Did you know...

[Stevo Da Gull]

Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian, and had only ONE testicle

Hitler had a mostly vegetarian diet, but it's believed that he ate meat occasionaly - particularly Bavarian sausages, caviar and the rare slice of ham.
Nazi Herman Goring did however right a lot of the animal rights laws that are in place today - though re-worded. Many people believe that they were only keen to give animals rights so that they could place the jews on societies lowest rung. You know - you can't beat a dog but you can set fire to a jew, to put it bluntly and indelicately.

With regards to interesting vegetarian info, here's my contribution:
The roman gladiators were vegan, living mainly off a diet of barley.

[smellyfeet]

Home Farm FC hold the record for longest unbeaten run, they entered the Guinness World Record Books.
THE TEAM PLAYED 203 GAMES, WINNING 197, DRAWING 6, LOSING NONE, SCORING 1111 GOALS AND CONCEDING JUST 106.

Hitler was Austrian.

[pineapple stu]

Kids TV programme "Peppa Pig" is banned in Denmark because the little cartoon pig characters fail to wear seatbelts when Daddy Pig is driving his car.
On a similar note, it was on Have I Got News For You once that Postman Pat was banned in Japan because the characters had four fingers. This was a symbol of the yazuka (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza), the Japanese Mafia. Postman Pat was finally sold to Japanese telly in 2005. Seeing as almost all cartoon characters have only four fingers, it probably got too inconvenient to ban everything.


ive never been to new ross, but its tru about shannon, its kind of a cul de sac.
Was wondering what you meant there, but schumi's link kind of proves it. Nice spot!

[BigfeetBigsocks]

"Almost" is the longest word in the english dictionary where the letters are actually in alphabetical order

[pineapple stu]

And stewardesses is the longest word in the English language which is typed entirely with the left hand (if you type properly...)

[smellyfeet]

Was wondering what you meant there, but schumi's link kind of proves it. Nice spot![/QUOTE]

Only know this as live in Shannon

[thischarmingman]

Hitler had a mostly vegetarian diet, but it's believed that he ate meat occasionaly - particularly Bavarian sausages, caviar and the rare slice of ham.
Nazi Herman Goring did however right a lot of the animal rights laws that are in place today - though re-worded. Many people believe that they were only keen to give animals rights so that they could place the jews on societies lowest rung. You know - you can't beat a dog but you can set fire to a jew, to put it bluntly and indelicately.


The Nazi's were also into conservation, and were imstrumental in ensuring vast swathes of German and Polish forests are still around today.

Also, DYK:

There are more female than male university students in Iran.
The Great Wall of China is not visible from space (read about it in those great stocking-filler QI books but here's the snopes link. (http://www.snopes.com/science/greatwall.asp)).

[Lev Yashin]

Shannon is the only town in Ireland that you can't drive straight through....why would ya want too!!!! ;)

When firing a canon and counting down from 10...the British army dont say the number five as it sounds too like fire.

[dahamsta]

The Nazi's were also into conservation, and were imstrumental in ensuring vast swathes of German and Polish forests are still around today.

They also discovered that smoking was damaging to health decades before anyone else, and campaigned against it. I think the bad may have outweighed the good just a tad though.

[Pauro 76]

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

The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.

[Lionel Ritchie]

Loads of interesting DYKs about Hitler, the nazis and the second world war.

*Hitler declared war on exactly ONE country in the second world war ...I'll not make a quiz of it - United States.

*Mechanisation aspect of Blitzkrieg is well overstated -German Army in WW2 used easily as much horse drawn ordinace as in WW1. (over half a million horses used in Barbarossa alone!)

*All those silent colour film reels you may have seen of Hitler in the Berghof? Ever wonder what they were saying? Well now they know. By using 3-D imaging to turn the characters ...Hitler, Goebbels, Goering etc... around to face the camera -German lip readers have been able to reveal their conversations ... and they were pig ignorant $%^&ers off the clock as well.

[John83]

There are a huge number of expressions with their origins in naval terms. One that surprised me in particular is the instruction to "carry on". Most people picturing an old ship imagine all of the sails up, but in most winds, this wasn't the most efficient way to sail. Some of the sails would becalm the others, so the officer on watch would keep a careful eye on the wind and the trim of the sails to maximise the speed of the ship. "Carry on" was the order to lash everything up when the wind was just right. I'm not certain, but I think that this would usually occur when the wind was approaching from little behind the middle of the ship (abaft the beam, for you nautical types), though different ships handled significantly differently, and the way the load was stored and the degree to which the bottom of the hull was fouled also changed things a lot.

[bennocelt]

Loads of interesting DYKs about Hitler, the nazis and the second world war.


