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.

Incense is an offering to deities, that's why it's used in the temple.

There are still people today who believe that if you burn incense, it carries your prayer up to God.

If you folded a piece of paper in half, and then in half again, after 42 folds it would be thick enough to reach the moon. Hope no one has already said this. It's my favourite fact.

You have the same number of vertebrae in your neck as a giraffe does, that is 7

I helped my insomniac dh fall asleep last night by telling him all the new facts I've learnt here. I think the one about a whale's penis being called a Dork clinched it for him and he was out like a light.

This thread is brilliant, love it!

In "Moby Dick" there is a technical description of a man making a waterproof apron by stretching and tanning a whale's foreskin. In the interests of delicacy, the word is not used.

carol

and so do mice!

Ridiculously random bod if Tricia...there are two types of camels. One with one hump, and one with two humps. They are Bactran (or Bactrian, can't remember without googling) and Dromedary camels. It's easy remember is which if you think about tipping the D and B 90 degrees to the left. Bactran camels have two humps, just like a laying down B.

Ducks quacks do actually echo.

Flamingoes are pink due to consuming the flavonoid astaxanthin, present in algae (yes, I do know this without googling!)
Astaxanthin is used as a nutritional supplement as it has strong anti oxidant and ant inflammatory properties.

Ah, but buffieorpington, that would be impossible - the maximum number of times you can fold a piece of paper in half is 7 - no matter how thin or big it is. Go on, try it!

I can fold a piece of paper towel or baking paper eight times by folding it lengthways in half, half that again length ways etc for five times in total. Then fold it in half width ways, can do it three times, for a total of eight. Technically it's folded in half each time, just not as a square.

Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel are cousins.

The fox vagina one is true but it's actually an involuntary contraction because the male's penis is barbed, meaning when he's ejaculated and the penis swells, they are both stuck there from between 15mins to 3 hours. Very uncomfortable! I know this as we have lots of foxes in our garden and after one snowy day when our white garden was covered in blood and two foxes were whimpering stuck together, I researched it.

Slugs have 4 nostrils (though I haven't researched that one)

Oh bebop, that really made me wince!

Avocado is the Aztec word for testicle.

they must have had giant balls!

Dropyoursword - I only just found out this year that there was more than one type of camel. I'd never really thought about it before.

Sharks don't like the taste of human flesh. That is why people often survive shark attacks. The shark thinks the person is a seal, takes a bite and then spits the person out. So loss of limbs or death through loss of blood but not usually eaten.

I haven't trawled through every thread so forgive me if this has already been pointed out.

"Slade make roughly £1m per yr in royalties just from 'I wish it could be christmas every day'"

Erm, it was Wizzard that recorded this song. Slade's "Merry Christmas Everyone" kept Wizzard's song off the top spot in 1973.

The wassail cup used to contain toast. This is why you drink a toast at celebrations.

Nutmeg, consumed in very large quantities, is a hallucinogenic.

Brilliant thread, btw.

I knew that one Plate , but I haven't put it to the test.

Me neither!

One I learnt on mn recently: pirates didn't wear eyepatches because they were missing eyes, but as a method of enabling them to have good night vision when they were attacking ships and going below deck, which would be very dark. They could then simply raise their eyepatches and their pupils would be ready-dilated!

If you were stranded on an island with nothing to eat but rabbits, you would die of starvation as they lack essential nutrients needed to keep us alive.

Likewise if you were stranded in the white stuff oop north, never eat a polar bear's liver because you would die from an overdose of vitamin A.

do not try to eat a teaspoonful of cinnamon for a bet (like I did!)

it draws away ALL the moisture from your mouth immediately and you can't spit, can't swallow.
it's actual quite scary and a horrible feeling, like you are choking.

should you be inclined to try, be prepared.!
scrape it off your tounge, then swish your mouth with water until you get rid of it.

That is probably why i cant bear to eat Cinnamon flavoured Jelly Beans, feels like my mouth is being attacked.

And another animal related one - koalas have a second set of vocal folds outside of their larynx, in addition to the normal set inside. This is to make a loud, deep rumbling. Googling the link to post on a different thread reminded me I'd meant to mention it here, but I knew this from reading the article when it came out a couple of weeks ago so hopefully it doesn't (technically) class as googling!