The fun facts thread.

[Navvan]

The 'tail bone' is a vestigial appendage. It does nothing and no longer serves any purpose, other than to hurt an ass-ton when you break it.

While it is a vestigial trait (it no longer serves the same function a tail does from which it was derived) it does have some purpose. That is it is still an anchor for various muscles and ligaments.

 

[struwwelman]

The plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces are called aglets.

Full marks if you learned that from a Terry Pratchett book like I did.

OT: Shrimps never give any money to charity... they're shellfish
All of the 'x is legal in the state/town of y' facts are wrong. There is a hierarchy in legislation meaning that these are governed by State and Federal laws governing violence, crime etc.

 

[freakydan]

When Gerber baby food expanded its distribution to portions of Africa, they opted not to change their iconic Gerber Baby label, with the baby face. It wasn't until incredibly underwhelming sales figures came back that they did research, finding that, since illiteracy was so high in the region, it was common practice to put on the labels of food products pictures of what was inside the container. So when people saw a jar of mush with a picture of a baby on the front...

Oh, and one of my favorites, the words "strap on" spelled backwards is "no parts".

 

[Dorian6]

Thomas Edison invented the word hello specifically to give us something to say when we answered the telephone. "hello" is actually a mispronunciation of the word Haloo which is basically the hunting version of Fore! in golf (basically means get your head down... unpleasantness incoming!)

And by "invented" you mean "stole the idea from someone smarter and less wealthy than himself."

OP: Thomas Edison did not actually invent the light bulb. Heinrich Goebel was likely the person who actually invented it, back in 1854. He tried selling it to Edison, who saw no practical use in Goebel's invention and refused. Shortly thereafter, Goebel died and, Edison bought the patent, the one he saw no merit in, from Goebel's impoverished widow at a fraction of what it was worth.

after Goebel, and a year before Edison "invented" his light bulb, Joseph Wilson Swan developed and patented a working light bulb. So he made Swan a partner, forming the Ediswan United Company and effectively buying Swan and his patent.

Soon enough, Edison bought out Swan completely, thus leaving all records of the light bulb under the care of the Edison Company. Sure, Swan had money, but since he bought all the records, Edison could take sole credit for the light bulb. So, the majority of Edison's inventions were actually created by inventors he's either stepped on, bullied, exploited or bought out to his name, but what do they say about Edison in the textbooks? Father of the goddamn light bulb.

Well he didn't win it all. Didn't his company suffer major losses to Tesla's over the invention of DC or something?

Tesla worked for Edison's company for a while beginning in 1884. In some of their many arguments, Tesla said that he could improve Edison's Direct Current electricity and save him money. Edison said he'd give Tesla $50,000 if he could do it. After months of slaving over Edison's crappy designs, Tesla made huge improvements (the Alternating current that we use today).

When Tesla confronted Edison with the improvements and asked for his money, Edison responded with "You don't understand American humor."

Tesla then left to join Edison's rival company Westinghouse. This prompted Edison to try to discredit them and the Alternating current by using it to electrocute dogs, cats, cattle, horses and, most famously, and elephant.

Yeah, Tesla was right, and the Alternating Current became standard, but he was a shitty businessman, and now many of his inventions are still making Edison's descendants rich.

 

[wolf92]

It takes 720 peanuts to make a pound of peanut butter

 

[Captain Pirate]

One of the largest spiders in the world is the Goliath Birdeater Spider, which can grow up to 30 cm long (Legspan) and is the largest spider by mass.

It's fairly harmless to humans, and while it's huge fangs will penetrate your skin easily, the venom is comparable to a wasp sting.[/spoiler]
Like I said, not terrifying for one of the largest spiders in existence, right?

This ************, however...

The picture isn't accurate, it's quite a bit larger than that. The Giant Huntsman Spider is a couple of centres larger than the Goliath Birdeater, and is the largest spider in the world due to it's terrifyingly long legs.

Surprisingly for an arachnid that big, it was only discovered very recently, in 2001, while the Goliath Birdeater was first witnessed in Victorian Times by explorers.
[/spoiler]

 

[Carrots_macduff]

fun fact: one testicle always hangs slightly lower than the other

 

[funguy2121]

We haven't had one of these in forever, so I figured, why the hell not, they're fun and they're educational, although not in any productive or practical way for the most part.

