In Case You Didn't Know ...

[jaF0]

I'm not so sure about the saluting factoid. I thought one raised their right hand to show they were unarmed.

So, what if you're a leftie?

 

[Typo Fu Master]

So you are repeating an unknown "fact" because why?

Because I feel like it. These have been passed around as trivia facts. It has already been demonstrated in this thread that they may not be accurate. I'm not following up on everything. This is a diversion and perhaps should've included a disclaimer: For entertainment purposes only.

 

[jaF0]

A group of owls is called a parliament.

I thought that was a group of pompous jackasses?

"I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

Do you know of an equally short sentence? I do.

 

[Typo Fu Master]

I thought that was a group of pompous jackasses?

Do you know of an equally short sentence? I do.

There appears to be some disagreement on what makes a complete sentence. This site suggests that the shortest sentence would be "Go." In commands, the subject is implied.

Disclaimer: I have managed to forget most of what I was taught in English class.

 

[Typo Fu Master]

When hippos are upset, their sweat turns red.

The average woman uses her height in lipstick every 5 years.

Cherophobia is the fear of fun.

Human saliva has a boiling point three times that of regular water.

Billy goats urinate on their own heads to smell more attractive to females.

During your lifetime, you will produce enough saliva to fill two swimming pools.

Movie trailers were originally shown after the movie, which is why they were called “trailers”.

An eagle can kill a young deer and fly away with it.

 

[Typo Fu Master]

The Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS signal.

About 8,000 Americans are injured by musical instruments each year.

The French language has seventeen different words for ‘surrender’.

Nearly three percent of the ice in Antarctic glaciers is penguin urine.

Sea otters hold hands when they sleep so they don’t drift away from each other.

A small child could swim through the veins of a blue whale.

Hewlett-Packard’s name was decided in a coin toss.

The total number of steps in the Eiffel Tower are 1665.

 

[jaF0]

There appears to be some disagreement on what makes a complete sentence. This site suggests that the shortest sentence would be "Go." In commands, the subject is implied.

Well, there is the simple negative response to a question, or command to a child or animal: "No".

And a question could be posed so that one could simply reply: "I".

 

[i_love_myself76]

Did you know that there are fish that poop sand. So ahen you are walking on the beach you are actually walking on fish poop.

 

[Typo Fu Master]

An arctophile is a person who collects, or is very fond of teddy bears.

In England, in the 1880’s, “Pants” was considered a dirty word.

It snowed in the Sahara desert for 30 minutes on the 18th February 1979.

The first alarm clock could only ring at 4am.

Birds don’t urinate.

The most venomous jellyfish in the world is named the Irukandji and is smaller than your fingernail.

Slugs have 4 noses.

A company in Taiwan makes dinnerware out of wheat, so you can eat your plate!

 

[Typo Fu Master]

The average person walks the equivalent of twice around the world in a lifetime.

The Bible is the most shoplifted book in the world.

Marco Hort has the world record for fitting 264 straws in his mouth at once!

California has issued 6 drivers licenses to people named Jesus Christ.

In the Caribbean there are oysters that can climb trees.

Squirrels forget where they hide about half of their nuts.

Over 1000 birds a year die from smashing into windows.

The inventor of the Waffle Iron did not like waffles.

 

[Typo Fu Master]

In 1895 Hampshire police handed out the first ever speeding ticket, fining a man for doing 6mph!

Each year, there are more than 40,000 toilet related injuries in the United States.

Strawberries can also be yellow, green or white. This also affects the taste and some have a similar taste to pineapples.

Every year more than 2500 left-handed people are killed from using right-handed products.

Paraskavedekatriaphobia is the fear of Friday the 13th.

Kleenex tissues were originally used as filters in gas masks.

Donkey Kong got his name because his creator believed ‘donkey’ meant ‘stupid’ in English and wanted to convey the impression that the character was a “Stupid Ape”.

The medical name for a butt crack is “intergluteal cleft”.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Billy goats urinate on their own heads to smell more attractive to females.

