Tell me something useless but interesting I don't know. No googling allowed. Corrections welcomed.

[YourMaNoBraBackOfMyCar]

I love these threads so please tell me all manner of useless info. [Thanks]

Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a Friday the 13th.

Ohhh ... that suddenly makes a lot more sense.

I quite fancied bee honey though.

I am enjoying the biblical knowledge going on on this thread. Such a beautifully written book in places (whatever your beliefs)

My name is Legion, for we are many

Through a glass darkly

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyllllantysiliogogogoch is the longest place name in wales.....

........and I can say it in 3 seconds.

I think also apple of eye is (it's in Psalms/Tehillim) also a direct translation. but I can't google to check.

For the first five books of the Bible, the only one which has the same name in English as the Hebrew meaning is Genesis.
They are:
Genesis (Bereishis - literally means "in the beginning")
Exodus (Shemos - means "names")
Leviticus (Vayikra - "and He called")
Numbers (Bamidbar - "in the desert")
Deutoronomy (Dvarim - "words")

That's really interesting, absy, thanks.

I feel like an idiot, because I went to a seminar a few weeks ago where the speaker was arguing that Wycliffe had used the Anglo-Saxon translations of the gospels when he made his translation, but I can't remember her specific examples. But it sounds as if at least some of the famous phrases go right back, because they're simply the logical way to translate the Hebrew (or the Latin translated from the Hebrew)?

I love the book names.

yankee - how the fuck did you spell that without looking it up?!

I'm in awe.

Yankee That looks like you fell asleep on the keyboard.

Im in awe too.

Some people can bend the tips of their thumbs right back beyond horizontal. It's call Hitch Hiker's thumb and it's a genetic mutation. I can do that

But I can't wiggle my ears or roll my tongue (also genetic mutations).

They're all basically the first word of the book. For bereishit, it starts with the letter "bet" which is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet (or "alephbet"). In Jewish mysticism, the letter "bet" represents the number 2, which represents division and the material world (because as soon as you have something physical, there is separation and division. The table and I can't occupy the same exact space), whereas the first letter aleph represents 1, which represents the spiritual which is undivided.

Ha! cos I'm Welsh & you're not really Welsh unless you can say it & spell it, and I only live 15 mile from the place.

I am definitely not Welsh.

My mum is, though, and I bet she can't either!

abs - that's very cool. Wow.

There's a manufacturer that make lifts called Otis.
They are based in Reading

Do you get it? I think who ever in the company came up with that is brill and I like the way their mind works.

they have only just removed the offence of being an incorrigible rogue

The Bible does not say that there were three wise men who came to see Jesus.

It says that the wise men came (so there was more than one) and that they brought Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh, but there might have been two of them and there might have been forty of them.

People assume there were three of them because they brought three presents.

pancake I don't get it and I've really really tried

When the astronaut contacted Houston from Apollo 13, he actually said 'Houston we've had a problem', i.e. past tense. It was changed to 'Houston we have a problem' for the film.

Eugene Cernan was the 11th NASA astronaut to set foot on the moon. Harrison Schmidt was the 12th but got back in the module first, so Cernan was the last man on the moon.

I say astronaut because I know Lovell was the commander but it was his co-pilot that said it and can't remember his name.

Horses can't vomit

They only need 2 hours sleep

Castration makes them grow taller

Chestnut is a completely recessive gene (colour)

John Denver's twin nephews played Baby Oscar in Ghostbusters 2, William and Hank Deutschendorf i believe, Deutschendorf being John Denver's birthname.

Seven US states were named for British Kings or Queens:

Virginia and West Virginia (Elizabeth I)
Maryland (Henrietta Maria, consort of Charles I)
North and South Carolina (Charles I)
Georgia (George II)
New York (for James II and VII when he was Duke of York)

There were 3 astronauts who went on the Apollo 11 moon landings, only Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong actually got to the moon, Michael Collins was piloting the command craft in orbit of the moon, until the other 2 returned. (Thanks Al Murray's stand up for that one)

Haven't yet read whole thread (pg8) but here's one

The phrases "Above Board" and "The coast is clear" can be traced back to smugglers off the Cornish Coast. Also the term "Bootlegger"

The old Norwegian word for peanuts, is "earth nuts", so I guess it is true they grow underground.

It is not the entire beak of the puffin that fall off, but the blue plates on their beaks fall off at the start of the mating season. Maybe female puffins dont like blue much?

Dunsop Bridge in Lancashire is the very centre of Great Britain, so I have been told!

Fact I've always wanted to use from QI,

Craving something that isn't food during pregnancy is called Pica, and apparently have more to do with texture and smell, not taste.