Did you know that...
Coffee became popular in colonial America in the 1770's due to the British cutting off much of the tea trade to North America. All the dandies needed something to sip over their conversation about their rather unjust revolution[footnote]Yes I, as an American do think that the grounds for independence were more than a little shaky[/footnote] (if you really think about it, the Colonies didn't have that much of a reason for rebellion) so they turned to coffee. Oddly enough, as the demand for coffee grew in the US, it lessened in Britain where tea reigned supreme and has ever since the war of 1812.

the character Ermac from the Mortal Kombat series was originally a bug in the pallet swap function and when you looked at the fight audit, it says you fought ERMAC, which was a shortened version Error Macro.

Thomas Jefferson's original vision for America was actually the idea of many small farm communities that were worked in a communal fashion, similar to communism. He later realized this wouldn't work all that well after the failure of The Articles of Confederation (which were too weak) and as the country expanded.

Your turn, tell me something new that I haven't heard before.

Fun fact: OP thinks that he, I, and the rest of America are "dandies," which ironically is a word that only a "dandy" could use, unless of course you are referring to the Dandy Warhols Come on now, sugar. Bring it on, bring it on, yeah.

Knock, knock.

Um, hey guys, nice BDUs. What's the military doin' at my door?

"We're going to stay here for-"

-a few days?

"No, as long as we want. And we want all the information you have on your brown neighbors. What are they, Indian? Pakistani? I can never tell. But you're gonna help us spy on them. Or you can negotiate with my gun."



Shaky cause for rebellion, my ass.

 

[funguy2121]

We haven't had one of these in forever, so I figured, why the hell not, they're fun and they're educational, although not in any productive or practical way for the most part.

Did you know that...
Coffee became popular in colonial America in the 1770's due to the British cutting off much of the tea trade to North America. All the dandies needed something to sip over their conversation about their rather unjust revolution[footnote]Yes I, as an American do think that the grounds for independence were more than a little shaky[/footnote] (if you really think about it, the Colonies didn't have that much of a reason for rebellion) so they turned to coffee. Oddly enough, as the demand for coffee grew in the US, it lessened in Britain where tea reigned supreme and has ever since the war of 1812.

the character Ermac from the Mortal Kombat series was originally a bug in the pallet swap function and when you looked at the fight audit, it says you fought ERMAC, which was a shortened version Error Macro.

Thomas Jefferson's original vision for America was actually the idea of many small farm communities that were worked in a communal fashion, similar to communism. He later realized this wouldn't work all that well after the failure of The Articles of Confederation (which were too weak) and as the country expanded.

Your turn, tell me something new that I haven't heard before.

Fun fact: OP thinks that he, I, and the rest of America are "dandies," which ironically is a word that only a "dandy" could use, unless of course you are referring to the Dandy Warhols Come on now, sugar. Bring it on, bring it on, yeah.

Knock, knock.

Um, hey guys, nice BDUs. What's the military doin' at my door?

"We're going to stay here for-"

-a few days?

"No, as long as we want. And we want all the information you have on your brown neighbors. What are they, Indian? Pakistani? I can never tell. But you're gonna help us spy on them. Or you can negotiate with my gun."



Shaky cause for rebellion, my ass.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

-The primary killing mechanism of a modern bullet isn't actually the initial tissue damaged caused by an object boring a small tunnel through the body, but the shockwave [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrostatic_shock] it sends through your tissue as the bullet's kinetic energy is absorbed by the body, rupturing organs, blood vessels, and especially neurological structures in the vicinity of the impact. This is why hollowpoint bullets are more lethal than solid rounds; contrary to the popular belief that they will "take a bigger chunk out of you", the expansion of the slug increases its surface area and slows it to a stop much more quickly, ensuring that all of its energy is transferred rapidly and completely; this, in turn, significantly increases the magnitude of the trauma caused.

