Saturday, February 22, 2014

A Plethora Of Useless Information – Or Is It














Okay, Peeps.  It’s useless information time.  Regardless of what Oscar proclaimed, there is plenty of useless stuff to know.  To prove it, below are some facts good only for Trivial Pursuit games and drunken conversations at parties.

Note taking is encouraged…

Glass takes one million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an infinite amount of times!

Gold is the only metal that doesn't rust, even if it's buried in the ground for thousands of years.

Your tongue is the only muscle in your body that is attached at only one end.

If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink more water. When a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism shuts off.

Zero is the only number that cannot be represented by Roman numerals.

Kites were used in the American Civil War to deliver letters and newspapers.

The song, Auld Lang Syne, is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the New Year.

Drinking water after eating reduces the acid in your mouth by 61 percent.

Peanut oil is used for cooking in submarines because it doesn't smoke unless it's heated above 450F.

The roar that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins in the ear.

Nine out of every 10 living things live in the ocean.

The banana cannot reproduce itself. It can be propagated only by the hand of man. (Which makes me wonder about the first banana and who decided to replant it?  Where did it come from and how did it end up in the exact place it needed to be to let a man-like thing replant it?  And why did the man-like thing think of doing so?)

Airports at higher altitudes require a longer airstrip due to lower air density. (Yet an airplane can take off in a shorter distance in colder weather???)

The University of Alaska spans four time zones.

The tooth is the only part of the human body that cannot heal itself.

In ancient Greece, tossing an apple to a girl was a traditional proposal of marriage. Catching it meant she accepted.

Warner Communications paid $25 million for the copyright to the song Happy Birthday. (The copyright has been bought and sold many time, but TW bought the owning company, Birch Tree Ltd, in 1998.)

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

A comet's tail always points away from the sun.

The Swine Flu vaccine in 1976 caused more death and illness than the disease it was intended to prevent.

Caffeine increases the power of aspirin and other painkillers. That is why it is found in some medicines.

The military salute is a motion that evolved from medieval times, when knights in armor raised their visors to reveal their identity.

If you get into the bottom of a well or a tall chimney and look up, you can see stars, even in the middle of the day.

When a person dies, hearing is the last sense to go.  The first sense lost is sight.

In ancient times strangers shook hands to show that they were unarmed.

Strawberries are the only fruits whose seeds grow on the outside.

Avocados have the highest calories of any fruit at 167 calories per 100 grams (.22 pounds).

The moon moves about two inches away from the Earth each year.

The Earth gets 100 tons heavier every day due to falling space dust.

Due to earth's gravity it is impossible for mountains to be higher than 15,000 meters (9.3 miles).

Mickey Mouse is known as "Topolino" in Italy.

Soldiers do not march in step when going across bridges because they could set up a vibration which could be sufficient to knock the bridge down. (I claim bullshit on this one.  I have never seen a marching Army change random steps when crossing a bridge.)

Everything weighs one percent less at the equator.

For every extra kilogram (2.2 lbs) carried on a space flight, 530 kg (1,168.5 lbs) of excess fuel is needed at lift-off.

The letter J does not appear anywhere on the periodic table of the elements.

WAIT!!!  If you can use this information for games and inebriated conversations then it isn’t useless, is it?  What a conundrum!

Anyway, regardless of ‘is it’ or ‘ain’t it’, go play your game or drink you drink. 

You’re welcome.


10 comments:

Linda said...

None of those things are useless. Almost all of them have provided me a subject to explore...lol

On the MAT, a test to get into grad school, one useless fact helped me score high. When I was fourteen, I learned that Deuterium was an isotope of Hydrogen. I dredged that up 30+ years later. I did not even know that I knew it, but it was there, just trash in my mind!

I love trivia.



Ed Bonderenka said...

In Basic, we changed step over a bridge, but I never marched over a bridge after that :)

Janie Junebug said...

I'm not thirsty. I wonder if I'll die from dehydration.

Love,
Janie

lotta joy said...

When a person dies, hearing is the last sense to go. The first sense lost is sight

How do they know?

Ask a corpse if it can hear you. If it can, does it blink or raise its hand....hmmmm.

Ed Bonderenka said...

Yeah, but did you know you can save 15% on your car insurance?

Coffeypot said...

Linda, it is all knowledge, but, honestly, I have no idea what you were talking about. I was an accountant.

Ed, The only bridge I marched across was the bridge from Camp Nimitz to the main base in boot camp in San Diego. But we were all in step. And you last comment had me laughing.

Janie, be stuck in an arid desert and see how the thirst goes.

LJ, Good question. I guess they ask them.

Old NFO said...

Time sinks are what those are... :-)

Dizzy-Dick said...

All those are correct except for the comet's tail. A comet has two tails, one points away from the sun and the other trails behind in the path that the comet took. First time visitor, but I will be back.

Momma Fargo said...

The death thing is creepy. And how do they know? LMAO

Rita said...

I saw a documentary once that indicated corn also cannot propagate itself. I was left with the same questions you had.

I knew a lady that got encephalitis from the Swine Flu shot in 76.

I think I'll go love at the equator.