If you like useless knowledge like I do then this thread is for you. I know more useless stuff than is healthy for me. Please add on to this list with your useless knowledge.

A rat can last longer without water than a camel.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it will digest itself.

The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle.

A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.

A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why.

A 2 X 4 is really 1-1/2" by 3-1/2".

During the chariot scene in "Ben Hur," a small red car can be seen in the distance (and Heston's wearing a watch).

On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily! (That explains a few mysteries....)

Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.

There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with month, orange, purple, and silver.

The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan. There was never a recorded Wendy before.

The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death. (Who was the sadist who discovered this??)

Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to s-l-o-w film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.

The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA."

The original name for butterfly was flutterby.

The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.

Roses may be red, but violets are indeed violet.

By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you cannot sink into quicksand.

Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.

Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.

Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

Sherlock Holmes NEVER said, "Elementary, my dear Watson."

An old law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman to take more than three steps backwards while dancing!

The glue on Israeli postage is certified kosher.

The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from public libraries.

Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a spacesuit damages them.

Bats always turn left when exiting a cave!

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle; a group of geese in the air is a skein.

A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

A snail can sleep for three years.

Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20."

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

Butterflies taste with their feet.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.

Did you know that crocodiles never outgrow the pool in which they live?

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at a red light.

In most advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

Los Angeles' full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula"

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

Mr. Rogers was an ordained minister.

On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

Pinocchio is Italian for "pine eye."

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

Shakespeare invented the word 'assassination' and 'bump'.

"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand, "lollipop" with your right.

The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

The Bible does not say there were three wise men; it only says there were three gifts.

The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life."

The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.

The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable".

The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.

The words 'racecar' and 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left.

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."

There is a word in the English language with only one vowel, which occurs five times: "indivisibility."

There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables.

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

Two-thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.

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If you like useless knowledge like I do then this thread is for you. I know more useless stuff than is healthy for me. Please add on to this list with your useless knowledge.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.

Is it made even more useless if you say it twice?

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me@rescam.org

The first computer was built in 1823. The steam driven calculating machine, built by Charles Babbage, failed to work due to poor workmanship in the intricate parts. When rebuilt by the Science Museum of London in 1991 it worked.

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The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

One of the first bombs dropped on British soil by a bomber for the Germans was dropped over the Shetland Islands, leaving nothing but a crater, and one fatality: A rabbit. This would be the first unofficial non-military fatality of the war, as it would be over 5 months before a British civilian died in the war. This spawned the WWII song 'Run rabbit, run', (a line also reused in a Pink Floyd song called 'Breathe').

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The first computer was built in 1823. The steam driven calculating machine, built by Charles Babbage, failed to work due to poor workmanship in the intricate parts. When rebuilt by the Science Museum of London in 1991 it worked.

Forgive the double post, but...
I've always been told the first computer was the Abacus...
Also there is this device: Ancient Computer

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A 2000 year old toilet complete with running water, a stone seat, and an armrest was discovered in the tomb of an ancient Chinese king, of the Western Han Dynasty.

The average bed is home to over 6 billion dust mites.

Plastic lawn flamingos outnumber real flamingos in the U.S.A

Whitby, Ontario has more donut stores per capita than any other place in the world.

Starfish have no brain.

Dolphins sleep with one eye open.

Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel with over 50,000 words, none of which containing the letter "E".

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A can of SPAM is opened about every 4 seconds somewhere in the world.

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Thomas Edison was afraid of the dark.(Go figure)

The average human produces 10,000 gallons of saliva in a lifetime.

A quarter has 119 grooves around the edge, while a dime has 118. A Susan B Anthony has 133 grooves.

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The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

One of the first bombs dropped on British soil by a bomber for the Germans was dropped over the Shetland Islands, leaving nothing but a crater, and one fatality: A rabbit. This would be the first unofficial non-military fatality of the war, as it would be over 5 months before a British civilian died in the war. This spawned the WWII song 'Run rabbit, run', (a line also reused in a Pink Floyd song called 'Breathe').

