233 replies to this topic 4 votes

[Colicab]

Ok for a bit of fun and to educate ourselves a little. Heres the "Tell me something I dont know" thread, or the "Random Facts Thread". The aim is for people to take it in turns to post interesting and fun facts about the world we live in.

Please no stupid facts, such as "Your feet have 5 toes" or things like that. Also try to aviod facts about people or persons on Neowin. We want random real world factiods heres.

I shall start the ball rolling with this little fact about Bulldogs





"Bulldogs were original named and bred as a means of calming Bulls. They did this by running up to a bull and biting it on the gum/lips. This was done as in many large mammals, such as horses, cows and others. Doing so will hypnotize and calm the animal allowing for it to be checked or made compliant"

[PalletTown]

Really cool idea for a thread!

Dividing 1 by 998001 gives every three digit number from 001 to 999 in order.
Dividing 1 by 9801 will give every two digit number from 01 to 99 in order.

[Muhammad Farrukh]

Awesome idea.

Quote

Please no stupid facts, such as "Your feet have 5 toes" or things like that.

Your hand has five fingers

[Colicab]

Muhammad Farrukh, on 06 February 2012 - 19:11, said:

Awesome idea.


Your hand has five fingers

Thats 4 fingers and a thumb.

[PalletTown]

Colicab, on 06 February 2012 - 19:15, said:

Thats 4 fingers and a thumb.

This guy knows his facts!

[tiagosilva29]

I am posting this while taking a dump.

[obiwankenobi]

Colicab, on 06 February 2012 - 19:15, said:

Thats 4 fingers and a thumb.

5 digits

[thejohnnyq]

Birth control pills (indirectly) were originally invented by the nuns in what is now Germany, because woman were having sex with their husband when the priest told them not to, from a formula that was borrowed from the locals (pagans). The mixture of herbs was pounded and then made into pill like form and given to the woman to hid the sins of sex without consent of the church.

[Muhammad Farrukh]

tiagosilva29, on 06 February 2012 - 19:21, said:

I am posting this while taking a dump.

[+Phouchg]

Dec 25 == Oct 31

[+Mephistopheles]

Microsoft Excel was released for the Macintosh first, ported to Windows later.

[Tom]

List of common misconceptions I remember:

• The iPhone 4/4S is good. - False. It just isn't.
  
• Bats are blind. - False
  
• Chameleons change colour to match their surroundings. - False
  
• Humans evolved from monkeys - False. We evolved from a common ancestor.
  
• Albert Einstein did not fail mathematics in school, as is commonly believed. Upon being shown a column claiming this fact, Einstein said "I never failed in mathematics... Before I was fifteen I had mastered differential and integral calculus.
  
• Sushi does not mean "raw fish", and not all sushi includes raw fish. The name sushi means "sour rice".
  
• Swallowed chewing gum does not take seven years to digest. In fact, chewing gum is mostly indigestible, but passes through the digestive system at the same rate as other matter.
  
• Bananas do not grow on trees; the "banana tree" is in fact an herbaceous flowering plant (a herb).
  
• You can see the Great Wall of China from in space - False. None of the Apollo astronauts reported seeing any specific human-made object from the Moon, and even Earth-orbiting astronauts can barely see it. City lights, however, are easily visible on the night side of Earth from orbit.
  
• Black holes contrary to their common image, do not necessarily suck up all the matter in the vicinity.
  
• The word theory in the theory of evolution does not imply mainstream scientific doubt regarding its validity; the concepts of theory and hypothesis have specific meanings in a scientific context. While theory in colloquial usage may denote a hunch or conjecture, a scientific theory s a set of principles that explains observable phenomena in natural terms. "Scientific fact and theory are not categorically separable" and evolution is a theory in the same sense as germ theory or the theory of gravitation.
  
• Evolution does not attempt to explain the origin of life.

[+littleneutrino]

That there is a Starbucks coffee cup in every single shot in the movie "Fight Club"

[Xenosion]

In every Seinfeld episode, there is a superman picture or statue somewhere

[PalletTown]

Tom, on 06 February 2012 - 19:32, said:

List of common misconceptions I remember:

• The iPhone 4/4S is good. - False. It just isn't.

Your my hero!