Horn shark eggs are shaped like screws. They look totally crazy.
Mammals can be venomous, but not poisonous. To be venomous is to inject things with poison. To be poisonous is to secrete poison.
The whistling thorn tree has a symbiotic relationship with ants. The ants live in the tree and feed off its sap in exchange for warding off predators. In the absence of large herbivores the tree cuts back on how much sap it produces for the ants. Some species of ants respond to this by allowing parasites (which they eat) to infest the tree.
Chipmunks eat mice. Toucans eat other birds, Kellog's mascot Toucan Sam not withstanding.

You can discover tons of awesome nature facts on this webcomic: http://birdandmoon.com/

The waxing moon is 20% brighter than the waning moon.
A fully charged car battery contains as much energy as one sandwhich.
In 1859 the earth was hit bya magnetic storm so powerfulthat the electricity conducted by telegraph wires set telegraph equipment on fire.
The combined mass of humanity outweighs that of any other mammal except for cows- earth's true rulers.

The Titanic needed 4000 tons of coal to cross the Atlantic
The Titanic's sister ship, the Olympic, stayed in service for over twenty years and traversed over one million miles.

North Korea has 28 state approved haircuts. The solicitude of our great leader knows no bound but the number 29!
The DeMilitarized Zone between the Koreas is one of the most heavily militarized borders on earth. The lack of humans also make it a refuge for endangered species. South Korea has campaigned to turn it into a nature reserve.
The North Korean government built a "perfect" city on the border to entice South Koreans to defect. Nobody lives there. Nobody ever has.
The interKorean defection rate is 23,000:2. Northerns tend to head south more than the other way around.
North Koreans have their own calender based on the birthday of their nations founder.
Marijuana is legal in North Korea. Blue jeans are not.
Kim Jong Il wrote 1500 books while in university. Plus six operas. What do you expect from a guy born under a double rainbow?

The quietest place on earth is in Minneapolis.

The oldest name in continuous use? Ed. What it's short for has changed, but the name Ed goes way back.

Zebras have between 23 and 27 stripes. The number is determined by the X chromosone and only female zebras can have the full 27.

Much of the stereotypical "surfer dude" vocabulary (heinous, awesome, gnarly) can be traced directly back to Shakespeare. Many of the influential figures in the movement's birth attended the same high school English class.

The frowning emoticon actually predates the smiling one . (Why do we call them smilies?) The first verified use of the frowning emoticon was in the notes of some buggy code being reviewed by an IBM employee.

Salt and vinegar potato chips are a big money loser for most companies that produce them. While they are technically profitable, they are much less so than other flavours of chip a consumer would've bought in their place. Lays has gone on record saying that they only continue to produce their Zesty Salt & Vinegar chips out of respect for tradition (they first hit the big time when they invented the flavour).

It's time to check the date you fool.

Edited for spacing.

So how far in did everybody get before they realized the last post was a joke. Or did nobody read it?

80% of the mass you lose when you "burn" fat is exhaled as carbon dioxide.

Honestly? Most of them were believable enough that I didn't even think on it. Well except for the Shakespeare one. That did make me raise an eyebrow.

Also the salt & vinegar one just confused me because I am British and a 'chip' is something entirely different here. I just assumed the confusion was on my part though.

Oh wow I believed most of them when I read them and may have quoted the Shakespeare one this weekend.

I didn't really believe the Salt and Vinegar chip one though... I suppose that should've clued me in to the others. I honestly assume you dredge these up from some random fact generator that only you know about, so I generally trust them about as much as wikipedia.

Yeah, the chip one was a little weak. Overall I should have gone a little more over the top, maybe escaloated things until they got really silly.
I'm sure I've got some of them wrong, but I try to make sure my facts are accurate. I usually move on from one source after I exhaust the previous one.
Good to know people are reading.

By the end of WWII Russia's daily caloric intake was half of what it was in 1940. More than half of Japan's military deaths during the conflict stemmed from inadequate food supplies. In Britain, wartime rationing actually improved the general health of the British populace.

There are more people living in slavery today than ever before in human history. This is not of course to say that rates of slavery are at an all time high. Rising population levels are to blame.

The most powerful psychic of modern times is reputed to be Ukelele the honeybee. When questioned, DARPA researchers responded, "Have you ever tried to come up with individual names for each bee in a colony? Once we ran out of real names we started naming them after Greek gods, snack foods, instruments, anything really". Ukele's powers are largely telepathic in nature. By projecting her true bee-name, unpronounceable by the human tongue and incomprehensible to the human mind, into a victim's brain she can force fatal seizures. When asked about her role in taking down the wanted terrorist [Redacted] Ukulele commented, " Aggh -ah it's inside of my head! I can feel AGGH Ack -


END TRANSMISSION

The zamburak is a form of camel-mounted artillery. There is actually a word in the English language for camel-mounted artillery.
The Oreo predates the chocolate chip cookie. The National Biscuit Company invented the Oreo in 1912, while the chocolate chip cookie wasn't invented until the 1930's.
Antartica isn't the only unclaimed land on earth. The Danube river marks the border between Croatia and Serbia, but whether the border changed along with the river's course over the years is disputed. Activists have settled one unclaimed parcel of land along the river and proclaimed it Liberland.
Larger than Liberland, there's also Bir Tawil on the border of Egypt and Sudan. Both countries base their territorial claims on older borderlines that would give them control of the Hala'ib Triangle. Since Bir Tawil is covered under neither of these claims, that leaves us with 2000 square kilometres of unclaimed, empty desert.

If Washington DC was its own country it would be in the top 11 countries worldwide for homicide rates.

Most languages don't have alphabets.
In abjads only the consonants have symbols and vowels. In some languages, like Arabic the vowels in a word can change depending on context.
Syllaberies have one symbol for each syllable. Very few languages use them. Japanese uses three.
Abugidas have symbols for consonants which are modified to show which vowel sound they are voiced along with.
Logographies (like Chinese) have a seperate symbol for each word.

London's GDP is about equal to that of Saudi Arabia.
All the property in Scotland, Wales and Northen Ireland combined is worth only a fraction of London's.
More than a quarter of London's residents reside below the poverty line.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt ... 3b435857a8

The most fun I've ever had playing a card game is when I had -8.5 points on purpose.

There are about 400 different types of French cheeses.

Pommes is German for french fries.

I had diharrea yesterday.



...I don't get this thread

The frequency of gun-related violence has steadily decreased in America over the last few decades. In interesting contrast, the frequency of mass public shootings in America has tripled since 2011.

Yes, they're getting more efficient