useless knowledge thread

[Cathyclysmic]

Help me flex my brain muscles and learn something new. What useless facts do you know?

Here are mine....

The average person uses the bathroom 7 times a day.

It takes the average person 7 minutes to fall asleep.(who the hell are these people, I don't know.)

There are exactly 122 noodles in every can of Campbell's chicken noodle soup.

[48pan]

1. 1965 was the last...

year of the Harley panhead motor and the first year of electric start!

[Cathyclysmic]

3. Panhead motor?

explain

[Shoeempress]

30. It's the name for the engine model. It refers to the shape on the top of

the piston. There are Panheads, shovelheads, and knuckleheads. They are older models. There's also the Evolution and I believe now it's the Revolution.

[Cathyclysmic]

59. So does that affect the classic Harley sound?

[48pan]

52. Take a look at the top of the motor

The covers on the top look like upside-down pans.

[Cathyclysmic]

60. ahh, very interesting

so I would guess the classic Harleys are a rare fine and very collectable

[48pan]

81. You would guess right.

Antique Indians are even more prized.

[Parrcrow]

2. Being thrown out of a window in a tall building is...

called defenestration.

and welcome to DU

[Cathyclysmic]

7. Interesting

I hope that knowledge never becomes handy.

I'm an old DUer(Mrs_Beastman) with a new name

[Parrcrow]

14. well I'll be darned!

cooool new nickname!

[Cathyclysmic]

61. Thanks

I was waiting for amnesty to change my name, but was inpatient.

[RPM]

11. the german word for window is...

Fenster...

helps explain your tidbit.

[Parrcrow]

34. cool

I'd never made the connection. Thanks!

[neuvocat]

75. We know the cause of murder: defenestration!!!

Que the music:

DUN-DUN-DUUUNNNNN!!!!!!

[I Know How To Do it]

4. The Saluki is the only known breed of Dog to not lick it's balls.

[Parrcrow]

5. ' bet all the others dogs point and laugh at them

and then show off.

welcome to DU

[Cathyclysmic]

10. Hmm

evolution can be so harsh...does he have to do the butt-walk on the carpet then?

[I Know How To Do it]

15. No, they are able to get other dogs to do it for them.

[Cathyclysmic]

63. no puppy is an island, i guess

Thanks for the info

[bicentennial_baby]

6. cashews aren't nuts, they're seeds

fannie flagg from The Match Game is the same one who wrote the Fried Green Tomatoes book...

two things i learned on DU

oh yeah, and Mariska Hargitay from L&O SVU is Jayne Mansfield's daughter

[Cathyclysmic]

13. awesome

I just had some cashews for lunch because I'm doing the South Beach diet...I'm suppose to only have 15 nuts a day...maybe I can get by on that technicality and have half a can

[Felix Mala]

43. No wonder they taste like ass.

[northzax]

57. and it wasn't Jayne Mansfield

but Isadora Duncan who was strangled when her long scarf caught in the axle of her convertible.

[Cathyclysmic]

64. I thought it was Martha Graham

[northzax]

74. the dancer?

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. Marilyn Monroe's idol was Abraham Lincoln

[Cathyclysmic]

19. Hmm

and Albert Einstein was sexy to her. All I can say is interesting to that one.

[GreenPartyVoter]

23. She was much brighter than her Hollywood persona

[Wickerman]

9. Paul Hewson is actually

Bono

[Cathyclysmic]

22. Ha! I knew that

I had all there albums(and then CD's) at one time. Haven't gotten the newest one.

[Wickerman]

45. Fair enough, who is William Broad?

No googling.

[Cathyclysmic]

65. You got me

no idea

[Wickerman]

76. Billy Idol

[Cathyclysmic]

88. Thanks for the info

I will file that away for future use.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

93. Another: Gordon Sumner?

[stlsaxman]

95. "How To Dismantle.." is really a fine record...

but the last two songs kinna fizzle out, IMHO

[I Know How To Do it]

12. It is illegal to pet a cat backwards in Scotland.

[Cathyclysmic]

24. blue law?

I wonder how that got on the books

[I Know How To Do it]

42. I guess I kind of made it up.

I like to make up trivia.

[Cathyclysmic]

66. That's cheating

[intheflow]

16. Paul McCartney's birthday is June 18th.

Parrots see in color.

JK Rowling thought up Harry Potter on a train.

On edit, on more: Only January 1st, 1699, Massachusetts declared a mandatory day of fasting to atone for burning people as witches.

[Cathyclysmic]

25. Isn't Linda's B-day like a week latter?

[intheflow]

27. I dunno.

Never liked Linda much. But that was just because she ran off with Paul before he had the chance to meet and fall in love with me!

