What's your favourite fact?

[GlitterSquid]

Fill me full of your favourite facts. The more obscure, the better!

My favourite all time fact is that two halves of a supermarket sandwich are never from the same sandwich and are each another half of another pair. Unbelievable.

I met a grown man who didn't know peanuts grew underground recently too, which pleased me.

Enlighten me further!

I think 'van gough' might look like 'fuck off'? (I've not actually bothered getting out of bed to check in a mirror

Aaaaah, I get it now! I've still never found myself needing to say either of those to a shop assistant, though - even if they weren't able to tell me where the beans or meat were

I think the crisps thing is only those made by Walkers

We did a check of this a while back when my daughter didn't believe me. All were the same regardless of who made them. I think it's an industry thing rather than a company thing.

The 'salivate' fact is not true - I just tried it snd did not salivate!

We did a check of this a while back when my daughter didn't believe me. All were the same regardless of who made them. I think it's an industry thing rather than a company thing.

Ooh - the plot thickens! (although most of the other brands have now been taken over by Walkers, which may or may not have some bearing on it?!)

@Leilala

The main pelvic nerve that supplies sensation to the genitals is called the Pudendral nerve which is Latin for shameful, it’s always amused me.

Im derailing this thread. I've got chronic pain in my shoulder and back I've recently had a consultation with both a psychosexual clinic, and a physiotherapy place. Psychosexual because I've lost sensation in my genitals. Physio because of the pain. The former have asked me 'do you have back pain' and the latter, if I've lost sensation in anyway 'down there'. I wondered why.

Catgut is usually made from sheep.

The vast majority of Panama hats are made in Ecuador.

The two end points of the Suez Canal are Suez Port and Port Said.
Suez backwards is Zeus - considered the greatest of the Greek gods.
Said backwards is Dias - the modern Greek name for the god Zeus.

Blood donors in Sweden receive a thank you via text when their blood is used

An episode of Peppa Pig was banned in Australia because it taught children to not be afraid of spiders

US President Lyndon B. Johnson owned two beagles named Him and Her

A giraffe's 'horns' are called ossicones.

Bumblebees buzz pollinate some flowers they are too large to enter - they hold on to the flower and vibrate their wings at a certain frequency range to shake out the pollen, which they collect and use as a protein source. The pollination of nearby flowers is a secondary result of their needing the pollen.

The frequency is around the range that middle A would have been prior to the introduction of equal temperament (a standard pitch for each note). Orchestras tune to Middle A and have so since before that introduction.

So the entire Western Musical world was founded upon the sound of bumble bees in summer.

*Female rabbits can reabsorb their embryos if the conditions are not favourable for rearing young. Why couldn't such a gift have been given to the human race?

This is not just rabbits. Quite a few animals share this trait including elephants. Imagine being an elephant, pregnant for 22 months and then deciding at the last minute that it isn’t a good idea to have a baby, and then reabsorbing it.*

😂 I don't think it quite works like that. They can put their pregnancy on hold, but not reobsorb a fully developed fetus so it's never born.

Reabsorb

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

2100 will be a non-leap-year 4th year, so there's a good chance anyone 10 or younger now will live to see one - someone aged 21 might have a chance if they lived to 100+. It's people who are older than that who won't - but we saw the millennium which was much more exciting!

No, 2100 will be a leap year. The rule is that every year that is exactly divisible by 4 is a leap year UNLESS it is also exactly divisible by 400, in which case it is not a leap year. The next 'gap non-leap year' will be in 2400.

The turn of the millennium was quite rubbish for me personally, but it certainly was nevertheless quite a landmark moment. Having said that, I don't know about you, but I don't expect to see the vast majority of this millennium (just as I didn't the last one)

It won't - you have the rule slightly wrong. It's not a leap year if it it's divisible by 100 but not by 400. 2400 will be the next turn of the century year that is also a leap year. 2100, 2200 and 2300 won't be.

Unless I set a new record in longevity, I won't see any of them, but hey-ho!

Fun facts, At least 25% of the 'facts' on this list are wrong!
A river’s sinuosity is the length along its winding path divided by the straight line distance from source to ocean.
This equals to Pi, works for all rivers.

I think the rapey otters are sea otters, and the thought is that declining female otter numbers due to global warming is a factor. Poor seal cubs however as the rapey otters are generally murderers too 😫

@Brahumbug

Fun facts, At least 25% of the 'facts' on this list are wrong! A river’s sinuosity is the length along its winding path divided by the straight line distance from source to ocean. This equals to Pi, works for all rivers.

I'm pretty sure that's a wrong fact.

Pi is an irrational number. If you assigned numerical values to the alphabet, then you would eventually find the complete works of Shakespeare in Pi, as well as your bank account number!

@ErrolTheDragon
Which one? The 25% 'fact' was clearly meant to be tongue in cheek. The Pi fact is absolutely correct!

[quote Brahumbug]@ErrolTheDragon
Which one? The 25% 'fact' was clearly meant to be tongue in cheek. The Pi fact is absolutely correct![/quote]
A quick Google finds multiple references to different values of river sinuosity.

That you can become addicted to your partner's sebum. Sebum is the substance released on the skin containing pheromones. Apparently you can literally become addicted to it, and that the smell of it releases endorphins in your own body creating a feeling of happy calm.

So this is why I feel compelled to sniff DH's dressing gown when he's away and I'm missing him.

@ErrolTheDragon
Check legitimate science sites and you will find it is correct. New Scientist is a good source.

If you are in the Panama Canal and travel North West, you will end up in the Atlantic Ocean.

[quote Brahumbug]@ErrolTheDragon
Check legitimate science sites and you will find it is correct. New Scientist is a good source.[/quote]
I was looking at hits from Google scholar.
So, there is a theory that the average sinuosity of all rivers should be approximately pi. But that hasn't been proved, and certainly doesn't apply to each individual river.

So, the statement that 'This equals to Pi, works for all rivers.' is not a correct fact.

The brains texture is similar to warm butter!

@BoredZelda. Just admit you're wrong! Vampires were a well known story/legend at the time Frankenstein was written. Mary Shelley created something new, the person with her rehashed what was commonly known.

I interviewed someone recently who had studied river sinuosity on another planet - amazing!