Useless Facts

65% of the highways in Germany (autobahn) have no speed limit

 

One millimeter is equivalent to the tip of a pencil.

 

That's actually potentially useful for improvised measurement.

 

A group of grackles is referred to as a "plague."


not a plague

 

They certainly are....

 

It's just so weird. Mrs. A has a livestream birdfeeder she likes to leave on in the background. Somewhere in Ohio, I think. I'm not at all a birdwatcher, but every so often when I look at it I'll see a bird and a word from my childhood will pop up. Bluejay. Oriole. Grackle.

So I go to Wikipedia and find out that my inner child, whose mom and dad taught him the names of the birds in the yard, is still there and has a pretty good record for identifying them after 40+ years.

 

If you crossbreed them with sparrows you get Spackle.

 

And if you cross breed them with crows you get a cackle.

 

Shoebill and a Grackle.... Shackle?

Spoiler: click if you dare

 

If you crossbreed them with a ptarmigan you get a ptackle.

 

Speaking of birds; this is the Congo Peafowl which looks like a messy juvenile of the more familiar Indian Peafowl but is actually a different species:

You can see the hints of its relation to the turkey in the male's bare red neck.

 

Over the course of Battlestar Galactica (the new one), Commander Adama utters the phrase "Do your job" 47 times.

Another unalterably true fact is that I am always on task and never fall down just, the strangest Internet wormholes...

 

Chalk is edible.

 

Pogonophobia is the fear of beards.

 

Shizuoka (静岡) is a city about an hour from Tokyo, with a population of around 690,000.

Its name means "Silent Hill".

Don't visit it on foggy days.

 

Japan invented a tomato robot for runners.

 

There was a very long period where marijuana was the primary cash crop of Kentucky. Pretty sure it still is, actually.

 

Gotta try this delicacy!

 

The least weasel (Mustela nivalis) is the smallest carnivore in the world.

 

I find that hard to believe, unless we're using some religious construction that excludes fish and such from the category of "meat." There are lots of little carnivores in the water.

 

I have one single white eyelash. Just one. The rest are normal.

 

Microsoft Excel 97 contains a hidden flight simulator.

 

Kill it with fire.

 

Kill it with fire.