Random Facts

[Greywake]

Okay, like said below, tomatos are new world stuff and it was British that thought they were poisonous. I'm a bloody idiot, happy?

 

Apparently people think that domesticated rats smell like grape soda.

 

A long while ago some American suggested they make it illegal for a cow to fart.

 

Original Wicca is among the oldest religions in the world, and has nothing to do with sorcery or the Christian devil. The newer, more heard of version of Wicca is only around fifty to a hundred years old.

 

Many MMORPG-goers think that there is no such thing as a female gamer.

 

Putting salted peanuts into coca or tonic-water eases the fizzing.

 

The French call April Fool's Day "April Fish Day'. Apparently in older times fishermen used to celebrate it by shoving fish into eachothers' hoods.

 

Bare feet don't stink.

 

In old times Greek men actually had pants, but chose to wear skirts instead.

 

Also in Greece, a childs' name is not legally applied to their birth certificate until they have been baptized.

Edited August 9, 2011 by Greywake

[TPishek]

For hundreds of years, at some point in ancient history, the Greeks though that tomato's were highly poisonous.

Tomatoes are a New World plant, and weren't discovered by Europeans until 1521. The ancients had no knowledge of the fruit.

 

However, it's true that they were thought to be poisonous, but only really in Britain-- continental Europe took to eating them quite readily. Tomatoes are a member of the deadly nightshade family, and the leaves and stems do have a toxin in them.

[Katie]

Cats sleep 16 to 18 hours per day.

Every year about 98% of the atoms in your body are replaced.

 

[canobiecrazy]

Wicca is among the oldest religions in the world, and has nothing to do with sorcery or the Christian devil.

No.

 

Wicca is not the among the oldest religions in the world. Paganism, which Wicca is a modern form of, is among the oldest religions in the world.

 

And don't anyone troll me, I'm Neopagan myself :V

 

And so this isn't 100% offtopic,

 

 

85% of Humans only breathe out of one nostril at a time. Try covering one nostril and see if your breathing is impaired, then try the other and notice the difference. Right now i'm breathing from my right.

 

One nostril at a time is covered with erectile tissue and this cycles back and forth every few hours.

Edited August 9, 2011 by canobiecrazy

[_Charky]

No.

 

Wicca is not the among the oldest religions in the world. Paganism, which Wicca is a modern form of, is among the oldest religions in the world.

 

And don't anyone troll me, I'm Neopagan myself :V

 

And so this isn't 100% offtopic,

 

 

85% of Humans only breathe out of one nostril at a time. Try covering one nostril and see if your breathing is impaired, then try the other and notice the difference. Right now i'm breathing from my right.

 

One nostril at a time is covered with erectile tissue and this cycles back and forth every few hours.

I was about to correct this one myself. I'm not pagan or wiccan personally, but I know a few people who are.

 

Pretty sure I'm using both.

[Snow Plow]

(Heh. I'm breathing from my right nostril right now. Checking to see may become a bad habit once I get back to school...)

 

Arabians are apparently the oldest breed of domestic horse, and can eat locusts.

 

My sister told me that all horses today are descendants of four horses, one of which, I believe, is the Godolphin Arabian.

[TPishek]

My sister told me that all horses today are descendants of four horses, one of which, I believe, is the Godolphin Arabian.

Erm, I think you're getting a couple of facts mixed up.

 

There were four types of horses from which all modern horses are descended.

Type I was from northwest Europe; small and hardy, their modern equivalent is something close to the Exmoor pony.

Type II was from northern Eurasia and was slightly larger and stockier than Type I. Their modern equivalent lies somewhere between Highland ponies and the Pzewalski's horse.

Type III developed in the Middle East. They were fairly small although larger than the first two types, and very light. The modern equivalent would be the Akhal-Teke.

Type IV developed in western Asia. They were very refined and probably had a great deal of influence into the Arabian breed. The closest modern equivalent would be the Caspian pony.

 

There are also three foundation sires from which all Thoroughbred horses are descended. These are the Godolphin Arabian (actually a Barb), the Byerley Turk (actually either an Arabian or Akhal-Teke), and the Darley Arabian.

[Greywake]

Auxois?

[TPishek]

Auxois?

The Auxois/Burgundian Horse/Forest Horse would be, according to the Four Foundations theory, a descendant of Type I with some Type III/IV thrown in.

 

I should definitely mention that the Four Foundations is definitely just one of many theories about the range of horse breeds we have and their geographical predominance, which states that the four types existed pre-domestication and were all domesticated separately. It's really a lot more likely that one group of horses (probably in the Middle East) was domesticated, and then they spread with humans and adapted to the environment as they went-- or maybe a combination of theories, that there were four to seven wild groups, one was domesticated, and today's breeds are a result of interbreeding with the wild groups. :3

[Moeru]

I live in Japan, so let me think of some random Japan facts for you...

 

- It's rude to stick your chopsticks upright into your bowl of rice, as this looks like the incense burned for the dead, so is a bad omen.

