This is just a thread of Quite Interesting facts. Because learning these things is no good if you have no chance to share them.

Apparently, the sell-by-date is a product of Al Capone who hated drinking sour milk as a child and insisted on such an idea for a donation of milk he made for school children.

I recently learned that the Koreans devised a method of heating their homes by venting the smoke and heat from the kitchen fire underneath the stone floors of the house and then out a chimney at the end of the house that helped create a draft.

Hitler's belief that there should be a car for every household was considered outlandish.

Scientists have no idea why we sleep. They even discovered that some people can sleep only 2 hours per night without any ill effects.

Supposedly almost anyone can do that if one has the flexible schedule /fortitude to change their normal behaviour.

Hull City are the only team in the entirety of the English Football League whose name contains no letters that can be coloured in, whether written in upper or lower case.

edited 26th Sep '11 4:35:01 PM by Saeglopur

The Spanish Inquisition would give you thirty days notice.

Bet Monty Python feels silly now.

Denim and jeans both get their names from European towns. serge de Nîmes because Nimes made the serge material and bleu de Gênes because in Genoa they would dye it blue.

"Only people who don't check their MAIL do not expect the    Spanish Inquisition!   "

Abraham Lincoln was an honorary citizen of San Marino.

Gypsies didn't really use horse drawn carriages until about the 1870s. Before then they just used a style of tent that just looked a bit like a wigwam.

Charles Darwin discovered firsthand how the Bombardier Beetle*

^{the one that shoots a boiling, caustic chemical cocktail out of its ass}

got its name when he was collecting insects one day. He had run out of containers to put a new one he found in, and his hands were full, so he popped the one he had in his hand into his mouth and got a taste of nature's chemical playset.

The word "sleuth" comes from the old scottish term for a bloodhound "Slough dog" because they were used just as they are now as trackers.

Cubozoans have the best◊ eyes◊ of any cnidarian. Here's looking at you. . .

edited 2nd Nov '11 6:35:21 PM by carbon-mantis

In Europe we don't get hurricanes, we get European Windstorms.

One stole my shopping this morning.

We only think a tuffet is a type of stool because of Little Miss Muffet, and it is only used as a reference because there is such a dearth of information as to the furniture used before 1300.

And the "Board" of "Room And Board" was literal. Tables were not permanent, and the dinner table was hung on the wall, and was a large board. when the meal was served, it was placed upon the knees of those sitting on the banque, french for bench, and food was placed on the board, giving us banquet.

That must of sucked if anyone had to use the bathroom during dinner.

Jaws 3D was originally conceived as a comedy called "Jaws 3 People 0".

"when the meal was served, it was placed upon the knees of those sitting on the banque, french for bench, and food was placed on the board, giving us banquet."

Never heard of that, where'd you get it? (The board(s) were usually placed on trestles.)

A sketch on The Muppet Show set to "Macho Man" ends with Gonzo slinging birds at mean pigs.

edited 11th May '12 5:17:48 PM by HersheleOstropoler

The native martial arts of Indonesia, Pencak silat, predates the arrival of Islam in the country. However as it has evolved, it has incorporated these cultural aspects. For example, one technique for blocking is based on the hand motions of Wudu, the Islamic ritual cleaning before prayer.

Have you been at Mark and Simon's pod-cast? <suspicious tones>

When you make an ATM transaction, the bank pays the ATM operator about 26p.

The American Civil War general "Stonewall" Jackson was himself pro-union but he fought for the confederacy because Virginia had seceeded and he couldn't bear to fight against his home state. Probably a lot of Americans know this.

However, he's actually from West Virginia, so oops?

It wasn't West Virginia until after the war started.

Elvis Presley once shot his television because Robert Goulet was on, and Goulet stole his girlfriend when Presley was in the army.

Actually, I think I learned that around this site.