Useless Facts

True. Maybe start from Skipper?

 

Romania and Lebanon have the same amount of coastline.

Switzerland isn't 'the richest country on earth (it's 7th). That distinction goes to China with 293 billion and germany following closely with 285 billion.

Russia is the country with the most amount of forest with 7.7 million square kms. In comparison Qatar is the only country on earth with not even a single cm of forest.

There are currently 16 countries with absolutely no military, though the Vatican City does bend the rule by being the only country with an active mercenary force. The swiss guard is the only mercenary unit still allowed to fight (other forms of mercenaries are considered paramilitaries today or part of a larger "private security" firm). The swiss guard also happen to hold the the record for the oldest continous military contract, The oldest contract that is still enforced and the is 4th in the oldest military units.

If you want to know, the 15 others countries with no military forces are: Andorra, Costa Rica, Dominica, Grenada, Kiribati, Leichtenstein, Marshall Island, Federeated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. It should be noted that most of the countries have defence treaties with other countries (i.e another countries promises that country of defending it's borders, etc...).

A lot of people say that are 197 (or similar) countries on the planet. This is mostly incorrect because a lot of countries are removed from the count due to political reason. For instance, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, does qualify as a country but it is not on the list because that would legimitise it's claim. I have done my own list, which included all recognised countries, all semi-recognised countries, dependant, semi-independant countries and any country, state, or otherwise that has de-facto rule over a certain area (such as ISIL) and the count sky rocket up to 299. And it can be safely said that there is a lot more than 299 countries since that was just a partial list..

 

Someone once bought the Roman Empire.

 

Who bought the Roman Empire?

 

Didius Julianus. Praetorian Guard auctioned off the emperorship, check the link.

 

I'm surprised it isn't Donald Trump. The textbooks would have to refer to it as the Trump Roman Empire.

 

That is not a useless fact, that is an awesome fact and I aim to remember it.

 

That's brilliant. I'm definitely going to consider borrowing a version of that name for a character sometime. Do you think his parents gave him that name at birth or...? I'm assuming his family weren't C of E/episcopalian but I like the idea of a quiet country vicar saying, "I name you Fiery Penis that Pierces the Sky, in the name of the father and of the son...," while everyone stands around in their Sunday best.

I've been pondering a story about alien contact with a civilisation that had no notion of 'other planets' or 'aliens'. To help with this, I googled 'when did aliens first appear in popular culture' and learned this wonderfulness...

1439. Fourteen-thirty-nine. And already with the assumption that they are better than us. Lovely stuff.

 

There are only five countries in the world with more cattle and humans. These are, in order of most cattle per person, Uruguay (3.59pp), New Zealand (2.17pp), Argentina (1.29pp), Australia(1.14pp) and Brazil(1.06pp)

There are 12 countries that have more sheep than humans, these are again in term of post sheep per person (Note, stats are from 2007 and may have since changed). New Zealand (9.68pp), Mongolia (4.94pp), Australia (4.87), Uruguay (3.33), Turkmenista(3.2), Mauritania (2.9), Somalia (1.55) Iceland (1.51, Ireland (1.41), Namibia (1.3), Sudan (1.29), and Syria (1.03).

Interestingly, there are, an estimate 19 billion chickens on earth, making them roughly three times more (in numbers) than human (that's 3 chickens per person worldwide!)

Also, Denmark is one of the few countries with more pigs per person at 2.2

On a different note, the USA is the country that eats the most meat per person per year at 120.2kg (2009), Interesting and perhaps suprisingly, Kuwait is close behind at 119.2kg. In contrast, Bangladesh only has 4 kg of meat per person per year.

Also related to food, the Czechs have the largest consumption of beer per person per year at a whopping 142.6 liters per person per years.

Unsuprisingly, switzerland has kept it's crown as the largest (by quite a bit) consumer of chocolate at a rather sizeable average of 11.9 kg per person per year. The closest behind is Ireland at 9.9, the UK at 9.5

 

I'm not sure if this is useless rather not so much thought of, but I recently found out that castrated men can get an erection and have sex, although they need more stimulation and they can't reproduce. Their cum is different since it doesn't contain any sperm. I've been living in the dark for so long. I thought that their sex life was completely over.

 

Well, of course they are better than us, they are (..there exist solar beings, bright and enlightened denizens, and by nature more spiritual than such as may inhabit the moon...) - in the view of the time - nearer, my God, to thee.

 

If you liked that, you'll love this:

According to his Wikipedia page, Pope Benedict IX "is the only man to have been Pope on more than one occasion and the only man ever to have sold the papacy."

H/t to @sanddollar for bringing it up.

 

I found this guy helpful in keeping things accurate with my sequel
when Corlixia doesn't kill her first actual enemy in a gunfight on
Mars. Makes sense after you watch the vid.

 

The Mandela Effect is a phenomenon which leaves many people with a believed false memory which could come from parralel universes.
many people share the same memory of something which turns out to be different in the reality right now

 

[E]ach human eye normally receives data at a rate of about 8.75 megabits per second.

 

If the Chrysler Building in New York was the Earth, the ISS would be where the St. Patrick's Old Cathedral is two and a half miles away. The moon would be in Tucson Arizona, 2,400 miles away.

 

Well this explains a lot.

 

Acrotomophilia is tbe term for a sexual attraction to amputees.

 

1 in 5,000 North Atlantic lobsters are born bright blue. I thought you should know.

 

Do they stay bright blue for their whole lives?

Are they shunned by other lobsters? Is the colour an evolutionary advantage/disadvantage?

I need to know more about the blue lobsters, damn it!

 

When I was still a fetus, a virus ruined my optic nerve in my left eye, thus rendering me legally blind. I can only see peripherally. If this vision was in both eyes, I would be using a cane and reading Braille.

 

useless facts are useless - another useless fact

 

The thing that I enjoy the most is something that none save for a few, will ever really understand why it brings me such solace.

 

What is it? I'm curious.