Strange Facts that go against the grain completely

al28283 · 20-02-2012 8:30pm

kincsem wrote: »

This was on the telly last week.

In the USA pizza is a vegetable. FFS.

No it's not. The tomato sauce on a pizza is counted as a portion of vegetable

Capt'n Midnight · 20-02-2012 8:36pm

Gbear wrote: »

The max difference between high and low on earth is about 17km
According to wiki the average diameter is 13000km
Deviation of 0.13%

The earth is not a sphere, it's more flattened at the poles.

The north pole is 43Km closer to the centre of the earth than the equator is.

A billiard ball is rounder than the earth.

44leto · 20-02-2012 8:39pm

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

The earth is not a sphere, it's more flattened at the poles.

The north pole is 43Km closer to the centre of the earth than the equator is.

A billiard ball is rounder than the earth.

It's an oblate Spheroid according to Mr Fry and the QI team.

Jim_Kiy · 20-02-2012 8:40pm

Ordinary non-rechargeable batteries can be recharged if you know how..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brdmnUBAS00

GLaDOS · 20-02-2012 8:43pm

al28283 wrote: »

No it's not. The tomato sauce on a pizza is counted as a portion of vegetable

Tomato is a fruit

kylith · 20-02-2012 8:44pm

44leto wrote: »

If that is the case, I claim beer is also a vegetable and therefore good for you.

Nonsense. Of course beer isn't a vegetable. Containing wheat, yeast and water beer is obviously a type of bread.

RGDATA! · 20-02-2012 8:46pm

kincsem wrote: »

This was on the telly last week.

In the USA pizza is a vegetable. FFS.

False, don't believe everything you see on tv.

kincsem · 20-02-2012 9:16pm

This "pizza is a vegetable" thing ... the programme said as there was tomato (sauce) on the pizza the pizza counted as a vegetable in school meals.

http://www.thejournal.ie/us-congress-rules-that-pizza-is-a-vegetable-282033-Nov2011/

kincsem · 20-02-2012 9:17pm

RGDATA! wrote: »

False, don't believe everything you see on tv.

True, as long as it has two tablespoons of tomato sauce in it.

al28283 · 20-02-2012 9:21pm

kincsem wrote: »

This "pizza is a vegetable" thing ... the programme said as there was tomato (sauce) on the pizza the pizza counted as a vegetable in school meals.

http://www.thejournal.ie/us-congress-rules-that-pizza-is-a-vegetable-282033-Nov2011/

It is not a vegetable in the US, It is counted as equal to a portion of vegetables. But that doesn't make an interesting article

Mr NoTV · 20-02-2012 9:39pm

The Penis mightier than the Sword
but if you have 12", you might not always use it as rule ...

Turtwig · 20-02-2012 9:42pm

Mr NoTV wrote: »

The Penis mightier than the Sword
but if you have 12", you might not always use it as rule ...

What about the Penis mightier than the sword, don't you have a story to tell about this character or not?

Capt'n Midnight · 20-02-2012 10:11pm

Jim_Kiy wrote: »

Ordinary non-rechargeable batteries can be recharged if you know how..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

And that is NOT how.

It's just marketing for Duracell.

In the real world if you want to recharge alkaline batteries you can't do it with DC alone you need a little AC to depolarise. Something like 10:1 ratio between the forward and reverse current. (ie a high value resistor in parallel with the rectification diode)

Or use a charger that is specifically for Alkaline cells. You'll get about 30 charges, compared to 300 for normal rechargables.

Fact , the best NiMH rechargable batteries will hold almost as much charge as a Duracell alkaline single use battery. The voltage is lower but the best of todays rechargable batteries will hold charge for months.

Capt'n Midnight · 20-02-2012 10:15pm

[QUOTE=44leto;77185241One nation changed, Sweden use to drive on the left but in 1967 they switched and joined the rest of the continent and drove on the right, cutting pedestrian accidents, it is safer to drive on the right.[/QUOTE]Actually by then most Swedish cars were imports from the neighbours who drove on the other side of the road. Which made overtaking particular dangerous. Rather than anything inherently safer about left vs. right.

44leto · 20-02-2012 10:20pm

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Actually by then most Swedish cars were imports from the neighbours who drove on the other side of the road. Which made overtaking particular dangerous. Rather than anything inherently safer about left vs. right.

I remember reading it was safer for pedestrians for countries that deive on the right, it has something to do periphery vision, its sharper on the right. I couldn't find a link earlier.

Wereghost · 20-02-2012 10:35pm

Birds don't urinate or have bladders.

Captain Kirk never says "Beam me up, Scotty!".

William Shakespeare invented over 1700 words that are in common use today.
(http://shakespeare-online.com/biography/wordsinvented.html)

lmao · 20-02-2012 10:53pm

If you say gullible really slow, it sounds like oranges.

