More fake facts

[Derleth]

Tootsie Rolls were invented in 1896 when Leo Hirshfield named the candy after his daughter. Roll, an obese quadriplegic, was not well-loved.

Due to their long association with cephalopods, most Japanese people lack the retinal blind spot common to other humans.

[wellanuff]

Russians call russian roulette "Chinese roulette." It's a fact.

[runner pat]

Conservapedia

[slm2955]

Where are you getting these "facts" from?

[PlainJain]

Johannes Vermeer did not exist. All of the painting attributed to him were actually painted by a trained monkey named Jojo.

This is actually true

[drewtwo99]

A little known fact about alligator clips used in electronic circuits is that they were originally called crocodile clips, which is a more accurate name because they more closely resemble crocodile's mouths.

[Duckster]

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and nobody knows why. When AFLAC was looking for a new advertising plan, they chose a duck for this very reason.

Every autumn, farmers use their water navigation pipes attached to a vacuum pump to suck out all of the high fructose corn syrup from the soil in their fallow corn fields.

After hibernation, wild bear re-acclimate to their surroundings through a healthy diet, and knife fights.

By counting the rings in a tree trunk you can determine how many other trees it slept with.

[Punoqllads]

While most people associate spaghetti with Italy, the spaghetti tree is actually an invasive species originally from China.

Since pennies are made from both copper and zinc, a potato with twenty five pennies embedded in it in series can power a fifteen watt light bulb.

[drewtwo99]

It is commonly taught in grade school that the integer after fifteen is sixteen, but in many fields of technical science and engineering, the next integer is the rarely-heard-of wisserteen. For most elementary mathematics, wisserteen is close enough to sixteen to not have to be used.

[wellanuff]

The National Geographic magazine was so named because it was originally conceived as a monthly almanac featuring one state of the Union every month in rotation. The first issue was in October of 1888, and featured Delaware. The 44th issue in May, 1892, featured Wyoming, the final addition to the United States at that time. As planning for the June issue began, having completed one cycle through all of the states, upon finding that little had happened in the four years since the first issue to merit featuring Delaware again, the editorial board decided rather abruptly to deviate from the original plan for the magazine and feature a foreign country. Spain was selected as the first country to be featured.

There is a story that, several years later, while visiting the estate of a close friend for the weekend , William Randolph Hearst spent an evening reading a copy of the June 1892 issue on Spain that he had discovered on the bedside table in the guest room, and that it was the descriptions and illustrations in the magazine that gave him his first inklings that Spain and its empire might by easy pickings as a military opponent for the United States. Most serious scholars, however, believe this story to be apocryphal.

The June 1892 issue on Spain was the only issue in the magazine's history to bear the title "International Geographic." The original title "National Geographic" was restored for subsequent issues due primarily to aesthetic reasons, namely that the extremely narrow font that was required in order to fit the longer word "International" into a single line on the front page was felt to be displeasing to the eye. In addition, the name change had generated a large volume of letters from confused readers who were concerned that they had been sent an issue of a different magazine by mistake. Only seven copies of the uniquely named June, 1892 issue are known to still exist.

Although the magazine developed and refined its new global flavor, each new state that was added to the Union was featured individually in an article. The lone exception was Arizona, which was to be featured in the June, 1912, issue, but was bumped in order to feature coverage of the Titanic disaster and photographs of the arrival of survivors in New York City. The article on Arizona never ran, and in fact to this day the state of Arizona itself has never been featured in the magazine, although numerous articles have covered Arizona's Indian tribes, the Grand Canyon, and its desert flora and fauna.

There was some discussion of possibly publishing an article featuring Arizona in the February, 2012 issue to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Arizona's statehood, but this plan was shelved due to a perceived lack of interest in the centennial among the readership.

[wellanuff]

In 1955, a researcher working on a biography of Ty Cobb actually discovered that a two-hit game by Cobb in 1910 had been double-counted, and that Cobb's career hit total should be 4,189, not 4,191. Excited by the discovery, the researcher telephoned Mr. Cobb to report his findings. The famed Georgia Peach is variously reported to have replied with either "Who gives a flying fuck?" or "As if I could give a flying fuck." Mr. Cobb's brusque indifference to the exact total actually influenced the researcher to the extent that he decided not to go against baseball's official record book, and he therefore used the "4,191" figure in the biography.

