Random Facts

[Lavaedra]

Termites have gas problems and they have a big effect on global warming because of that.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Lavaedra

[ShaydraSilversky]

Bears' closest living relatives are seals. hurp.

[sheppardkid]

Mrityu is another word for Death

[Aamaranthine]

A duck's quack doesn't echo.

 

Hippo milk is pink.

 

A woodpecker can peck twenty times a second.

 

The animal responsible for the most human deaths worldwide is the mosquito.

 

You mostly breathe from only one nostril at a time!

 

Turtles can breathe through their butts.

 

Even a small amount of alcohol placed on a scorpion will make it go crazy and sting itself to death.

 

A hummingbird weighs less than a penny.

 

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

 

Only 55% of Americans know that the sun is a star.

 

Squirrels forget where they hide about half of their nuts.

 

It's impossible to kill yourself by holding your breath.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Aamaranthine

[auria]

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.

No, "Paganism" isn't a religion (nor is "neopaganism"). It's a blanket term adopted by many modern Wiccans and members of non-mainstream faiths (mainstream as in, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Sihkism, etc.) and those who interact with or write about them.

 

The original Middle English use of the word was from the Latin, paganus, which meant "country-dweller". By definition, it pertains primarily to polytheistic religions which are outside of the Judeo-Christian religiosity (aka 'heathen' in much of the Middle English-Modern context of the term).

 

Wicca is a religion that was, in its modern context, introduced by Gerald Gardner in the 1950's-1960's and is based on his writings as well as those by Margaret Murray and Charles Leland; both of whom were alive in the late 1800's/early 1900's. While there is a slight basis in ancient Celtic and tribal religions, Wicca itself is in fact far younger as there are few to no surviving documents which would be able to link the two ideologies.

 

Wicca tends to be an introductory path into various other faiths, such as Asatru, Heathenry (in its Nordic context), the Kemetic faith, as well as Hellenic, Babylonian, and many South American tribal faiths. Those who come to Wicca and migrate in the other directions tend to find it first, and then begin researching paths that are more suited to their own personal beliefs; this is largely due to the fact that there is far more information available online regarding Wicca, while many of the others aren't quite as publicised.

 

 

To remain on topic:

 

If you spell out all the numbers individually, you'll have to get to a thousand before you find an A.

 

The oldest documented, organized religion still practiced today is considered to be Hinduism, as its written documents, the Vedas, predate any other written religious documents; and because its roots lie in Dravidianism, which predates Sumerian, Egyptian, and Babylonian cultures.

 

The oldest religion, period, is now believed to have been in Botswana. Archeologists have found evidence of python worship and ritual practices from about 70,000 years ago.

 

Doctors in the late 1400s and early 1500s were so afraid of syphilis they would not write down its name. Instead they used the Greek letter Sigma as its symbol.

 

Scientists believe that more than 43 million tons of dust falls over the U.S. every year. Indoor air usually contains about twice as much dust as the air outside. That’s a million microscopic particles in a cubic inch of air. About 2,000 dust mites can live happily on one ounce of carpet dust.

 

Mars’ two moons—Phobos and Deimos —are small (13 and six miles across, respectively) and oddly shaped. They reflect little light and are among the darkest objects in the solar system. They were discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall in 1877 and are thought to be asteroids that were unable to break free from Mars’ orbit.

 

In the 1930s, two Russian biologists discovered that color change in Siamese kittens depends on their body temperature. Siamese cats carry albino genes that work only when the body temperature is above 98° F. If these kittens are left in a very warm room, their points won’t darken and they will stay a creamy white.

[sir_horsey_XIX]

Snakes are very clean animals; they tend to get upset when there are feces in or near their living space and avoid drinking dirty water.

[I1ovedragons]

More people are killed by hippos than lions.

[foxhead]

More people are killed by car accidents each year than the amount of military infantryman that have been killed in Iraq in the past eight years.

[_Charky]

Every number in existence can be traced back to the number 4- for example,

 

Twenty has six letters. Six has three letters. Three has five letters. Five has four letters.

This is partly because four is the ony number to contain the same amount of letters as if signifies. I hope you get that. You probably know what I mean.

[HawktalonOfRiverClan]

The only word in the English language who's masculine form is longer than its feminine form is widow and widower.

[elderberrysyrup]

Crime rate increase and mass rebellions/movements are typically during the hottest season of the year.

[Vixonstar]

Unless you have an abnormally long tongue (or short arms) it is impossible to lick your elbow.

[Renhart]

Stressed is Desserts spelled backwards.

 

Unless you have an abnormally long tongue (or short arms) it is impossible to lick your elbow.

BUSTED

Edited February 23, 2012 by Booo

[Lavaedra]

Old whale vomit is used in very expensive perfumes. It is illegal to sell whale vomit in the US.

[Duke_Falcon]

Actually, I believe it's Magyar (Hungarian), at least for languages of the Western world. It isn't derived from Germanic, Latin or Slavic origins, so there aren't many cognates or word roots to go off of; its closest relative is Finnish.

True? For me (well, I'm a hungarian) japanese seems way harder to learn while english was way to easy to learn (at least for me)...

 

And random facts:

 

Mantis females chomp their mates' head because it grants them way wilder sex...

 

Banana slugs has a p***s (male extra appendage) exactly as long as their body.

[Vixonstar]

Stressed is Desserts spelled backwards.

 

 

BUSTED

Well, almost impossibe.

 

Also, crabs and woodlice are related.

[Steamrider]

Unless you have an abnormally long tongue (or short arms) it is impossible to lick your elbow.

 

lol, i heard that too, but my cousin can.... she can also tie shoes with her feet and bend all her fingers forward at the top joint only

[Goslander]

Mantis females chomp their mates' head because it grants them way wilder sex...

 

http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/mantis1.asp

 

Larvae of one type of midge can survive for three days in liquid nitrogen. Yikes. I can't even survive three days in temperatures under 70 without praying for the sun to heat the planet up to boiling, so I can't even imagine . . .

Edited February 26, 2012 by Goslander

[I1ovedragons]

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words.

[ChaosLatias]

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words.

lol

 

 

I have double jointed fingers, apparently

[octopi]

Hagfish only have a skull and no other bones. This means that, when something has grabbed it, it can tie itself into a knot and slide it down their body to escape. You can see videos of this online. It's really cool.

[sheppardkid]

There are two different Norths: magnetic North and geographical North.

[Skypool]

A skunk's smell can be detected by a human a mile away.

 

 

[Dragonflames065]

Fortune cookies were actually invented in America, not China!

[Eva-Athena]

I have two.

Most lipstick has fish scales in it.

Porcupines float in water.