and for your literature fans...
chaucer gave the word "quaint" an entirely different meaning to that which we use today...cough
(ruttiger, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:45, Reply)

polar bears
the hairs are both transparent and hollow - they absorb water, making them seem white to us, and increasing the furs warmth keeping properties (as water is a damn good insulator.

...i think...
(istoleapig, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:45, Reply)

for all you science fans...
apparently sound travels fifteen times quicker through steel than it does through air...fascinating I'm sure you'll agree...ahem
(ruttiger, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:44, Reply)

More words
The supposedly innocuous and jolly insult 'Berk' is a word shortened from a term for Lady Bits in rhyming slang: 'Berkshire Hunt.' I was terribly disappointed to learn this, as I'd always though 'Berk was a word you could use practically anywhere. Ho hum.
(Tyrebagger, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:43, Reply)

Wolrd Wide Web, boyo
The WEB is so called because it was invented by the Welsh Electricity Board.
( Beve The Spaniard broke off his horse's head, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:42, Reply)

A pedant writes
Oho - there is some disagreement over the origins of the word 'dude'. Some say it was originally coined by Oscar Wilde, who combined the words 'duds' [fancy clothing]and 'attitude'. Others argue that it just comes from 'duds'. But then there are people who claim US cowboys in the good ol' Wild West used the term to describe both horse kak and city dwelling folk. But I've never heard it in relation to camels. Not that I'd have reason to.
And Arsenal was orginally named after a place in London - Woolwich Arsenal, where guns n stuff used to be made. They moved to their north London home around 1912-13.
Still can't lick my elbow, though.

Edit: Oh, and 'posh' probably doesn't mean 'port out starboard home' as that story emerged in the 1930s, by which time 'posh' had already been in use for 20 years.
(Chris P Bacon, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:36, Reply)

a couple of clever but useless word facts
Madam Im Adam
Spelled backwards is
Madam Im adam

Was it a car or a cat I saw
Spelled backwards is
Was it a car or a cat I saw
( Blobcat Less Jaffacakes this year, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:35, Reply)

Ice cream Vans....
when their music plays it means that a duck has been wanking with headphones on when it discovers a hot cup of ice cream by it bedside table....
(Space Pancake, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:31, Reply)

Words
The modern word 'Goodbye' in a corruption of the original phrase 'God be with ye.' In Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century drama and literature, the phrase turns up in various transient forms as 'God be wi' ye,' 'God buy ye' and 'Good buy ye' amongst others.

Also, the possessive 's', as in 'Rob's cat' is a corruption of an original sentence construction, which would have read ' Rob, his cat.'

Fascinating, eh?
(Tyrebagger, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:31, Reply)

1 + 1 = 5

( meak is going to inherit the earth, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:31, Reply)

smackheads.Ltd
the word Heroin is a registered trademark of bayer chemicals GmbH, the same as is Asperin.

that way when you could buy them both over the counter the similarty in the names would produce brand loyalty.
( willenium Fist bump for verification, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:30, Reply)

Did you know..
they discovered the best way to clean the runway lights at airports was to spray crushed walnut shells at them? True. Tomorrow's World told me when I was 3.
(Dad Watches Porn "I like it when it's cold", Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:27, Reply)

POSH
The word "posh" originates from the days of the ocean liners, when the ship was on its outward journey, the starboard side was constantly exposed to the sun and therefore the berths were very hot and uncomfortable whereas the port side remained cool. On the return journey the opposite was true, and hence the richest passengers had their berths on the port side for the way out and the starboard side for the return. On their luggage was painted the initials P.O.S.H (Port Out Starboard Home)
No apologies for my length..
(Space Pancake, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:27, Reply)

The Polish word for "Thank You"
sounds almost exactly like
"Gin-cooler"

FACT!
(Pearly Pearl, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:25, Reply)

