Your Fingernails vs Continental Drift

[Ivan Seeking]

You are more likely to be killed by a pig than by a shark. – Biologist; The History Channel, Beach, Sun, 911 – 7/7/01

Your fingernails grow at about the same rate that continental drift occurs.

 

[Entropy]

Each day on average you inhale 1 liter of other people's anal gases.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

With each breath you almost certainly inhale at least one air molecule that was exhaled by Julius Caesar in his dying breath. [I doubt this is really true but so says a simple classical derivation].

 

[Gokul43201]

Surely you know about the pig's half hour orgasm and that polar bears are southpaws.

 

[Gokul43201]

Ernest Rutherford, when he rejected the Nobel Prize for Chemistry : "All science is physics or stamp collecting."

 

[Evo]

You are more likely to be killed by a pig than by a shark.

Those would be the infamous deep sea pigs... I've heard many horror stories told by ancient mariners. Pigs, eyes glowing red, teeth knashing within huge jaws, rising up in 30 foot swells, sweeping over the decks and taking all innocent fishermen into the briny depths. Or maybe that was something else I was reading.

 

[Gokul43201]

And there was the infatuation that the high energy physicists had for the fine structure constant \alpha ~ 1/137...

137 was Julian Shwinger's license plate number (he drove some fancy sports car)

It was also Pauli's hospital room number, when he died.

Sir Arthur Eddington made predictions based on the number 137 that resulted in ridicule from a witty newspaperman. Initially the constant was determined to be 1/136. At this time, Sir Arthur predicted that 10^136 be the number of particles in the universe (or some such). When experiments showed the number to be closer to 1/137, Sir Arthur acoordingly revised his estimate. Some gutsy newspaper ran the article titled "Sir Arthur Adding Ten".

 

[phreak]

One ounce of gold can be stretched into a wire 50 miles long.

Those would be the infamous deep sea pigs... I've heard many horror stories told by ancient mariners. Pigs, eyes glowing red, teeth knashing within huge jaws, rising up in 30 foot swells, sweeping over the decks and taking all innocent fishermen into the briny depths.

XD Sea pigs are those sea cucumbers... totally harmless. Unless you're referring to something else that I'm not seeing.

 

[The Bob]

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death.

The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.

Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

Starfish have no brains.

Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.

The average bed is home to over 6 billion dust mites.

Just twenty seconds worth of fuel remained when Apollo 11's lunar module landed on the moon.

Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel with over 50,000 words, none of which containing the letter "e."

On average, a 4-year-old child asks 437 questions a day.

The tip of a 2cm long hour-hand on a wristwatch travels at 0.00000275 mph.

The Hawaiian alphabet has only 12 letters.

There is no Albanian word for headache.

If you mouth the word 'colourful' to someone, it looks like you are saying, 'I love you'.

Queue is the only english word to be pornounced the same way even if the last four letters were removed.

The human body grows the equivalent of a new skeleton every seven years.

There are more than 1000 chemicals in a cup coffee; of these, only 26 have been tested, and half of them caused cancer in rats.

'Q' is the only letter that doesn't appear in the names of any of the fifty states of the US.

There are 293 ways to make change of a dollar.

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

The heads of a freak two-headed snake will fight over food - despite sharing the same stomach.

Apart from humans, the armadillo is the only animal that can catch leprosy.

Apart from humans, the pig is the only animal that can suffer from sunburn.

Apart from humans, the elephant is the only animal that can stand on its head.

The elephant is the only animal that has four kness.

It takes a male horse only 14 seconds to copulate.

Wombats can run at 40kph and stop dead in half a stride. They kill their prey this way - the prey runs into the wombat's bum-bone and smashes its face.

The world's largest frog is bigger than the world's smallest antelope.

Flamingos can only eat with their heads upside down.

Pigeons are the only birds that can drink water without having to raise their heads to swallow.

Febuary 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

In Tallin, Estonia, couples are not allowed to play chess in bed while making love.

The highest number of points that can be acheived on the first go (in scrabble) is 126 - using the words QUARTZY or SQUEEZY.

There are 109 permissible two-letter words in scrabble.

I also know some acronyms used by doctors and nurses but they use swearing. Anyone interested? I do know some without the swearing mine.

The Bob (2004 ©)

 

[KLscilevothma]

I know a member in this forum is female but pretend to be male. (I have asked her permission before saying this, and she won't blame me as long as I don't tell you her username). Don't try to PM and tempt me into saying who she is!

 

[KLscilevothma]

A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death.

Oh, that means the cockroach whose legs and antenna were removed by me, survived for nine days before it starved to death.

 

[holly]

Poison ivy is not an ivy.
Poison oak is not an oak.
Both are part of the cashew family. Cashews, btw, hang down tassel-like from a poisonous fruit.

Re: gender benders on PF: I believe several people represent themselves as the opposite gender, as evidenced by their syntax and word choice.

 

[The Bob]

Oh, that means the cockroach whose legs and antenna were removed by me, survived for nine days before it starved to death.

Indeed you are right. Great facts of mine.

The Bob (2004 ©)

 

[AKG]

XD Sea pigs are those sea cucumbers... totally harmless. Unless you're referring to something else that I'm not seeing.

