…uh… (ahem)… um… Virginia is actually further west than West Virginia.
That’s all I got right now. Sorry.
Grandmaster Friedrich Sämisch once lost all thirteen games in a tournament by exceeding the time limit.
Australian left-arm spin bowler Leslie Fleetwood-Smith began his sporting career as a right-arm spinner, and had to relearn to bowl with the wrong arm after injury.
In homeopathic medicine diluted to the “twentieth centessimal” it is statistically unlikely that a dose the size of the Solar System would contain a single molecule of the active ingredient.
Speaking of elephants, the closest living land dwelling relative of elephants is the hyrax, a creature often mistaken for a rodent that usually weighs between 5 and 10 pounds. Elephants are more closely related to dugongs and manatees than they are to any land mammal. Indian elephants and African elephants are more closely related to Wooly Mammoths than they are to each other. Like humans, elephants’ breasts are on their upper torso (near their front legs) unlike most mammals whose nipples are closer to their back legs.
There is an easy way to tell the difference between hyraxes, manatees, and elephants.
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Turn the animal upside down and see where it’s nipples are.
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If you can do this, it’s a hyrax.
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If you can’t do this due to the animal’s size and you are on land for more than one hour, see if it is moving. If it is moving then it is an elephant. If it is not moving, it is probably a dead or very scared manatee.
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If you can’t do this due to the animal’s size and you are underwater, see if it is moving. If it is it is probably a manatee. If not, it’s probably a drowned elephant.
The B-52 is the U.S.'s primary long-range strategic bomber. It can project our power anywhere on the globe and it is nuclear capable. During the Irag wars, B-52’s flew from bases in the continental U.S. all the way to Iraq, completed their bombing runs and flew back to the U.S. without stopping.
The general idea for the B-52 was started in the 1940’s after WWII. The first ones were built in the 1950’s and the ones in use today were built during the early 1960’s. The military has tried to design its successor a few times and these projects failed because they couldn’t improve on the B-52 much if at all.
The B-52 is now scheduled to stay in service at least until 2040 when the design is 90 years old and the planes themselves are about 80 years old.
On average, each second the Sun converts about 600 million tons of hydrogen nuclei into 596 million tons of helium nuclei with about 4 million tons given off as heat and light.
Measured by its longest dimension, Honolulu is the biggest city in the world. It stretches over 1300 miles.
Tony Blair’s wife, Cherie Booth, is from the same family as John Wilkes Booth (his father, the actor Junius Brutus Booth, and her direct ancestor were brothers).
Napoleon, Hitler, and Mussolini all had phobias (or at least irrational fear of) cats (cite- others available). Napoleon’s guards once entered his tent after hearing him shouting and found him holding a not fully grown stray cat at swordpoint and shouting “Get it out!” (or words to that effect).
Muhammad did not have a phobia of dogs but he certainly did not like them. He ordered all black dogs killed and discouraged dog ownership in general. Though dogs are not condemned or even counted as unclean in the Qu’ran and even Muhammad seems to have had an “It’s me, not them” attitude on the subject and is not counted as divine, dogs to this day are generally unpopular with many Muslims due to Muhammad’s dislike of them 1400 years ago.
Hm, doesn’t Roger Mudd, of newscaster fame, have some familial connection with Dr. Mudd?
Making it legal: The farthest north contiguous state isn’t Maine or Washington, it’s Minnesota - the little jog in the border helps. This is a good bar bet (unless you’re in Minnesota, probably) as most will not get it.
While filming the movie War Games, cast and director didn’t like the dialogue in the scene where the Colonel played by Barry Corbin orders them to let Matthew Broderick’s character try his hand at “the situation”. Corbin (bka Maurice from Northern Exposure) was asked to “improvise something…folksy but that a career military man might say…”. Corbin remembered something his cousin had once said so when they rolled again he said the famous line
“Goddamn it I’d piss on a sparkplug if I thought it’d do any good!” (Hear it here at this NON-WORK SAFE LINK).
The first take failed because the cast, director, and crew cracked up and applauded for about fifteen minutes.
More Barry Corbin trivia: while filming Northern Exposure one episode focused on Maurice’s middle-aged half-Korean son he didn’t know existed finding him. That same season (I’m not sure whether it was before or after) Corbin’s own daughter who he didn’t know existed found him.
And, as Cecil will tell you, the nine-banded armadillo is the only animal (other than man) that can contract Leprosy.
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990219.html
Back in college, I participated in a theatrical reinterpretation of *Twelfth Night * set in Reconstruction-era Dixie. One of the songs we had to learn was “The Bonnie Blue Flag,” and at some point I decided to find out just what the deal was with that flag. I was surprised to learn that during that period, the national flag of West Florida was regarded as more symbolic of Southern identity than the Confederate battle flag. It certainly makes more sense as a source of inspiration; at least West Florida actually won its rebellion, y’know?
You inspired me to attempt a little experiment! I can now confirm that at least some nude mice are able to swim. I warmed up some sterile water and gave a couple NCr athymic nudes a bath. They’re not exactly brilliant swimmers, but they managed to keep afloat and were easily able to reach the side of the cage. I doubt they’d do well for extended periods in a water maze, though.
The Vadoma tribe of Zimbabwe are also known as the “Ostrich People” due to the fact that they are born with only two large toes on each foot; they are said to be capable of walking exceptionally long distances without discomfort.
Mount Elgon National Park in Uganda is (or was until recently; you never know about these things) home to the only known herd of burrowing elephants. Perhaps millions of years ago, the ancestors of this particular herd began excavating a riverside cliff face for salt-rich mineral deposits, a practice which eventually resulted in an intricate network of subterranean passages. Each generation of elders passes on the tradition to their calves, extending the caverns deeper and deeper. These elephants are able to navigate in the darkness by using their outstretched trunks to recognize landmarks as they move about below ground.
Could you explain a little more about this one?
It kinda ruins the WTFness of the fact, but still cool in itself. 
I freaking love this board.
You can not drive to the northern-most part of the contiguous U.S. without going through another country.
The glomerulus (located in the kidney,) contains the only capillaries in the circulatory system that feed back into arterioles instead of venules.
They still exist - a recent TV documentary used IR cameras to show them moving around in those caves. Pretty amazing.
In 1853, Francis Galton (the inventor of the weather map and the dog whistle) wanted to measure the unusual body shape of a Hottentot woman, in particular her steatopygia (uniquely large, fatty buttock deposits). Too gentlemanly to do this directly, he used his sextant, trigonometry and logarithms to measure from afar as she stood beneath a tree.
John Cleese’s father changed his surname from the original “Cheese”.
Thomas Edison didn’t speak until the age of four.
Mount Chimborazo is the farthes point from the earth’s center, further than Mount Everest due to the equatorial bulge.
I love this. It’s making me giggle. I keep coming back to it, and I love it even more.
Ah, science at its best. 
I learned the sink/swim “fact” when I was working with a water maze. Maybe I’ve started a mouse strain urban ledgend!
A water maze is a shallow (the one we used was about 6 inches deep) tank that can have platforms of “dry land” installed. The water is obscured, usually with a dye, so the platforms can’t be seen and the mice have to swim around and find the land.
Having a mouse sink is a “oh shit” moment because you can’t see them on the bottom.