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

A few years ago, I was scanning some of the Shuttle astronaut film (that's what I do) and we noticed some very odd marks on some of the images. It looked like cracks in the film from the top and bottom edges. It turned out to be caused my similar static electricity sparks. It was occurring near the end of some of the 35mm rolls shot during EVAs. My guess is that being in the vacuum of space made it possible for the film to build up a charge, especially where the film was curled the tightest.

Cats can't taste sweets.

Louis XIV, the Sun King, the builder of Versailles, was the illegitimate son of a priest.

His supposed father, Louis XIII was gay, and hated his mother, Anne of Austria, a traitor who plotted against the French on behalf of her [Hapsburg] relatives. His birth was such a surprise that the French called him "Louis-Dieudonné" the gift of God. He knew that his father was Cardinal Mazarin, and felt pangs of guilt over the fact that his claim to the throne, which presupposed inherited divine rights, was based on such a shaky foundation.

Did you know...
Non- of the world 100 richest men are marryed to red heads?

A wolf has 8% of the same DNA as us

Ah, come on. If a starfish has ninety some-odd percent in common with us, surely a wolf has more than 8%.

Well yes. It has 8%. And another 8%. And another 8%. And ano...

Technically, the statement is correct

Are these guys your maths teachers? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLprXHbn19I

Unless one of them rubs your arm whilst breathing on your neck - no.

That clip is magic btw

There is a single French verb which doesn't have an 'r' in its infinitive form.

Don't stop there - which one? (Or would that lead us into potentially useful" territory?)

While you're waiting, the 'M's in M&M candies stand for Mars and Murrie referring to Forrest Mars, Sr. of Mars Candy co. and William Murrie of Hershey Chocolate.

On the subject of chocolate, the first bar in the world to have something covered in chocolate rather than being solid was the KitKat. Rowntrees was going bankrupt. They had offered to sell their factories to Cadbury. When they were turned down, they came up with the idea of a chocolate-covered wafer.

This opened the floodgates, through which peanuts, raisins, hazel nuts, fondants and all the other fillings have been pouring ever since.

Right after WWII the American troops stationed in Germany asked the Danish confectionary company Tom´s to make a chocolate bar for them, so they wouldn´t have to import them from the US. This they did, and named it the Yankie Bar.

Nope, not useful. It's 'fiche', as in 'j'en n'ai rien à fiche', see

http://correcteurs.blog.lemonde.fr/2010/05/19/linfinitif-peut-il-manquer-dr/

"Chevalier" John Taylor, an 18th century itinerant oculist, travelled around Europe in a carriage drawn by six black horses, five of them blind because he had used them to practise on.

It is said that Handel's deterioration into blindness was speeded-up by Taylor, and that Bach died from complications after being operated on by him.

Useless fact: for a brief moment I though Foxy had come back...

I also.

I believe he's dead now.