Did you know...

[DeLorean]

I'm not sure if there's a thread similar to this already. It's basically just a place to put things that you have recently become aware of or found interesting. Obviously it should be something that you would think a lot of people do not know already. I'll start with something that I only became aware of recently...

Ray Houghton has worked for Sports Interactive as a consultant on their PC & Xbox360 game Football Manager since 2002.



Note: It doesn't have to relate to Football/Sport.

[the 12 th man]

Mel Gibson's mother is from Longford and has a life long devotion to St Mel (same name as the catederal in Longford) and named her famous son after him.

[oscar]

windmills always turn anti clockwise,except here in Ireland

[strangeirish]

During your lifetime, you'll eat about 60,000 pounds of food, that's the weight of about 6 elephants!( Pat Dolan excluded);)

[TheBoss]

They are more galaxies in the universe than grains of sand on earth.

[pineapple stu]

During your lifetime, you'll eat about 60,000 pounds of food, that's the weight of about 6 elephants!( Pat Dolan excluded);)
On a similar note, in pre-famine Ireland, peasants ate a stone weight of potatoes every day.

Also, in a similar vein to The Boss' post, there are more possible positions in a game of chess than there are atoms in the universe, I think. That's why it's not yet close to being solved (it's currently only solved for all positions with six pieces on the board). By contrast, draughts is a proven draw.

[gustavo]

There are no Dutch Elms left in Britain today - Completely wiped out

[juan]

Ketchup leaves the bottle at a speed of 13 miles per year

[Paddyfield]

The inscription on the grave of Elvis misspells his full name as per his birth cert.

[De Town]

A man wrote a 50,000 word novel without using the letter e. (too lazy to get the full details for ye at the moment as I'm writing from the iPhone.)

[superfrank]

There are no Burger Kings in Finland.

[osarusan]

The sooty shearwater has the longest migration distance.

[stann]

Mozzarella cheese is named in honour of legendary Smiths front man Morrissey.

[Onefootednopace]

A rabbit is unable to vomit.

[the lobster]

Should there be a crash, Prince Charles and Prince William never travel on the same airplane as a precaution.

[John83]

A rabbit is unable to vomit.
That's also true of rats (and most rodents - not Groundhogs though for some reason). Not shocking, you may suppose, as they're close relatives. Not true! Rabbits are more closely related to horses than to rats. My favourite piece of animal kingdom vomiting knowledge concerns wrinkled frogs, a species in which the vomiting response "varies seasonally". It leaves me with the image of a couple of zoologists in a lab going,
"Is it vomiting?"
"No."
"How about now?"
"No. Wait, yes. What did you do?"
"It's just gone midnight. I guess it's seasonal."

[kingdom hoop]

Bulimic rats must be really fat.

[Longfordian]

That's also true of rats (and most rodents - not Groundhogs though for some reason). Not shocking, you may suppose, as they're close relatives. Not true! Rabbits are more closely related to horses than to rats. My favourite piece of animal kingdom vomiting knowledge concerns wrinkled frogs, a species in which the vomiting response "varies seasonally". It leaves me with the image of a couple of zoologists in a lab going,
"Is it vomiting?"
"No."
"How about now?"
"No. Wait, yes. What did you do?"
"It's just gone midnight. I guess it's seasonal."


I knew Gremlins were real

[dahamsta]

windmills always turn anti clockwise,except here in Ireland

Feck off, really? Videos or it didn't happen. :)

EDIT My DYK: the word "gullible" doesn't appear in any dictionary.

EDIT2 And my own collection of DYK: 1 (http://verbo.se/did-you-know-2) 2 (http://verbo.se/did-you-know-3) 3 (http://verbo.se/did-you-know-4) 4 (http://verbo.se/did-you-know-5) Must start that again.

[SkStu]

Iceland has the oldest parliament in the world, the "Althing", founded in 930AD, and may be (loosely or arguably) called the oldest democracy in the world.

