Unofficial "Interesting but true trivia" thread (1 Viewer)

[Joseph DeMartino]

Butch is right. I just visited the old nieghborhood last weekend, and spent some time around Pelham Bay Park. (I used to live off East Chester Road, between Allerton Ave. and Gun Hill Road. )
Regards,
Joe

 

[Shayne Lebrun]

How come mine don't last that long?

So that you'll have to buy new ones.

I'm told that the expression 'caught red handed' refers to poachers caught with the blood of their kills staining them; they were caught 'red-handed.'

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

It is illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon.

That's one I've always hated about Oregon (and friends from oregon who grew up believing pumping gas should be handled by a qualified profesonal and thus are scared to death to pump their own).

Does anyone know WHY this is the case? Do they do this just to provide jobs to otherwise unqualified citizens? Do you have to go through a state licensing program to be a qualified gas pump attendant.

-Vince

 

[Bill Catherall]

You can ski 50 weeks of the year on Mt. Hood at Timberline Ski Area.

Why can't you ski the remaining 2 weeks? It couldn't possibly be because of lack of snow. That just doesn't make any sense. Is there a reason?

 

[Andy_S]

For those of you who want to know up-to-the-minute status of that lightbulb, here's a live web cast of it:
http://www.centennialbulb.org/photos.htm

 

[David Von Pein]

That Oregon/gas thing reminded me of some hilarious (and ridiculous) "state laws".......



DID YOU KNOW (get ready to roll on floor) .....



That in the state of Idaho, boxes of candy given as romantic gifts must weigh more than 50 pounds.



In Chicago, people who are diseased, maimed, mutilated, or deformed to the point of being "an unsightly or disgusting object" are banned from going out in public.



In Chicago, it is illegal to fish in one's pajamas.

[I can't tell you how many times I've been tossed in the pokey for going to the docks in my jam-jams!! ]



In Chicago, it is illegal to take a French poodle to the opera.



[I'm not makin' these up!! ]



Go here to see more ........



http://www.md.lp.org/weird_laws.html

 

[Tom Rags]

That thing on the end of your shoelace to prevent fraying is called an aglet.

 

[David Von Pein]

Yes, Tom Rags, I actually DID know that.

More? ....

The indentation in your upper lip is called the "philtrum".

 

[AviTevet]

The two weeks that Timberline closes are for routine lift maintenance. I suppose no one would stop you if you hiked from the lodge to the top of Palmer (the glacier that you summer ski on) and skied down, but it's not as fun as being chairlifted to the top .

 

[RobertR]

The "funny bone" gets its name because the upper bone of the arm is the humerus.

 

[Tom Rags]

The medical term for earwax is "cerumen." (Ser-oo-min)

(I once wrote a product manual for an ear wax cleaner, or a "cerumen remover.")

 

[Alex-C]

The fact that there is website devoted to urinals is (so far) the most amazing thing I have seen on this thread.
http://www.urinal.net/

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

The "funny bone" gets its name because the upper bone of the arm is the humerus.

But the "funny bone" affects the lower bones of the arm. (It is actually a nerve junction at the elbow that produces the tingling sensation in the forearm.) It is called the funny bone simply because of the feeling it produces, not any kind of association with the (relatively obscure) name of an adjacent bone. In some parts of the English-speaking world it is referred to as the "crazy bone" - which obviously has no connection with "humerus", but expresses an essentially similar idea. The term is found in print as far back as 1840, when very few people could be expected to know the scientific name of the upper arm bone.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Mark C Sherman]

Here are some Nuggets of info (Not sure how True)

Hingham Mass. has the most SAAB's (the car) per capita in the USA.

German Army uniform designs were inspired by the Uniforms of the MASS State Police.

The worst weather on earth takes place atop Mt. Washington.

 

[Tom Rags]

The proptotype engines for the Boeing 777 was attached to the fusilage of the original prototype of the Boeing 727! They actually pulled the 727 prototype out of the Air and Space Museum in Ohio to prepare it for flight with the 777 engines.

 

[Tom Rags]

In the spirit of this thread, one can exchange any cut or severed bill at a bank provided that more than 50% of the bill is still intact. Despite what some were once taught, the serial number does not have to be present for the exchange.

 

[Jereme D]

I'm fairly sure that is incorrect. I believe the current estimate is that 75 billion people have lived and died.

Ken's snippet of info is actually in the current issue of Popular Science. I've always understood them to be an accurate source of information, though they could be wrong, too. ;-)

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

The fact that there is website devoted to urinals is (so far) the most amazing thing I have seen on this thread.

The fact that people in this group knew about a website devoted to urinals, and could provide the URL, is the most amazing (and scariest) thing I've seen in this thread.
Regards,
Joe

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Did a museum in Ohio steal it?
Regards,
Joe

 

[Tom Rags]

Joseph D:
Re the 777, I just finished watching the very PBS documentary that you speak of, and this is where this information comes from
The reason that they used the old prototype was that when they needed to see if the new 777 engine could "fly," the prototype 777 body was not yet ready (an example of "concurrent engineering" in high gear). It was not financially feasible to use an active plane, and the old prototype was the closest non-active plane in terms of size and dimensions to lug the new proto engines. The scary thing was to watch a "blowout" in one of the engines in the air during takeoff as the old prototype wavered in the sky. Talk about a heart-stopping moment for those engineers!!
As a PS, if most of you have never seen this special, it is highly worth your while (it might be available on VHS at your local library). If you are in engineering, I HIGHLY recommend watching this thing. It really puts things in perspective.