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Title: Totally Trivial Post by THUDandBLUNDER on Jul 5th, 2005, 2:58pm Comments welcome. 1) Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there. 2) Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush. 3) The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma. 4) No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times. 5) Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes. 6) You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television. 7) Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older. 8) The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum. 9) The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache. 10) A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight. 11) American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first-class. 12) Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise. 13) Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning. 14) The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets. 15) Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin. 16) The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer. 17) Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined. 18) Marilyn Monroe had six toes. 19) All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public. 20) Walt Disney was afraid of mice. 21) Pearls melt in vinegar. 22) Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married. 23) The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order. 24) It is possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs. 25) A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why. 26) The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases. 27) Richard Millhouse Nixon was the first US president whose name contains all the letters from the word "criminal." The second was William Jefferson Clinton. 28) Turtles can breathe through their butts. 29) Butterflies taste with their feet. 30) In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all of the world's nuclear weapons combined. 31) On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year. 32) On average people fear spiders more than death. 33) Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants. 34) Elephants are the only animals that can't jump. 35) Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older. 36) Women blink nearly twice as much as men. 37) It's physically impossible for you to lick your elbow. 38) The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building. 39) A snail can sleep for three years. 40) No word in the English language rhymes with "MONTH." 41) Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches. 42) Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. SCARY!!! 43) The electric chair was invented by a dentist. 44) All polar bears are left handed. 45) In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes. 46) An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. 47) TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard. 48) "Go," is the shortest complete sentence in the English language. 49) If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall. Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. 50) A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out. 51) The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. 52) Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day. 53) 70% of people who read this far tried to lick their elbow. |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by Leonid Broukhis on Jul 5th, 2005, 4:05pm on 07/05/05 at 14:58:33, THUDandBLUNDER wrote:
Quoting terminated for convenience. 2) Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush. Implies horizontal distance, I believe. It's easier to keep the brush 2 feet higher than 6 feet away. 4) No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times. Proven wrong a few years ago by a schoolgirl who folded a roll-ful of toilet paper 8 or 9 times after being told the same piece of urban legend by her teacher. Who's to say it was not one piece of paper? 6) You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television. Most likely false if basal metabolism is taken into account. 22) Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married. How was that found out? 25) A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why. Now we know (I think I read it on Slashdot a few years ago, but I won't bet on it). A duck's quack is too weak to allow for a non-overlapping echo, and its waveform is such that its echo is masked by the original sound within our audio perceptory system the same way MP3 utilizes to avoid encoding parts of the sound that would not be "heard" anyway. 31) On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year. How was that found out? U.S. statistics extrapolated? How did they account for the differences in ball-point pen use? 32) On average people fear spiders more than death. By 3.5 fear points, no less. :P 44) All polar bears are left handed. Left-pawed, maybe? 49) If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall. Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. Really? Why not 32.5-19-27.5 and six feet, then? 51) The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. Duh. 53) 70% of people who read this far, tried to lick their elbow. Must add "the first time". |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by Icarus on Jul 5th, 2005, 4:10pm Quote:
