Interesting Facts thread part 2

[weekender]

I love facts and trivia.  So much so that I started a thread once, which apparently lasted nearly 5 years and made it to 8 whole pages, that's how damn good it was.

I think we need more inane facts about things that don't really matter, so I'm going to start and hope people join in.

Here are some that I have recently learnt:

1. The entire system of road sign design used in the UK was pretty much designed from scratch in the 1950s and 1960s by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15990443

2. From the moment a baby is born, only one area of the body never grows, and that is the eyes.

Source: A quiz I went to.

3. A and B road numbers in the UK are broadly determined in accordance with 9 numbering zones.

Source: Wikipedia

NOW FACT ME 'TIL I FART.

[biggytitbo]

   
• Hot water freezes faster than cold water.[nb]Well, sometimes anyway[/nb] Its called the Mpemba effect.
• Sylvester Stallone's grandfather invented the  modern pea.
• Sign language is the 2nd most used language in the USA after english.

[the midnight watch baboon]

There are more people alive now then have ever died.

Source: creaking memory

[mook]

due to the rate of population growth in china, if you were to sit down and have them walk passed you in single file the line would never end.

[Beagle 2]

McDonald's is the largest toy distributor in the world.

[pk1yen]

There are more people alive now then have ever died.

Source: creaking memory

Nope!

http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/dead.asp

This is the false-fact that seems to come up the most often for some reason.[nb]See also: "Glass is a liquid!" (it's not)[/nb]

There was a thread about these reverse-facts a while ago, but I forget what it was called.


Alan Moore and Matt Smith went to the same school![nb]Admittedly, this is only interesting to a certain number of people.[/nb]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northampton_School_for_Boys#Notable_alumni

[the midnight watch baboon]

Nope!

http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/dead.asp

This is the false-fact that seems to come up the most often for some reason.[nb]See also: "Glass is a liquid!" (it's not)[/nb]


.

B L A S T !

It didn't sound right to be honest

[biggytitbo]

Snopes is full of shit, who gives them the right to decide what's true anyway?[nb]My personal opinion, Snopes are just a couple of gits, they aren't some omnipotent judge[/nb]

[the midnight watch baboon]

I did a born and died spreadsheet at work for a month; averaged 17 born - 3 died daily.

COINCIDENCE?

[phes]

None of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park existed in the Jurassic period.

[biggytitbo]

Dinosaurs are actually a hoax conspired by boyhood chums Christopher Biggins and Richard Dawkins as a way of creating future royalties.

[weekender]

Oh bore off.

[Serge]

Dinosaurs are actually a hoax conspired by boyhood chums Christopher Biggins and Richard Dawkins as a way of creating future royalties.

If this is so, WHY IS THERE NO BIGGINOSAUR?

Slightly dull fact that always amuses me: Paddy Considine and Toby Kebbell, who play brothers in 'Dead Man's Shoes' have both played Joy Division manager Rob Gretton in different movies.

[alcoholic messiah]

If you were to translate the history of the Earth[nb]About 4.5 billion years[/nb] into a twelve-hour period, here's an approximate timeline of some notable events:

0:00	The Earth forms.
1:20	Simple life emerges.
2:40	The most recent common ancestor of all life on Earth exists.
11:23	Dinosaurs first roam the planet.
11:50	Most dinosaurs are wiped out. The rise of the mammals begins.
11:59:58	The first Homo Sapiens shows up.
11:59:59.3	Modern humans leave Africa and begin colonising the rest of the planet.
11:59:59.9997	The birth of biggytitbo.
12:00	Now!

[Zero Gravitas]

I think that makes biggytitbo around 15.76 years old.

[biggytitbo]

You dirty boys. I've heard Jonathan King is a membr of this forum but this is ridiculous.

[alcoholic messiah]

I think that makes biggytitbo around 15.76 years old.

Check your sums. Wishing it won't make it true.

[Zero Gravitas]

4.54 * (10^9) years * ((300 microseconds) / (24 hours)) = 15.7638889 years

Sexy because it's true!

[Blumf]

3. A and B road numbers in the UK are broadly determined in accordance with 9 numbering zones.

Source: Wikipedia

NOW FACT ME 'TIL I FART.

Follow through:
http://www.cbrd.co.uk/indepth/roadnumbers/history.shtml

Also, keep an eye out for semi-official 'C' roads.

[phes]

1.432 x 10^17  / 43200 = 3.3 x 10^12 (seconds in timescale 1/ seconds in timescale 2)

3.3 x 10 ^12 (0.0003) = 9.9 x 10^8 seconds

11458/365  = 31.42 years

[gmoney]

Former Newcastle, West Ham and Portsmouth goalkeeper Shaka Hislop worked for NASA before getting into football. His first name is actually Neil.

Sticking with the goalkeeper theme, Arthur Conan Doyle played in goal for Portsmouth. I think it might be a different team from what is now Portsmouth FC, but it's still fairly interesting. Isn't it...? Oh fuck off.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

More goalie trivia: Pulp drummer Nick Banks is Gordon Banks' nephew.

[alcoholic messiah]

If you were to translate the history of the Earth into a twelve-hour period

4.54 * (10^9) years * ((300 microseconds) / (24 hours)) = 15.7638889 years

CHECK YOUR SUMS.

Sexy because it's true!

Wishing it in a gimp mask crafted from the foreskin of an endangered cetacean won't make it true.

[holyzombiejesus]

Watch out people, we're veering into Frank Beard territory here...

[mook]

who cares, the only thing that matters is that baxter is getting a kicking.

[Absorb the anus burn]

Judi Dench has bad breath and looks like a pig. Fact.

[sirhenry]

Victorian slang:

CAB. A brothel. Mother: how many tails have you in your cab? = How many girls have you in your bawdy house?

[small_world]

1. The entire system of road sign design used in the UK was pretty much designed from scratch in the 1950s and 1960s by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert.

I knew about that woman who done them signs. Saw her on the radio.
What I don't get though, from that linked page:

It has long been remarked upon that the man digging actually seems to be struggling with an umbrella, and Calvert wishes she had made the shovel more shovel-like.

It's not a fucking shovel, he's ploughing into a pile of dirt. He is USING a shovel, but it's IN the pile.

When you see them in isolation, the road signs - especially the blue and green road map ones - look really 60's. Weird that I've never noticed that.

[small_world]

Nope!

There was a thread about these reverse-facts a while ago, but I forget what it was called.

FRANK BEARDISMS... DIG IT UP!!!!

[Zero Gravitas]

Do it yourself nancy boy!

http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=27488.0