[brendy_éire]

Iceland has the oldest parliament in the world, the "Althing", founded in 930AD, and may be (loosely or arguably) called the oldest democracy in the world.

Very debatable, that one. San Marino's could be said to be older.
Isle of Man has the longest one that's been in continuous existance, althought it didn't have legislative powers for a time, so that mightn't count.

My DKY: A crocodile's tongue is attached to the top of its mouth.

[the lobster]

Shannon is the only town in Ireland that you can't drive straight through.

[pineapple stu]

Eh?

Try driving through New Ross - you have to go through it, come out and go back into it again before you finally get free.

[Battery Rover]

According to a British law passed in 1845, attempting to commit suicide was a capital offense. Offenders could be hanged for trying.

[saint dog]

The inscription on the grave of Elvis misspells his full name as per his birth cert.



well not really , its spells the name Aaron with two a,s as , birthcert spells it with one . which leads to the question is he really dead !!!

[the lobster]

Eh?

Try driving through New Ross - you have to go through it, come out and go back into it again before you finally get free.

ive never been to new ross, but its tru about shannon, its kind of a cul de sac.

[Battery Rover]

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple

[osarusan]

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple

How can one word be expected to rhyme with all of them?

yours,

P. Dant

[pineapple stu]

Also, it's not true. Hirple (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hirple) rhymes with purple, and I maintain lozenge rhymes with orange. En-plus-oneth is apparently a word (from maths) and rhymes with month, while silver rhymes with chilver. See more here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_without_rhymes).

In the meantime, I'll chip in with the news that America was named after Amerigo Vespucci. To get "America", Amerigo's name was Latinised (to Americus) and made feminine (to America) because all the other continents were girls.

[smellyfeet]

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple


How can one word be expected to rhyme with all of them?

yours,

P Dant.

Arrange rhymes with orange

sliver rhymes with silver

and Nurple sounds like purple, as in a purple nurple

[osarusan]

It depends on what you classify as 'rhyme.'

regarding Stu's point about lozenge and orange, only the last unstressed syllable could be considered a rhyme, which isn't really what rhyming is supposed to be, in my opinion.

[pineapple stu]

Lozenge is a half-rhyme apparently. But you don't know how I say "lozenge" :p

Sliver doesn't rhyme with silver, and arrange doesn't come close to orange. Completely different "a" before the "nge". I think it constitutes an eye-rhyme though (the last letters are the same, but they sound completely different).

There's some good orange rhymes on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_(word)#Rhyme). I like this one particularly -


Eating an orange
While making love
Makes for bizarre enj-
oyment thereof

[sligoman]

Whiskey is spelt with an 'e' in Ireland and America, while in Canada and Scotland it's spelt with no 'e'-Whisky.

Also, sligoman is not my real name.

[stann]

In the meantime, I'll chip in with the news that America was named after Amerigo Vespucci. To get "America", Amerigo's name was Latinised (to Americus) and made feminine (to America) because all the other continents were girls.

There is a groundswell of opinion that that is now unlikely to be the truth, if only because newly discovered or settled lands were NEVER named after first names, always surnames (Van Diemen's Land, Rhodesia, Pennsylvania etc..), unless it was of members of royalty (Louisiana, Queen Maud Land, Prince Edward Island and so on).
There is a very compelling argument, however, that it was named after a Welsh merchant called Americke, or maybe Ap Merrick as he's of Welsh stock, who sponsored voyages of discovery from Bristol to Newfoundland in the late 1400s.

[BigfeetBigsocks]

Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a Friday the 13th or
There is a city called Rome on every continent
and a final one
Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian, and had only ONE testicle

[smellyfeet]

As of January 1, 2004, the population of the United States increases by one person every 12 seconds. There is a birth every eight seconds, an immigrant is added every 25 seconds, but a death every 13 seconds

[pineapple stu]

There is a very compelling argument, however, that it was named after a Welsh merchant called Americke, or maybe Ap Merrick as he's of Welsh stock, who sponsored voyages of discovery from Bristol to Newfoundland in the late 1400s.
Hm.