Some of them simply smell repugnant to the mosquito. Quote:
I'm sure lots of kings have been clean-shaven. They just haven't been on cards. Quote:
This is non-sensical. Any object that rotates counterclockwise when seen from one side will rotate clockwise when seen from the other, and vice versa. So all the planets rotate clockwise, and they all rotate counterclockwise. Quote:
You can get them back downstairs - you just got to be sneaky about it. Quote:
An old wive's tell. Simple experiments show it to be false. In fact, you can find recording of echoing duck quacks on the internet. There is at least one myth-busting site that has addressed this one. But I don't remember where and am too lazy to go looking for it. Quote:
Actually, we've never had a president named Richard Millhouse Nixon. We did have a Richard Milhous Nixon, though... Quote:
Don't you just hate it when snails jump at you? Quote:
Well - there goes a lifelong dream down the drain. :'( Quote:
All that jumping must really wear them out. Quote:
Oh? Quote:
I must be below average. As much as I like pizza, I have a hard time eating even 1 acre a day! Quote:
I'm sure I can do it!!! Just a little bit farther... :P |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by Leonid Broukhis on Jul 5th, 2005, 4:47pm You see what happens when interspersed quotes are quoted: the old quotes are lost and it gets hard to follow the discussion. > Some of them simply smell repugnant to the mosquito. And what smells would that be? What in particular, accounting for evolutionary pressures, must smell repugnant to a mosquito? > I'm sure lots of kings have been clean-shaven. They just haven't been on cards. Superficial. The statement starts specifically with "king of hearts" to restrict the context. > This is non-sensical. Any object that rotates counterclockwise when seen from one side will rotate clockwise when seen from the other, and vice versa. So all the planets rotate clockwise, and they all rotate counterclockwise. Whichever way you read it, it means "Venus rotates in the other direction compared to other planets". > Don't you just hate it when snails jump at you? You're right. I also hate it when people say "animals" meaning "mammals". Although even then, do dolphins and whales "jump"? |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by Icarus on Jul 5th, 2005, 5:32pm on 07/05/05 at 16:47:48, Leonid Broukhis wrote:
I'm not sure how any other approach is better... By the way, when I started my post, you had not replied yet. I discovered yours only after I finished posting mine. So please understand that I was not ignoring your post. I just hadn't seen it yet. Quote:
Anything that mosquitos as a species have learned to avoid as deadly. Quote:
Stop being so serious! My answer was tongue-in-cheek. Quote:
Sorry, but if that is what was meant, then that is what should have been said. "Only planet that rotates clockwise" is still nonsensical. Besides which it is still not true! Uranus in particular has its spin axis almost in line with its orbital plane. Claiming that it spins in the same or opposite direction as other planets does not make sense. Quote:
Dolphins and whales breach in what can be considered jumps, though few whales ever completely leave the water. But even if we restrict it to land mammals, I doubt that elephants are the only ones that do not jump. |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by Noke Lieu on Jul 5th, 2005, 5:57pm on 07/05/05 at 17:32:49, Icarus wrote:
Sloths, as another example, I imagine would have a tough time jumping. Giant anteaters too. Hippo and rhino? I can see them charging around very fast (much like an elephant), but leaping? |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by xyz on Jul 6th, 2005, 7:42am on 07/05/05 at 14:58:33, THUDandBLUNDER wrote:
39) I wish I could! :( 40) How about "DUNCE"? 53) Wrong. It should be 100%. :P |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by regaleira on Jul 6th, 2005, 11:32am do you realy think dunce rimes with month!? ??? |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by THUDandBLUNDER on Jul 6th, 2005, 12:15pm Quote:
Other such words are 'silver' and 'orange'. And it has probably always annoyed hymn-writers that nothing seems to rhyme with 'spirit'. |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by Noke Lieu on Jul 7th, 2005, 12:45am on 07/06/05 at 12:15:30, THUDandBLUNDER wrote:
