A Conversation for Ask h2g2

Interesting Facts

Post 8281

Bert

If all politicians were laid end to end no one would be surprised.


Interesting Facts

Post 8282

Vestboy

Q If you had a rope that fitted tightly round the earth's circumference and then wanted to lengthen it so that it would be 30cm (about a foot) above the earth all the way round how much would you have to lengthen it by?

A A bit less than 2 metres (just over 6 feet).
Circumference = pi x diameter so if you increase the diameter by 60cm circumference increases by 60cm x 3.142...

Warning! This could be useful to know if you had a rope running round the earth's circumference that needed lengthening.


Interesting Facts

Post 8283

swl

Frogs can vomit in space. They do so by ejecting the stomach out of their mouths and using their front legs to massage the contents out.

Experiments with sharks were inconclusive.


Interesting Facts

Post 8284

kuzushi

In 2001 it was discovered that there are in fact two non- interbreeding species of elephant in Africa: the African elephant and the African bush elephant.


Interesting Facts

Post 8285

pedro

Don't Namibian elephants count as a separate group too?

Or are they bush elephants?


Interesting Facts

Post 8286

Baron Grim

The term for that feeling you get when you can't remember a particular word is 'lethologica'...


Like I'll remember that! smiley - rolleyes


Interesting Facts

Post 8287

kuzushi



Just think of the river Lethe.

"In Greek mythology, Lethe was one of the five rivers of Hades. Also known as the Ameles potamos (river of unmindfulness), the Lethe flowed around the cave of Hypnos and through the Underworld, where all those who drank from it experienced complete forgetfulness. Lethe was also the name of the Greek spirit of forgetfulness and oblivion, with whom the river was often identified. In Classical Greek, the word Lethe literally means "oblivion", "forgetfulness," or "concealment". It is related to the Greek word for "truth", aletheia, meaning "un-forgetfulness" or "un-concealment".


Lethologica clearly has the same etymology as lethargy, coming from the river Lethe.


Interesting Facts

Post 8288

Baron Grim

Yes, but I have a memory like... one of those things...

You know... those things with a screen?

You use them for straining stuff...

Dangit, you know what I'm talking about.

smiley - winkeye


Interesting Facts

Post 8289

kuzushi


hmm, like a net?


Interesting Facts

Post 8290

Tumsup

You mean a yarmulke for FSM believers?

http://boingboing.net/2011/07/13/pastafarian-can-wear.html


Interesting Facts

Post 8291

Baron Grim

smiley - laugh Close enough.


Interesting Facts

Post 8292

kuzushi


According to Stephen Fry the most aggressive, vicious mammal is the honey badger.


Interesting Facts

Post 8293

kuzushi


http://www.badassoftheweek.com/honeybadger.html


Feckless Data

Post 8294

Baron Grim

The Dallas Mavericks, a team in the US's National Basketball Assoc. (NBA) got their name not from an association with Texas' history of wild west lore, but rather because one of the team's original owners was James Garner who played the character Bret Maverick in the 1957 TV series, Maverick.


Feckless Data

Post 8295

Mr. X ---> "Be excellent to each other. And party on, dudes!"

I missed the first two episodes of House's new season and I don't like this new doctor.

smiley - pirate


Feckless Data

Post 8296

Baron Grim

Now that he's dead, we finally discover how to spell his name in the Latin alphabet (via the newly found passport of one of his sons.) It's Gathafi.

So, who win's the pool?

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/08/rebel-discovers-qaddafi-passport-real-spelling-of-leaders-name/244077/


Feckless Data

Post 8297

Baron Grim

Vincent Price's grandfather invented baking soda.


Feckless Data

Post 8298

Baron Grim

Oops. Baking POWDER.


Feckless Data

Post 8299

pedro

smiley - cheers Absolutely useless that one. smiley - applause


Feckless Data

Post 8300

quotes

>>Now that he's dead, we finally discover how to spell his name in the Latin alphabet (via the newly found passport of one of his sons.) It's Gathafi.


Anyone care to predict who will be the next dictator to 'die by the sword'?


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