# Believe it or not....... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 11, 2000, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/believe-it-or-not/45035 "2000-12-11T17:04:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Vestal\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5e9695/32.png) [@Vestal\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vestal_Blue)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2000, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/believe-it-or-not/45035/1 "2000-12-11T17:04:40Z")
This is truly mundane and pointless… A cockroach will live nine days without its head, before it starves to death. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out. A snail can sleep for three years. All Polar bears are left-handed. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class. Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day. An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain. Babies are born without knee caps. They don’t appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age. Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour. Butterflies taste with their feet. Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, dogs only have about ten. Cat’s urine glows under a black light. China has more English speakers than the United States. Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he doesn’t wear pants. Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors. Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump. Every time you lick a stamp, you’re consuming 1/10 of a calorie. February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon. Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure. I am. is the shortest complete sentence in the English language If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall and have a neck twice the length of a normal human’s neck. If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction. If you fart consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb. If you keep a goldfish in a dark room, it will eventually turn white. If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee. In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes. In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated. It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors. Marilyn Monroe had six toes. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined. More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes. No word in the English language rhymes with month. Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously. On average, people fear spiders more than they do death. One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today is because cotton growers in the '30s lobbied against hemp farmers, they saw it as competition. Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do. Shakespeare invented the word “assassination” and “bump.” Some lions mate over 50 times a day. Starfish haven’t got brains. Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand. The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated. The average human eats eight spiders in their lifetime at night. The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds. The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns. The electric chair was invented by a dentist. The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet. The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male’s head off. The most common name in the world is Mohammed. The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with. The name Wendy was made up for the book “Peter Pan.” The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites. The sentence, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses every letter in the English language. The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue. The word “lethologica” describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want. The word racecar and kayak are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left. There are two credit cards for every person in the United States. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard. Women blink nearly twice as much as men. You are more likely to be killed by a Champagne cork than by a poisonous spider. You can’t kill yourself by holding your breath. You share your birthday with at least nine million other people in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2000, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/believe-it-or-not/45035/2 "2000-12-11T17:10:24Z")
You DO realise that we’re all arming our Bullshit Rifles now, don’t you? A lot of these statements BEG to be shot at. ---
**Author:** ![Vestal\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5e9695/32.png) [@Vestal\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vestal_Blue)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2000, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/believe-it-or-not/45035/3 "2000-12-11T17:40:39Z")
LOL! Hiya Coldy! Fire away, buddy; I don’t claim authorship, and the only one I know to be true is the one about the dentist inventing the electric chair (Surely the learning channel wouldn’t lie to me?) ---
**Author:** ![Nika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ba9def/32.png) [@Nika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nika)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2000, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/believe-it-or-not/45035/4 "2000-12-11T17:45:44Z")
TOO MUCH TIME!!! 🙂 very entertaining and enlightening though. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2000, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/believe-it-or-not/45035/5 "2000-12-11T20:03:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Vestal Blue \* > **Some lions mate over 50 times a day.** And the other lions call them sluts behind their back. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2000, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/believe-it-or-not/45035/6 "2000-12-11T20:38:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Vestal Blue \* > > Babies are born without knee caps. They don’t appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age. Well, I can physical evidence that this one is wrong. Lil Baby Kate caught me upside the head with hers over the weekend. Hmmm…maybe she’s a mutant. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2000, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/believe-it-or-not/45035/7 "2000-12-11T21:48:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Vestal Blue \* > **Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he doesn’t wear pants.** [This](http://www.urbanlegends.com/disney/donald_duck_ban.html) should put that to rest. > [@](#): > > **Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump.** I’m pretty sure snakes and slugs can’t jump either. > [@](#): > > **Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.** Why do you think all the other species have sex then? Because they know it will produce offspring? Doubtfull. I’m pretty sure the only creatures who have sex for any reason other than pleasure are devout Catholics. > [@](#): > > **It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.** Been there, done that. Feels weird as hell, but it can be done. > [@](#): > > **Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.** So’s dirt. 🙂 > [@](#): > > **Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.** Using the hunt-n-peck form of typing, I can type any arbitrarily long word with my left hand. > [@](#): > > **The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.** I will test this as soon as my roommate comes home. Mwahahaha! > [@](#): > > **The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male’s head off.** Only one species of mantis exhibits the “bite his head off” behavior. An interesting actual fact (according to PBS’s Nature, anyway) is that the male’s body can continue to, um, perform his conjugal duties even without his head. > [@](#): > > **The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.** Only if you count North and South America as a single continent called “America”. That was fun. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![HannibalV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@HannibalV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HannibalV)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2000, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/believe-it-or-not/45035/8 "2000-12-11T21:53:45Z")
I, for one, can certainly sneeze with my eyes open. It’s a practiced skill. I tend to sneeze in sequences of about ten at a time–huge, racking things that cause my entire self to spasm. Now imagine doing it while driving 70 miles an hour. Really helps to be able to sneeze with your eyes open then. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2000, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/believe-it-or-not/45035/9 "2000-12-11T22:10:57Z")