If you can't find one, maybe you should Engineer it? :-X As you can have nth, someone round these parts came up with "n-plus-one-th". Made me giggle then. Oh as for 38, Libraries sinking...? Heard that being a number of different universities. I can imagine, perhaps, once that may have happened. But to happen twice? Doubtful. Wright brothers vs 747 wingspans? So what? There are a bunch of different sorts of 747- they've been around a long time- but usually about 60m wingspan. The wright brothers first flight was less than 40m. (Given that they'd apparently crashed it two days before, and that a couple of venerable aviators had perished attempting to fly recently, best that they kept things nice and simple, if you ask me) But they kept going that day and soon were flying over 100m. Turtles. Apparently true. At least as far as Straightdope is concerned (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/011116.html) 21- pearls melt in vinegar? Not going to test it, but surely they dissolve, not melt? 2- dentist and toilets? They recommend it, okay, but who informed them? THe prevalence of bacterial flora on virtually EVERYTHING would render such advice futile. Curiously enough though, brushing the toilet with you tooth brush may be better than putting it on your desk...here (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/1998-06/NS-YCEY-100698.php) and here (http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s1143577.htm) apples versus caffeine? Depends where the scalding hot coffee is applied... ;) |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by Grimbal on Jul 7th, 2005, 1:03am on 07/06/05 at 12:15:30, THUDandBLUNDER wrote:
a dictionnary search turned up: demerit, inherit, merit and maybe culprit, grit, Sanskrit, writ. I don't know how far it must match. For month, I found millionth, billionth, trillionth, and so on... |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by towr on Jul 7th, 2005, 1:28am Quote:
It may look the same, but that's not saying much in english. |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by rmsgrey on Jul 7th, 2005, 5:39am For my next trick, I'll rhyme "cough" with "hiccough" Empirical evidence suggests that the King of Hearts does have a moustache (as do the other three - both black kings also have goatees) |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by Ajax on Jul 7th, 2005, 5:51am Webster's dictionary has introduced the word bonth (which means "backs of never tamed horses") to save poets from the unbearable agony of having a line that ends with the word month. |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by Leonid Broukhis on Jul 7th, 2005, 8:34pm on 07/07/05 at 00:45:03, Noke Lieu wrote:
You see, there is the ever-prevalent bacterial flora, and there is E. Coli, certain strains of which are toxigenic and potentially fatal. |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by Noke Lieu on Jul 8th, 2005, 1:52am The rare E coli O-157:H7 to be precise (or its two siblings). Infectous dose of 10 cells. Induces entero-haemorragic fever. Studied it for a while at uni. Ate plenty of it in Scotland too, probably.(and am pulling a lot of cobwebs out of my memory for this) Toothbrushes are a great medium for bacterial growth- they stay moist for ages, tehy are nutrient laden and have a HUGE surface area. All great things. True enough, bacteria can be liberated from the dunny in an aerosol (depending on the type). That aerosol can travel huge distances. And land on your towels. Which is also typically wet, laden with nutrient and have large surface area. So the bugs grow over time (1 duplicatation every 20 minutes at 37 celcius), you wash you hands and dry them on the towel. Thus contaminating them again. Then brush your teeth with a brand new tooth brush. And can still get faecal-oral contanimation. Isn't life a bum? The current face of scientific method, The MYTHBUSTERS did a test on this one if I remember correctly. All the toothbrushes in the test were contaminated. Even the ones in the kitchen... |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by THUDandBLUNDER on Jul 8th, 2005, 2:19am Quote:
I would agree that they appear to dissolve, not melt. Calcium Carbonate + Acetic Acid => Calcium Ethanoate + Carbon Dioxide + Water And calcium ethanoate is soluble in the acetic acid of vinegar. Quote:
No. on 07/07/05 at 01:03:00, Grimbal wrote:
'Millionth' rhymes with 'tenth'. 'Menthe', as in 'crème de menthe', rhymes with 'month'. But is it really English? People who claim that nothing rhymes with 'spirit' must be referring to the suffix -irit. |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by Ajax on Jul 8th, 2005, 5:46am I received an e-mail containing the following: IF YOU YELLED FOR 8 YEARS, 7 MONTHS AND 6 DAYS YOU WOULD HAVE PRODUCED ENOUGH SOUND ENERGY TO HEAT ONE CUP OF COFFEE. (HARDLY SEEMS WORTH IT.) IF YOU FARTED CONSISTENTLY FOR 6 YEARS AND 9 MONTHS, ENOUGH GAS IS PRODUCED TO CREATE THE ENERGY OF AN ATOMIC BOMB. (NOW THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!) THE HUMAN HEART CREATES ENOUGH PRESSURE WHEN IT PUMPS OUT TO THE BODY TO SQUIRT BLOOD 30 FEET. (O.M.G.!) A PIG'S ORGASM LASTS 30 MINUTES. (IN MY NEXT LIFE, I WANT TO BE A PIG.) A COCKROACH WILL LIVE NINE DAYS WITHOUT ITS HEAD BEFORE IT STARVES TO DEATH! (CREEPY.) (I'M STILL NOT OVER THE PIG.) BANGING YOUR HEAD! AGAINST A WALL USES 150 CALORIES A HOUR (DON'T TRY THIS A T HOME, MAYBE AT WORK) THE MALE PRAYING MANTIS CANNOT COPULATE WHILE ITS HEAD IS ATTACHED TO ITS BODY. THE FEMALE INITIATES SEX BY RIPPING THE MALE'S HEAD OFF. ("HONEY, I'M HOME. WHAT THE....?!") THE FLEA CAN JUMP 350 TIMES ITS BODY LENGTH. IT'S LIKE A HUMAN JUMPING THE LENGTH OF A FOOTBALL FIELD. (30 MINUTES..LUCKY PIG! CAN YOU IMAGINE?) THE CATFISH HAS OVER 27,000 TASTE BUDS. (WHAT COULD BE SO TASTY ON THE BOTTOM OF A POND?) SOME LIONS MATE OVER 50 TIMES A DAY. (I STILL WANT TO BE A PIG IN MY NEXT LIFE...QUALITY OVER QUANTITY) BUTTERFLIES TASTE WITH THEIR FEET. (SOMETHING I ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW.) THE STRONGEST MUSCLE IN THE BODY IS THE TONGUE. (HMMMMMM......) RIGHT-HANDED PEOPLE LIVE, ON AVERAGE, NINE YEARS LONGER THAN LEFT-HANDED PEOPLE! . (IF YOU'RE AMBIDEXTROUS, DO YOU SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE?) A CAT'S URINE GLOWS UNDER A BLACK LIGHT. (I WONDER WHO WAS PAID TO FIGURE THAT OUT?) STARFISH HAVE NO BRAINS. (I KNOW SOME PEOPLE LIKE THAT TOO.) HUMANS AND DOLPHINS ARE THE ONLY SPECIES THAT HAVE SEX FOR PLEASURE. (WHAT ABOUT THAT PIG??) Enjoy |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by Grimbal on Jul 8th, 2005, 5:59am on 07/08/05 at 02:19:30, THUDandBLUNDER wrote:
