]

My lizard is asleep on my shoulder. :)"Sleepin' Lizards!" ---how can you tell?

["Leapin' Lizard! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc18_I-0XIo)" ---watch lower left corner---19 second video] :lol:
_____________

New York Military Academy's class of 1964 voted Donald Trump the class "Ladies Man".

[Sarawak]

Lizards are reptiles.

[sarongsong]

Ray Charles' last name is...Robinson.

[parallaxicality]

Thelonius Monk's middle name was Sphere.

[Sarawak]

Harry S. Truman's middle name was "S."

[sarongsong]

"Tennis, anyone?"---first spoken onstage by Humphrey Bogart.

[parallaxicality]

The last Roman Emperor's name, ironically, was Romulus.

[Gigabyte]

Ray Charles' last name is...Robinson.

Shhh! That is supposed to be a secret.

[sarongsong]

Februa is the Roman festival of purification, held on February fifteenth.

[parallaxicality]

Isaac Newton was not born the day Galileo died, since Galideo's death date was recorded in the Gregorian calendar and Newton's birth was recorded in the Julian. Newton was, however, born exactly 100 years after the publication of Copernicus's De Revolutinaribus.

[Sarawak]

Isaac Newton was not born the day Galileo died, since Galideo's death date was recorded in the Gregorian calendar and Newton's birth was recorded in the Julian.

The October revolution happened in November (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution) :)

[tdvance]

There is no such federal holiday as "President's Day".

[sarongsong]

Sound travels 4½ times faster underwater.

[parallaxicality]

Lanting is the addition of urine to beer to make it stronger. Leeping is washing in water and manure.

[Sarawak]

There is no such federal holiday as "President's Day".

There is no federal holiday called "Save the King Day" in France.

[Gigabyte]

Milky seas is a condition on the open ocean where large areas of seawater are filled with bioluminescent bacteria, causing the ocean to glow an eerie white at night

[Gigabyte]

Large in this case being the size of a small country.

[parallaxicality]

"Zero" is a corruption of "cypher."

[Buttercup]

Lanting is the addition of urine to beer to make it stronger. Leeping is washing in water and manure.

Uggghh! :(

And just as I'm currently eating popcorn (that's my random fact).

[sarongsong]

(Don't order cow juice in India! :) )
_____________

Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky.

[parallaxicality]

Anna Paquin played Jeff Daniels's daughter in "Fly Away Home" and his lover in "The Squid and the Whale".

[Gigabyte]

I wish I did not know some of these facts.

[sarongsong]

Better than finding them out first-hand! :lol:
____________________

Upon exiting a vehicle stuck on railroad tracks, run towards the oncoming train.

[Sarawak]

"zero" is a corruption of "cypher."

صفر

[Gigabyte]

A changing magnetic field (which is mathematically identical to a moving magnetic field) results in a electric field. A changing electric field (which is mathematically identical to a moving electric field) also results in a magnetic field.

[sarongsong]

sounds like a pretty wrigley field...either way :whistle:

[Sarawak]

Although many scientists are searching for a grand unified theory, very few are actively seeking a wrigley field theory.

[sarongsong]

"Low-alpha" lead costs between fifty and sixty times the cost of "normal" lead.

[parallaxicality]

velvet worms are our closest invertebrate relatives.

[Sarawak]

The last Roman Emperor's name, ironically, was Romulus.

Well, western emperor :) And it is a question of interpretation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavius_Orestes#The_last_emperor:_Romulus_Augustus _or_Julius_Nepos.3F).

Romulus Augustulus's father, Orestes, worked for Attila the Hun.

[Susannah Dingley]

“Hun” means “she” in Danish and Norwegian.

[mfumbesi]

1) The planet Earth is not flat.
2) The moon is not made out of cheese.
3) I was born in a human hospital.
4) I have one heart.

[parallaxicality]

flotsam is floating wreckage that has been lost due to a ship sinking

jetsam is wreckage from a boat that has been deliberately jettisoned

Lagan is wreckage at the bottom of the sea that has been marked with a buoy for later retrieval

derelict is wreckage at the bottom of the sea that no one has a hope of retrieving

[tdvance]

Don Adams's (would you believe?) real name is Don Yarmi--he changed it to "Adams" because he was tired of being last in auditions, etc. Sorry about that, chief.

[parallaxicality]

Snow monkey troops are strictly matriarchal; male status is only obtained through the ability to sexually please the dominant females. Once the males lose their mojo, they're kicked out of the troop.

[Gigabyte]

I know just what you mean.

[parallaxicality]

Jennifer Carpenter and Michael C Hall, who play brother and sister in the TV series Dexter, are married in real life.

[sarongsong]

The San Andreas Fault (named for the lake it runs under) is 800 miles long.