-Grenades and artillery shells are not commonly designed to cause damage with the blast wave caused by their detonation (though this can certainly be deadly, its casualty radius is small as the force of the blast dissipates quickly). Typically, an anti-personnel grenade or general-purpose artillery shell will rely on shrapnel (small metal pieces of the casing sent in all directions by the explosion) to achieve damage. The iconic "pineapple" grenade used by American infantry in WWII originally relied on its casing to fragment into shrapnel (hence the scoring on its surface), but its fragmentation pattern proved too inconsistent; contemporary frag grenades generally consist of a thin outer shell, and just beneath it, a good length of segmented wire wrapped around its explosive core, which results in an even pattern.

-The easily-recognized M16 was first fielded in the Vietnam conflict as the M16A1, to disastrous results. Marketed as a "self-cleaning rifle", the complicated weapon was issued without cleaning kits. Once fielded in the jungles and exposed to the elements, it would jam with astounding frequency, rendering its user unable to fire the weapon and taking great amounts of time to repair, which frequently resulted in the unnecessary death of its operator. While its modern variants are much more reliable, a recurring complaint among servicemen is that its 5.56x45mm (a small, high-velocity round, specifically designed to pierce armor as a counter to the threat of a Soviet invasion) will go clean through an unarmored insurgent and cause minimal damage.

-The arc of a Javelin missile's flight path is intended to bring it down on the top of a vehicle, where its armor is weakest. When engaging aircraft, its trajectory is much more direct.

-In WWI, British troops would often file the point off their bayonets so that it would glance off an enemy's ribs and go between them, rather than getting stuck.

-The XM8, an assault rifle featured prominently in BFBC2, is actually a prototype weapon based on the German G36. It was intended to replace the M16/M4 family of weapons, but failed the US military's trials. One particularly alarming feature was that the plastic grips would melt after prolonged firing. Also, it's a stupid-looking rifle that strongly resembles a fish.

-The .45ACP round was designed in the early 1900's for use in the Philippines against mounted cavalry. The round was intended to be large enough to take down a horse, and has been used in conflicts long after horses were made obsolete due to its superior manstopping capabilities.

-Suppressors (also colloquially known as "silencers") do not actually make a firearm quiet, they simply mask its report (the deafening "bang"), making the shooter more difficult to locate at a distance and making the resulting clatter harder to identify as a gunshot. When being fired, a suppressed weapon can usually be expected to be at least as loud as a pneumatic nail gun, which is to say, still quite loud.

-While the Barrett M82A1 (the most commonly depicted .50BMG rifle) is frequently seen in works of fiction being used like any other sniper rifle, in actuality it weighs thirty pounds, making it very difficult to fire accurately while standing.

-Despite its video game incarnations losing effect beyond ten feet, a combat shotgun firing 00 buck retains effectiveness at distances in excess of 70 yards. At close range, it needs to be fired as carefully as any other weapon, as the spread absolutely will not compensate for poor aim.

-The primary weapon of the A-10 Thunderbolt (known as the "Warthog" for its relative ugliness for a turbine-powered aircraft) is a tremendously powerful rotary cannon that fires 30mm depleted uranium shells. It can only fire a continuous burst for eight seconds before it will begin to melt. It is scary as fuck. (1:10)

Fun Fact: Because of your avatar, I read your whole post while singing the lyrics "I... cry.. when angels deserve to... DIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!"

It made the educational process more fun! And deeply horrifying for visual images.

 

[GrimTuesday]

We haven't had one of these in forever, so I figured, why the hell not, they're fun and they're educational, although not in any productive or practical way for the most part.

Did you know that...
Coffee became popular in colonial America in the 1770's due to the British cutting off much of the tea trade to North America. All the dandies needed something to sip over their conversation about their rather unjust revolution[footnote]Yes I, as an American do think that the grounds for independence were more than a little shaky[/footnote] (if you really think about it, the Colonies didn't have that much of a reason for rebellion) so they turned to coffee. Oddly enough, as the demand for coffee grew in the US, it lessened in Britain where tea reigned supreme and has ever since the war of 1812.

the character Ermac from the Mortal Kombat series was originally a bug in the pallet swap function and when you looked at the fight audit, it says you fought ERMAC, which was a shortened version Error Macro.