The discovery was to remain forgotten for more than 25 years when it was uncovered independently by another researcher working for the Sporting News.

You could look it up.

[Little Nemo]

The historical consensus is that the Battle of Chickamauga never occurred. Due to poor quartermastering, both armies found they were missing a substantial amount of ammunition and couldn't account for its loss. Concerns about being held liable led to a series of covert communications between Generals Bragg and Rosecrans. They agreed to file reports that they had fought a battle, which would account for the missing ammunition. Support for the deception was achieved by various means: reporters wanted an opportunity to file stories, subordinate officers wanted chances for promotions, and the soldiers were bought off with a lottery which allowed several thousand of them to leave the army on the pretense that they had been casualties. The actual outcome of the supposed battle was decided by a coin toss.

[BubbaDog]

3 Facts about Teflon.

Teflon is so slick that it doesn't stick to anything.

It adheres to the base of the frying pan due to contractual obligation.

It took a team of lawyers (15 of them to be exact) 16 months to draw up the agreement.

[Machine Elf]

Originally Posted by BubbaDog

3 Facts about Teflon.

Teflon is so slick that it doesn't stick to anything.

It adheres to the base of the frying pan due to contractual obligation.

It took a team of lawyers (15 of them to be exact) 16 months to draw up the agreement.

I heard it was wisserteen lawyers.

[TriPolar]

Delaware used to be closed on Sundays. It's open on Sundays now, but nobody goes there anyway. The closing was due to the old 'Blue Laws', so named because they were only noticed in Blue States which are primarily populated by atheists. In the Red States they were just called 'Laws', generally believed to be part of the US Constitution, which is one of the books of the Bible.

[lieu]

Originally Posted by slm2955

Where are you getting these "facts" from?

Our butts, pretty much.

During the Oklahoma Land Rush participants raced to their property of choice and then struck a characteristic pose as a requirement for ownership.

[Cicero]

The Marianas Trench was visited 3 times in 1960. 20 minutes each time.

[Simplicio]

Originally Posted by slm2955

Where are you getting these "facts" from?

Almost all of them are from "Turing's Treasury of Trivial Tidbits", a collection of fake trivia written by British Computer scientist Alan Turing. Interestingly, the facts are fake because rather then being actually written by Turing, they were generated by an algorithm he created.

That same algorithm is generally considered to be the precursor to the modern "spam-bot".

[Alka Seltzer]

Originally Posted by drewtwo99

A little known fact about alligator clips used in electronic circuits is that they were originally called crocodile clips, which is a more accurate name because they more closely resemble crocodile's mouths.

We actually do call them crocodile clips over here in the UK, as we don't have alligators. We don't have crocodiles either, but we haven't had them for longer.

[RalfCoder]

The average fact takes about 22,300 brain cells to make up. Fact checking a real fact, however, takes 830,000 cells to verify.

The only way to tell an authentic fact checker from someone who made up all their "facts" requires the top of the skull to be removed, and the # of brain cells to be inventoried, so most people just say, "Eh... close enough".

[Cicero]

I you bang your head against a brick wall extremely hard, it really hurts.

And no one knows why.

[TriPolar]

The Nile is the only river south of the equator that flows south to north.

[tdn]

Tony Orlando was born in Houston, Texas, and Angelica Huston was born in Orlando, Florida.

Hens raised in the dark lay eggs with white yolks.

Cats will never face the setting Sun.

[campp]

If a moth lands in your hair, it will lay eggs and you'll go crazy.


- So says Barney Fife in the cave episode

[Duckster]

Originally Posted by lieu

Our butts, pretty much.

Thus revealing the alleged Dragnet phrase, "Just the facts, ma'am," really is a secret code among detectives and gumshoes. It's used during an investigation and interview of attractive women that really means, "God, what a tight ass!"

The secret code was a closely guarded secret, only revealed shortly before the death of Harry Morgan by Harry himself. It seems the only time when detectives felt comfortable sharing their interview notes (wink, wink, nod, nod) was the weekly mid-morning break held on Fridays at Mel's diner over a cup of coffee. Meeting times were scheduled through the police radio by calling for "Det. Joe Friday."

