The "Did you know" thread.....

[otiscleotus]

Sinister is the latin word for lefthanded.

[dbailey]

Originally Posted by Davemetalhead

That sounds rather sinister .....

Tan tan taaaaaan !!

Witty reply mate

Originally Posted by otiscleotus

Sinister is the latin word for lefthanded.

Yep ya nailed it

Oh and:

Originally Posted by DTravel

The US Army uses prolonged exposure to loud music to "soften up" prisoners. The playlist includes Eminem, Metallica and Barney The Dinosaur.

I beleive this would drive me up the wall. The one that gets me is the ride at WDW and Disneyland in California....Its a small world.....link below but I warn you it will lock into your brain and eat away at you all day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ETq3ZlmslE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKt_o6AflbI

[Tmee2020]

Originally Posted by Mal Hombre

The Olympic flame,that symbol of peace and sportsmanship was introduced in 1936 by the Nazis for the Berlin games.

Adolf was rather fond of torch relays.
Samaranch was Sports Minister for Franco.
No conflict of interest so far.

[dorcelfan]

Time for a few more animal facts!......

A Hedgehog's heart beats 300 times a minute on average.....

Ants always falls over on their right side when intoxicated....

The longest recorded flight of a Chicken is 13 seconds...

There is no sideways movement for a Cat's jaws...

Most cats in Halifax (Nova Scotia) have six toes...

A Cow can give far more milk than a human can consume their lifetime - Almost 200,000 glasses full of milk...

The largest recorded Jellyfish measured 2.3 m across its bell. Its tentacles measured 36m (120 feet) in length...

[dickerbetwixt]

Originally Posted by dorcelfan

Ants always falls over on their right side when intoxicated....

Who discovered this I wonder, and why ?

The largest recorded Jellyfish measured 2.3 m across its bell. Its tentacles measured 36m (120 feet) in length...

I'm glad you said 'tentacles'


Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th."
Consumed in moderation, wine is a true youth and beauty elixir .It possesses certain virtues absolutely beneficial for the body, enhancing cardio-vascular diseases and even cancer.
People who regularly consume wine presents a low mortality rate when it comes to heart disease. The wine decreases the risk of heart attack by 40% and the risk of cerebral thrombosis by 25%. Specialists say that the wine favorable effect consumption is due to resveratrol, a powerful antioxidant compound that has the power to reduce with 40% the risk of a cardiovascular accident.
According to a study by Dutch researchers, wine significantly increases the life expectancy. People who drink a glass of wine a day will live 3.8 years longer than people who do not get used to it.
Wine diminishes memory problems and even risk of Alzheimer’s disease in a proportion of 80%. This is because wine prevents clots and reduce blood vessel inflammation, which favors the loss of memory problems.
Moderate red wine consumption reduces by 60% the risk of men lung cancer , according to a report published by the American Association for Research on Cancer.
Wine has a protective effect against women ovarian cancer.

[dickerbetwixt]

Apart from snakes and insects the hippopotamus kills more people in Africa than any other! It’s a statistic which many find shocking especially because they’re not actually meat eaters. So what makes the hippo so dangerous ?

Well to begin with they’re large, extremely bad tempered and surprisingly quick on both land and water. If you combine these factors with a strong set of jaws and large tusks you have an animal with an extremely destructive bite.

Most attacks seem to occur at watering holes or near to water where humans either come too close or simply disturb the hippo from a distance. So just remember next time you’re in Africa it’s not only the lions, cheetahs and crocodiles you need to worry about. Beware of the bad tempered hippo!

[dbailey]

Originally Posted by dickerbetwixt

Well to begin with they’re large, extremely bad tempered and surprisingly quick on both land and water. If you combine these factors with a strong set of jaws and large tusks you have an animal with an extremely destructive bite.

Beware of the bad tempered hippo!

Damn, and I thought it was because they weigh around two tons and can sit down without warning!!

I never thought that something with the build of a bungalow could run fast enough to trample a person.

I think this has been posted before

The elephant is the only animal that has 4 knees

The horn of a Rhino is actually made of the same substance as hair and not bone or tooth.

[T2000]

Ironically, Alexander Graham Bell never telephoned his wife or mother - they were both deaf

If you live in Michigan, its illegal to put a skunk in your boss's desk

Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots

When young and impoverished, Pablo Picasso kept warm by burning his own paintings

Coca Cola was originally green

[smallblock]

Did you know that the phrase to paint somebody 'Warts and all' comes from when Oliver Cromwell was having his portrait done, he didn't want to hide anything or make himself look better as was the practice at the time, he told the painter to portray 'Warts and all'

[dickerbetwixt]

Bamboo, the world's tallest grass, has been recorded as growing as high as 130 feet. This plant has also been known to grow up to 4 feet in a 24 hr. period!

A notch in a tree will remain the same distance from the ground as the tree grows.

Brush fires are common around the Los Angeles area, and often hundreds of acres are burnt. The amount of energy released by burning just 160 000 square meters of brush is equal to that released by the atom bomb dropped over Hiroshima.