*All those silent colour film reels you may have seen of Hitler in the Berghof? Ever wonder what they were saying? Well now they know. By using 3-D imaging to turn the characters ...Hitler, Goebbels, Goering etc... around to face the camera -German lip readers have been able to reveal their conversations ... and they were pig ignorant $%^&ers off the clock as well.


wow tx for that, fascinating stuff, any links for that last one?

[pineapple stu]

The longest one-syllable word in the English language is screeched.
Wikipedia disagrees (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_longest_English_words_with_one_syllabl e). ;)

And I found this while wikipediaing too - the longest word in English (http://www.sarahmcculloch.com/luminaryuprise/longest-word.html), at a mere 189,819 letters.

[dahamsta]

wow tx for that, fascinating stuff, any links for that last one?

+1 for this. Without the actual details, this is just silly.

[John83]

Wikipedia disagrees (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_longest_English_words_with_one_syllabl e). ;)
That's the worst list I've ever read. It's full of archiac words, dialect words, made up words in obscure games or fiction, and an Americanised pronunciation. How do you justify squirrelled on the basis of how Americans mispronounce it when you include strengthed, ignoring that it was pronounced with two syllables when it was last used (in 1614)?

Pauro wins this round by any rheashonable* definition of the "English language".

*Rheashonable (the 'h's are silent) is my dialect spelling of the word reasonable. It's pronounced "zə", and as such, I win.

[smellyfeet]

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

[Schumi]

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.http://mythbustersresults.com/episode8

[Bluebeard]

And I found this while wikipediaing too - the longest word in English (http://www.sarahmcculloch.com/luminaryuprise/longest-word.html), at a mere 189,819 letters.

Seeing as it is the week that is in it, do you know what that is in Irish?

[A N Mouse]

There are a huge number of expressions with their origins in naval terms. One that surprised me in particular is the instruction to "carry on". Most people picturing an old ship imagine all of the sails up, but in most winds, this wasn't the most efficient way to sail. Some of the sails would becalm the others, so the officer on watch would keep a careful eye on the wind and the trim of the sails to maximise the speed of the ship. "Carry on" was the order to lash everything up when the wind was just right. I'm not certain, but I think that this would usually occur when the wind was approaching from little behind the middle of the ship (abaft the beam, for you nautical types), though different ships handled significantly differently, and the way the load was stored and the degree to which the bottom of the hull was fouled also changed things a lot.

Another is 'you couldn't swing a cat [in here]'

The cat being the cat of nine tails, and it couldn't really be used in the confines below decks.

[Lionel Ritchie]

wow tx for that, fascinating stuff, any links for that last one?


+1 for this. Without the actual details, this is just silly.

Let me do a little research later this evening when I've time. for now I know I was watching it only very recently on Discovery or History channel. Programme/series/weekend special may well have been called The Third Reich in Colour.

It did indeed have their conversations revealed, decoded, whatever and they were quite frank and explicit and rude, even about each other, at times. Why wouldn't they be? The camera filming them was 8mm film with no audio capabilities (usually Eva Braun, one of her mates or Albert Schpeer doing the filming). They weren't to know that 70 years after their words were spoken the technology would be out there to enable deaf mutes to tell the world what they were saying.

[Bluebeard]

The moral of the story?

"And they'd have got away with it too, if it weren't for those pesky aurally challenged kids".

[Lionel Ritchie]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1534830/New-technology-catches-Hitler-off-guard.html

http://www.freshdv.com/2006/12/automated-lip-reading-adds-hitlers-voice-to-previously-silent-films.html

and the programme itself is embedded here (http://www.documentingreality.com/forum/f181/revealed-hitlers-private-world-2006-a-21782/)...

from about 25mins in there's reconstructs of Hitlers comments.

[dahamsta]

Fab, thanks LR. Unfortunately the video isn't working though!

[Lionel Ritchie]

Fab, thanks LR. Unfortunately the video isn't working though!

Odd -was working on the laptop at home but isn't here.

[smellyfeet]

Kilkenny born architect James Hoban designed the White House and also the official residence of the Irish president, Aras an Uachtarain. Looks like US President Elect Obama will have another connection to Ireland in addition to his great-great-great-grandfather!*

[atfconline]

Kilkenny born architect James Hoban designed the White House and also the official residence of the Irish president, Aras an Uachtarain. Looks like US President Elect Obama will have another connection to Ireland in addition to his great-great-great-grandfather!*

Except the Aras was built 7 years before Hoban was even born. ;)

He is said to have based his desgin of the White House on Leinster House however.

[strangeirish]

John Philip Holland (29 February, 1840 – 2 August, 1914) was an Irish engineer who developed the first submarine to be formally commissioned by the U.S. Navy and the first ever Royal Navy submarine, the Holland 1.