44leto · 20-02-2012 10:56pm

lmao wrote: »

If you say gullible really slow, it sounds like oranges.

Yeah and I fell for that.

But I will have the last laugh when the pyramid scheme i am in pays up.

Mance Rayder · 20-02-2012 11:07pm

Russia, North Korea, South Korea And Vietnam have a combined military population that is larger then the rest of the worlds combined.

If Russia, North Korea and China combined forces then we would all be fooked.

Vietnam has a larger army than the USA.

Mance Rayder · 20-02-2012 11:10pm

Sex Panther - 60% of the time it works..All the time

blueyedson · 20-02-2012 11:43pm

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

It's a silly thing to say anyway. More people in the US are killed by vending machines every year than by sharks. Does that mean a vending machine is more dangerous than a shark?

I'll take my chances against a vending machine in the sea than a shark anyday

Jess16 · 20-02-2012 11:52pm

A child's got more bones than a grown up's got

(and that's a natural law)

Zen65 · 21-02-2012 12:02am

superstoner90 wrote: »

Could you die from too much oxygen?

Yes. Oxygen toxicity can cause death.

Z

Zen65 · 21-02-2012 12:06am

Jim_Kiy wrote: »

Ordinary non-rechargeable batteries can be recharged if you know how..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brdmnUBAS00

No they can't.

This video is intended as humour, and the advice in it is utter nonsense.

Z

21-02-2012 12:09am

seamus wrote: »

44leto wrote: »

But you are still more likely to get injured using your stairs then your knife,,Or are you,, I would imagine more people are injured with kitchen knives then stairs, maybe I am wrong.

I'd say it's about equal. I've stabbed myself with knives and fallen down the stairs roughly an equal number of times, I think.

U british?

djPSB · 21-02-2012 12:26am

Pressing ctrl+alt+down arrow makes your mouse faster.

Capt'n Midnight · 21-02-2012 12:53am

Wibbs wrote: »

Venus is also weird in that it rotates the opposite way to all the other planets.

Mercury day's last two years.

danniemcq · 21-02-2012 3:03pm

djPSB wrote: »

Pressing ctrl+alt+down arrow makes your mouse faster.

its amazing such a useful tip like this isn't more well known

bleg · 21-02-2012 3:28pm

CHealy wrote: »

The island most of Cork city center is built on, Morrisons Island, is actually a marsh and many of Corks streets such as St.Patricks Street, Grande Parade, South Mall and many more used to be little canals, not too unlike Venice. In fact a boat docking post(where the rope is tied around) still exists on Grande Parade.

Properties on the South Mall still come with mooring rights!

mikemac1 · 21-02-2012 3:31pm

danniemcq wrote: »

its amazing such a useful tip like this isn't more well known

I only found out two months ago I didn't have to type www every time I enter a website address

Was using the internet for years and years before I read that here

Thanks boards

bleg · 21-02-2012 3:36pm

The placebo effect is probably the strangest thing that goes completely against the grain of logical thought. Pacemakers that were installed but never turned on restoring heart rhythm, fake knee operations that are as successful as real ones and (my favourite) a sugar pill that works even when you tell a patient it's only a sugar pill.

Cool Mo D · 21-02-2012 3:50pm

mikemac1 wrote: »

I only found out two months ago I didn't have to type www every time I enter a website address

Was using the internet for years and years before I read that here

Thanks boards

Sometimes you do, and sometimes you don't. It depends if the website has been set up so that www.website.com and website.com point to the same page. There's not many left that don't do this though.

Conall Cernach · 21-02-2012 4:25pm

bleg wrote: »

The placebo effect is probably the strangest thing that goes completely against the grain of logical thought. Pacemakers that were installed but never turned on restoring heart rhythm, fake knee operations that are as successful as real ones and (my favourite) a sugar pill that works even when you tell a patient it's only a sugar pill.

That's because you tell yourself that the placebo effect works and this sugar pill is a placebo so therefore this pill will work.

Sindri · 21-02-2012 4:32pm

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Only if you used an old theory of flight that didn't take into account vortex lift

In science and engineering when the theory doesn't match the facts you have to change the theory.

Gravity is just a theory,

and so is Intelligent Falling :pac:

What?

I don't really get the mocking undertone to your post? Did you read my post where I said they should not be able to fly? And afterwards explained why they were?

This thread has really gone down hill into people trying to feel superiorly intelligent than others. I've had 3 or 4 posts directed at one of mine where the question I was asking was already clarified 2 pages afterwards.

:pac:

--Kaiser-- · 21-02-2012 4:53pm

Sindri wrote: »

What?

I don't really get the mocking undertone to your post? Did you read my post where I said they should not be able to fly? And afterwards explained why they were?