Thomas Jefferson's original vision for America was actually the idea of many small farm communities that were worked in a communal fashion, similar to communism. He later realized this wouldn't work all that well after the failure of The Articles of Confederation (which were too weak) and as the country expanded.

Your turn, tell me something new that I haven't heard before.

Fun fact: OP thinks that he, I, and the rest of America are "dandies," which ironically is a word that only a "dandy" could use, unless of course you are referring to the Dandy Warhols Come on now, sugar. Bring it on, bring it on, yeah.

By dandies, I was referring to the upper class people who who you would expect to be sitting around sipping tea and talking about the political events of the day.

Knock, knock.

Um, hey guys, nice BDUs. What's the military doin' at my door?

"We're going to stay here for-"

-a few days?

"No, as long as we want. And we want all the information you have on your brown neighbors. What are they, Indian? Pakistani? I can never tell. But you're gonna help us spy on them. Or you can negotiate with my gun."



Shaky cause for rebellion, my ass.

This didn't actually happen all that often up until the colonists started being jackasses and commiting acts of vandalism and generally being unlawful. It was a direct response to the action of the Sons of Liberty and those sorts of groups who committed unlawful acts.

 

[Marcosn]

Octopi have no spine, and therefore can fit through a hole the size of a post box slit.

Here's another fun fact. The plural of octopus is octopuses, not octopi, even though the latter is used. Here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus#Etymology_and_pluralization], have a look. It's quite interesting (at least I think so).

I tell people that so much but yet they always argue that I'm the one that's wrong ¬_¬ Octopodes is an amazing word though ... not as good as quaff.

 

[Azaradel]

There is a species of Giant Salamander called Hellbender

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Hellbender.jpg/800px-Hellbender.jpg
Still looks pretty cool, but just not badass enough to live up to a name like Hellbender.

 

[Mafoobula]

Fun fact: Cheesecake isn't a cake, it's a pie. It's batter poured onto a crust, like lemon meringue or chiffon pies.

 

[intheweeds]

A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.

No it isn't. Goldfish do not get pregnant. They lay eggs rather then carry live young.

I heard it was a twat.

Again, it isn't. For reasons I've already mentioned. Sorry, but you wasted those four days.

Quite correct. Goldfish lay eggs. Although there are several species of fish who do have live births and some of those *can* look like goldfish which I suppose is where this particular "fact" started.

There are certain breeds of tropical fish that do sort of both as well. Cichlids carry their eggs in their throats and spit out a bunch of live babies when they hatch. So i guess they sort of could be considered pregnant. They sure look it when they have a batch.

Fun fact from me: The gestation period of an african elephant is 24 months.

 

[Sassafrass]

At racing speed, a Ferrari 599 does 1.7 miles to the gallon, a Lamborghini Murcielago does 4.1 miles to the gallon and an Audi R8 does 5 miles to the gallon.

A BMW M3 is more ecomnomical than a Toyota Prius at an unknown average speed, with the Prius doing 17.2 miles to a gallon and the BMW M3 doing 19.4 miles to the gallon. And a link to video evidence of these claims. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmxUsGiGp3w]

 

[SecretsOfMoon]

Speaking of cars, the most successful car in FIA World Rally Championship to date is the Lancia Delta Integrale with total of 10 drivers' and manufacturer's championships between 1987 and 1993, no one's ever managed to beat that. And since someone was a bit unsure about the fun facts about the Ford GT 40, it won Le Mans '64-'67, but was pretty much outhandled by Prosches and Ferraris everywhere else.

 

[Berethond]

El Paso, TX is the "safest big city in America" shares the border with the most dangerous city in the world, Juarez Mexico.

http://urbantitan.com/10-most-dangerous-cities-in-the-world-in-2011/

Whats that internet? Number one is Bogota?

Get your facts straight and stop being so freaking discriminative against Mexicans.

To be fair, Juarez is number 2. That's not much better.

 

[dreddfan]

The first person to use an ATM in the UK was comedy actor Reg Varney. The first person who used a mobile phone in the UK was comedian Ernie Wise.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

In Albania, there word for C*ck is Car

If you could live forever, after a few thousand years, a year would pass like it was a few minutes.

The reason dogs spin around when they sit down is because when dogs lived in the wild they did it to check for snakes and other prey.