Interesting facts

Some of these you have no doubt read...yes your e-peen is huge so don't bother saying it.

In the 1400's a law was set forth that a man was not allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have "the rule of thumb."

Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden" ... and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.

The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV was Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the US Treasury.

Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.

Coca-Cola was originally green.

It is impossible to lick your elbow.

The average number of people airborne over the US any given
hour: 61,000

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king in history:

Spades - King David
Hearts - Charlemagne
Clubs - Alexander, the Great
Diamonds - Julius Caesar

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until
you would find the letter "A?"
A. One thousand

Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser
printers all have in common?
A. All invented by women.

Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?
A. Honey

In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase ......... "goodnight, sleep tight."

It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.

In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts ... So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down." It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's".

Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.

Don't delete this just because it looks weird. Believe it or not, you can read it.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was dgnieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the human mnid aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a word are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Amzanig huh?

~~~~~~~~~~~AND FINALLY~~~~~~~~~~~~

At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow

Quote:
cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was dgnieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the human mnid aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a word are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

thats cool i didnt know that one

That one's so old shifty :P

and...i havent seen it :S

Quote from Frenzy:

Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?
A. Honey

i dunno guys, ive got some honey in the fridge that says otherwise....:grin:

Quote from shifty:
thats cool i didnt know that one
it's also false. so don't believe it.

Quote from paladin:
it's also false. so don't believe it.
i was able to get through that paragraph fine
so it must have some truth

it claims that only the first and last letter need to be in the right place. this is false. i'm pttery srue taht ocne wdros get lnog eguonh wtih eguonh selballys the atiliby to sllufsseccuy cneherpmod tehm rldipay dehsinimis to the pniot of bnieg ulbigilletnine gsirebbih

rldipay, ulbigilletnine
well ofcorse there are exceptions
the 2 words above i had trouble with

the exception is the specially chosen and crafted words used in the first example. further more the claim that there was a study done at cambridge, is a lie :)

also. you flat out don't count because your normal typing and spelling shows a startling resemblance to the sample text.

Quote from paladin:
also. you flat out don't count because your normal typing and spelling shows a startling resemblance to the sample text.

And that isnt a lie :)

so wat now u cant complain about my spelling

However, we can complain about a lack of punctuation.

I got bored and decided to look some of these up. Some are dealt with by Snopes, some I worked out myself. More annoying is that there's about 10 jillion copies of this pap on the intarwebs crowding out actual primary sources, so for a lot of claims I couldn't check it.

Anyhow, this is what I was able to check:

Quote from Frenzy:

Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden" ... and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.

Wrong:
http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/golf.htm

Quote:

The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV was Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

Wrong:
http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/marykay.htm

Quote:

Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the US Treasury.

Hasbro says that the standard Monopoly game contains "5,140 of notes, and that 200 million sets of the game have been sold since its creation in 1934.

That gives a total world circulation of around three trillion, twenty eight billion monopoly dollars, assuming that no monopoly currency has been lost, destroyed or otherwise removed from circulation at any time (highly unlikely).

If we generously assume that 100 milion of the sets were sold in the last 20 years, we get a figure of about 208 million monopoly dollars printed per day.

In the same period the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing, who run the US Mint, report that they print an average dollar amount of $635 million per day.

So this one is a furphy.

Quote:
Coca-Cola was originally green.

Nope:

http://snopes.com/cokelore/green.asp

Quote:
It is impossible to lick your elbow.

True for most people, however:

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=48925

Quote:
Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

