Interesting Facts thread

Saw some interesting things on the science channel and wondered what other interesting stuff is out there, maybe useful one day too.

Did you know that you can start a dead car battery by pouring red wine directly into the battery?

Red food dye and makeup are made from crushed dead insects? sick..

I saved a bunch of money by switching to geico..

 

Human hair and fingernails continue to grow after death.

Termites eat wood twice as fast when listening to heavy metal music.

Guinness Book Of Records holds the record for being the book most stolen from Public Libraries.

The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven.

 

your ears are the same size as your nose
your feet are the same size as your forearm

 

Your hair and fingernails do not continue to grow after death. The flesh around them shrinks giving the impression of growth.

 

John, quit being a killjoy.

 

i am not actually a monkey

 

I'm sorry.

 

Did you know that there are 206 bones in the adult human body and there are 300 in children (as they grow some of the bones fuse together). Flea's can jump 130 times higher than their own height. In human terms this is equal to a 6ft. person jumping 780 ft. into the air. The most dangerous animal in the world is the common housefly. Because of their habits of visiting animal waste, they transmit more diseases than any other animal. Snakes are true carnivorous because they eat nothing but other animals. They do not eat any type of plant material. The world's largest amphibian is the giant salamander. It can grow up to 5 ft. in length. 100 years ago: The first virus was found in both plants and animals. 90 years ago: The Grand Canyon became a national monument & Cellophane is invented. 80 years ago: The food mixer and the domestic refrigerator were invented. 70 years ago: The teletype and PVC (polyvinyl-chloride) were invented. 60 years ago: Otto Hahn discovered nuclear fission by splitting uranium, Teflon was invented. 50 years ago: Velcro was invented. 40 years ago: An all-female population of lizards was discovered in Armenia. 30 years ago: The computer mouse was invented. 20 years ago: First test-tube baby born in England, Pluto’s moon, Charon, discovered. 10 years ago: First patent for a genetically-engineered mouse was issued to Harvard Medical School.5 years ago: The first successful cloning of human embryo The smallest bone in the human body is the stapes or stirrup bone located in the middle ear. It is approximately .11 inches (.28 cm) long. The longest cells in the human body are the motor neurons. They can be up to 4.5 feet (1.37 meters) long and run from the lower spinal cord to the big toe. There are no poisonous snakes in Maine. The blue whale can produce sounds up to 188 decibels. This is the loudest sound produced by a living animal and has been detected as far away as 530 miles. The largest man-made lake in the U.S. is Lake Mead, created by Hoover Dam. The poison arrow frogs of South and Central America are the most poisonous animals in the world. A new born blue whale measures 20-26 feet (6.0 - 7.9 meters) long and weighs up to 6,614 pounds (3003 kg). The first coast-to-coast telephone line was established in 1914. The Virginia opossum has a gestation period of only 12-13 days. The Stegosaurus dinosaur measured up to 30 feet (9.1 meters) long but had a brain the size of a walnut. The human eye blinks an average of 4,200,000 times a year. Skylab, the first American space station, fell to the earth in thousands of pieces in 1979. Thankfully most over the ocean. It takes approximately 12 hours for food to entirely digest. Human jaw muscles can generate a force of 200 pounds (90.8 kilograms) on the molars. The Skylab astronauts grew 1.5 - 2.25 inches (3.8 - 5.7 centimeters) due to spinal lengthening and straightening as a result of zero gravity. An inch (2.5 centimeters) of rain water is equivalent to 15 inches (38.1 centimeters) of dry, powdery snow. Tremendous erosion at the base of Niagara Falls (USA) undermines the shale cliffs and as a result the falls have receded approximately 7 miles over the last 10,000 years. 40 to 50 percent of body heat can be lost through the head (no hat) as a result of its extensive circulatory network. A large swarm of desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) can consume 20,000 tons (18,160,000 kilograms) of vegetation a day. The largest telescope in the world is currently being constructed in northern Chile. The telescope will utilize four - 26 ft. 8 in. (8.13 meters) mirrors which will gather as much light as a single 52 ft. 6 in. (16 meters) mirror. The Hubble Space Telescope weighs 12 tons (10,896 kilograms), is 43 feet (13.1 meters) long, and cost $2.1 billion to originally build. The longest living cells in the body are brain cells which can live an entire lifetime. The largest flying animal was the pterosaur which lived 70 million years ago. This reptile had a wing span of 36-39 feet (11-11.9 meters) and weighed 190-250 pounds (86-113.5 kilograms). The Atlantic Giant Squid's eye can be as large as 15.75 inches (40 centimeters) wide. Armadillos, opossums, and sloth's spend about 80% of their lives sleeping. The starfish species, Porcellanaster ivanovi, has been found to live in water as deep as 24,881 feet (7,584 meters). The tentacles of the giant Arctic jellyfish can reach 120 feet (36.6 meters) in length. The greatest tide change on earth occurs in the Bay of Fundy. The difference between low tide and high tide can be as great as 54 ft. 6 in. (16.6 meters).

 

I am NOT danusa.

But I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express.

 

Termites outweigh people on the earth 10:1.

 

The first pickup truck in the world was made by Gottlieb Daimler in 1886. Daimler created the first motor cycle in 1885.

In 1963, baseball pitcher Gaylord Perry remarked, "They'll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run." On July 20, 1969, a few hours after Neil Armstron set foot on the moon, Perry hit is one and only home run.

Persians first began using colored egs to celebrate spring in 3,000 B.C. 13th centrury Macedonians were the first Christians on record to use colored egs in Easter celebrations. Crusaders returning from the Middle East spread the custom of coloring eggs and Europeans began to use them to celebrate Easter and other warm weather holidays.

The first steam powered train was invented by Robert Stephenson. It was called the Rocket. Pulling a load of 13 tons, it averaged 12mph. Empty, it was capible of 29mph.

The first animal sent into outerspace was a dog, Laika. She was launched in Sputnik 2 on 3 November 1957. She died a few hours after launch. The exact cause is unknown, but it is likely due to faulty enviromental controls.

 

hmmmmm interesting

 

The Americans fired the first shots of Pearl Harbor, when they spotted and sank a small Japanese sub. But I guess a lot of people know that now.

 

pretty cool thread, unfortunately i see this being a great source of misinformation.