[Parrcrow]

26. Next year

McCartney turns 64 so be prepared to hear 'When I'm 64' ad nauseum.

[Cathyclysmic]

67. That's ok, I like that song

[Cerridwen]

17. People who make over 30,000/year* hang the toilet paper

paper over the top - under 30,000/year* hang the paper under.

*Based on studies done around 1985-ish and so $ = 80s dollars

[Cathyclysmic]

28. Is that my problem?

What if I don't care how it's hung, I just instinctively hung it under...does that count?

[Cerridwen]

35. I don't remember if the study addressed that :-)

Maybe start hanging it over? You know, like imitating "7 things of highly successful people" to achieve success?

[AllegroRondo]

53. What if Im too lazy to hang it at all?

and just set the new roll on the floor next to the toilet?

[Cerridwen]

55. Unknown - I think the study assumed hanging toilet paper. :-) n/t

[Cathyclysmic]

68. then you would be my hubby

[MN ChimpH8R]

71. There's a cat-ownership correlation too

Cat owners hang it under - kitty bats at roll and it circles w/o unrolling. Otherwise, kitty bats at roll and unrolls whole thing over the bathroom floor.

[Cerridwen]

72. LOL - Thanks for the visual - and the reminder. n/t

[Cathyclysmic]

89. My cat is afraid of the bathroom

the loud fan and that is where the evil water lives....so we don't have that problem

[Lilyhoney]

96. My dog will bring toilet paper to me when I run out. nt

[stlsaxman]

97. Men fold toilet paper before wiping and women bunch it up.

[ps1074]

18. Every year about 98% of atoms in your body are replaced

So, in fact you're totally different person than you was a year ago. Is this creepy or what?

[Cathyclysmic]

29. wow

I thought I read every 7 years, your cells are completely replaced.

[alarcojon]

40. They're never completely replaced

under the model that a certain percentage of cells get replaced every year. The number tends to zero exponentially, but never actually reaches zero.

[NaturalHigh]

20. In my home state...

(Oklahoma, the great Sooner Nation), it was once illegal to take a bite from another man's hamburger. For all I know, it still is.

[Cathyclysmic]

32. I will keep that in mind

since I'm always testing other people's dishes when we go out to eat

[NMMNG]

101. Is it legal to take a bite from another *woman's* burger?

[Gildor Inglorion]

21. Former US President John Tyler served as a member

of the Confederate House of Representatives until his death in 1862. Former President Martin Van Buren died that same year. Welcome to DU!

[Cathyclysmic]

36. You have to make a living

or he really was into state rights...I'll have to look into that

[WI_DEM]

31. the first actress to win an Oscar was Mary Pickford

[Cathyclysmic]

37. I think she attended BGSU

My alma mater

[ps1074]

33. Between 25% to 33% of the population sneeze when they are exposed to light

Myself included

Sometimes it is enough to spot a person with a bright yellow t shirt or dress and stare that way for 5 seconds and then I sneeze

[Cathyclysmic]

Really?

I was told to stop a sneeze, look up and look at the lights...that works.

[ps1074]

38. Table salt

Table salt is the only commodity that hasn’t risen dramatically in price in the last 150 years.

Is this for real? Can't believe it

[Cathyclysmic]

39. That is the best fact so far(sorry everyone)

[ps1074]

41. Thanks

Here is one more:

Only food that does not spoil: honey

[alarcojon]

44. If you have 23 people in a room

There is a better than 50/50 chance that there will be two people in the room with the same birthday.

[AllegroRondo]

54. With 30 people its close to 99%

[Felix Mala]

46. #1(IMHO): Reno, NV is farther west than Los Angeles, by about 60 miles.

[trackfan]

47. The highest point in the city of Los Angeles is 5,080 feet

above sea level. So LA actually has many days with snow on the ground.

[I Know How To Do it]

48. Crop Circles are really created by a super intelligent race of

ants. They are signals to the Mother Ship.

[dean_dem]

49. Surveys have shown...

that in a public restroom, about 20% of people flush the toilet with their foot as opposed to their hands (myself included).

[ps1074]

50. Human birth control pills work on gorillas

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

85. Paging Beastman. (nt)

[LincolnMcGrath]

51. Brian Grubb won Scott Byerly's TOE JAM this year.

[Greyhound]

56. There're 360 dimples on a golf ball...

A person that collects trivia is a Spermologer

"Amazing" Grace Hopper wrote the COBOL language in 1947

COBOL stands for COmmon Business Oriented Language

There are 31,536,000 seconds in a year

The Federal Reserve is the result of a repug conspiracy (Jekyll Island) to circumvent section 8 of the Constitution

Harold Russell is the only person to ever get two oscars for the same role

Hollywood is not a municipality

[no name no slogan]

82. Another COBOL fact, another Grace Hopper fact

There are more lines of COBOL code in use today than of Java code. Can you tell I sit over the cube wall from a COBOL programmer?


