Interesting.... but useless facts...

[fazstp]

Quote: Originally Posted by NovaScotian Saw that yesterday -- how do you like the projecting jaw?

I guess it needs it to make up for it's giant shnoz getting in the way when it's trying to feed.

[NovaScotian]

Quote: Originally Posted by fazstp I guess it needs it to make up for it's giant shnoz getting in the way when it's trying to feed.

There's a snake with a second set of jaws like that that they use to engulf their victims, holding with the outer fangs, sliding the inner forward, pulling back, etc. Can't remember what kind of snake.

[fazstp]

Quote: Originally Posted by NovaScotian There's a snake with a second set of jaws like that that they use to engulf their victims, holding with the outer fangs, sliding the inner forward, pulling back, etc. Can't remember what kind of snake.

Could you have been thinking of the Moray Eel?

[NovaScotian]

Right on, fazstp!

[ArcticStones]

Quote: Originally Posted by acme.mail.order Japanese houses are numbered in the order in which they were built, not what they are next to.

Not only in Japan... I once spent almost an hour searching for the house of a teacher along a Californian residential road where they had followed this practice.

[kel101]

Chuck norris can divide by 0

that give me an idea.,,,ima make a chuck norris thread

[fazstp]

"There are more bacteriophages [viruses that infect bacteria] in the biosphere than all other life forms added together... If you took all the phage particles and stacked them end to end, they would reach for a total distance of 200 million light years."

Viruses: The unsung heroes of evolution

[seeker777]

The average human blinks their eyes 6.2 million times a year.

[seeker777]

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history with no full moon.

[NovaScotian]

Quote: Originally Posted by seeker777 February 1865 is the only month in recorded history with no full moon.

Curious about this, I looked at the NASA Moon Phases tables and found that there was a full moon on February 10, 1865.

[AHunter3]

Quote: Originally Posted by fazstp Could you have been thinking of the Moray Eel?

[Dean Martin]Whennnnnnnn an eel reaches out,
And it bites off your snout,
That's a moray![/Dean]

[hayne]

Quote: Originally Posted by NovaScotian Curious about this, I looked at the NASA Moon Phases tables and found that there was a full moon on February 10, 1865.

Indeed - see: http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives...1549.As.r.html

[seeker777]

NovaScotian & Hayne-

Thanks for teaching me a lesson about regurgitating a purported "fact" without verification. Perhaps I can take solace in Hayne's post that I am not the only one to have fallen for this myth.

Anyway, I looked at your chart, which quickly showed Februarys in 1809 & 1847 having no full moon.

Upon further digging, I found a claim that while February is indeed the only month to ever be recorded with no full moon (because it only has 28 days, and the lunar cycle is just over 29 days), that this can happen approximately every 19 years...making that the useless fact in this exercise.

[NovaScotian]

The best number I can find for the period of a full moon (as seen from the earth) is 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes 2.8 seconds. This is different from the sidereal period because the earth moves relative to the sun and a full moon depends on where the sun is.

[fazstp]

Only two days until they fire up the LHC.

[fazstp]

Humble sticky tape emits powerful X-rays

"Peeling ordinary sticky tape can generate bursts of X-rays intense enough to produce an image of the bones in your fingers."

[edalzell]

Quote: Originally Posted by fazstp Humble sticky tape emits powerful X-rays "Peeling ordinary sticky tape can generate bursts of X-rays intense enough to produce an image of the bones in your fingers."

If you want to hear an interview about it, listen here.

[edalzell]

How 'bout some language ones:

* longest work typed with left hand only: tesseradecades (had to look this one up...sorry)
* work with three double letters in it: bookkeeper
* Word that changes pronunciation when capitalized: polish (one's shoes) and Polish (one from Poland)

[edalzell]

China spanned five time zones until 1949, when the entire country was synchronized to the same hour. So when dawn breaks in Beijing at 6:43 am, it's also 6:43 am more than 2,000 miles west in Kashi, where the sun won't rise for another two hours and 45 minutes.

[fazstp]

By decoding MRI scans Japanese researchers have been able to reproduce basic images being viewed by test subjects.

Mind-reading software reveals brain images