[tdvance]

Though nobody can hear you scream in space, sound travels about 3000mph in the interstellar medium.

[parallaxicality]

Lexicographers use the initialism S.E. ("Self-explanatory") for those words that require little or no definition: i.e. "Perfection: the state of being perfect" or "watery: of or pertaining to water." The largest collection of S.E. words in English are those beginning with "un-"

[sarongsong]

The Romans brought the secret of glass making to Britain in 55 BC.

[tdvance]

According to the Encyclopedia Galactica, "floopily" means "in a floopy manner". That clears that up!

[parallaxicality]

Actually, there is no evidence that the Encyclopedia Galactica contains the definition of "floopily." All we know is that the Maximegalon Ultra-Complete Dictionary of Every Language Ever contains every word ever uttered by every intelligent lifeform in the galaxy except the word "floopily."

Major DNA nerd here.

[sarongsong]

...Major DNA nerd here.The Scripps Genomic Health Initiative will provide personal genetic scans and detailed analyses (http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/02/16/health/zf9de661968e955b188257555007aa6da.txt) for <$500. http://www.bautforum.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[parallaxicality]

Douglas Adams fans refer to him as DNA not only because those were his initials (Douglas Neil Adams) but because he was born in Cambridge in 1953, the same time and place DNA was first discovered.

[Susannah Dingley]

Words more than 9 letters long rarely make an appearance in casual games of Scrabble, but in the game I was playing with a friend last night, we managed to string together an 11-letter word: SUBORDINATE.

[parallaxicality]

Kim Jong Il can claim two world records: he is the world's largest single consumer of Henessey brand cognac and reportedly possesses the largest collection of Daffy Duck cartoons in private ownership.

[sarongsong]

U-2 musician Bono's first name is Paul.

[sarongsong]

The exterior of the White House is painted a shade of white named Whisper.

[Buttercup]

The halls of our home are painted a very soft yellow called Silk Sails.

[sarongsong]

President Obama wears a US Secret Service Jorg Gray 6500 Chronograph. (http://www.men-access.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/obama-watch-us-secret-service-jorggray-chronograph-jgc6500.jpg)

[tdvance]

Dwight D. Eisenhower once got lost in the Pentagon. (despite the coordinate system, sort of a polar coordinate version of "taxicab geometry", allowing easy estimation of shortest path between any two offices in your head)

[Sarawak]

Who is the president of China. When is the premier of China.

[Salty]

When puppies are in weaning mode, you can put them in front of the puppy chow, but you can't make them eat. One of these three needs no prompting...he's a natural chow hound.

[Sarawak]

I have made just under 4.52% of the posts in this thread.

[parallaxicality]

Many people believe that "Lilo and Stitch" and "The Ring" actress Daveigh Chase's first name is pronounced "Davy." It is, in fact, pronounced, "duh-VAY."

[Salty]

Some people are never ready for whatever happens.

[sarongsong]

Chimpanzees are 7 times stronger than humans.

[Sarawak]

Chimpanzees are diurnal.

[parallaxicality]

According to the Babylonian/Greek conventions from which we inherited our units of time, a 60th of a second would be a third, a 60th of a third would be a fourth and so on. Computer programmers, probably unaware of this, decided to call a 60th of a second a jiffy.

[Sarawak]

Babylonians used a base-60 system.

[sarongsong]

Bamboo is a grass.

[mfumbesi]

Planet Earth is orbiting the sun at ~107588.7895km/h.

[Spirit]

The first known contraceptive was crocodile dung, used by Egyptians in 2000 B.C.http://www.emoticons4u.com/obscene/eck10.gif

[Spirit]

The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in jelly.

[tdvance]

1970's era parking meters were used to make the sound of the laser guns ejecting and reloading (yeah, it's Star Wars!) for The Empire Strikes Back.

[Sarawak]

The parking meters in my town still sound like that.

[Spirit]

The word "lethologica" describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want.

[parallaxicality]

Malcom X was assassinated on the first day of "National Brotherhood Week", a quasi-holiday meant to encourage good relations between races and religions in the US. This event inspired Tom Lehrer to write a satirical song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIlJ8ZCs4jY) on the topic.

[tdvance]

Manhattan parking meters don't make any kind of a gun sound--and there is only one big one for a whole block.

[Sarawak]

Manhattan parking meters don't make any kind of a gun sound--and there is only one big one for a whole block.

The only thing an hour north of 42nd street is 43rd street.

[Spirit]

Canadian researchers have found that Einstein's brain was 15% wider than normal.

[Sarawak]

Canadian researchers have found that Einstein's brain was 15% wider than normal.

I thought of a response that would get me into trouble :(

During the Second World War, fish populations in the North Atlantic increased because of the decrease in fishing.

[sarongsong]

The National Security Agency is the largest employer of mathematicians in the U.S.