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

*shakes head in despair*

Alright, smart alec Master B , does this one meet your rigorous criteria?

Through academic spite, the Smithsonian museum in Washington refused to acknowledge that the Wright brothers were the first to manage powered flight for decades.

**puts on smart-alec hat**

Actually, no it doesn't. The Wright brothers were notorious recluses, and all their information was initially made available to the Smithsonian via third parties. At this point, the Smithsonian - quite reasonably, I feel - refused to acknowledge that the photographic evidence was genuine without the confirmation of the witnesses. And, of course, by the time a Wright came forward, Louis Bleriot had already started mucking about in planes.

B

Take that Jimbob.

The Battle of New Orleans was fought two weeks after the War of 1812 officially ended through the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.

What? I thought that thing about the Smithsonian was completely true! They highlighted the work some guy did with gliders - completely stable, unpowered aircraft that couldn't even turn - instead of admitting the Wright brothers' accomplishments.

Partially, yes. But through lack of evidence, not through any mythical long-standing grudge.

I think it's thoroughly good practice to require supportable evidence for museum exhibits, otherwise museums the world over would be full of bad pictures of Nessie and UFOs

B

But I thought that the glider guy had some association with the Institute, so there was naturally some bias involved.

Anyway, dandelions and pine needles can both be used to make healthful soup.

Also, though the sum of the squares of two integers (that is, a^2+b^2) equals the square of an integer, the sum of the cubes of two integers doesn't equal the cube of another integer. Indeed, a^n + b^n = c^n doesn't hold for any power greater than two. This cannot be proved in the space of a book's margin.

Maybe it can. Just because Andrew Wiles took a hundred-odd pages to do it doesn't mean that Fermat didn't think of a different way.

B

Sorry. Here's an even more useless fact:

It cannot be proven that Fermat's Last Theorem cannot be proven in the space of a book's margin. Or, if it can, then it cannot be proven that it cannot be proven that Fermat's Last Theorem cannot be proven in the space of a book's margin.

Thanks for the support Doctor U... I'm going to go and look this up tonight...

Right, more useless info...

The first US citizen to engage the Japanese air force was some poor sap who decided to have an early morning fly over Pear Harbour in his private (i.e. non military) plane on that fateful, infamous morning.

Not even in the margin of the Encyclopaedia Britannica?

The average office chair travels 8 miles per year.

Hey, I found some trivia on candy wrappers:

Each of an ostrich's eyes is bigger than its brain.
Lungfish can survive up to 4 years out of water.
The elephant is the only animal with four knees.

Quick addendum to the above post.

Elephants walk on their tiptoes.
Elephants can't jump.

Any use?

Have a good one...

Sludge

The potato is the stem of the potato plant.

Tungsten has a similar density to depleted Uranium but costs several times more to produce. Hence the reason military types prefer to use DU instead of Tungsten.

Have a good one...

Sludge

Never, _ever_ buy a lightbulb from the army in that case...

B