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit,_Run
Your interpretation is a possibility. Has Waters, or, less likely, Gilmour, directly addressed this? Given Waters' penchant for writing about war, your interpretation is a plausible one.
On the other hand, I think they may have been reading Updike's novels. (Please follow the link.) Given many references to people being too paralyzed to take actions throughout "Dark Side of the Moon," I think my connection to the Updike's "Rabbit Run" series of books is also plausible.

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Capitalize on this good fortune, one word can bring you round ... changes.

Beetles taste like apples, wasps like pine nuts, and worms like fried bacon

Of all the words in the English language, the word 'set' has the most definitions

What is called a "French kiss" in the English speaking world is known as an "English kiss" in France

"Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order

"Rhythm" is the longest English word without a vowel

In 1386, a pig in France was executed by public hanging for the murder of a child

A cockroach can live several weeks with its head cut off

Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete

You can't kill yourself by holding your breath

There is a city called Rome on every continent

It's against the law to have a pet dog in Iceland

Your heart beats over 100,000 times a day

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Your interpretation is a possibility. Has Waters, or, less likely, Gilmour, directly addressed this? Given Waters' penchant for writing about war, your interpretation is a plausible one.
On the other hand, I think they may have been reading Updike's novels. (Please follow the link.) Given many references to people being too paralyzed to take actions throughout "Dark Side of the Moon," I think my connection to the Updike's "Rabbit Run" series of books is also plausible.

Could be both, I've no idea, I'd heard it was a nod to the song 'Run rabbit, run' though more than once before. Could just be one of those 'rumors', and I don't know any of the Pink Floyd members well enough to ask them myself. lol

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Your interpretation is a possibility. Has Waters, or, less likely, Gilmour, directly addressed this? Given Waters' penchant for writing about war, your interpretation is a plausible one.
On the other hand, I think they may have been reading Updike's novels. (Please follow the link.) Given many references to people being too paralyzed to take actions throughout "Dark Side of the Moon," I think my connection to the Updike's "Rabbit Run" series of books is also plausible.

Could be both, I've no idea, I'd heard it was a nod to the song 'Run rabbit, run' though more than once before. Could just be one of those 'rumors', and I don't know any of the Pink Floyd members well enough to ask them myself. lol

With PF, yes, it could indeed be both.

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Capitalize on this good fortune, one word can bring you round ... changes.

Goldfish do have a longer memory, it was on MithBusters. They trained goldfish to swim through rings.

Goldfish do have a longer memory, it was on MithBusters. They trained goldfish to swim through rings.

I think you mean mythbusters, yes they did test goldfish through a course, i think it was Jamie. How do they remember to come up the top of the water too feed? or go crazy when their master looks in their glass tank with a sealed lid on top so my cat Zazo won't eat them? O_o

Trust me, they might not be the brightest pets, but they still deserve a equal life. Just like kitties!!!

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- Luke.

Its funny when at the end of the experiment Adam is stumped why he cant train his fish as well as Jamie and then as he's leaving the room he taps hard on the glass and all of them scatter and he says "Good night fish." And then Jamie comes back in and says "He wonders why he did so badly."

Its funny when at the end of the experiment Adam is stumped why he cant train his fish as well as Jamie and then as he's leaving the room he taps hard on the glass and all of them scatter and he says "Good night fish." And then Jamie comes back in and says "He wonders why he did so badly."

Hehehe, maybe it's true that tapping on the tank like that hurts them. My grandmother used to say it deafened and frightened them. Seems possible to me.

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A RABBIT loves licorice - but it is very bad for them because they cannot digest sugars.

DALMATIONS are the only breed of dog that gets gout (because they are the only mammals, other than humans, which produce uric acid).

SLUGS have four noses - well actually a pair of gills for breathing and a pair of rhinopores (chemosensory organs) used for smelling.

HONEYBEES have hairs on their eyes to help them collect pollen.

The left leg of a CHICKEN is tendered than the right one, which it uses most, therefore increasing muscle development.

The sperm of a MOUSE is longer than the sperm of an elephant.

MICE are highly promiscuous and need particularly large testes to keep up with demand.

