Stuff (trivia) that you should have known but didn't...

[LikeDylanInTheMovies]

At the age of 36 I've discovered that

1. Shirley McClaine and Warren Beatty were brother and sister
   
   
2. Camels store fat and not water in their humps.
   
   People I've told about my discoveries have universally responded with 'well yeah, everyone knows that'.
   
   Any other factoids you were well behind the curve with?

[Hopefullyoneday1]

Chickens lay soft eggs, its only when they come into contact with the air that the shell hardens.

Probably a bit useless info

[mogloveseggs]

I didn't know about the camels or chickens!

[LaurieFairyCake]

That the numbers on a toaster equals minutes and not levels of toastyness

I didn't know this for over 40 years

[Gatehouse77]

That fauna refers to animals - I thought flora and fauna was flowers and evergreens!

[LikeDylanInTheMovies]

I didn't know that about toast. I thought it was an abstract measure of tastiness.

[LikeDylanInTheMovies]

Tastiness- toastiness

[squoosh]

Some Greenland sharks are 400 YEARS OLD!

I heard that the other day and I'm still reeling. James I was on the throne when they were born! They must be knackered by now after four centuries of swimming.

[Genvonklinkerhoffen]

Chickens don't lay soft eggs. Where on earth did you hear that?

[badtime]

The toaster thing isn't actually true. It may be for some toasters, but it isn't a rule or anything.

[TeaMeBasil]

I really REALLY want the numbers on a toaster to be the official 'tastiness of the toastiness' scale.....I'm pretty sure this is what it'll be for me from now on

[misskatamari]

I only found out a few years ago that the channel tunnel was under the sea bed. I think I always thought it was a tunnel that had built on the sea floor (and always wondered a bit how they had managed...)

I didn't know there were about 50 types of bee until last year.

I'm sure there are loads more but I can't think just now. One of my favourites from a friend was that she thought unicorns were real and just extinct

[LikeDylanInTheMovies]

Oh yeah Teddy Boys took their names from their appropriation of Edwardian fashions.*

• This is quite damming as I am a fan of early rock n'roll and wrote a PhD on early c20th cultural history.

[littleprincesssara]

Factoid was originally coined to mean something that's not true but wrongly commonly believed to be true (like Walkers changing their crisp packet colours).

However through common usage it's now come to be used primarily to mean a small, trivial true fact. So essentially it's changed meaning entirely. Which is quite ironic.

[blueturtle6]

Didn't know about warren Beatty or camels, the sharks thing is really interesting, but how do they know?

[UncleHerbie]

Something that occurred to me a few years ago: HM The Queen and Marilyn Munroe were both born in 1926 ... Just cannot imagine MM as an old lady

[RestlessTraveller]

I know all the presidents of the US bit can't name kings and queens or prime ministers of England. I'm British.

[LikeDylanInTheMovies]

Someone I knew was adamant for years that Roy Orbison was blind due to the dark shades he wore on stage.

[Hopefullyoneday1]

Genvonklinkerhoffen i said chickens lay soft eggs, i should have said soft shelled eggs.

The egg shell don't come out hard, could you imagine a poor chook trying to lay a hard shelled egg

I know they are soft shelled because i watch mine lay their eggs every morning

[Purplepicnic]

There was a thread on here about the Channel Tunnel a while back. Many people admitted they thought it ran along the sea bed and one, if I recall, even thought she'd be able to see the fish

[ExcuseMyEyebrows]

Restless I'm British and can't name English kings and queens - I grew up in Scotland and we weren't taught such things

[TeaStory]

I love these threads. Shortly someone will be along to tell us that Gibraltar isn't but island and Portsmouth is.

[TeaStory]

*that Gibraltar isn't an island but Portsmouth is.

D'oh!

[SurlyValentine]

blueturtle6

BBC link

[elQuintoConyo]

I used to work for Eurotunnel, the number of people who asked if they could see the fishes as they went through was astounding! Like it was Seaworld and entirely made of glass!

[TeaStory]

^ That would be brilliant, though.