 

-It's also rude to pass food from chopsticks to chopsticks across the table, as this is how the remains of the dead (ashes and bones) are moved in funeral ceremonies.

 

-Women bow with their hands folded across their groin, elbows touching the hip bones. Men put their hands at their sides, hands touching the outside of the thighs.

 

-It's always rude to point at a person. When pointing at an object or gesturing for someone to "go ahead" or "go over there", the entire hand is held stiffly flat and gestured with the palm upward.

 

-Women's kimono is the most complicated garment I have ever seen. It requires a minimum of 12 parts, not counting shoes, and (regular, everyday kimono) usually requires about 14 or 15 things to get fully dressed. This is not formal or bridal kimono, which cost about $8000.00 to rent and take 2 hours to put on. Everyday kimono usually consists of 5 layers from skin to outside. (It's hella hot sometimes)

 

-Matcha tea is made from powdered roasted green tea leaves which have been pulverized into a soft powder. It contains lots of caffeine because the entire leaf is thus consumed. Usually a tiny amount (about a gram, or the end of a butterknife) is put into a bowl of hot water and whisked with a special brush to create foamy bubbles. The taste is very bitter and "green", but higher-quality matcha has a sweet, almost honey aroma.

 

-Many small cities and towns in Japan, particularly where there are mountains, have lots of wild monkeys that cause havoc and eat gardens and get hit by cars. Dang monkeys.

[Sorrowgrave]

Male Iguanas will sometimes attempt to flirt with their women caretakers during their menstrual and ovulation cycle when it over laps with which ever kind of Iguana is in question's natural breeding cycle.

 

 

Yes your being hit on by a reptile

 

 

Dophlins are the same way, actually a few animals with the ability to pick up on hormone changes and have a close enough relationship with their human owner to really care will also display courtship behavior during this time. Though 99.99% of the time they wouldn't care due to you not being a compatiable female.

 

expect Dolphins they don't care

 

And I'm really not sure I can say anything else to back up that last statement and have this remain PG 13

 

I can say from experience unaltered male cats get the same way. That's when he started sleeping in the cat carrier instead of the foot of my bed. Until I managed to find someone to adopt the little bugger then it wasn't my problem anymore

[Evangeline]

Parts of a sword.

[Renhart]

From an airplane (or some other form of air transportation) it's possible to see a rainbow as a complete circle.

[War Pig Killer]

Apple did NOT in fact, invent the graphical user interface. Actually, the first GUI was invented by researchers at Stanford and the first commercial computer to have a GUI was the Xerox Alto.

[ticonderoga2]

Women blink twice as much as men.

[Fuzzbucket]

Buttercups are poisonous to rabbits.

[HawktalonOfRiverClan]

The largest snowflake ever found had a diameter of 15''.

[sheppardkid]

It takes exactly 12 pounds of pressure to break a man's...extra appendage.

 

Gotta love learning things in Criminal Justice courses.

[DarkLadyNyara]

Contrary to popular belief, goldfish do not have a three-second memory. (It's actually closer to three months.)

 

In Kentucky, it is illegal to carry an ice cream cone in your back pocket.

 

The reason for this law has to do with horse theft- put cone in back pocket, horse follows you trying to lick the ice cream. And if the thief was caught, they'd just claim "I wasn't stealing it! It just started following me!" Actually, a lot of the reasons for weird laws are as interesting as the laws themselves.

 

Tomatoes are a member of the deadly nightshade family, and the leaves and stems do have a toxin in them.

 

Yep. At least one person has died from ingesting tomato leaves. (Or rather, a tea made from them.)

 

It takes exactly 12 pounds of pressure to break a man's...extra appendage.

And cue the sympathy pains in parts I don't even have!

 

 

[RheaZen]

It takes exactly 12 pounds of pressure to break a man's...extra appendage.

 

Gotta love learning things in Criminal Justice courses.

That's not very specific. 12 pounds applied in what way?

[sheppardkid]

That's not very specific. 12 pounds applied in what way?

To be honest, that one was left up to the imagination. The speaker, a corrections officer, didn't really specify.

 

Another random fact: There were only 13 original titles for the Hardy Boys series.

[darkangel787]

It takes exactly 12 pounds of pressure to break a man's...extra appendage.

 

Speaking of extra appendages of the masculine variety, Shaolin Monks developed a strategy called the "Iron egg method" that allowed their...extra appendages to undergo heavy beatings!

[PugLuver]

the canteloupe in the grocery store is not actually cantelope- it's musk melon

[_Charky]

It takes exactly 12 pounds of pressure to break a man's...extra appendage.

 

Speaking of extra appendages of the masculine variety, Shaolin Monks developed a strategy called the "Iron egg method" that allowed their...extra appendages to undergo heavy beatings!

That one was on Johnny English Reborn.

As it turns out, training with Shaolin monks can become very useful if you're fighting an MI7 mole in a cable car.

Edited February 18, 2012 by dracocharky

[TurboSilver]

Quarks are the smallest known particles, and come in 6 flavours/types called: Up, Down, Top, Bottom, Strange and Charm.

 

Haha, gotta love particle physics. |D