h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Scotch Brand tape from 3M was developed in part to help with the masking of two toned automobiles and in part to help grocers display and seal their wares.

Its name, however, is sourced in bigotry.

http://gizmodo.com/how-scotch-tape-was-invented-1666050615

Has anybody ever been insulted by that 'slur', though? I've heard people joking about being Scotch all my life - people who would go to great lengths to avoid giving offence to anyone.

I've always said that I belonged to the last ethnic group in America that you can safely insult [Scots Irish Americans], because, frankly, we don't care.

As a kid, I knew Scotch brand tape was supposed to be 'thrifty', but thought that was, er, a compliment...

I expect most people here already know this, but William Shakespeare's dead son was named Hamnet.

Ronald Reagan owned a 1978 Subaru BRAT.

Was that the worst?

1 Down, Was Shakespeare's son the man (6)

The world's tallest snowman was made in 1999 and measured 34.63 metres. It was made by the people of Bethel, Maine, USA and took two weeks to build.
- the weathernetwork

'The weather network' - Why am I not surprised?

Same source:

"NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover is currently exploring the Gale Crater.
Yesterday, the daily high in that region of Mars hit -8C, making it
warmer than parts of Canada and the U.S."


~jwf~

And still more from the weather network who are quickly
becoming the most reliable source for totally useless info.

>> Ketchup was sold as a medicine in the 1830s. It was known
as "Dr. Miles' Compound Extract of Tomato." <<

There's just enough good common sense in the medicinal value
of tomatoes to make that seem likely to be true. One must go
beyond the obvious to understand how, like so many medicinal
formulas, it became addictive to so many millions and resulted
in the Western whirled becoming a land of tomato heads.

~jwf~

For that, you need the Edited Guide: A87829564



(Take THAT, Weather Channel.)

Well said Dmitri.
You have taken this subject well beyond the status
of 'useless info' and sent it into the boundless
stratospheric realms of really interesting.

Great image there too.
Well done sir.

-jwf-

Ah, thanks.

And yes - we're lucky to have these killer Artists, aren't we?

If you type "Illuminati" backwards, followed by .com, into your web browser, it will take you to the NSA.

No, really... try it.

*Tries it.*

Huh, he's right. That's weird.

However, if you just type in www.illuminati.com it takes you to a website about a board game.

itanimulli.com


~jwf~

Colonel Sanders' first name was Harland.

PP.

This fact was not useless to his mother when she called him to dinner.