Stupid, Dumb, Useless, Fascinating Facts That May Or May Not Be True

The Risen Realm ^

[Cowman]

You can't plow a cotton field with an elephant in North Carolina.

sure you can, just make sure the cops aren't around

[Cowman]

At Disneyland they have hundreds of wild domesticated cats running around the park. They never come out during the day because there's too many people, but the reason they're there is to catch the mice. .....

Does Mickey know about this?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The Japanese word "Arigato" meaning thank you is derived from the Portugese word "Obrigado".

That one is suspect. The Japanese language pre-dates Portuguese by many, many years. I would say that the inverse is the truth.

[Starter]

"The numbers on opposite sides of a die always add up to 7."

Not if it's a d10.

(And while this is generally true on 6 siders, I have seen cheap dice where it was not the case.)

[ActionNewsBill]

It took Leo Tolstoy six years to write "War & Peace".

Also, the original title was, "War...What Is It Good For?"

[SunkenCiv]

I believe that tfecw is saying that Lee isn't the only one to do that.

Oddly enough...

Lee did graduate without a single demerit, but...

He graduated *second* in his class.

[SunkenCiv]

Another annoying nitpicking comment:

People generally say there are 365 days in a year. By a year, I mean this is the time period it takes the earth to travel around the sun: 365 days. Actually, however, it takes the Earth 365.25 days to make this trip. In other words, for every year we gain one-fourth of a day and every for years we gain an extra day. If nothing was done about this, our calendar would move backwards one full day every four years in relation to our seasons.

This is not correct. The year is 365.242198 days long. Ordinarily, there is no February 29th on the zero year, so a century is 36,524 days long. HOWEVER, in order to pick up the little bit extra that is needed, there is a February 29th each fourth zero year. That's why the year 2000 election campaign seemed so long I guess.

[SunkenCiv]

The Chinese ideogram for 'trouble' depicts two women living under one roof.

That seems about right.

[SunkenCiv]

Jupiter's core is in fact made of a non-metal, but due to the immense pressure inside Jupiter the core has become a metal. This metal is hydrogen.

That has been speculated. It's based on the density of Jupiter (about that of water), its diameter and mass, and experiments on Earth which showed that hydrogen could be turned to a metallic state under sufficient pressure.

Somewhere on FR there is a topic or two about this. Here's a post.

[SunkenCiv]

It probably is correct. The Japanese "rashawa" refers to, and is taken from, the English phrase "rush hour".

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The TV sitcom Seinfeld was originally named "The Seinfeld Chronicles". The pilot which was broadcast in 1989 also featured a kooky neighbor named Kessler. This character later became known as Kramer.

Can anyone tell me why the name was changed?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The Japanese "rashawa" refers to, and is taken from, the English phrase "rush hour".

At least that one makes sense because there would have been no "rush hour" per se in Japan until influenced by American culture.
But Portugal didn't have a trading relationship with the Japanese until the 15th century...and the Japanese language is a lot older than that.

[SunkenCiv]

I think the point is, neither is a Japanese word.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I think the point is, neither is a Japanese word.

I do see that is the point you are trying to make. The point I am trying to make is that the Japanese language pre-dates the Portugese language and the Japanese most certainly would have had a word for "Thank you" before they met the Portugese. It is also likely that it was "harigato".
I will research this and see if I can find any provenance for this theory.

[BlueNgold]

Every citizen of Kentucky is required by law to take a bath at least once a year.

I think this is a law that requires and increased enforcement priority!

[SunkenCiv]

On the web, the "urban legends" crowd of course saddle on the idea that it's actually just native Japanese, however, the purported etymologies I found (cursorily) seem to be pretty much all over the map, IE, they can't even agree amongst themselves. The best page I've seen so far (and it was linked from another page discussing the controversy) is this one, and hope this helps all of us:

Jonathan Lewis
Tokyo Denki University
http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/linguist/issues/12/12-1871.html

[SunkenCiv]

"The writers of The Simpsons have never revealed what state Springfield is in."

One time, on the NPR show "Car Talk", one of the brothers said that the only two states in the union with no "Springfield" are Alaska and Hawaii.

[cowboyway]

When he graduated (second in his class of 46) in 1829 he had not only attained the top academic record but was the first cadet (and so far the only) to graduate the Academy without a single demerit. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the

Ask Jeeves

In final class standing Mason was No. 1; Lee was No. 2; Harford, Joseph A. Smith, and James Barnes followed in order.Click here for footnote. Lee finished his fourth year, as he had all the others, with a place on the list of "distinguished cadets."Click here for footnote.

RE Lee biography

[Owl558]

"Seems to me that eventually they would get used to people and be out in view all the time."

I've seen cats in various places at various times in the park so maybe you are right.

[Loud Mime]

I once read that the number of possible chess games exceeds the number of molecules on earth. I think Horowitz had that in one of his books.