OK, ok, I don't know how to pronounce "millionth". But "menthe" in french is pronounced more like "Monty" without the "y", "th" is pronounced as "t". - So, what rhymes with "month"? - Another month. |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by THUDandBLUNDER on Jul 8th, 2005, 6:22am on 07/08/05 at 05:59:10, Grimbal wrote:
Not according to the Concise Oxford Dictionary that I have on my HD. |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by Grimbal on Jul 8th, 2005, 8:32am But according to this one. http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/c/c0738800.html |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by Leonid Broukhis on Jul 8th, 2005, 2:03pm on 07/08/05 at 05:46:35, Ajax wrote:
THE STRONGEST MUSCLE IN THE BODY IS THE TONGUE. (HMMMMMM......) Strongest in relation to its weight, maybe, but still unlikely. I've read same about the jaw muscles. RIGHT-HANDED PEOPLE LIVE, ON AVERAGE, NINE YEARS LONGER THAN LEFT-HANDED PEOPLE! . (IF YOU'RE AMBIDEXTROUS, DO YOU SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE?) IIRC, it's more like nine months. Attributed mostly to power tool and cutting tool-related accidents. |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by baddab457 on Jul 8th, 2005, 2:31pm A PIG'S ORGASM LASTS 30 MINUTES. (IN MY NEXT LIFE, I WANT TO BE A PIG.) me too buddy me too... |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by THUDandBLUNDER on Jul 9th, 2005, 9:05am Quote:
http://pomonahistorical.org/12times.htm |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by rmsgrey on Jul 10th, 2005, 6:49am Every time I read a newspaper, I fold the central page in half. In my student days, there were communal newspapers read a dozen times or more... |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by SWF on Jul 10th, 2005, 7:10pm Quote:
This (http://www.arcytech.org/java/population/facts_oaks.html) has a graph of acorn production of oak trees vs. age and shows production begins after about 25 years. It does mention that it can sometimes take 50 years for the first acorns, but apparently that is uncommon. Quote:
According to this (http://www.adams1.com/pub/russadam/history.html), the first product scanned by one of the first scanners happened to be a 10 pack of Wrigley's gum. Not that it was the first product with a bar code, it just happened to be the first item chosen from the shopping cart that day. 42) Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. SCARY!!! Apparently, false (http://vision.about.com/od/childrenvision/f/babyeyesize.htm). Quote:
According to Smithsonian Magazsne (http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues97/jun97/pizza.html), Americans consume 100 acres of pizza per day, not 18. I have heard a duck's quack echoing outdoors. It wasn't surprising, but I made a mental note of it, since I had heard this rumor before. Some of the items seem to be true, like the blood plasma in coconuts. Given the choice between spiders and death, I think most people would take the spiders, but spiders do place above death in lists of top ten fears (as does fear of open spaces, closed spaces, heights, thunder/lightning, and vomiting). |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by otter on Jul 11th, 2005, 7:08am on 07/05/05 at 14:58:33, THUDandBLUNDER wrote:
Not so, according to this (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3086890.stm) article. |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by The Mokoda on Oct 28th, 2005, 8:36am I know a guy who I am sure can lick his elbows. His nickname is Bucky, and we were in first grade together. During the summer after that year, he had both his arms severed about 1-2 inches below the elbows while reaching under a stationary train that suddenly jumped while he was reaching under it to pick up a puppy. He refused to wear any "hooks" or other apparatus, and by the time we were in high school, he would smoke cigarettes (and joints) by holding them between his elbows. I have even seen him get change from his pants pockets. Now, technically, I never SAW him lick his elbows, but extrapolating from what he can do, I have no doubt that he could. |
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Title: Re: Totally Trivial Post by Grimbal on Oct 28th, 2005, 9:55am It remember me a joke. A guy bets $100 with a friend that he can bite his eye. His friend is sure it can not be done and accepts the bet. The guy takes out his glass eye and bites it. After that, he proposes a bet for $200 that he can bite his other eye. The friend thinks: "He is not blind, I am sure of that. No way he has 2 glass eyes!". He accepts the bet. The guy takes out his fake teeth and bites his other eye... |
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