Grace Hopper also discovered the first computer "bug". In fact, the first "bug" was a moth that got stuck in the workings of the ENIAC, the first electronic computer. The name stuck.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

86. Yeah, yeah, the old "friend of mine" excuse.

Confess.

YOU program COBOL.

[no name no slogan]

92. Yeah, like I'd EVER admit to that

that would be the Kiss of Death$reg; in my line of work

Although I see that there's supposedly a Visual COBOL.Net dev environment. Yet another answer to the question nobody is asking.

[northzax]

58. Janet Parker

was the last person to die of smallpox in 1978.

[LSK]

62. the yankees won 110 games in 1927

Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs that year.

[RubyDuby in GA]

69. The Marquis de Sade was one of the 7 people

actually being held prisoner in the Bastille when it was stormed during the French Revolution.

[MN ChimpH8R]

70. Pink Floyd Trivia

Roger Waters' given name is George Roger Waters
Syd Barrett's given name is Roger Barrett

[neuvocat]

73. If your poo-poo floats in the toilet

there's too much oil in your diet.

[LeftyMom]

77. I thought that meant you got enough fiber in your diet

I read that in a book about veg nutrition, which said veggies were more likely to have floaters, in addition to bulkier and less malodorous stool. IIRC it was one of the McDougal diet books, and Dr. McDougall advocates an oil-free diet.

[neuvocat]

80. Now that I look at your post...

maybe I got it wrong.

[Cathyclysmic]

90. My mom was a nurse

I ,unfortunately, knew that one

[Dervill Crow]

104. No, that means there's enough fiber.

If they sink it means there's too much fat. That's one of the more disgusting things I learned from a nutritionist.

[LeftyMom]

78. If life-sized Barbie would be a 44DD

and she would likely have serious back issues as the result of her topheaviness and otherwise thin frame.

[Divameow77]

79. Barbie's birthdate is

March 9, 1959

[A HERETIC I AM]

83. There is only one state that does not have a straight line in it's border

Hawaii.

There are 2 states that share their borders with 7 other states and they border each other.
TN and KY

There are 2 states that have no bordering states
Alaska and Hawaii
There is only 1 state that shares a border with only one other state.
Maine

You could fit every human being on the planet (using the figure of 6 billion people) within the land area of Texas and each one would have better than 1200 square feet to themselves

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

84. In 1952 and 1953, the Formula One championship was raced with

Formula Two cars.

Manufacturers were slow to adapt to new rules, so they had to make do with F2 cars. Both titles were won by Italian Alberto Ascari, but only because Argentinian Juan Manuel Fangio wa injured in an accident (he'd come back with a vengeance in 1954).

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

87. |n the movie "Moon over Parador", a character opens a book in which...

...a map of the fictitious island appears. It has the shape of the Brazilian state of São Paulo (which is, of course, not an island):

[wiggle-room]

91. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12345678987654321

[Redstone]

94. The "portholes" on the front fenders of Buicks are called

"Cruiserline Ventiports."

Redstone

[stlsaxman]

98. The OTIS ELEVATOR Co. factory is only one story tall.

Remember THAT next time you step onto one!

[Merrick]

99. Catherine the Great died taking a poop

had a stroke while on the toilet

[Merrick]

100. A symptom of leukemia is bad breath

And dandruff is a symptom of Hodgkins Lymphoma

[TroubleMan]

102. I must be the king of obscure references

In the last 48 hours on DU I've referenced:

Landshark (old SNL skit)
The "oy!" guy on the old Energizer videos
Oran Juice Jones
Stuart from MadTv

Pretty damn useless and obscure on all counts.

(on edit)
Damn, now I just referenced the "Break-a My Stride" song from the 80's.

[NMMNG]

103. The mouse is the most common mammal in the United States.

Cats usually purr when they are content, but they will sometimes purr when they are in pain as well.

[cheeseit]

105. Hitler's typewriter is on display in Bessemer, Alabama.

[LaurenG]

106. Radio waves and the magnetic field of the earth

Both create energy which the US has known about and suppressed for years. A flouresent bulb will light up when placed in the presence of a radio wave generator.

[cheeseit]

107. The battle of bunker hill....

...was fought on Breed's Hill, the next hill along.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

108. Mr. Magoo attended Rutgers University

This fact appears in one of his cartoons.