Interesting facts thread

Okay, post some intersting facts in this thread. It could be scientific or religious, artistic or historical. Just whatever.

Here one: Did you guys know that the reason our military (as well as many others) salute ourselves is something that has to do with knights? When two knights were on a road and they rode up to each other, they would lift up their visors to show their faces to each other.

Did you also know that the handshake originates from when two nobles (for instance) would greet each other. Old handshakes were actually above the wrists, it was a means of checking whether you had a knife under your sleeve.

I also heard that in early history, they hated left handed people because (say you were walking on the left side of the road, which is traditional in England) you could hide your sword on your left side and strike someone. Your scabbard was also on your left side, so a person couldn't see if your sword was out. Whereas with a right handed person, obviously their sword would have been in their right hand, so you would have seen the sword.

That's all I've got. Can you guys come up with some interesting things?

I know one! I know one!

You know the long stemmed wine glasses? Ummm here's a picture of three different types: http://www.coastalhk.com/glassware/Wine-Glass.jpg

Did you know they were created by the french and in oldern time you held them at the base, insted of the glass. This was so they wouldn't have to smell themselfs because they rarly took baths and wore five millions tons of purfum.

I have a few.

Strawberries are the only fruit to bear their seeds on the outside.

Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the US Treasury.

Americans overcame the problem of writing in space by inventing special hi-tech pens that can operte in zero gravity... the Russians solved the same problem by using pencils. (I love this one)

Sharks produces the largest eggs.

Here goes, hope you like all these.

A teenager in Belmont, New Hampshire robbed the local convenience store. Getting away with a pocket full of change, the boy walked home. He did not realize, however, that he had holes in both of his pockets. A trail of quarters and dimes led police directly to his house.

Every citizen of Kentucky is required by law to take a bath at least once a year.

In Saudi Arabia, a woman reportedly may divorce her husband if he does not keep her supplied with coffee.

Spam stands for Shoulder Pork and Ham.

Hot water is heavier than cold.

Honey is used as a center for golf balls and in antifreeze mixtures.

ooh I've got some

¤spontainious human combustion is not so spontainious. it is started by a natural means of fire and it burns the fat inside you slowly until you are ash and it does not grow because it can only burn the fat so fast
¤ someone once decided to have most of his neighbors over for fish and he wanted lots of fish. he had a pond behind his house so he hooked two wires up to the house and threw them into the water. the fish floated up dead but he forgot to take the electricity off and he stepped in to get the fish and died ( my fav radio station has one of those funny wacky things that people do every weekday)
¤ also another is that a man wrote a "give me all your money" note on the back of a cheque at the bank. however after he made off with the money the people at the bank realized that he had filled out the cheque with his name!

I have a couple:

*On Coins, Lincoln is facing the opposite way of everyone else because he didn't want a scar on his face to be seen.
*In a life savers package, the middle life saver is ALWAYS red.
*Dogs can hiss (My neighbor's dog hissed at my friend yesterday)

in world war 2 german handgrenades were basically metal shafts with a heavy pert on one end. American hand grenades are mostly spherical shaped because every american can throw a baseball and the grenades were basically heavy, explosive baseballs. I'll come up with more later

Originally Posted by Otaking

Americans overcame the problem of writing in space by inventing special hi-tech pens that can operte in zero gravity... the Russians solved the same problem by using pencils. (I love this one)

We came up with the hi-tech pens, because of the danger of the lead breaking in the pencils. The point could break off, sending multiple pieces of graphite and wood into the air, and then those small things could be inhaled, swallowed, or they could poke someone's eye out. But when you don't know that, the pen thing is pretty funny.

Glass is actually a liquid, not a solid. If you look at really ancient windows, you'll see that they're thicked on the bottom.

As you you speed up time slows down and you gain in mass. By the time you reach the speed of light you will have infinite mass therefore you will need an infinite amount of energy to propel yourself that is why it is impossible to go that fast.

Almost everyone knows this, but a black hole has a gravitational pull so strong that not even lihjt can escape it. That's pretty wild.

General ReDead, glad you didn't leave like you were threatening.
And did you know that half a cup of vinegar, and half a cup of honey, 6 times a day will cure the worst sore throat? or that fungus on your toe will be almost immedietly washed away in Listerine mouthwash?

-If one were to travel at the speed of light, you'd be going backwards in time.

-The word gossip is derived from a Hebrew Word that means "To rip and tear flesh."

-Long ago during war, English archers would show their two fingers used for firing to the enemey after taking a shot. Then when the enemy captured an English arncer, they'd cut their two fingers off so they couldn'tshoot. So today, sticking your two fingers up at someone in England is the equivilent of sticking your middle finger at someone in America.

-English Archers in medival times had a range of 600 ft and could kill you by hitting you in the leg (didn't happen often but it did).

got some more: the longest word you can type using only the left side of the keyboard is stewardess. Th longest one you can spell with only the right side is lollypop.

Well I have something interesting I learned when I was studying archaeology and the great sphinx in Egypt. I may have the times wrong but it's still pretty cool. In the 60's (I think) a fortuneteller said that a secret chamber would be discovered under the right paw of the great sphinx and that it would be filled with records from Atlantis. A few decades later, techonology used to show how much space is in the ground showed a large chamber space hole under the right paw. Excavation was stopped by the Egyptian government shortly after due to worries about a religious site being messed up. It's since become my greatest ambition to discover the secret chamber under the paws of the sphinx.

I'm not sure about this, but if I remember correctly, the nose of the Sphinx was blown off by Napoleon's men, as they were practicing with cannons.

^
"In 1380 A.D. the Sphinx fell victim to the iconoclastic ardor of a fanatical Muslim ruler, who caused deplorable injuries to the head. Then the figure was used as a target for the guns of the Mamluks."" http://www.napoleonseries.org/faq/sphinx.cfm

Some interesting facts: There are enough islands in the bahamas, for every day of the year.

The Red Cross is called the Red Crescent in Arab countries.

The sun shrinks five feet every hour.

Abdul Kassam Ismael, Grand Vizier of Persia in the tenth century, carried his library with him wherever he went. Four hundred camels carried the 117,000 volumes.

China is the world's oldest known continuous civilization.

During the Gold Rush in 1849, some people paid as much as $100 for a simple glass of water.

In 1281, the Mongol army of Kublai Khan tried to invade Japan but were ravaged by a hurricane that destroyed their fleet.

I don't know if this is true, because I don't know how reliable Ripley's is, but I'll give it a shot, and then people can mock me because I'm wrong. But apparently, one of Abraham Lincoln's sons got caught on the railroad while there was an oncoming train, and was saved by... the son of John