More human deaths have been attributed to FLEAS than all the wars ever fought. As carriers of the bubonic plague, fleas were responsible for killing one third of the population of Europe in the 14th century.

A CAT uses its whiskers to determine if a space is too small to squeeze through.

GOLDFISH lose their color if kept in dim light. Much like humans getting a tan, they need sunlight to keep their pigment.

ALBATROSSES have a wing span of up to 14ft and need to land only once every couple of years to breed. They can travel hundreds of thousands of miles each flight.

Certain Chinese and American ALLIGATORS can survive the winter by freezing their heads in ice, leaving their nose out to breath for months on end.

DOLPHINS sleep with one half of the brain at a time, and one eye closed.

When two DOGS approach each other, the dog which wags its tail very slowly - showing anger - is in charge.

Some LIONS can mate more than 50 times a day.

If you lift a KANGAROO'S tail off the ground it can't hop - they use their tails for balance.

For every person there are roughly 200 million INSECTS.

A CROCODILE cannot stick its tongue out, because it is attached to the bottom of its mouth. This is why they appear to gulp their food down.

ELEPHANTS are the only mammals that can't jump.

CAMELS have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.

Many HAMSTERS blink only one eye at a time.

A FLAMINGO can eat only when its head is upside down. Its tongue pumps water through the sieve-like ridges that line its beak in order to trap microscopic algae.

A DOLPHIN'S hearing is so acute that it can pick up an underwater sound from 15 miles away.

BUTTERFLIES taste with their hind feet.

A SNAIL can sleep for three years if conditions are adverse (such as during a drought).

BEES have five eyes - three small ones on top of their head and two larger ones in front.

POLAR BEARS are the only mammal with hair on the soles of their feet. It helps them to get a good grip on icy surfaces, and also acts as a heat insulator.

Most ELEPHANTS weigh less than the tongue of a blue whale.

The only two animals that can see behind themselves without turning their head are the RABBIT and the PARROT.

PENGUINS can jump as high as 6ft in the air.

The last animal in the dictionary is the ZYZZYVA, a tropical weevil.

ELEPHANTS have been found swimming miles from shore in the Indian Ocean.

The leg bones of a BAT are so thin that they cannot walk.

GREAT WHITE SHARKS can go as long as three months without eating.

GOAT'S eyes have rectangular pupils, which enable them to watch over their broad, flat grazing area for predators.

KIWI BIRDS are blind and hunt by smell.

GIRAFFES have no vocal cords and communicate by vibrating the air around their necks.

A female OYSTER may produce 100 million young over her lifetime.

MOSQUITOES are attracted to the color blue twice as much as to any other color.

No two ZEBRAS have the same markings.

The longest recorded flight of a CHICKEN is 13 seconds.

A BEE must visit 4,000 flowers to make one tablespoon of honey.

By swallowing water, the PUFFER FISH becomes too big for other fish to swallow.

A full-grown BEAR can run as fast as a horse.

Female FLEAS drink 15 times their weight in blood every day.

When a GIRAFFE'S baby is born, it falls from a height of 6ft, usually without being hurt.

A DRAGONFLY can spot an insect moving 33ft away.

CAMEL milk does not curdle, because it has adapted to the desert heat.

POLAR BEARS can swim 60 miles without pausing for a rest.

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Calm Chaos Forum...Join Calm Chaos Now

Triskaidekaphobia means fear of the number 13.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia means fear of Friday the 13th (which occurs one to three times a year).

In Italy, 17 is considered an unlucky number.

In Japan, 4 is considered an unlucky number.

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Malcolm Lowry had pnigophobia—the fear of choking on fish bones.

Augustus Caesar had achluophobia—the fear of sitting in the dark.

Androphobia is a fear of men.

Caligynephobia is a fear of beautiful women.

Pentheraphobia is a fear of a mother-in-law.

Scopophobia is a fear of being looked at.

Phobophobia is a fear of fearing.

Mageiricophobia is the intense fear of having to cook.

Papaphobia is the fear of Popes.

Taphephobia is the fear of being buried alive.

Clinophobia is the fear of beds.

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