I hate my uncle.

Factual Questions
#1

He enjoys sending me those stupid urban legend chain emails - “There’s a bill in Congress that will tax your emails at 5 cents each”; “The Speaker of the House is going to retire with a pension of more than $150,000 a year”; etc.

Usually, with the help of you good folks here or those nice people over at Snopes, I can bust him and tell him he’s being stupid again.

This time he’s sent me a list titled “I bet you never knew…” with 30 unrelated factoids on them.
111,111,111x111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321.
A duck’s quack won’t echo.

Stupid stuff like that.

The problem is, some of these questions are truly driving me nuts. I’ve had this email for a couple of weeks and have been searching for the the truth or falsity of these questions without much success.

I don’t necessarily want the answers, although that would be nice. What I’d like to know is where and how you found these answers.

So…

It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year’s supply of footballs.

Ten percent of the Russian government’s income comes from the sale of vodka.

Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.

The mask used by Michael Myers in the original “Halloween” was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white.

And the one that is TRULY driving me nuts, because I thought I read/heard/saw this someplace before (and because I’ve driven through Tennessee and Kentucky):

The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.

My apologies if this doesn’t belong here…I just figured this was the best place to get the answers. Thanks much.

#2

The Interstate - airplane bit was covered in SDMB-useless facts

#3

Is it true the quack of a duck will not echo?

I also found this on the Internet Movie Database’s Trivia for Halloween

#4

Thanks, Funnee, for the link…like I said, I’ve spent a couple weeks looking for that stuff and couldn’t find it.

And Alpha, have already sent the duck’s quack things to the unc…but thanks much for the Halloween bit :slight_smile:

#5

"It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year’s supply of footballs. "

This is worded rather vaguely. Do we include practice balls? balls at training camp? balls that never get used?

I do remember reading (TTFWIW) that NFL games changed their balls on average of every 5 minutes. so that’s 12 balls per NFL Game. 16 games x 31 teams x 12 balls x .5 (since they play against each other) = 2976 balls for the regular season. 12 more games post-season (Wildcards, playoffs, Super Bowl, and Pro Bowl) is another 144 balls, making 3120 balls just used in games.

I think they could get more than one football per cow.
Yep. I’m just full of great information :rolleyes:

#6

Actually, mouthbreather, IIRC the home team has to supply 24 new footballs for each game.

The nit being picked, I’ll leave now.

#7

Type google.com into your browser.

“halloween shatner” brings me this:

Trivia bit: The original mask that Michael Myers wore was a slightly altered William Shatner/Capt. Kirk Halloween mask procured from a local Pasadena costume shop.

#8

I thought that footballs were made of pigskin.
Your uncle loves you. Cool.
Peace,
mangeorge

#9

I can further confirm the Michael Myers/Shatner mask one. It is mentioned in one of the extras on the Halloween DVD.

Baseball life span

This site says 5 piches. This one repeats the 7 figure you give.

Neither number would surprise me. A ball is taken out of after touching the ground only a few times at most. However, there is nothing at the MLB site or Rawlings (maker of official MLB baseballs) to confirm either number.

#10

According to this site footballs are made of cowhide.
http://www.rawlings.com/Products/Football/index.asp?nav=Football&subnav=none
So why do they call that show “Pigskin Preview”?
Shows you what kind of fan I am, huh? :slight_smile:
Thanks, obfusciatrist, for the hint on where to look.
Peace,
mangeorge

#11

Yeah, Horselover, and every website you get off of a search engine gives 100% factual information.

Obviously, an internet seach will turn up that info considering sandyr’s list came from the internet. I think sandyr was looking for reputable corroboration.

I’m sure sandy really appreciated the condescending browser lesson though.