Ducks
....damn beaten to it
( HornO, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:23, Reply)

a ducks
quack does echo, as someone mentioned. and bees do fly and obey standard laws. some scientist calculated it according to fixed rigid wings and traditional theories of flight, it became entrenched as fact soon after. a bee cannot glide, but it can fly, it just uses different prinicples to fixed rigid wing flight, obviously, creating vorticies that peel off the end of the wing to keep it airborne.
i could check all this to make sure its watertight but im sure someone will come on and pick flaws in my wording or explanation anyway, so, feel free, im busy....
(hazey, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:22, Reply)

useless
you may be interested to know that I had the idea for this question in teh first place
( willenium Fist bump for verification, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:22, Reply)

rednecks
education wasent compulsory in the state of missispi till 1980
( willenium Fist bump for verification, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:21, Reply)

Fanta
After the US entered the war in 1941 Max Keith (CEO of Coca Cola (GmbH) the German bottlers for Coke) couldn't get Coca Cola syrup from America to make Coke so he invented a new drink out of the ingredients he had available to him and made it specifically for the Nazi market and the Third Reich.
( HornO, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:20, Reply)

table salt
salt contains cyanide, because manufactures use Sodium hexacyanoferrate(II) to stop it clumping together.
( willenium Fist bump for verification, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:19, Reply)

W.O.P
The derogatory term "Wops" used to describe Italians came about because the vast majority of Italians arriving at Ellis Island wishing to enter America didn't have pasports or I.D papers and as such had the letters W.O.P stamped on their application forms etc. (With Out Papers)
(Space Pancake, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:18, Reply)

FAO tweebianmonkey
Forgive me. I confused the novel (Finnegans Wake) with the song that weaves through it (Finnegan's Wake). A schoolboy error for which I'll strap myself with barbed wire later - having previously skinned myself and bathed in lemon juice.

As for "why", we are dealing with Joyce here so there won't be one answer. A wake is a party for the dead like the one that starts the novel. Or the disturbance that follows a ship - referring the aquatic qualities of Anna Livia Plurabelle. Or it could refer to the initial protagonist coming back to life. Or Humphrey Earwicker not being strong (weak/wake in a certain accent). Or it could be a call to all Finnegans (working men) to rise up. There'll no doubt be something about Egyptian mythology and Irish legend as well.

It's perfectly summed up by the words of a friend who also did English Lit at uni: "Everybody hide, it's that f*cking lunatic Joyce!"

It's cool he coined the word "quark" though... (Joyce not my mate.)
( calgacus Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:18, Reply)

Bigger
male humans have the largest penis out of all the primates.
( willenium Fist bump for verification, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:18, Reply)

30,000 children die as a result of poverty every day
Flippin' 30,000

Every day.

Every flippin' day.

And they're all kids.

In real life.
( teedyay, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:17, Reply)

There are no evil druids in essex.
They ran out of virgins to sacrifice.

Also, there are no motorways in Norfolk.

Oh yeah, the golden hamster was discovered in the Syrian Desert in the 1930s.
( The Rabid Ferret of Doom is no longer a badger, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:16, Reply)

Polar bears again
All left handed.
Not sure if that means they are all Catholic. I doubt this

oo someone said this - rats cocks

Havok - licence on battlefield to pillage and rob the dead or prisoners. Anyone doing so before the cry of Havok was hung

pair of trousers - Called so as they used to be seperate leg bits and no gusset, laced together they were!
(1st team orc, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:14, Reply)

Amazingly
many of these "facts" get a mention on www.snopes.com
( teedyay, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:14, Reply)

Polar Bears
aren't white, their hairs are transparent, and what wa see is the skin and reflections from the snow, iirc... and Space Pankake is right, Hello used to be used as an expression of surprise
( mr_wicksy is.... old., Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:11, Reply)

Not many people know this ...
The most random, ridiculous rubbish can be made to sound convincing simply by adding the word "fact" and an exclamation mark at the end. Fact!
(martin_e, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 16:11, Reply)