Weird facts

[Adagio]

Does anyone have any strange/weird facts, you'd like to share?

Here's a bunch:

Americans consume 18 acres of pizza a day
The electric chair was invented by a dentist
Coconuts kill more people in the world than sharks do
According to research, Los Angeles highways are so congested that the average commuter sits in traffic for 82 hours a year
There is one slot machine in Las Vegas for every eight inhabitants
Ants stretch when they wake up in the morning
There is a city called Rome on every continent
The worlds oldest piece of chewing gum is 9000 years old

Fell free to add more

[Japher]

Texas is not it's own Country!

[Oerdin]

Since when have they had a Rome in Antartica? I'm also wondering where the Rome in Asia is. I'm sure its there some where but I have no idea where.

[SlowwHand]

Originally posted by Japher
Texas is not it's own Country!

Yet.

[Combat Ingrid]

Toast do land with the butter-side down.

[Evil Knevil]

The largest Ransom in history was the ransom of the Incan Emperor Atalupha. It was one room full of Gold, and two rooms full of silver, I think worth around $500 million dollars.

Ironically enough, all the purest, refined gold in the world that has already been mined would make a solid two-storey detached house.

[st_swithin]

If a solid gold house got hit by lightening, absolutely NOTHING would happen to the house because gold is the 2nd-most conductive material (just behind platinum) known to man, and it would simply conduct the electricity to the nearest grounding station (probably it's own foundation, or the earth it's built on). Can't say the same for the inhabitants, though.

Fight Club's Tyler Durden's middle name is S, like Harry S Truman - no period after the S.

[iamlod]

The worlds oldest pice of chewing gum is 9000 years old
You mean 900, right? I kinda like to think that the ancient Sumarians and Egyptians had higher priorities than preserving chewing gum.

Pigs orgasm for ~30min.

The worlds largest banana never existed.

[Nubclear]

The averege human eats 2 spiders in their sleep during a lifetime.

[Asher]

The average number of feet per person in the world is slightly less than two.

[mrmitchell]

Makes sense.

IIRC, crows have used a couple rudimentary tools built out of sticks in lab studies. (More or less "weird", it indicates that they've got the ability to build tools. Make of it what you want.)

[Japher]

I got a crap load of Bathroom books full of stuff like this, here's a few:

The droplets in a sneeze can travel 12 feet and remain in the air for as long as 3 hours!

A $100,000 computer 20 years ago computed about as much as a $10 chip can today.

Per capita, Candians buy more diamonds than anyone on Earth!

What was Tomas Jefferson doing when he wrote the first draft of the Decleration of Independece? - Drinking a beer. In a tavern.

Dogs have 42 permanent teeth... that's 10 more than humans...

who cares.

There are about 10,000,000,000,000 ways to play the first 10 moves in a game of chess...

That's why it's the best game!

[Asher]

Chess is second to Go.

GO: 19x19 grid = 361 intersections
Chess: 8x8 grid = 64 squares

Go less favored by traditional academics because it exercises both sides of the brain (artistic & analytical), while Chess is almost wholly analytical.

Number of possible first moves in Chess: 20 white x 20 black = 400
Number of possible first moves in Go: 361 Black x 360 White = 129960

Number of possible board configurations in Chess: 10¹²⁰
Number of possible board configurations in Go: 10¹⁷⁴


Well, you get the picture. Chess is a lesser game, but everyone plays Chess because it's easier to get good at.

[Japher]

True Fact: Asher is the biggest Homosexual Nerd in all of Canada!

[mrmitchell]

Asher, there is NOTHING you won't fight to the death over is there?

[Asher]

Try me.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar
The averege human eats 2 spiders in their sleep during a lifetime.

How the f*ck can that ever happen?

What -- a spider crawls into your mouth?

[Asher]

Yes (seriously).

Where do lots of spiders like to live?

Warm, moist places...

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Asher
Yes (seriously).

Where do lots of spiders like to live?

Warm, moist places...

You're joking though, right?

[Pekka]

That's gross.

Well I'm not sure but this is what I recall of hearing, that in the US there are 18 trampolene accidents every day that require some doctors help.

Average man changes his position while sleeping 30 times a night.

[Asher]

No, I'm not.
Have you heard how much insect remains there is mixed in the average jar of peanut butter?

[MrFun]

I think survival instincts would tell a spider that it's not good to crawl into someone else's mouth.

And I thought that spiders prefer dry places, anyway.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Asher
No, I'm not.
Have you heard how much insect remains there is mixed in the average jar of peanut butter?

You're really grossing me out, man.

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar
The averege human eats 2 spiders in their sleep during a lifetime.

Ummmmm......

http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/spiders.htm

ACK!

[MrFun]

Since I don't want another nightmare about a spider in my bed tonight, or a swarm of ants in my bed, as I had one recently, I will NOT click on that link.

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by MrFun
Since I don't want another nightmare about a spider in my bed tonight, or a swarm of ants in my bed, as I had one recently, I will NOT click on that link.

This is what it says, you big baby :

Claim: The average person swallows eight spiders per year.
Status: False.

Origins: Oh, yuk!
It's hard enough to avoid those horrible wriggly things while we're awake, and now we have to worry that they're crawling into our mouths while we sleep? Little Miss Muffett was a piker.

Fear not. This "statistic" was not only made up out of whole cloth, it was invented as an example of the absurd things people will believe simply because they come across them on the Internet.

In a 1993 PC Professional article, columnist Lisa Holst wrote about the ubiquitous lists of "facts" that were circulating via e-mail and how readily they were accepted as truthful by gullible recipients. To demonstrate her point, Holst offered her own made-up list of equally ridiculous "facts," among which was the statistic cited above about the average person's swallowing eight spiders per year, which she took from a collection of common misbeliefs printed in a 1954 book on insect folklore. In a delicious irony, Holst's propagation of this false "fact" has spurred it into becoming one of the most widely-circulated bits of misinformation to be found on the Internet.




ACK!

[PLATO]

There are more people alive today than have ever died.

[MrFun]

oh, ok

[Japher]

That may be true, but the amount of insects that is allowed in "food" is crazy!

The sun spews out more than a million tons of matter every second!

[Tuberski]

snopes.com is the place to go to dispel urban legends.

ACK!