[shuttertalk]

Some interesting trivia to brighten up your day...

"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and "lollipop" with your right.
(Bet you tried this out mentally, didn't you?)

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

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "MT".
(Are you doubting this?)

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

The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.
( Now, you KNOW you're going to try this out for accuracy, right?)

The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).
(Yep, I knew you were going to "do" this one.)

There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
(You're not doubting this, are you?)

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."
(Yes, admit it, you are going to say . A e I o u.)

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
(All you typists are going to test this out.)

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
(Some days that's about what my memory span is)

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.
(I know some people that could do this, too.)

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

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 .

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

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

If the population of China walked past you, 8 abreast, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite!

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

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

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

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
(Good thing he did that.)

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

There are more chickens than people in the world.

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

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

[Toad]

Interesting reading - but a lot of it is not true, I'm afraid...

1. Peanuts might possibly be used in dynamite as a stabilizing agent, but that would be just one of many such agents, and their use is extremely uncommon. Charcoal, gun cotten and woodmeal are far more common.

2. Scissors (bronze shears) were common in Egypt in the 3rd century BC. In the Fifth Century, the scribe Isidore of Seville, describes cross-bladed shears or scissors with a center pivot as tools of the barber and tailor."

3. There is evidence of domestic ferrets in Europe up to 2500 years ago - but not earlier.

4. The story about the birth of Winston Churchill is an urban legend. He was born in Blenheim Palace.

5. Kneecaps form about the fourth month of fetal life. However, they don’t show up on x-ray very well because they’re not ossified, or bony. At this point in life, the kneecaps are made of a cartilaginous material. The growth centers surrounding the kneecap form late in developmental life in utero and may not appear until just before or just after the infant is born. - Edward Gotlieb, M.D., Pediatrics

6. The average newborn’s eyeball is about 18 millimeters in diameter, from front to back (axial length); it grows slightly to a length of approximately 19½ millimeters as an infant; and it continues to grow gradually to a length of about 24-25 millimeters, or about 1 inch, in adulthood.

7. Because the month of February has only 28 days (or 29 in a leap year), there have been a few occasions during which this month has been without a full moon. In particular, there was no full moon in February of 1866, 1885, 1915, 1934, 1961 or 1999. In these years, there were instead either two full moons in January, March, or both (as in 1999). In the leap year of 1972, there was a full moon on February 29.

Need I go on?

[Toad]

I also doubt the figure about people in China marching past you 8 abreast.

In 2006, the population of China was 1,313,973,713 with a birth rate of 13.25 / 1000 and a death rate of 6.97 / 1000 (can't count the births without the deaths, can you?). That would leave a yearly net increase of 8,251,755 people or 16 per minute.

In lines of 8 abreast that is only 2 columns per minute - more like a zombie shuffle pace than a walk.. At fixed birth and death rates, eventually all the people would pass by you and the line would end.

I realize this is getting a bit ridiculous - but I am having fun now...

[shuttertalk]

Lol, thanks for the info Toad...

Methinks someone has too much time on their hands though...

[NT73]

I hoped that my kneecaps were covered in soft pink skin, and not appearing at all.
They were. so I was told.

[alastair_hm]

If the population of China walked past you, 8 abreast, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

They don't know where I live so there

[navis01]

Well its some interesting things. Some I knew, many I did not. Favourite is that cats have 32 muscles in their ears! Toad, you are scarily knowledgeable about these things!

[Toad]

Toad, you are scarily knowledgeable about these things!

Just a skeptical mind, and the wonder of Google...