[DCnDC]

People can come up with statistics to prove anything. 14% of people know that.

[Rich G7subs]

I can't think of any! Where are all the Snapple caps when ya need 'em?!

[Alka Seltzer]

The tradition of buying a round of drinks can be traced back to the time of King Arthur. As can the game of strip billiards.

(What happens in Camelot, stays in Camelot.)

[Dr_Doom]

Originally Posted by Duckster

By counting the rings in a tree trunk you can determine how many other trees it slept with.

Winner!

[TriPolar]

Cleaning tips:

You can sop up spilt liquids with a piece of bread. This is why bread is known as Nature's Sponge.

You can clean seltzer stains with red wine. The two substances neutralize each other.

Beer is good for carpets and upholstery. It strengthens the fibers.

[Tapioca Dextrin]

Due to technical limitations, early movies had to shot as a mirror image, so right was left and left was right. It didn't really matter most of the time, as the their were very few exterior shots and no one really noticed anything was amiss. When location shooting became popular, this gave rise to a lot of challenges - every single set had to be painted back to front. This is why, for example the cars in a Keystone Kops movie didn't have number plates - it was too much effort for little reward.

Historical inertia being what it is, this tradition continues today. As much as 28% of a film's budget us spent painstakingly either dressing sets with backwards writing, or more likely it is spent altering regular writing digitally. Have you ever noticed that most films with car chases are shot on deserted streets? That's because everything has to closed off so that cars can drive on the left side of the road.

Have you ever wondered why so many actors are left handed in real life? It's in order that they can look right handed on the screen.

[Ludovic]

Ancient Sumerians came up with a way to preserve their leftover grains by mixing hops and grain in water and letting it ferment. They called this beverage Ancient Hop Grain Juice.

[Boyo Jim]

Every celebrity who has "died" since Richard Nixon has had their head kept alive in a fluid-filled jar. The television series Futurama is simply a public relations strategy to prepare the public for encounters with disembodied talking heads.

[Boyo Jim]

Rush Limbaugh once shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.

[Regallag_The_Axe]

Originally Posted by Duckster

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and nobody knows why.

This is a common misconception. While it is true that duck quacks don't normally echo, it is only true because ducks choose to do it that way. The only way to make a duck echo-quack is to grab it by its right wing and shout at it in Lithuanian while menacing it with a hammer. This was discovered in 1873 by Doctor Friedrich Haarlan Von Waltershmitingveldt Jr.

[VunderBob]

If you dock the tail of a 3 day old Boxer puppy, the puppy's tongue will grow freakishly large when it is an adult dog.

Lawyers are the larval form of politicians.

Copper wire was invented by 2 lawyers fighting over a penny.

[furryman]

William Taft did not install an extra large bathtub in the White House.
Men and women have the same number of ribs.

[Bootis]

Originally Posted by Regallag_The_Axe

This is a common misconception. While it is true that duck quacks don't normally echo, it is only true because ducks choose to do it that way. The only way to make a duck echo-quack is to grab it by its right wing and shout at it in Lithuanian while menacing it with a hammer. This was discovered in 1873 by Doctor Friedrich Haarlan Von Waltershmitingveldt Jr.

Here we go again. I can't believe these wackos keep trying to push this dangerous lie. Are there really people out there who still actually believe this?

[furryman]

Originally Posted by VunderBob

If you dock the tail of a 3 day old Boxer puppy, the puppy's tongue will grow freakishly large when it is an adult dog.

Lawyers are the larval form of politicians.

Copper wire was invented by 2 lawyers fighting over a penny.

Considering the fact that at least 50% of the presidents were lawyers this could be true.

[LegsAkimbo]

A few years ago my brother and I created a collection of Fact-Free Fables, based on this same concept. For example, did you know:

All nerves end in the feet. For this reason all duopeds, including humans, must spend a minimum of one hour per day wearing no footwear, with their legs propped up at such an angle as to assure that the subped, or the bottom of the foot, is not in contact with any surface. This is necessary to contradict the effect of wearing shoes.