He was one of four brothers who may have been born in Liscannor, County Clare, Ireland to an Irish speaking mother, Máire Ní Scannláin, and John Holland, and learned English properly only when he attended the local English-speaking National School system and, from 1858, in the Christian Brothers in Ennistymon. Holland joined the Irish Christian Brothers in Limerick and taught in Limerick and many other centers in the country including North Monastery CBS in Cork City. Due to ill health, he left the Christian Brothers in 1873.

[smellyfeet]

Kilkenny born architect James Hoban designed the White House and also the official residence of the Irish president, Aras an Uachtarain. Looks like US President Elect Obama will have another connection to Ireland in addition to his great-great-great-grandfather!*


Except the Aras was built 7 years before Hoban was even born. ;)

He is said to have based his desgin of the White House on Leinster House however.



http://www.diddlyi.com/profiles/blogs/ireland-did-you-know

[passinginterest]

"The Father of the American Navy" Commodore John Barry was born in Tacumshane, County Wexford, Ireland.

Probably the most famous person born in the same townland as me!

[A N Mouse]

Kilkenny born architect James Hoban designed the White House and also the official residence of the Irish president, Aras an Uachtarain. Looks like US President Elect Obama will have another connection to Ireland in addition to his great-great-great-grandfather!*

Eh?

DYK that President Elect referred to the person who won the election, but hadn't, yet, taken up office?

[SkStu]

cut and paste job.... :bad:

[BigfeetBigsocks]

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words :rofl:

If you were to spell out numbers, you would have to go until 1000 before you find the letter "A"
One thousand

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

[SkStu]

one hundred and one

[DeLorean]

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words :rofl:

You spelled it wrong. It's actually hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia!!!:o

[BigfeetBigsocks]

one hundred and one

if you write out numbers and its 101 not 100 and 1

[SkStu]

i think i know how i write my numbers out thank you very much... ;)

[strangeirish]

O'Hara was born Maureen FitzSimons on the Lower Churchtown Rd in the Dublin suburb of Churchtown, Dublin 14, Ireland. She was the second oldest of six children by Charles Stewart Parnell FitzSimons and Marguerita Lilburn FitzSimons. Her father was a Dublin businessman and part owner of Shamrock Rovers Football Club, whom she has supported since childhood.

[SkStu]

O'Hara was born Maureen FitzSimons on the Lower Churchtown Rd in the Dublin suburb of Churchtown, Dublin 14, Ireland. She was the second oldest of six children by Charles Stewart Parnell FitzSimons and Marguerita Lilburn FitzSimons. Her father was a Dublin businessman and part owner of Shamrock Rovers Football Club, whom she has supported since childhood.

yeah remember her on the late late saying that a couple of years back. Scum ;) :wink:

and she's no Johnny Logan, thats for sure - eurovision wins on the table please.

[sligoman]

and she's no Johnny Logan, thats for sure - eurovision wins on the table please.I've been meaning to ask, how did the Bohs/Logan thing start?

[saint dog]

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was writen by Ian Fleming , better know for his James Bond novels


There are 32 pods on the London eye. They are numbered 1-33, but pod no. 13 is skipped....

this is common in american hotels , as stevie wonder would say """"very superstitious """""

[stann]

Ultravox's 1981 synthpop classic Vienna was written about Leonard Rossiter's cat in the sitcom Rising Damp.

[The Fly]

He is said to have based his desgin of the White House on Leinster House however.

Indeed he did. The ground and first floors were used as the floor model for the White House, while the house itself was used as a model for the original White House exterior.

Another architecture related fact for you, did you know that the Irish Houses of Parliament, or as it is now known - the Bank of Ireland, on College Green, was the first purpose built two-chamber parliament building in the world.

[Lionel Ritchie]

Hitler only ever declared war once. That was on the USA.

[smellyfeet]

did you know that a trillion dollars looks like this.

http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

[The Fly]

did you know that a trillion dollars looks like this.

http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTInnzJQHdLmMwBKyXSfiWW1Y55h-WrdLH_NlFVhpaOH48V-d4&t=1&usg=__1dxFPQnuexBQqGqdc3VQq9JiuJ0=

[smellyfeet]

Did you know that Irelands all time record holder for International goals is actually Olivia O'Toole and not Robbie Keane.
O'Toole has 53 International goals to her name whilst Keane stands at 45.

[sligoman]

Sweet potatoes are a natural stool hardener for dogs :).

[Paddyfield]

If a duck's bottom is not wet then the duck is not in water.

[dahamsta]

If a duck's bottom is not wet then the duck is not in water.

Reminds me of a Sean Lock line: "Did you know, sharks will only attack you when you're wet. That's a fact that is."