Useless Facts

I've known a few people who fit the definition of the inverse of that law.

 

Good from far, but far from good?

 

989 is the highest-numbered area code in use in the North American Numbering Plan, as well as the highest possible under the current system, in which a middle digit of 9 is forbidden.

 

The oldest written usage of the English-language profanity "fuck" is found in the court records of an Englishman named Roger Fuckebythenavele. It is theorized that he either didn't know what he was doing ("That's not my finger either") or was simply rubbing one out with assistance.

Ozymandias. Leonidas. Boadicea. Roger Fuckbythenavele.

Their names liveth forever.

 

Hmm, but John le Fucker lived earlier.

 

I don't know if there's any truth to this, but I heard it originally stood for Fornication Under Command of the King. Apparently people were ordered to do it? I don't know...

 

From Wiktionary.org:

From Middle English *fukken,[1] probably of North Germanic origin: possibly from Old Norse *fukka, from Proto-Germanic *fukkōną, from Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ- (“to strike, punch, stab”).

Possibly attested in a 772 AD charter that mentions a place called Fuccerham, which may mean "ham (“home”) of the fucker" or "hamm (“pasture”) of the fucker"; a John le Fucker in a record from 1278 may just be a variant of Fulcher, like Fucher, Foker, etc.[2] The earliest unambiguous use of the word in a clearly sexual context, in any stage of English, appears to be in court documents from Cheshire, England, which mention a man called "Roger Fuckebythenavele" (possibly tongue-in-cheek, or directly suggestive of a depraved sexual act) on December 8, 1310.[3][4] It was first listed in a dictionary in 1598.[5] (Scots fuk/fuck is attested slightly earlier.) From 1500 onward, the word has been in continual use, and displaced jape, sard, and swive.[2]

A range of folk-etymological backronyms, such as "fornication under consent of the king" and "for unlawful carnal knowledge", are all demonstrably false.

 

Ofra Haza would have sung on the soundtrack of Gladiator if she had not died untimely.

 

KFC is releasing a high end gaming console. Shaped like a bargain bucket, with a built-in warming tray for fried chicken. Meet the KFConsole. And apparently it has more juice than either the PS5 or the Series X. I'm intrigued. it looks to be quite expensive though.

https://t.co/k7AM6g61Ip

KFC's ultrapowerful KFConsole includes a built-in chicken chamber - Business Insider
KFConsole Is Real; Specs, Price, and Release Date Details Teased (collider.com)

 

It's A Wonderful Life bombed at the box office. Jimmy Stewart blamed Donna Reed for its failure and refused to ever work with her again.

 

I have a hard time buying that theory.

 

When it opened in 1947, It’s a Wonderful Life fell well short of breaking even. The film placed 26th in box office revenues for the year.

“Well…well…here’s the problem: the movie was considered a flop when it came out,” she said, cautiously. “Jimmy Stewart actually blamed her. And that’s why you never see them in another movie together.”

- Donna Reed's daughter.

 

Been thinking about your interesting observation and how handy it would be to have some empirical material to reference rather than my current, "...but a guy on an internet forum said..." approach.

Are there any links you'd care to share?

 

Thanks for those links. I feel a bit sorry for those poor physicists; any half-decent writer would've told them how messy things get when trying to deal in absolutes.

Also @big soft moose, as you seem to be in the loop, have you come across anyone addressing how Hawking Radiation and Dark Matter differ? As a complete novice, these two give the, er, "appearence" of being the same thing.

 

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was being recorded at Abbey Road Studios at the same time as The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band just down the hall.

 

In 1992, George H. W. Bush vomited on the prime minister of Japan. This was spoofed in the film Hot Shots! Part Deux.

25 Years Ago Today, George H.W. Bush Vomited on the Prime Minister of Japan (newsweek.com)

 

Hence "jolly japes"?

 

FedEx is just as bad about updating tracking information as the post office.

 

Rudolf Ackerman didn't invent Ackerman steering. It was invented by a German named Georg Lankensperger; Ackerman was his English agent who filed the patent paperwork in the UK.