I guess that thing you're not seeing is called a joke.

 

[Monique]

Evo is queen of facetiousness (with Tsu being the comatriarch)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The land animal most closely related to dolphins are cows.

 

[Moonbear]

Sorry, couldn't resist commenting

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

And would have one heck of a sore throat!

Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.

How would you know?

The tip of a 2cm long hour-hand on a wristwatch travels at 0.00000275 mph.

That's one BIG wristwatch!

There are more than 1000 chemicals in a cup coffee; of these, only 26 have been tested, and half of them caused cancer in rats.

Living in a lab has been proven to cause cancer in rats

Apart from humans, the pig is the only animal that can suffer from sunburn.

I'm pretty sure if your kid shaved the cat, the cat would suffer from sunburn if let outside too.

Wombats can run at 40kph and stop dead in half a stride. They kill their prey this way - the prey runs into the wombat's bum-bone and smashes its face.

But what good is that method if the wombat is already dead?

In Tallin, Estonia, couples are not allowed to play chess in bed while making love.

Doesn't this make you wonder why someone had to pass this law? Sticky chess pieces? Eeeew

 

[Entropy]

Apart from humans, the pig is the only animal that can suffer from sunburn.

Apart from humans, the elephant is the only animal that can stand on its head.

No, hippos can suffer from sunburn and many other blad animals

Chimps can also stand on their heads.

I think you're just making yours up.

 

[BoulderHead]

Each day on average you inhale 1 liter of other people's anal gases.

Perhaps even more if you're around me.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

So Boulderbomb was close to the mark after all?

Oh yes. Thanks to you my 7 year old nephew is calling me eyebeen stinking!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

A key source of smell in Parmesan cheese is the same as that for vomit.

Also, I just heard that smelly feet and Limburger cheese have the same source of odor; a certain bacteria.

Sorry, not sure of the proper names. Also, maybe not exactly fun facts…

 

[BoulderHead]

So Boulderbomb was close to the mark after all?

I'm a regular bunker buster thanks to this new brand of dietary fiber.

Oh yes. Thanks to you my 7 year old nephew is calling me eyebeen stinking!

Hahaha, I still get a chuckle over that.

 

[BoulderHead]

More fun stuff

Tying a length of thread onto the leg of a June Bug or large cockroach makes an inexpensive powered airplane.

Birthday candles, straws, and thin plastic bags can be fashioned into working hot air balloons.

 

[The Bob]

No, hippos can suffer from sunburn and many other blad animals

Chimps can also stand on their heads.

I think you're just making yours up.

Well maybe the sunburn one is inaccurate.

But chimps are close enough to humans anyway. I thought you would have thought of that.

The Bob (2004 ©)

 

[The Bob]

Sorry, couldn't resist commenting

Oh Moonbear. You do crack me up everytime.

The one, though, that will stick in my mind is the sticky chess pieces. It will have to because the others were passing comments. This is just funny.

The Bob (2004 ©)

 

[The Bob]

I think you're just making yours up.

Not making them up. Some are most likely out of date to the book.

The Bob (2004 ©)

 

[Monique]

Also, I just heard that smelly feet and Limburger cheese have the same source of odor; a certain bacteria.

There goes the secret of how Limburger cheese is made ..

 

[Monique]

The total length of the human genome is 3 meters, which is stuffed into a nucleus 6 micrometers in diameter. A single chromosome is on average 5 cm long. You carry 2*10¹³ meters of DNA with you, which is equivalent to going to the sun and back.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Monique, perhaps you can confirm or deny the following claim. I have heard this several times: The number of beats of the heart over an average lifespan is approximately constant for many species. That is to say that we all get the same number of beats in total. Is there any truth in this?

 

[plover]

A few comments:

The Bob sez: "Starfish have no brains."
I'm pretty sure starfish and sea cucumbers are also the invertebrates most closely related to humans. (Counting tunicates as vertebrates.)

The Bob sez: "Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure."
Also bonobos.

The Bob sez: "The average bed is home to over 6 billion dust mites."
There are also several species of mite whose only habitat is the human forehead.

The Bob sez: "On average, a 4-year-old child asks 437 questions a day."
For very small values of "day".

The Bob sez: "There is no Albanian word for headache."
I'm not sure what this would mean. They must describe the phenomenon somehow. In English we invented a compound word, so there's no word for headache that's a root part of the English language. In Russian, the word for "hedgehog" is a two-letter root word: ёж. So could Russians say that English doesn't have a "real" word for "hedgehog". The French could also say that English has no word for eborgner ("to put [someone's] eye out")

The Bob sez: "The heads of a freak two-headed snake will fight over food - despite sharing the same stomach."
Snake head on left: "But these frogs are so tasty! Why should this jerk get all the fun?"
Snake head on right: [sticks out tongue]

The Bob sez: "In Tallin, Estonia, couples are not allowed to play chess in bed while making love."
But mah-jongg is ok...

A few more bits of essential knowledge:

The group of mammals most closely related to primates is tree shrews (followed by bats). (Also: 1/4 of all species of mammals are bats.)

More people are killed each year by hippos than by any other African mammal (including lions).

A (male) blue-ringed octopus apparently can't tell the gender of other blue-ringed octopuses without trying to mate with them.