#12

You know, it’s this kind of bitchiness that has really left me discouraged about these boards lately. Please don’t ever leap to my defense, Mr. Moderator–if a newbie ever makes an “inappropriate” post in answer to one of my questions, I’ll handle it myself–that is, if I don’t have the maturity to simply ignore it

#13

I should have said, “leap to my defense this way”–I wasn’t the OP, after all. If I start a GQ thread in the future and somebody attempts to answer my question, I’ll thank you to let me judge whether the post is helpful or not.

#14

Nothing like a moderator who discourages conversation, excuse me for not hiring a R&D team for this question.

#15

First, while I am a moderator, not everything I post is an act of moderating. In this case, I didn’t edit a post, lock a thread or ban a poster. Nor did I threaten to do so. So you really can’t criticize me as a moderator based on my posts in this thread. Honestly, the fact that I am a moderator is irrelevant in this case.

Second, this has nothing to to with “newbies”.

Third, I’m not defending anyone, and I wasn’t annoyed by the level of “helpfulness” of HLF’s post. I just felt that it was a bit too condescending. That is the opinion of Alphagene the poster. If you feel that he was being respectful in his assumption that the OP didn’t know how to operate the URL Address Bar on his browser, well then that’s the opinion of you, Doghouse the poster. We’ll agree to disagree. Alternately, you may find it insulting but choose to let something like that slide without commenting on it. Hell, the OP may choose to let it slide without commenting on it. I, however, choose to be “bitchy” in this case. That’s just a particular quirk of my winning personality. But I think you’ll find that I’m quite even-tempered in GQ overall.

Previously, HLF insulted a poster in another GQ thread a propos nothin’ just for being a member of the Coast Guard. He proclaimed the poster was “clueless” and the Coast Guard is “not a real military branch”. So you’ll excuse me for not thinking that an insulting post is beyond HLF.

If you really want to insult, go to the Pit, but if you cop a 'tude anywhere else, expect some static from other posters.

If you wish to debate this further or have other issues with Alphagene the immature poster or Alphagene the lousy moderator or even Alphagene the conversation discourager, please bring it to the Pit. I trust that all of us here have enough experience with graphical browsers to be able to find that forum.

Otherwise, let’s make room for the rest of this thread.

#16

All I can do is say again, it’s this kind of nonsense that is making me tired of this board. And I can repeat my request that when I am an OP in GQ and someone responds in a manner you deem “condescending” or whatever else, please, let the OP handle it and mind your own business.

That’s all I have to say on the topic. I don’t waste time in the Pit.

DHR

#17

Awwwwww, that’s so sweet…you guys are fighting over my OP :slight_smile:

NOW STOP IT!!

I just wanted to point out that:

a) There are 30 factoids on this stupid list.

b) I’ve solved half of them already by using search engines, straightdope.com, snopes.com, etc.

c) The ones I haven’t solved are posted in my OP or…

d) Are things I’m pretty sure I can find but haven’t yet (btw, anyone know anything about snails or Scotty from Star Trek?) or…

e) Are really wishy-washy, e.g., “Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.” or “The 3 most valuable brand names on earth are: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.”

Thanks much to mouthbreaker, doc, obfusciatrist for the info…will pass that on to the evil unc.

And mangeorge, I’ve watched a couple of those “history of” things which all mention that footballs used to be made of pigskin, just like baseballs were(?are?) made of horsehide.

Thanks again :slight_smile:

#18

I think its great that I’m not being judged in a case by case basis but by a history. Maybe we can put some kind of scarlet letter in my .sig or something.

As to my first post, I realy don’t care what whether you think it was above par or not. I enjoy pushing google.com and also like to point out that a lot of questions can be answered with some time and effort with a good search engine. I also trusted the source I got the data from, if you think its false then go right up and say it, but commenting on my attitude and airing some old dirty laundry is below the level of some of the worst posters here. Nothing like a personal attack from someone trying to perserve ettiquete, its called hypocrisy look it up. Try google.com

How much more obvious can it be? Even the people you’re protecting don’t much appreciate your comments. If you have a beef with me, use email, not some public forum to tell everyone how bad HorseloverFat is and was.