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

that really is riddiculous.

The film "Shakes: The Clown" was picketed by clowns because they felt it was disrespectful. If you can't laugh at a clown, who can you laugh at?

It's official..... this thread contributes to ADD, schizophrenia...

"Ignoring useless information aids memory

Filtering out useless information can help people increase their capacity to remember what is really important, researchers say.

Scientists at the University of Oregon in the United States have demonstrated that awareness, or visual working memory, does not depend on extra storage space in the brain but on an ability to ignore what is irrelevant.

"Until now, it's been assumed that people with high capacity visual working memory had greater storage, but actually it's about the bouncer - a neural mechanism that controls what information gets into awareness," Edward Vogel, who headed the research team, said.

The findings, reported in the journal Nature, overturn the accepted concept of memory capacity, which has suggested that how much a person can remember depends on the amount of information crammed into the brain at one time.

The research team believes the results could lead to better ways to enhance memory and improve the diagnosis and treatment of cognitive problems such as attention deficit disorder and schizophrenia.

- Reuters"

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200511/s1516334.htm

I'm suing... !



Wilma

There are two isomers of butane: n-butane and 2-methyl propane.

The flavour of peppermint is the optical isomer of the flavour of oranges.

The flavour of cabbage is an optical isomer of itself and whether or not you like cabbage depends on which one you're genetically predisposed to be able to taste!

Red Card. That's useful

Fred Dibnah's life careered towards the steeplejack trade when his father bought him a ladder for his third birthday.

<>

Unreal!

Wow. The smallest post office in the United States is in my hometown of Echola, Alabama. It is only 42 square feet.

Really.

The name of my home town was reportedly changed to fit on its first post office.

The original name of the town was "Clifton By The Sea". Now it is "Bacliff". We apparently didn't even have room for the 'y'.

Not sure if this one is an urban legend or not.

Famous writer of Huckleberry Finn, Samuel Clemens got his pen name whilst travelling on a riverboat. During the voyage he was on deck as the crew were trying to avoid low banks in the river and were measuring the river depth. The deck hand was throwing over a weighted string and counting off the knots to estimate the depth of the river. Every time a knot went through his hand he would call out to the wheel house "Mark Twain"

And a legend was thus born.

Our sun has about 4.5 billion years of life left before it leaves the main sequence and becomes a red giant.

"Mark Twain" was actually what the measuring person called out if the water was 2 fathoms deep.

I have been told that Im a "Standard 29, 40 size when I go to buy a kilt"

Whatever that means.

Do you know what kilt size you are?

I'm not sure but it took the whole nine yards to make mine.

*Thinks*

I did know at one point... I even did the seat measurement.

But then I put on weight.

Apparently, Japan can boast the largest natural wasp nest on record, which reached a whopping 8ft in height...


...wasps cannot vomit under water

But can the Japanses do it?

I think that would form the basis for a groundbreaking scientific study...which, in itself is a useless fact

The ammount of cloth in a kilt depends on how many pleats it has.