When we wear shoes of any type, particularly shoes that lace across the top, we are compressing every one of our nerve endings. Often the effects of this compression can be felt in various parts of the body. Many headaches are a direct result of compressed nerve endings in the subfoot. New shoes are uniquely over-constricting and may cause swelling of a limb or appendage, resulting occasionally in a partial loss of function, or the “I’m all thumbs” syndrome. The eyelid twitch that most people have suffered at one time or another is virtually always traceable to constrictive footwear, since the nerve endings of the eyelids can be found on the outside edge of the ball of the foot, where the most compression occurs.

The doctor-approved remedy should be clear to all. One must spend at least an hour a day (in addition to the time spent with the feet propped up) without footwear, being certain that the entire foot is free of any contact or stimulation, so that the nerve endings in the subfoot can return to their natural position and condition.

I got a million of 'em....

[Bumbershoot]

The Orangutan was originally called the Orangutangadingdong. Experts decided that was too long and shortened it to Orangutang. Then they decided it was still a little too long and shortened it to Orangutan.

[campp]

Lifesavers were made by a guy who was tired of all the children choking to death on candy. He reasoned a hole would help them breathe better, and was named so because it saved lives.

[drewtwo99]

The inventor of the USB port, Ulysses Stanley Bryant, got his inspiration watching ships travel through the Panema Canal. He modeled USB transfer protocols after the methods that ship captains use to travel through the canal.

World War II is actually a poorly written fan-fiction sequel to World War I full of plot holes, convenient plot devices, flat characters, and unbelievable turns of event. For reasons unknown, it was so popular when it came out, that nations around the world quickly decided to embrace it as if it had actually happened, and it became standard school curriculum in the United States and all of Western Europe by 1951.

[AK84]

Yugoslavia comes from "You Go Slav!!!!". Believed to be a chant of football fans.

[Simplicio]

Originally Posted by drewtwo99

World War II is actually a poorly written fan-fiction sequel to World War I full of plot holes, convenient plot devices, flat characters, and unbelievable turns of event. For reasons unknown, it was so popular when it came out, that nations around the world quickly decided to embrace it as if it had actually happened, and it became standard school curriculum in the United States and all of Western Europe by 1951.

Just a heads-up. There's actually a bill in the UN that looks like it will pass to do this again. So our posters with young children should start thinking about what their cover story will be when their future children ask "Daddy, what did you do when the Empire destroyed Alderaan?"

[Winston Bongo]

Napoleon Bonaparte's real name was Dwayne Stubing.

Because of its close proximity to the sun, Mercury is the only planet in our solar system with no monkeys.

40% of all Americans say they do not know how to blow their nose.

Abraham Lincoln believed in the "paper Earth" theory.

Fort Knox actually contains 12% gold and 88% long-grain rice.

Benjamin Franklin invented not only bifocals, but also toast, Christmas socks, the word "has," and those large wooden spoons people hang on their walls.

[Mr. Miskatonic]

While we know about Gladiator games in ancient Rome, there was also the lesser known event of 'Emperor Dunking". This sport, while popular, was short lived and soon replaced with 'Ostrogoth Dunking'. Christian Emperors in later centuries outlawed the sport, then tried to bring it back a 1/2 dozen times. Scholars now believe that this sport was the ancestor of Disco.

[Gorsnak]

Originally Posted by VunderBob

If you dock the tail of a 3 day old Boxer puppy, the puppy's tongue will grow freakishly large when it is an adult dog.

This is actually true. Granted, its tongue will also grow freakishly large if you don't dock its tail.

Speaking of true facts about dog breeds, it's popularly believed that St. Bernards were bred to be rescue dogs by monks in the Swiss alps, with the iconic image of the St. Bernard with the small keg on its collar due to the practice of delivering spirits to those trapped by avalanche or what have you so that they might survive till rescuers could reach them. This was actually just a cover story for the true purpose of the dogs. The monks bred the St. Bernard as draft animal that would deliver illicit alcohol during the little known Swiss Prohibition period from 1820-1832.

[Gatopescado]

The 12-string Rickenbacker breaks in The Byrds Eight Miles High were put into the song as a deliberate attempt to create familial friction as part of the anti-Viet Nam effort. The subsequant radio ban was at the instigation of Robert McNamara from orders by Ladybird Johnson.

[TriPolar]

No one knows what the actual lyrics to the songs Louie, Louie and Wooly Bully are.