Did You Know?

[alj3603]

Did you know that the British royal families surname used to be Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and was changed to Windsor in 1917

 

[Incredible Bullshitting Man]

Did you know that the reason we associate the colour blue with males, and pink with females, is that in ancient times people believed clothing your child in those colours would protect them from evil spirits in the home and nursery.

Did you know, that the color pink was appropriate for boys until 1920s, because pink was related to red (a strong and masculine color)? In Germany, during the Nazi regime those accused of homosexual activities were forced to wear pink band (much like how Jews were forced to wear the star of David.) I guess the tradition to associate pink with girls, and homosexuality, derives from there.

 

[Mad Maniac with axe-firing chainsaw]

Did you know that the French knights at the battle of Crecy trampled their own crossbowmen in their haste to charge the English longbowmen?

 

[afaceforradio]

Did you know that I know absolutely nothing about the Pomegranate?

 

[The_ModeRazor]

Yes i did.
OT: Did you know that the first print of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" was a pirate version?
PirateBay is just that good.

 

[metalmmaniac]

Did you know that I know absolutely nothing about the Pomegranate?

Grenades were named after the Pomegranate.

...The More you Know... *star and rainbow fly by*

 

[DazZ.]

Did you know, Cats can see wind?

 

[Lynx]

Did you know that in order to read a Chinese Newspaper you probably should know at least 1500 letters?


(If this is bs, someone who actually knows Chinese may correct me and slap me in the face.)

 

[SsilverR]

chimps are the only animals that can recognise themselves in the mirror

goldfish are the only animals that can see ultraviolet and infa red lights

a sharks tooth is harder than steel

the embryos of tiger sharks fight each other while in their mother's womb ... the survivor gets to be born and eats the slain before it is

 

[SsilverR]

Did you Know?

That carrots used to be a wider variety of colors, white being the most common, and were selectively bred to become orange?

That a man leading a five-hundred man scouting army, forced another man, whom was his rival, to retreat by simply playing a musical instrument?

the chinese dude right?? ... that was by far the best bluff in human history (if you know the whole story)

 

[I Stomp on Kittens]

Yes i knew everything in this discussion...or did I? Que dramatic music!

 

[Orca87]

Rabbits have no gag reflexes, so it's really easy to poison them
...not that you would... shame on you!

 

[TotallyFake]

chimps are the only animals that can recognise themselves in the mirror

Wrong, many animals can: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_test

goldfish are the only animals that can see ultraviolet and infa red lights

Wrong. Insects and all sorts can see them (Octopuses can even detect the PLANE of polarised light) Or did you mean the only animal that can see both? I can't find much on that.
(Reference on Octopus eyes just to be neat:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus#Sensation)

a sharks tooth is harder than steel

Yeah, having trouble with this one. Sharks teeth have a hardness of 5-6 Moh (http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=AD752133&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf Page 34) but I can't find the hardness of steel in Moh, as metals typically use different hardness scales. Seems perfectly feasible though, Human tooth enamel is insanely strong.

the embryos of tiger sharks fight each other while in their mother's womb ... the survivor gets to be born and eats the slain before it is

I was really expecting this to be false. I was all prepared to rip in to you for posting something so patently wrong. But sweet christ it's true. (http://www.answers.com/topic/sand-tiger-shark) Bloody hell. That's absolutely horrifying.

 

[TotallyFake]

Did you know that in order to read a Chinese Newspaper you probably should know at least 1500 letters?


(If this is bs, someone who actually knows Chinese may correct me and slap me in the face.)

Sorry for the double post, juggling quotes gets a pain after a while.

This all checks out. Chinese has 47 THOUSAND characters (I reckon you could stretch English to 100 if you include punctuation and cases) but most people know about 4k.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Written_Chinese) so 1.5k for a newspaper seems entirely readable.

Also, for those wanting a giggle: The large number of Chinese characters has in part led to the adoption of Western alphabets as an auxiliary means of representing Chinese (from the wiki article)
This is fantastic. Their own lanugage is too hard, so they nab ours.

 

[Private Custard]

Did you know urine is sterile? You can drink it.

Rolf Harris drinks his every day and has done for quite some time.

Never the first piss of the day and always take a little from mid-stream. Dilute to taste!

 

[TotallyFake]

Now for mine:
Did you know that Hydrofluoric Acid's unique properties also make it unimaginably lethal?

As with all acids, skin contact will burn (vigorously, in this case). But 'weak' ionisation allows relatively small neutral particles to pass through the flesh and react directly with the bone. The acid eats the skin, turns the bone into salt, and the heat of it all boils the flesh. That's not the worst bit. Despite the physical trauma, it's the sheer agony of this happening that forces the brain to shut itself down after about 4 minutes.

It kills you just with pain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrofluoric_acid#Safety

Your post is entirely backwards. Apart from the weak ionisation allowing it through the skin.

The truth is perhaps more horrifying.

It interferes with the nerves, so you feel NO pain. You might not even notice you've spilt it on you. It then leeches the calcium out of your blood, resulting in a heart attack. (Details: Normal muscle has intracellular calcium in sarcoplasmic reticulum. Nerve impulses cause the release of this calcium into the rest of the cell, where it binds to your muscle fibres and allow contraction. Cardiac muscle conversely, relies on an INFLUX of calcium from outside the cell. Get rid of that calcium and BAM! No contraction. Death.)

 

[quiet_samurai]

A bullet fired from a perfectly level gun will hit the ground at the very same time another object, say an apple or another bullet, is dropped from the same height at the same time.

at what distance does the bullet begin its descent? (btw im not argueing your point i just figured if you knew that you'd know the average distance a bullet can travel before it begins to descend)

It descends instantly, even though it has a fast horizontal trajectory it isn't immune to the force of gravity. It's gets pulled down at the same rate as everything else.

 

[Davey Woo]

Prepare to be ENLIGHTENED. Or bored shitless.

Leaving a Goldfish in a dark room for a long amount of time will eventually turn it white.
The word "twit" means a pregnant Goldfish.
Koala bears have no natural predators.
Harrod's in London was the first place to sell toilet paper.
The first time men's and women's toilets were separated was at a public ball in France.
Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel, he declined saying "I have no head for politics"

Yea I'm done.

 

[kantalupa]

did you know peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.