Useless Trivia: Places to Drive on Left

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Discussion Overview

The thread explores various snippets of trivia that may be of limited practical use but are of potential interest to participants. Topics range from geographical facts about driving regulations to peculiar statistics and historical anecdotes.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • One participant lists numerous places where driving is on the left side of the road.
  • Another mentions the height comparison between Norway's Galdhøpiggen and Glittertind, suggesting Glittertind may be higher when accounting for snow.
  • Several participants discuss the nature of trivia, with some asserting that "useless trivia" is redundant.
  • A participant provides a detailed list of food additives categorized by E-numbers.
  • There are claims about the dangers of animals, noting that one is more likely to be killed by a pig than a shark.
  • Another participant shares trivia about the longest fingernails and tectonic plate movement.
  • Mr. Potato Head is noted as the first toy advertised on television, with a humorous anecdote about his political candidacy.
  • Participants engage in light-hearted banter regarding the term "Norweeds" and the historical context of Norsemen.
  • One participant humorously questions the accuracy of trivia presented, suggesting discrepancies in the information shared.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a variety of viewpoints, with some agreeing on the nature of trivia while others contest specific claims or interpretations. The discussion remains largely unresolved with multiple competing views on the significance and accuracy of the trivia shared.

Contextual Notes

Some claims made in the discussion lack sufficient context or supporting evidence, leading to potential misunderstandings or misinterpretations of the trivia presented. Additionally, the accuracy of certain statistics and historical references is not verified.

  • #61
Evo said:
If you take a "green leafy" branch and place it inside a bottle (like a plastic soda bottle) and seal it closed, by the end of a hot sunny day it'll produce as much as 1/3 cup of water.
So will a hamster.
 
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  • #62
Danger said:
So will a hamster.
Oh Nooooooooo. :cry:
 
  • #63
Evo said:
If you take a "green leafy" branch and place it inside a bottle (like a plastic soda bottle) and seal it closed, by the end of a hot sunny day it'll produce as much as 1/3 cup of water.
Danger said:
So will a hamster.

But which would you rather drink?
 
  • #64
Huckleberry said:
But which would you rather drink?
That's tough... I'm a carnivore, so I guess I eat the hamster and drink the plant piss. Better than the other way around. :biggrin:
 
  • #65
Many dark-green leafy vegetables are an excellent source of nicotine. I think spinach is one of the best.
 
  • #66
Ivan Seeking said:
Many dark-green leafy vegetables are an excellent source of nicotine. I think spinach is one of the best.
I heard eggplant had the most.
 
  • #67
TheStatutoryApe said:
I heard eggplant had the most.

That would explain the guy that I saw smoking an eggplant! :-p
 
  • #68
In 20'000 Leagues Under the Sea Captain Nemo mentions that he gets nicotine for his cigars from the plants on the ocean floor. Any truth to this? I did a little searching but couldn't find anything useful.
 
  • #69
And similarly, a rather long lunch with a smoking friend can be easily equaled by a third of an ounce of eggplant.
Huckleberry said:
In 20'000 Leagues Under the Sea Captain Nemo mentions that he gets nicotine for his cigars from the plants on the ocean floor. Any truth to this? I did a little searching but couldn't find anything useful.
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/extract/329/6/437
That's the quickest thing I could find.
 
  • #70
Huckleberry said:
In 20'000 Leagues Under the Sea Captain Nemo mentions that he gets nicotine for his cigars from the plants on the ocean floor.
Are you sure he wasn't smoking a blowfish?
 
  • #71
I seem to remember from decades ago, when I was living in tomato and tobacco country, that someone was trying to introduce the nicotine gene into tomatoes so they'd be more bug-resistant. (Nicotine is the primary active ingredient in a lot of insecticides.) I don't know what became of the research.
 
  • #72
Tomatos do have nicotine in them. Maybe they were trying to increase the amount.
 
  • #73
TheStatutoryApe said:
Tomatos do have nicotine in them.

That would explain the guy that I saw smoking a tomato.
 
  • #74
TheStatutoryApe said:
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/extract/329/6/437
That's the quickest thing I could find.
I didn't see anything about nicotine in seaweed in there. Oh well, just a book.

Danger said:
Are you sure he wasn't smoking a blowfish?
No, they save those for the people that ask for a cigareete as a last wish before they go in front of the firing squad. Saves bullets that way.
 
  • #75
There is considerable evidence that nicotine is present in certain human foods, especially plants from the family Solanaceae
I was thinking that the family name of vegitables that have nicotine in them might have helped. It doesn't seem that any of them grow underwater though.
 
  • #76
TheStatutoryApe said:
I heard eggplant had the most.

Yeah, but an eggplant is harder to smoke, unless you have a really large mouth.
 
  • #77
There are 1024 sheds in a barn.
 
  • #78
Beauty; milliHelen: 1mH = amount of beauty that will launch one ship

...FurlongsPerFortnight is the most standard of the nonstandard units of speed in physics and engineering.


...FurlongsPerFortnight: 1 furlong/fortnight = 10 Snail's Pace (note: 1 furlong = 10 chains) This is incredibly (literally, for once) close to a centimetre / minute -- 0.99785914 cm/minute
c (speed of light): 1.80 tera furlongs per fortnight
c (speed of light): 18 tera snail's paces [continued]
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WhimsicalUnitsOfMeasurement

Here is a down-to-earth example of another unfamiliar set measurement parameters. Eggs are sold by the dozen, but they are actually priced by the pound. Farmers or egg sorting machines separate eggs into sizes we call small, medium, large, extra large and jumbo.

On the farm where I grew up we packed eggs into layers of 36, in an egg crate which held two stacks of 5 layers or 30 dozens. note A dozen large eggs weighs 24 oz or 1.5 lb. So the case weight is approximately 45 lbs. The vast majority of egg consumers wouldn't have a notion of what you were talking about if you were to say that eggs had just gone up by $1.50 per crate or $0.033 per pound, when the price per dozen had increased from $1.20 to $1.25. Of course they also would have no reason to care! For more on eggs check here, or try the British Egg Information Service. Note that the British have only recently adopted the same egg size standard as we use in the U.S.

[continued with other weird units of measure]
http://www.jardine-engineering.us.vu/written/furlong1.html
 
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  • #79
Bulgaria produces more computer viruses annually than any other country in the world.
 

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