Well I never knew that

[Awwlookatmybabyspider]

Sharks are independent from birth. I always thought their mums took care of them but apparently not.
Anyone else got anything they were surprised to discover.

[Zippetydoodahzippetyay]

@HakunaMatata I never knew that either. Just had to test it out 😆

[StegosaurusRex]

Panthers aren't a separate species. It's the umbrella family panthera which is leopards and jaguars and probably some others. Black panthers are any of the panthera family which have black fur

[ChipInTheSugar]

Kind of related to the snot/tears one, you have different kinds of tears and they all look different under the microscope!
Happy, sad (extreme emotion) tears, basal tears and reflex tears (from onions etc).

[Judgybitch]

Technically this millennium and century didn't start until jan 1st 2001. This is because of a quirk of history that the Calender we use today was invented prior to the invention of the concept of zero. So the first year was year one! This was invented in the 6th century retrospectively though.

So 2000 years had past jan1st 2001 not 2000 we all celebrated a year too soon.

[WonderTree]

Wow, I am so glad I'm not a wombat.

[ComeOnGordon]

You only breathe thro one nostril at a time. And it changes every two hours or so

[WireBrushAndDettolMaam]

You only breathe thro one nostril at a time. And it changes every two hours or so

no.

[DadDadDad]

I love these kinds of threads - always good to learn something new.

I have an existing digest for those who want more:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/a3418716-Pineapples-dont-grow-on-trees-and-other-misconceptions-that-MN-has-revealed-over-the-years

[SkySmiler]

Andrew and Keren are back together!

[Zoidbergonthehalfshell]

I knew that the kiwi (the bird) laid enormous eggs relative to its size, but I only found out this morning that it's the equivalent of a woman giving birth to a 4-year-old child...

[Tonz]

All three letter C in Pacific Ocean is pronounced different. My kid told me that

[Whatisthisfuckery]

‘Dream on’ is by Aerosmith. For 37 years I thought it was by Led Zeppelin. I am quite a Led Zep fan as well, although only have a couple of their live albums. My face was red when I realised my error in thinking all these years.

[ComeOnGordon]

@WireBrushAndDettolMaam you can test it by putting your finger under your nose and the air definitely comes out of one more than the other unless you maybe catch it at changeover time 😂

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

All three letter C in Pacific Ocean is pronounced different. My kid told me that

Not quite as impressive, but the same is true of the three 'E's in Jeremy Vine's name

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

The author John Connelly is Irish. I had always assumed he was American because all the books that I've read by him have been set in America, but I just saw an interview with him and he has an Irish accent. Also didn't know until recently that Bram Stoker was Irish.

[WireBrushAndDettolMaam]

you can test it by putting your finger under your nose and the air definitely comes out of one more than the other unless you maybe catch it at changeover time



Much more fun when you do it irl and get to see them doing it!

Not quite as impressive, but the same is true of the three 'E's in Jeremy Vine's name

The two “e”s in Jeremy sound the same to me.

The three “e”s in Mercedes are different.

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

Nauru and Switzerland don't have official capital cities.

The southernmost state of the USA is Hawaii, but the northernmost, easternmost and westernmost are all Alaska.

Also, if we're including things that we saw on QI were educated about a few years ago but had forgotten and only since re-discovered....

There is a large piece of land in Africa called Bir Tawil that is not only unclaimed by any country but actively rejected by the two countries that would be contenders for it - Egypt and Sudan - as there's a border dispute which means that claiming it would be effectively renouncing their claim to a much more desirable piece of land nearby that's 10 times bigger and has a long coast on the Red Sea.

There is a town within the natural borders of the Netherlands that, owing to an historical quirk, is half Dutch (they call it Baarle-Nassau) and half Belgian (they call it Baarle Hertog). Because of multiple enclaves and exclaves, there are borders everywhere - many running through individual homes and businesses. The law is that where your front door is dictates which country you're officially in (and some people have deliberately moved the location of their doors to 'move' country for various reasons), but there's one famous house where the border goes right through the centre of their front door, hence the same house has two separate addresses, one in each country.

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

The two “e”s in Jeremy sound the same to me.

The three “e”s in Mercedes are different.

Maybe just an accent thing - I hear it:
1, as in hen;
2, as in career (the A, not the E!);

1. silent, other than serving to lengthen the I.

As for Mercedes, in German, the 2nd and 3rd (and arguably also the 1st) Es would actually be pronounced the same.

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

The world's largest pyramid is in Mexico, not Egypt.

The world's highest mountain is in Hawaii - Everest is only the highest above sea level.

incidentally, Everest should be pronounced 'Eve-rest' rather than 'Ever-rest', which is the way the man after whom it was named actually pronounced his own name.

[WireBrushAndDettolMaam]

Ah the second e in Jeremy is like the e in hen for me.

[MrsCherry]

It was only after a problem with my eyes I found out that tears do not come out of the tear ducts but only drain into them and are produced somewhere in the upper eyelid!

[Viviene]

Holland is not a country. The Netherlands is a country, Holland is a province in the NL

[Tonz]

The m&m on the sweeties stand for mars and Murrie had never really thought about it before

[MyOtherProfile]

Who is murrie?

[lostsoulsunited]

The UK has venomous moles.