# My Useless Factlets... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 24, 2014, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359 "2014-08-24T06:28:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359/21 "2014-08-28T17:21:48Z")
When Charles Darwin returned home from the Galapagos Islands, he brought many living specimens of newly discovered animals. Almost all of the animals survived the journey—except the giant turtles. And–drum roll please–the reason the turtles did not survive was: **The ship’s crew had eaten them.** ( cite: I saw it on an episode of QI. If Stephen Frye says it on QI, then it’s true. ) ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359/22 "2014-08-28T17:57:38Z")
A thing I knew before the Phineas and Ferb episode: the things on the tips of shoelaces are called aglets. I have no cite, but I believe that aglets preceded shoelaces. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359/23 "2014-09-01T05:42:33Z")
The official name of our smallest state isn’t “Rhode Island and Put Away Wet”, it’s “The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations”. A New Zealander inventor built the MONIAC, a computer which used the flow of water to model the financial processes of the UK, in 1949. [Technically, birds are not only reptiles, they are dinosaurs.](http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/avians.html) [There are ten times more bacterial cells in your body than human cells.](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-humans-carry-more-bacterial-cells-than-human-ones/) ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359/24 "2014-09-01T12:02:40Z")
The tune used for The Star-Spangled Banner is from an old English drinking song. Apparently the drunks could handle singing it. Also, there are mites living in your eyelashes (Thank you, Dead Milkmen). Emily Dickinson’s poetry can be sung to the tune of “The Yellow Rose of Texas”. Try it with “Because I could not stop for Death”. It’s amusing. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359/25 "2014-09-01T13:24:34Z")
Really enjoyed the article on whales. I would suggest an article on [submarine communications cables](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_communications_cable). Did you know the first [transatlantic telegraph cable](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_telegraph_cable) was laid before the U.S. Civil War? ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359/26 "2014-09-01T13:44:21Z")
An article on the [ENIAC](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC) would also be cool. It contained over 17,000 vacuum tubes. It weighed 30 tons. It could perform 385 multiplications per second. [The iPhone 4 can perform 2,000,000,000 instructions per second](http://www.bitrebels.com/technology/power-in-your-palm-the-computing-power-in-todays-smartphones/). ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359/27 "2014-09-03T03:04:08Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > The very best tune ever for the “Amazing Grace” lyrics is “House of the Rising Sun.” IT’s the only way I sing it now. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” fits perfectly to “Hernando’s Hide-a-way” /shamelessly stolen from NPR ---
**Author:** ![emcee2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emcee2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emcee2k)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359/28 "2014-09-03T08:14:18Z")
The Devil’s Kettle in Wisconsin: Basically it’s a river that splits in two. One half goes over a waterfall and the other goes into a hole in the ground. No one knows where the hole leads, or where the water that pours into it ends up. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359/29 "2014-09-03T19:16:17Z")
There are three words that end in “-gry”. I just learned the third word: **hangry** It’s when you start dieting and realize your former meals were way too large. I thought it was a misspelling or lame word my always-complaining-on-facebook sister-in-law made up. But it’s in the Urban Dictionary, meaning the word has sadly got some legs. ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359/30 "2014-09-05T04:39:00Z")
> [@GrumpyBunny](#): > > The tune used for The Star-Spangled Banner is from an old English drinking song. Apparently the drunks could handle singing it. “And long may the Sons of Anachrion entwine The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus’s vine.” (that’s the “oh say does that star spangled” part.) > [@GrumpyBunny](#): > > Emily Dickinson’s poetry can be sung to the tune of “The Yellow Rose of Texas”. Try it with “Because I could not stop for Death”. It’s amusing. I give you: Trailer Bride, performing “Hope Is A Thing With Feathers.” ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359/31 "2014-09-05T04:44:59Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > There are three words that end in “-gry”. ```auto $ grep 'gry$' /usr/share/dict/words aggry ahungry angry anhungry hungry unangry ``` ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359/32 "2014-09-05T04:53:11Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > The very best tune ever for the “Amazing Grace” lyrics is “House of the Rising Sun.” IT’s the only way I sing it now. You can also sing “O, Little Town of Bethlehem” to “House of the Rising Sun.” Bob Rivers even made a recording of it with an Animals sound-alike band. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359/33 "2014-09-07T08:03:14Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > There are three words that end in “-gry”. I just learned the third word: **hangry** This is a dumb joke, and you just told it wrong, which means your result is meaningless. Here it goes: “Think of words that end in ‘-gry’. ‘Angry’ and ‘hungry’ are two of them. There are three words in the English language. What is the third one? The word is something everyone uses every day. If you listened, I’ve already told you.” The answer:The answer is “ **language** ”. See? There are three words in the phrase “the English language”, the third one is “language”, and yes, my face _is_ eminently punchable now that I’ve wasted your time with that moronic trick question posing as a riddle.[Wikipedia has an article on this whole mess.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-gry) So does [Merriam-Webster](http://www.merriam-webster.com/help/faq/gryquestion.htm) and [Oxford Dictionaries](http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/words/apart-from-angry-and-hungry-what-other-common-english-word-ends-in-gry) and [you-know-who](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/753/what-are-the-three-english-words-ending-in-gry). ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359/34 "2014-09-07T13:55:12Z")
> [@emcee2k](#): > > The Devil’s Kettle in Wisconsin: > > Basically it’s a river that splits in two. One half goes over a waterfall and the other goes into a hole in the ground. No one knows where the hole leads, or where the water that pours into it ends up. I’ve had days that went like that. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2014, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359/35 "2014-09-09T04:54:41Z")
Kris Kristofferson is the only Rhodes Scholar who has written a No 1 hit. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Colossus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.colossus/32/9423_2.png) [@Dr.Colossus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Colossus)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359/36 "2014-09-20T19:55:51Z")
tons of good suggestions, all. i have to say my article on salt water vs fresh was one of the most enlightening i’ve done. drowning in fresh water sounds so much more terrible. i have a running list so i’ll add on. my post on the Anitkythera mechanism fell flat, which surprised me. people really seem to love the kind of kook “conspiracy” stuff the most, like the solway firth spaceman. I have been sitting on Coral Castle as my 100th post, so excited for that. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359/37 "2014-09-22T04:12:05Z")
Well, thank you very much. I just blew my whole evening reading the entire page. If you can write articles in list form, I think you’d fit right in over at [Cracked.com](http://Cracked.com). ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359/38 "2014-09-22T04:48:35Z")
> [@Dr.Colossus](#): > > see, that’s the kind of stuff. > > i have a list cued. Coral Castle, tri-state crematorium, limnic eruptions, droste effect, prospect theory, Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501, God Helmet–these are some on my list… Unless you’ve been to coral castle, it is indeed odd that anyone would ever go twice. Guy digs up coral makes crappy museum, then hypes it up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-useless-factlets/696359.md?page=1)