Reminds me of an interesting story in one of Bill Bryson's books, which is that Colombus didn't discover America (not that anyone thinks he did anyway; St Brendan was obviously first there :) ). Anyways, the Brits had discovered it decades before but kept quiet because the fishing was hugely profitable. The idea of finding a whole, massive new landmass and just not telling anyone is superb.

I think wen the Pilgrim Fathers reached America - and very quickly started dying through incompetence - they were saved by kind Indians who happened to speak English.

In fact, for this whole thread, just go and read Bill Bryson's books.

[stann]

That's good advice for anyone, though it's QI I mainly get my info from these days. :D
I do also recall reading in a book about cod, called Cod if I'm not mistaken, that the Portugese were well aware of the existence of North America too, but kept it a closely guarded secret.
On that Pilgrim fathers thing, you're right, apparently one of the Indians they met had already crossed the Atlantic at least 6 times, and the first thing he said was to ask, in English, for some beer!

[dahamsta]

Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian, and had only ONE testicle

Dunno about the Rome one, though it seems likely. Neither of these are a given though, by any stretch of the imagination.

[pineapple stu]

apparently one of the Indians they met had already crossed the Atlantic at least 6 times
Going by Bryson again, when you say "cross the Atlantic", you should say "been seized, kidnapped and brought to England as a slave only to escape, return home and get re-kidnapped and re-escape".

Which strikes me as a bit careless on both sides.

[Infadel]

Adolf Hitler was Time magazine's person of the year in 1938

[dahamsta]

Adolf Hitler was Time magazine's person of the year in 1938

I was Person of the Year in 2006 (http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20061225,00.html).

[Longfordian]

That baby's going on the CV.

[stann]

For the past several seasons, the character of Butters on the South Park TV series has been voiced by Leonard Cohen.

[Paddyfield]

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.

[Pauro 76]

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

[osarusan]

There is a groundswell of opinion that that is now unlikely to be the truth, if only because newly discovered or settled lands were NEVER named after first names, always surnames (Van Diemen's Land, Rhodesia, Pennsylvania etc..), unless it was of members of royalty (Louisiana, Queen Maud Land, Prince Edward Island and so on).
There is a very compelling argument, however, that it was named after a Welsh merchant called Americke, or maybe Ap Merrick as he's of Welsh stock, who sponsored voyages of discovery from Bristol to Newfoundland in the late 1400s.

Interesting theory on first names versus surnames, but none of the examples you've given there are lands 'discovered' by the Spanish. Colombia (Columbus) would fit that theory though, as would the Phillipines.

Mostly the Spanish named places after where they were or what was found / seen there - Ecuador (equator), Honduras (deep water), Argentina (silver.....can't remember the other part)

[juan]

Interesting theory on first names versus surnames, but none of the examples you've given there are lands 'discovered' by the Spanish. Colombia (Columbus) would fit that theory though, as would the Phillipines.

Mostly the Spanish named places after where they were or what was found / seen there - Ecuador (equator), Honduras (deep water), Argentina (silver.....can't remember the other part)

Tina Turner was singing on the beach as they were arriving.

[Schumi]

Shannon is the only town in Ireland that you can't drive straight through.Cool. http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Dublin,+County+Dublin+City,+Ireland&ll=52.709675,-8.887939&spn=0.058657,0.154324&t=h&z=13


There are 32 pods on the London eye. They are numbered 1-33, but pod no. 13 is skipped....Same with car numbers in Formula 1.

[SkStu]

Iceland has the oldest parliament in the world, the "Althing", founded in 930AD, and may be (loosely or arguably) called the oldest democracy in the world.


Very debatable, that one..

in fairness.... ;)