This thread has really gone down hill into people trying to feel superiorly intelligent than others. I've had 3 or 4 posts directed at one of mine where the question I was asking was already clarified 2 pages afterwards.:pac:

Your post was a big pile of rubbish.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1076/is-it-aerodynamically-impossible-for-bumblebees-to-fly

The "science has proved that bees can't fly" urban myth originated in a 1934 book by entomologist Antoine Magnan, who discussed a mathematical equation by Andre Sainte-Lague, an engineer. The equation proved that the maximum lift for an aircraft's wings could not be achieved at equivalent speeds of a bee. I.e., an airplane the size of a bee, moving as slowly as a bee, could not fly. Although this did not mean a bee can't fly (which after all does not have stationary wings like the posited teency aircraft), nevertheless the idea that Magnan's book said bees oughtn't be able to fly began to spread.

Capt'n Midnight · 21-02-2012 4:56pm

bleg wrote: »

The placebo effect

Two placebos work better than one, and a saline injection is better again.

token101 · 21-02-2012 4:58pm

Cool Mo D wrote: »

Sometimes you do, and sometimes you don't. It depends if the website has been set up so that www.website.com and website.com point to the same page. There's not many left that don't do this though.

All the ones I know of off hand are actually Irish

365 online, most government services sites.

44leto · 21-02-2012 5:10pm

There are 360 degrees in a circle 12 months in a year, 24 hours in a day 60 minutes in an hour and 60 seconds in a minute.

The reason for this is the Babylonian number system. It was based on three. Then everyone adopted the above and never changed it.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Babylonian_numerals.svg/450px-Babylonian_numerals.svg.png

ash23 · 21-02-2012 5:25pm

Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.

If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction

44leto · 21-02-2012 5:28pm

ash23 wrote: »

Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.

If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction

Holy sh*t, that is kind of scary. But some would be crawling towards the end.

ash23 · 21-02-2012 5:30pm

44leto wrote: »

Holy sh*t, that is kind of scary. But some would be crawling towards the end.

Or you'd be dead.

skregs · 21-02-2012 5:40pm

44leto wrote: »

I remember reading it was safer for pedestrians for countries that deive on the right, it has something to do periphery vision, its sharper on the right. I couldn't find a link earlier.

Typically right handed people have stronger vision in their right eye. So if you drive on the right, your stronger eye will monitor the side of the road and pathways.
BUT, if you drive on the left, you're supposedly less likely to drive into another car because your dominant eye will be viewing oncoming traffic.

Also weird: in countries that drive on the left, supermarkets usually run in a left to right fashion, but in countries that drive on the right, its right to left, because shoppers will be so used to travelling in that direction

Sindri · 21-02-2012 6:49pm

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

Your post was a big pile of rubbish.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1076/is-it-aerodynamically-impossible-for-bumblebees-to-fly

They shouldn't though

. If you actually read my post, they should not be able to fly, until it was observed that they flip their wings over on the upstroke. That is why they can fly.

There was no mention of whatever it was that you linked to.

Until recently we did not know how they flew.

. Until it was observed.

As was detailed in my post.

Bipolar Joe · 21-02-2012 7:04pm

Sindri wrote: »

They shouldn't though . If you actually read my post, they should not be able to fly, until it was observed that they flip their wings over on the upstroke. That is why they can fly.

There was no mention of whatever it was that you linked to.

Until recently we did not know how they flew. . Until it was observed. As was detailed in my post.

"They should not be able to fly" is kind of a dumb statement, though. Not attacking you, I just hear this one all the time and it drives me up the wall. They can clearly fly, so it's not that they shouldn't be able to, it's that we didn't know how they managed it.

Sindri · 21-02-2012 7:26pm

Bipolar Joe wrote: »

"They should not be able to fly" is kind of a dumb statement, though. Not attacking you, I just hear this one all the time and it drives me up the wall. They can clearly fly, so it's not that they shouldn't be able to, it's that we didn't know how they managed it.

Yes but if they just flapped their wings up and down then they actually wouldn't be able to fly as it would not create enough lift. That is why they should not be able to fly, or so it was thought.

Bipolar Joe · 21-02-2012 7:40pm

Sindri wrote: »

Yes but if they just flapped their wings up and down then they actually wouldn't be able to fly as it would not create enough lift. That is why they should not be able to fly, or so it was thought.

The wings on a plane don't flap up and down. How do they fly?

Magnets, I guess.

al28283 · 21-02-2012 7:42pm

Bipolar Joe wrote: »

The wings on a plane don't flap up and down. How do they fly?

Magnets, I guess.

quickbeam · 21-02-2012 7:57pm

ash23 wrote: »

The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.

What about North America and South America?

[/pedantic]

ash23 · 21-02-2012 8:28pm

quickbeam wrote: »

[/pedantic]

Very.

kylith · 21-02-2012 9:48pm

quickbeam wrote: »

What about North America and South America?

[/pedantic]

Yeah, but those are just descriptions for parts of America.

Strange Facts that go against the grain completely

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