They must be awfully limber.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Every year more than 2500 left-handed people are killed from using right-handed products.

. . . How?! How would using the wrong scissors kill you?!

 

[KingOrfeo]

The inventor of the Waffle Iron did not like waffles.

The waffle iron goes back to the Middle Ages. I doubt its inventor's name is even known.

 

[KingOrfeo]

In the Caribbean there are oysters that can climb trees.

Maybe they can, but why would they? What is there up a tree to interest an aquatic filter-feeder?

 

[KingOrfeo]

A company in Taiwan makes dinnerware out of wheat, so you can eat your plate!

A very old idea.

 

[KingOrfeo]

About 8,000 Americans are injured by musical instruments each year.

It is best to avoid any dark alleys within 10 blocks of Carnegie hall.

The French language has seventeen different words for ‘surrender’.

So does English.

Nearly three percent of the ice in Antarctic glaciers is penguin urine.

Hard to believe, since Antarctica is a huge continent, and penguins live only on the coasts where the fish are.

 

[KingOrfeo]

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. This applies mostly to statues in USA.

That's (mostly) UL.

A milliHelen is the quantity of beauty required to launch just one ship.

A milliluciano is the amount of luck required to win a coin toss.

Only female mosquitoes will bite you.

Because mosquitoes of both sexes live on nectar, but the females need a vertebrate's blood to lay eggs.

 

[KingOrfeo]

A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.

Attention all genetic engineers! Special project! Insert the relevant pig DNA into the human genome!

 

[KingOrfeo]

Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute.

Maybe.

According to some modern military manuals, the modern Western salute originated when knights greeted each other to show friendly intentions by raising their visors to show their faces, using a salute. Others also note that the raising of one's visor was a way to identify oneself saying "This is who I am, and I am not afraid." Medieval visors were, to this end, equipped with a protruding spike that allowed the visor to be raised using a saluting motion.[1]

According to the US Army Quartermaster School, the following explanation of the origin of the hand salute is: It was a long-established military custom for subordinates to remove their headgear in the presence of superiors. As late as the American Revolution, a British Army soldier saluted by removing his hat. With the advent of increasingly cumbersome headgear in the 18th and 19th centuries, however, the act of removing one's hat was gradually converted into the simpler gesture of grasping or touching the visor and issuing a courteous salutation.

As early as 1745, a British order book stated that: "The men are ordered not to pull off their hats when they pass an officer, or to speak to them, but only to clap up their hands to their hats and bow as they pass." Over time, it became conventionalized into something resembling our modern hand salute.[2]

The naval salute, with the palm downwards is said to have evolved because the palms of naval ratings, particularly deckhands, were often dirty through working with lines and was deemed insulting to present a dirty palm to an officer; thus the palm was turned downwards. During the Napoleonic Wars, British crews saluted officers by touching a clenched fist to the brow as though grasping a hat-brim between fingers and thumb.

 

[KingOrfeo]

... 'Rap' ain't music.

Pretty good poetry, but not music.

 

[KingOrfeo]

The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

That's UL, though it's a very old UL.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them used to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired."

Nope.

The sense of "sack, dismiss from employment" is recorded by 1885 (with out; 1887 alone) in American English. This probably is a play on the two meanings of discharge (v.): "to dismiss from a position," and "to fire a gun," influenced by the earlier general sense "throw (someone) out" of some place (1871).

 

[Typo Fu Master]

Clearly there is some alternative trivia out there. Thanks, KO!

 

[Typo Fu Master]

People can suffer from a psychological disorder called Boanthropy that makes them believe that they are a cow. They try to live their life as a cow.

The name for the shape of Pringles is called a ‘Hyperbolic Paraboloid’.

There is a McDonalds in every continent except Antartica.

Mr Potato Head was the first toy to be advertised on TV.

A duel between three people is actually called a truel.

The two tiny holes drilled in every BIC pen is to ensure that the air pressure is the same both inside and outside the pen, which helps the ink flow to the tip.

In South Korea there is an emergency number (113) to report spies.

There are no bridges over the Amazon River.