I can't find anything either way, though of course malnutrition of almost any kind - including zinc or copper deficiencies - can reduce intelligence. I did find material pointing out that via the transformation of tyrosine using zinc can affect hair color, making it darker. Gentlemen, start your blond jokes.

Quote:

The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.

Apparently this is true.

Quote:

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king in history:

Spades - King David
Hearts - Charlemagne
Clubs - Alexander, the Great
Diamonds - Julius Caesar

For starters, Charlemagne and Julius Caesar were never kings. More generally:
http://www.snopes.com/history/world/cardking.htm

Quote:

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

Hard to test without a proper maths program, but it seems likely based on what I could work on Google Calculator.

Quote:

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

Nope:
http://www.snopes.com/military/statue.htm

Quote:
Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until
you would find the letter "A?"
A. One thousand

The lazier among us will just count to "one hundred and one" and say we counted to one thousand.

Quote:
Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser
printers all have in common?
A. All invented by women.

The kevlar fibre used in bullet proof vests was invented by woman (Stephanie Kwolek), but the first "bullet proof" vest was invented by a man: Rev. Casimir Zeglen. It used compressed silk.

Mary Anderson invented the windscreen wiper.

The laser printer was invented by Gary Starkweather.

I guess 1 out of 3 isn't so bad.

Quote:
Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?
A. Honey

It depends on how you define food.

Generally, ancient preservation techniques rely on raising the content of various ingredients to make the food a hostile environment to bacteria and fungi. This varies from food to food and from organism to organism.

For example, some jam preserves do not spoil, as they contain enough sugar and acid to kill fungi. Various pickles do not spoil as they are too acidic. Various foods which have been exposed to selected bacteria or fungi cease to spoil because those microorganisms have rendered their environment hostile with by products (for example, in saurkraut).

And of course today there are various artificial preservatives that kill bugs with great ease and without affecting flavour.

Quote:
In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase ......... "goodnight, sleep tight."

This is not certain, and indeed believed by experts to be untrue:

http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20020917.html

Quote:
It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.

There's no accepted origin for this word, and according to the Oxford English Dictionary the first recorded appearance in writing was in 1552. This begs the question: where did the word go for 3,500 years?

Quote:
In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts ... So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down." It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's".

Again, this is contested and there is no accepted answer:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/psandqs.htm

Quote:
Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.

Not true:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-wet1.htm

Quote:
Don't delete this just because it looks weird. Believe it or not, you can read it.

Already dealt with.

Quote:
At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow

Seems plausible :)

Whoa, it's like a text version of Mythbusters :o

Good Work El Presidente!

I was thinking the same for alot of them too El pres.

I know the horse thing was a lie as you pointed out on Snopes.com (which a site my wife loves and introduced me to it :) )

Quote from DVD:
Whoa, it's like a text version of Mythbusters :o

Good Work El Presidente!

Except that I demonstrated that I can't count in the "invented by women" thing.

But cheers. Usually when I tear things to pieces around here people get angry at me.

Good going El Pres.
Why'd you have to go and flex your ego by shattering the myths?
Cant you let people enjoy them for waht they are? A good read?
Goddamn it man, get a grip on yourself *slap*.

(That better? Thought you might feel a bit uneasy being out of your familiar zone of people flaming you :p)

If it comes to you in the normal forwarded office email, and contains the word "fact" somewhere in it, guaranteed it will be dealt with by snopes or some other urban myth debunking site - which includes El Pres of gamers-underground fame ;-)

i was just about to say half of those arent even true...when i was in england i heard the real "rule of thumb" and it comes from the house of commons. or so thats what was said.

and my computer calculator can do 111,111,111*111,111,111 and it does equal what it says.

LOL, people it was the weekend....get the hell outdoors, remember the sun is not trying to kill you.

If i knew my 1 minute copy/paste/forget on Fri afternoon was going to cause people to go to this much trouble, I wouldn't have done it :p :p

Quote:
Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden" ... and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.

i thought the smurfs invented golf?

I have 2 friends that can lick there elbow

are they popular with the ladies?

Quote from Frenzy:
LOL, people it was the weekend....get the hell outdoors, remember the sun is not trying to kill you.

If i knew my 1 minute copy/paste/forget on Fri afternoon was going to cause people to go to this much trouble, I wouldn't have done it :p :p

Ignore list FTW!