flies take off backwards
i thought it was the funniest thing i'd ever heard...






i was pretty lean at the time tho
(adeh, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 2:54, Reply)

Maybe i thought about this too much but...
To all the people that said elephants are the only mammals that can't jump, aren't whales mammals?

Can they still jump? They don't even have legs.
(MyrtleTheTurtle, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 2:48, Reply)

Origin of Trivia (apparently)
A mate of mine (called Cunty who moved to Australia and married his cousin) swears blind that the wrod `Trivia` comes from waaaay back when there were 3 villages near each other, with three roads that met in the middle. The women would meet there and gossip - hence tri (three) via (roads). He could be full of shit though.
(FiftyFour, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 2:46, Reply)

Blue whale
The blue whale's testicles are the size of a VW beetle.

In every Seinfeld episode there is a superman somewhere.
(Sverre my password is "password", Sun 20 Mar 2005, 2:26, Reply)

Andy Garcia
was born with a conjoined twin. The twin died in the womb, but the small featus was still attached to his shoulder. It was later removed leaving only a small scar.
( Roman Totale, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 2:16, Reply)

Aibohphobia
The fear of pallindromes.
( Roman Totale, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 2:11, Reply)

People from Oswestry...
...get really pissed off if you think they are Welsh.
Try it, it's great fun!
(emadex thinks the world will end on, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 2:06, Reply)

Hairy asked...
"...does anybody know why the alphabet is in that order anyway?"

Yes, it's because they decided to arrange the letters alphabetically.
(emadex thinks the world will end on, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 2:05, Reply)

Adrenaline / epinephrine
A nurse in the US found an undetectable way of murdering her patients. She only got found out by showing off to her boyfriend who then dobbed her in.
She would inject cardiac patients with high doses of adrenaline causing a very fast heart rhythm that would cause a cardiac arrest. When the patient was being rescusitated he would be injected with adrenaline as part of the treatment - if he died, any adrenaline in his system was written off as being present due to rescusitation measures.
(emadex thinks the world will end on, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 2:00, Reply)

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
was originally known simply as Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll but changed its name in the 19th century to attract tourists.
( urbane legend i have known the inexorable sadness of pencils, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 1:55, Reply)

Cardiac arrests
Defibrillators/heart start machines do not actually start a heart that's in cardiac arrest. What they do is look for certain types of cardiac arrest rhythms (VF/VT) and momentarily *stop* those rhythms by shocking them so giving the heart a chance to reset and start back in a normal rhythm.

Also you cannot shock a "flat-liner" (asystole) despite what Hollywood would have you believe.
(emadex thinks the world will end on, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 1:54, Reply)

Norwegian
The Norwegian for "Do I dare to meet them?" is "Tore jeg mote dem?"

I know this because in 1987 I watched the Norway entry of the Eurovision Song Contest with Ceefax subtitles- and my mum took a photo of me watching it and that caption is on the screen (with the English underneath)

It's so sad.....
(knife_of_justice, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 1:22, Reply)

100% fact
People believe any old bollocks they read on the internet. And then they post it on here.
(emadex thinks the world will end on, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 1:12, Reply)

More American soldiers in the Vietnam war died from committing suicide after it than were killed in battle.
(stop looking at my goats you bag of spunk, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 0:55, Reply)

Take the next letters up in the alphabet for each letter
of The computer out of Space Oddessey H.A.L.
and you get I.B.M.
( Kris Fucking Kristofferson, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 0:27, Reply)

Marylin Manson
was a child actor who played Kevins best friend Paul in the Wonder Years.
( Kris Fucking Kristofferson, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 0:25, Reply)

The Latin for pebble is
Calculus
( Kris Fucking Kristofferson, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 0:24, Reply)

Love it...
T.V's Dean Cain's (the one who played Superman) favourite Lethal Weapon film is Lethal Weapon 1.
(muyk, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 0:22, Reply)

Have another
Apparently lemmings don't really jump off cliffs - in order to make his show more interesting, a nature presenter once drove a truck at a group of them, leaving them no choice but to take the plunge...
( Albert the Mildly Deranged purveyors of nothing much since a year or two ago, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 0:17, Reply)

A good excuse
I read some where, possible in a David Sullivan publication, that looking at pictures of naked women can be good for you as it is known to speed up your heart beat thus improving circulation. So sit back, relax and b3t one off!
(spewperb, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 0:13, Reply)

I know a lot of crap facts about dragonflies
They can't walk.
Dragonfly nymphs shoot water out of their anus to propel them away from predators (jet powered!)
The males have a shovel shaped penis that scoops out rival males semen.
They only live 24 hours on average
But somehow still manage to be one of oldest animals on Earth (a very very big version) predates dinosaurs.
They are also the fastest of all insects and have thousands of eyes
I have a big dragonfly tattoo on my shoulder.

Told ya they were crap. Though, I quite like the first two.
(And at least I didn't mention brass monkeys, polar bears, ducks, charlie chaplin, anagrams or Hitler!)

(Yup, I read them ALL before I postesd)
(KristyGrl, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 0:13, Reply)

Turks
A common Turkish name is, I'm told, "Farty".

An experiement involving standing waves (physics stuff, for the uninitiated) involves a piece of aparatus called Kundt's Dust Tube. Say it out loud.


In response to the previous answer, this is known as the Correalis Effect (spelling?) and is more affected by the shape of the plughole and its surroundings...
(Fackin' know it all, I am)

Also, who exactly goes around looking at foetus' nadgers to "see whether they're the same or not"? Eh?
( Albert the Mildly Deranged purveyors of nothing much since a year or two ago, Sat 19 Mar 2005, 23:50, Reply)

Useless Info
Water runs away down the plughole clockwise in the southern hemisphere, but anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere, and near the equator it goes straight down...
(Dazzer, Sat 19 Mar 2005, 23:50, Reply)

peepee
40% of Americans pee in the shower...the rest are liars
(TeenageJesusSuperstar, Sat 19 Mar 2005, 23:21, Reply)

consonants to vowels ratio
with all the wordplay, i thought this was appropriate; a friend told me that the english word with the highest ratio of consonants to vowels (8 to 1) is 'strengths'.
(whosebooze, Sat 19 Mar 2005, 23:05, Reply)

And another
The term "bless you" actually came from when England was ridden with baubonic plague. When somebody sneezed, they thought the either carried or caught the plague. Also, on a baubonic plague theme, the song "atissue, atissue, we all fall down" also corresponds to people sneezing....then dying.
All this from a 14 yearold :D
(homochicken, Sat 19 Mar 2005, 23:03, Reply)

I have 19 yellow Traffic cones in my house
They smell like pee so i stuck them in my friends room ^_^
(Sticky Shocker!, Sat 19 Mar 2005, 23:02, Reply)

Got another..
Michael Jackson owns the rights to song "happy birthday"
(homochicken, Sat 19 Mar 2005, 22:58, Reply)

Brian Blessed
is 67 years old. His birthday is 9 October.
( Grrrmachine the indifference engine, Sat 19 Mar 2005, 22:40, Reply)

Little known facts..
May have been done already, if so, sorry! And if they're not true, oh well. Double sorry-ness.

All human fetuses are female until 6 weeks of gestation.

97% of cats are left "handed"

Garlic is a member of the lily family.

The guy who invented the bra was sur-named Titslinger, I thought.

The guy who invented the terlet was Thomas Crapper.

Someone saved Thomas Edison's last breath in a jar...it was on display at his estate.

All Thoroughbred horses are descended from 3 sires: The Godolphin Arabian, The Byerly Turk, and the Darley Arabian.
(April, Sat 19 Mar 2005, 22:32, Reply)