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

Did you know that an ostriches eye is bigger than it's brain....a tiger has striped skin.....and a baby goldfish is called a twit. Did you also know that Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button, it was stitched up at birth. There, you feel better for knowing that don't you...

maybe

another useless fact you may not know is.. i dont care

Uless facts.... Well they arn't are they? I mean, like, you know, like usless facts can be useful, won't that make them useful facts, rather than useless facts like, I mean, imagine, you are at a really dull party, probably a dinner party, and these facts suddenly come into a world of their own, perhaps that is the answer, somewhere, in a far far off galaxy, is a world full of entirely usless facts which are useful... or perhaps not, I don't know.

Three people in the UK die each year testing if a 9 volt battery works on their tongue.

Hmm, I've not died from doing that (yet).

Are you sure 9V batteries kill people? I've tested them on my tongue and felt a slight tingle. How do they kill you?

And, in deference to the topic:

Andre Kanchelskis is the only footballer to score in each of the Manchester, Merseyside and Old Firm derbies;

Rotherham United is the only English league football club whose name contains all five vowels.

Yes they do - it's not the voltage that kills it's the current drawn and there's a _lot_ of juice in them little square things, which is why they're used for such high power drain pieces of kit (radio control transmitters and the like)

About 12 pedestrians are killed in the UK by cyclists (around 90 serious injuries) - anyone know the figures for drunken old soaks on electric invalid carts?

Hospitals reported 4 broken arms last year due to cracker pulling incidents.

Don't know about facts and figures on the invalid cars but we had a nasty accident here the other week when some old dear went over the edge of the prominade and landed on the beach. It's a wonder there arn't more accidents in those things there doesnt seem to be any rules to owning of driving one.
Anyway, anyone know what a tittle is? My tittles are small dots but some peoples tittles are circular and other peoples tittles are even heart shaped..........
I'm talking about the dot over the letter 'i', I wonder if the dot on the letter 'j' has the same name?

Bruce Lee was Hong Kong cha cha champion.

An attacking rat will only go for the back of the neck of it's opponent, whereas a defending rat will only attack the face of the aggressor. What results is the attacker walking sideways towards the weaker rat, protecting it's face, while the defender walks backwards on it's hind legs and 'boxes', defending it's neck. They're programmed that way. And that's why a cornered rat will always go for the face. Beware.

of course, the ultimate compendium of usless facts is the book "Schott's Origional Miscellany" (see www.miscellanies.info).
Did you know that the last words of Oscar Wilde were "Either that wallpaper goes, or i do."

Or that the last words of General Sedgwick (US civil war) were "They couldn't hit a barn door at this dist.."

Noggin

Did you know that Thelonious, as in Thelonious Sphere Monk, is the Latinized version of the German name Tillman?

Also, the real name of Dizzy Gillespie is John Birks Gillespie; this is what the song title "Birk's Works" refers to.

While I'm on the subject, perhaps you've seen pictures of Dizzy Gillespie playing the trumpet and noticed his puffed-out cheeks. If you're wondering why they're so grotesquely huge, it's because Diz actually ruptured the epithelial lining in 'em while playing trumpet. Ouch.

Another useless fact about Dizzy Gillespie is his signature 'bent horn' was the result of an accident just before he had to perform on stage.

http://www.abbeville.com/jazz/219.asp

F S

"Facetious" is *not* the only world in the English language with all the vowels in the right order; merely the shortest.

Christian Ziege is the only footballer to have played in Munich, Merseyside, tyne-Tees, Milan and North london derbies.

India withdrew from the 1950 Football World Cup in protest, after their request to be allowed to play in bare feet was turned down.

India withdrew from the 1950 Football World Cup in protest, after their request to be allowed to play in bare feet was turned down.

This is fast becoming my favourite thread ever!!