Since you guys now know I'm full of useless facts, I figured I might start a thread where I share a useless fact daily. If I happen to make a mistake, feel free to keep it to yourself because no one likes a teacher's pet. Just kidding comment as much as you want and if you have a fact to share do that too. Here is my first installment. Many people remember when Mtv used to play music videos. A handful remember the very first video was "Video Killed the Radio Star." But do you remember the name of the band? Spoiler: Band The Buggles
The Buggles. I love 80s music. Did you know that 'Pandemonium' the word was invented by John Milton, used in the poem Paradise Lost, and is the name of the palace in Hell that houses the infernal parliament. Hell is apparently a republic, isn't that interesting when you think of Milton's life!
988 million possible positions can be reached in chess after only four moves by white and four moves by black.
Also another one relating to epic poetry, The Trojan Horse is barely mentioned in The Odyssey (literally only four lines), and though the poem is about the end of the Trojan War it is not even hinted at in The Iliad. Our main source for it is Virgil's Aenied, wrote possibly 1,000 years after the supposed event. Also, recent studies have found that while homosexuality was accepted in Viking society, it was considered abhorrent to be the receiver in anal sex.
Hahaha! Apparently so. Your 'wife' could be shunned even if you tried it with her, though they had no problems at all with lesbians. This is according to new research done by a friend of mine at Durham Uni.
I guess I'll make today a twofer day since things are so slow among the forum. According to historical records, experts place the guinea pig as the 8th domesticated animal in history, happening around 5000 BC. The useless fact here is, the guinea pig was domesticated 1,000 years before man domesticated the horse, which was the 12th domesticated animal. For all that is wondering, the dog was the first animal to be domesticated approximately 33,000 years ago. Edit: Thought I better add a reference for this info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestication
The longest living organism is the bristlecone pine. The oldest known is almost 5000 years old is named methuselah
Wooden cutting boards are easier to decontaminate from food-borne bacteria than plastic cutting boards. This was from a research study performed by the plastics industry. Needless to say, it was not the outcome they expected or wanted.
Despite the rumors, Catherine the Great did not die from being crushed while having sex with a horse.
Everyone knows Hilter was Austrian, and yet was a German nationalist, but did you know that to German ears the Austrian accent is considered quite cowpoke-y and bumkinish. Essentially he sounded like a farmer, like someone from the west country for the UK or a redneck, I suppose, for the US.
Are you suggesting the horse died from being crushed while having sex with Catherine? She was called "the Great" you know, and these rumors get started somehow.
The jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula or sometimes Turritopsis dohrnii is able to transform its cells from mature state back to immaturity, essentially back to youth. It can still die mind you, disease or a predator but left to its own devices, this little glowlight is immortal.
@Lemex, I speak German, but can't understand a sh*t if Austrians speak in their dialect. Tirol is the worst. I found this gem: Continuous farting for six years and nine months would create energy equal to that of an atomic bomb. Something more useful: Men have nipples, because as an embrio, everyone is female until the Y chromosome kicks in.
Speak for yourself! I bet I can fart an atomic bomb's worth in only four years and six months! (My roomie will probably tell you it's even less ...) That, of course, is very likely not true. But I like to think it is ...
I checked on the internet. We don't produce the gases the atomic bomb needs, so there would be no reaction. But do you know how some people (mostly on TV) light their farts with lighters and it bursts into flame? If you farted for six years and then light up this combined farts, you would have a massive firebomb (which I think it's even cooler than the atomic bomb).
<imagines Hitler dressed as the world's most stereotypical redneck from the South> Fun fact, you can crack a rib from laughing really hard.
There are true biological immortals. Some jellyfish, bacteria and even, strangely enough, lobsters. Also, about 30% to 40% of your poop isn't "used food" but instead the bacteria that helped you digest it.
This is actually a common paradigm in a number of societies. Many Americans are familiar with the Spanish derogatory term for gays, maricón, but few are aware that the term actually applies only to the "bottom". Being a "top" is given a certain pass in latino culture, under certain various circumstances. The term for the "top", bugerón, (you can clearly see the cognate for buggery) is seen as a much less defamatory situation.
More random facts about the ancient world: in Roman society the colours you wore were extremely important, to the point that eventually it was considered treason for anyone other than an emperor to wear purple. If a Roman wanted to commit suicide they could get help by writing to the Senate. There were huge public toilets in Ancient Rome, and were in fact a popular place to socialize. Christians have warped our image of Rome in two major ways: Christians were likely not given to lions at Collusiums, in fact it seems the Romans were quite open to Christianity as they thought the ritual of drinking wine and eating bread as to symbolize the body and blood of Christ was real metamorphosis and was an example of actual cannibalism. Also, while the Romans were not exactly austere, the idea of wild binges and orgies is now thought an exaggeration as the Romans could be very prudish. Or at least, the Petricians could be. Also, Caligula's apparent madness is likely not really true. Yes he sent a legion to the beach to stab the sea, in a war on Poseidon/Neptune, but he likely believed Poseidon/Neptune actually existed. He was afterall a Roman. And yes he did try to make his horse a senator, he did that purely to piss off the Senate, it was essentially a flamboyant way of saying 'you people are idiots.'
Speaking of the Ancients: The only people the Romans crucified were actual traitors and enemies to the Roman Empire. Common thieves and murderers like Barabbas and the two thieves on either side of Christ would not have been crucified. More than likely, they would have been flogged and/or sentenced to hard labor. It was the work of hundreds of thousands of paid laborers who built the pyramids and various temples in Ancient Egypt, not slaves (though the Egyptians were xenophobic, I'll grant that much) or-and I vomit to even think of this-aliens. I will speak no more of...of that latter delusion!! Since the time of Ancient Greece, people have known the world was round. They just didn't know how big it was, or that there were two continents in between Europe/Africa and Asia.
Well, not all people, but yes, the greater majority had figured it out pretty early on. It was just the ones from whom later Western Culture sprang that took a break from smartness and had a small bowl of dumbness sorbet before getting back to sensible thinking.
Eratosthenes, an ancient Greek philosopher, calculated the circumference of the earth in the BCs. For the time he was remarkably close.