[ul] [li]I am. is the shortest complete sentence in the English language[/li] An imperitave is a complete sentance, “Go.” works, as do many other verbs. [li]If you fart consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.[/li] Someone didn’t do the math here. [li]Shakespeare invented the word “assassination” and “bump.”[/li] Deriving that from the much older word assasin - it dates from the time of the crusades - isn’t exactly inventing a word. [/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Vestal\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5e9695/32.png) [@Vestal\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vestal_Blue)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2000, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/believe-it-or-not/45035/10 "2000-12-12T00:19:14Z")
Watching you people shoot at these is as much fun as having posted’em! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![oldscratch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@oldscratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oldscratch)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2000, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/believe-it-or-not/45035/11 "2000-12-12T00:39:26Z")
Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors. false and icredibly stupid. why did you post this? ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2000, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/believe-it-or-not/45035/12 "2000-12-12T00:56:14Z")
“If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.” This is absolutely 100% true…at a certain energy level. I’d be more impressed if you found a fact that says everyone screams exactly the same. “Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.” 18 whole acres, huh? Wow, I’m really lagging behind here. Oh wait…you were talking about ALL Americans. “All Polar bears are left-handed.” I thought only monkeys wrote Shakespeare. Honestly, what kind of test did they give them? Besides, wouldn’t they be left pawed? And if so, which one? "I am. is the shortest complete sentence in the English language " You know what the longest sentence is? “I do” Thank you! I be here all the week! ---
**Author:** ![Danalan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@Danalan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danalan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2000, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/believe-it-or-not/45035/13 "2000-12-12T02:47:35Z")
> [@](#): > > Cat’s urine glows under a black light. As does human, and many other animal’s urine. In fact, urine’s visibility in UV light is a major factor in hunting methods for many birds. > [@](#): > > Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors. I think this should be organ donors. > [@](#): > > February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon. Depends upon whose history record you mean. > [@](#): > > In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated. Even assuming this refers to species of animals, there have been some new species bred in the last 4000 years. > [@](#): > > Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older. Based on 100 year old medical technology. With current technology, this limit is doubtful at best. > [@](#): > > The average human eats eight spiders in their lifetime at night. Didn’t Cecil debunk this recently? > [@](#): > > The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns. This depends upon average speed, and several other factors. The real problem with this is the reference to diesel. Most ships burn fuel oil, not diesel. They usually use diesel only for the emergency generators. > [@](#): > > There are two credit cards for every person in the United States. I think this may be low, although I lack official data. > [@](#): > > You are more likely to be killed by a Champagne cork than by a poisonous spider. This obviously depends upon where you live – one would have to consume a lot of champagne in Australia to make the ratio work out. > [@](#): > > You share your birthday with at least nine million other people in the world. That should be 16 million. Vestal, we’re supposed to be fighting ignorance here, even in MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![Danalan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@Danalan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danalan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2000, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/believe-it-or-not/45035/14 "2000-12-12T03:22:33Z")
> [@](#): > > quote: There are two credit cards for every person in the United States. > > I think this may be low, although I lack official data. OK, in 1996 there were 1.4 billion credit cards in circulation. That’s about 5 per person, and that includes children. Who want’s to bet there are more now? Any bets on double that number? I suspect your list has been kicking around a while, Vestal. Like 10 years or so. ---
**Author:** ![Skwerl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Skwerl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skwerl)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2000, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/believe-it-or-not/45035/15 "2000-12-12T04:03:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by oldscratch \* > \*\*Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors. > false and icredibly stupid. > \*\* Really! Everyone knows Al Gore invented scissors. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2000, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/believe-it-or-not/45035/16 "2000-12-12T04:21:38Z")
Oh man, what a tease. You know that some of these have been addressed by the master? Some of them may be true, but many are not. \>All Polar bears are left-handed. I seem to recall reading somewhere this was deduced from observing 3 polar bears. Not exactly a statistically valid set. Wish I had a link. \>Cat’s urine glows under a black light. So do a lot of biological emissions. \>Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump. BlackKnight correctly pointed out that “animals” is much broader than “mammals”. According to Jill, hippos cannot jump either. [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhippo.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhippo.html) I would imaging rhinos would have trouble jumping, too, but I’m not certain. So elephants aren’t even the only mammals that can’t jump. (And let’s not forget white me. I crack me up.) \>Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure. I suspect that is a corrupted phrasing of what was meant. All mammals have sex for pleasure - it’s part of their drive. However, most are trapped to the estrus cycle - they have periods of going into heat and not. I suspect what was meant was these were the only species that have sex for pleasure without regard to cycle. However, even that isn’t true. What about bonobos (pygmy chimps)? \>If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall and have a neck twice the length of a normal human’s neck. Hmm, I guess they were scaling by waist size instead of height. I would think the more natural thing would be scale her height to “normal” size, and then look at her measurements. However, her neck proportion would still be long. \>In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated. That begs the question of what is meant by domesticated. 4000 years is a short amount of time when talking about changes to a species’ behavior patterns. Consider efforts being made with emus, ostriches, ferrets. What about goldfish? \>One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today is because cotton growers in the '30s lobbied against hemp farmers, they saw it as competition. This one is true. \>The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated. I have to wonder how they determined this. What exactly is intoxicating to ants? How many different ants did they sample? How many different ant species? There could be a reason (see how frogs throw up their stomachs when the throw up, and always to the same side - it has to do with the construction of their internal organs), but the conclusion seems specious. \>The average human eats eight spiders in their lifetime at night. See Staff Report [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mspidereat.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mspidereat.html) \>The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male’s head off. Nope. See Preying Manti > **[Does Mrs. Mantis bite Mr. Mantis’s head off during The Act?](https://www.straightdope.com/21341541/does-mrs-mantis-bite-mr-mantis-s-head-off-during-the-act)** > > Dear Cecil: > I want the dirt. Is Mrs. Mantis really guilty of biting off Mr. Mantis's head immediately after they consummate their mantis marriage? I hear it's only a vicious rumor and that Mrs.... ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2000, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/believe-it-or-not/45035/17 "2000-12-12T04:25:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by HannibalV \* > \*\*…Now imagine doing it while driving 70 miles an hour. > > Really helps to be able to sneeze with your eyes open then. \*\* \Back in the late 70’s there was a PSA that showed a woman sneezing and crashing into the back of the car in front of her. I believe the point of the ad was that one should not follow too closely, but instead of carrying that message away from it, I’ve just been afraid to sneeze while driving ever since. \