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

"Brass doorknobs automatically disinfect themselves within eight hours.
This process is known as the oligodynamic effect."

Warning:
Taking this new knowledge into account in a historical review of
the the British Empire, the Royal Navy and 19th century banking
might be quite useful. Or at least enlightening. Then one wonders
that brass has since gone out of fashion.


~jwf~

Does this mean we have to rewrite the old saying "Where there's muck, there's brass, and then there's no muck"?

Pharaoh Iry-Hor is the first human whose name we know. (He lived over 5100 years ago.)

What about Alley Oop?

http://stuartngbooks.com/images/detailed/12/hamlin_alley_oop_v3_cvr.jpg


~jwf~

He even made the stamps.

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/alleyoop.jpg


~jwf~

Every member of the US Congress has a subscription to Hustler magazine.

Larry Flint sends them and there is nothing Congress members can do to stop it.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/why-every-member-of-congress-gets-a-monthly-porn-delivery-20140417

And being printed on shiny paper they cannot even be utilised for their proper purpose.

Oh, yes, pebble, they can - even multiple times.

Milk lasts longer if you put a frog in it.

Of course it does

Who is going to drink milk with a frog in it

I suspect it will sour in the same length of time, but it will last a longer than the drinkable kind.

F S

Source - http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2013/acs-presspac-february-6-2013/frog-in-bucket-of-milk-folklore-leads-to-potential-new-antibiotics.html

Florida Sailor

I suspect the Russian brown frog's anti-bacterial
secretions pre-date Pasteurization by centuries and
may explain the roundy milk fat faces that are so
stereotypically 'Russian'. Of course the Golden Horde
drank mare's milk and blood.

~jwf~

Wow... that is almost useful.


I don't happen to have any Russian brown frogs handy, so I can't claim any use currently. But if I happen to find myself stranded in a part of Russia and my only food source is a bucke of milk, I'll definitely throw a frog or two into the bucket.

I thought it was a reference to the Fable where the frog tries to get out of a jug of milk and paddles so hard he turns it into butter.

Frogs poached in milk? That's not a useless fact it's a recipe.

With the new series of Cosmos hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, I'd like to share this.

Many people believe that Carl Sagan repeatedly used the phrase, "billions and billions" on the original Cosmos, but he didn't. This misconception all started with Johnny Carson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIbbTHQmPkE

The Monty Python theme, The Liberty Bell by Sousa, was chosen in part because it was in the public domain and free.

PP.

I learned this from Mrs. Zen(Ben) yesterday. The sofa incident featured in the Dirk Gently books was based on true events. In the book, the sofa was stuck in the stairwell as it required some use of a time portal (or were it parallel dimensions, it's been a while) to work it around 90 degrees at the bend of the staircase.

Apparently Douglas Adams had wored in an office where they had brought up a sofa and after that, the stairwell had been redesigned leaving them unable to remove the sofa subsequently.

We now know the exact date of Ferris Beuller's Day Off. It was on 5 June, 1985. (The year I graduated... although it occurs to me this might not work as high schools in the US end their Spring ssmesters before then usually... I think. Or at least really close to then and I don't remember any reference to upcoming finals.)

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=12877