Useless Facts

[Keith Nichols]

Actually, in US measurements 1 ton = 2000 lbs, so it would make a 20 ton house.

Mrs. Gorilla,

Thank you for setting me straight. I'm glad I put in the caveat or I'd be feeling a fool (again).

 

[Keith Nichols]

I will never complain about humidity again since visitting Japan. If you think it's humid where you live, you don't know anything!

Vassago,

I recall reading somewhere that Tokyo had concreted over so much of the area that the reduction in green plants and exposed soil had caused a considerable drying of the local climate. This was to the point where low humidity was a problem.

Obviously your experience contradicts that. Maybe it's a seasonal thing or maybe I'm mis-rmembering the article I read.

Further research reveals that whatever I read years ago must have been either wrong or about somewhere else:

Tokyo, being in a temperate zone, has a comparatively moderate and comfortable climate throughout the year. In summer it is hot, humid, and is often hit by typhoons, while long dry spells of fine weather continue in winter. The rainy season lasts from late June until mid-July. During the season, it rains almost everyday and the humidity gets very high. When the rainy season is over, the real summer comes. Ogasawara Islands, in particular, being 1000 km away from Tokyo and belonging to a semitropical zone, are an area of the eternal summer throughout the year.

From http://www.tourism.metro.tokyo.jp/english/basic/basic02.html

 

[FoFa]

In 2004, university scientists on the island of Taiwan were trucking a dead sperm whale to the lab to find out why it had washed up on the beach (maybe because it was DEAD!)
As they drove through town, the whale suddenly exploded from the pressure of the stored-up gas. Pedestrians for blocks were showered with flying whale guts.

 

[FoFa]

The fourteenth century in North America: no Europeans spreading disease, death and religion. The living was easy, with plenty of food wandering on the hoof, plenty of open land, few neighbors or enemies crowding about.
On the dark side: The living was so easy it made the people hospitable. So when the first Euroeans showed up wanting to move in, the natives let them.

 

[FoFa]

In the 1800's, Delmonico's the top restaurant in New York City, introduced many popular dishes to the American cuisine. It's most famous new dish was Lobster Newburgm which wasn't called Lobster Newburg at all but Lobster Wenberg.
That's because the recipe was given to Delmonico's in the 1890's by on of it regulars, a customer named Ben Wenberg.
But Wenberg lost his shot at food immortality when he caused a major disturbance in the dining room one night and got 86ed by the management - not only from the restaurant but from the dish itself.

 

[Adeptus]

Yak's milk is pink

 

[FoFa]

Engineers and scientists have created the marvels of our age - and the threats too. As writer Stephen Vizinczey pointed out, "The truth is that our race survived ignorance. It is our scientific genius that will do us in."

 

[FoFa]

The annual spring break revels bring Daytona Beach, Florida, a fortune and leave a college-grade mess. In 2004 the city decided to leave a civi-minded message by nailing signs around town telling visitors, "It's all about recpect."
College kids had apparently been getting the wrong message for decades, that it was about chug-a-lugging and passing out on the beach. Three hundred of the signs were stolen the first night.

 

[FoFa]

In 1995 a man took over control of a New Zealand radio station. He claimed to have a bomb, and made the following demand. He wanted the radio station to play his favorite song, "Rainbow Connection" by Kermit the Frog.

 

[FoFa]

A man from the Florida town of Tarpon Springs was arrested for fraud when he rented his home to northerners for the winter.
The con man's first big mistake, he rented the same house, for the same time frame, to nineteen different people. His second mistake: He stayed in the home so the police knew right where to find him when way to many people showed up to move in.

 

[FoFa]

In 1959, after two teenagers were fatally stabbed by another, officials in New York City took immediate action. Radio station WCBS banned Bobby Darin's hit song "Mack the Knife"

 

[FoFa]

Lord Mansfield, a chief justice of England in the 18th century, passed this sentence on a thief: "There is nothing wrong with you that a good hanging won't cure."
Now there is a decent Brit! Sounds like he would fit right in, in Texas!

 

[statsman]

In the 1960's when Black Muslim Civil Rights advocate Malcom X was assasinated over 100 radio stations in the US informed their listeners that

"malcom the tenth"

was dead.

 

[Bodisathva]

...now that's funny

 

[Ron_dK]

Men who have pierced ears are better prepared for marriage. They've experienced pain and bought jewelry.

 

[Ron_dK]

Can I drink the water? in the Molvanian language would be something like :
'Erkjo ne szlepp statsik ne var ne vladrobzko ne ' , which literally means :

Is it not that the water is not not undrinkable?

 

[FoFa]

When comedians Groucho, Harpo and Chico wanted to test a new gag before they put it into one of their filems, they performed it for brother Zeppo, who always played the straight man. If Zeppo liked it, they threw it out.

 

[Ron_dK]

Zeppo was also an inventor and holds three patents.
"The method and watch mechanism for actuation by cardiac pulse" is one of them.

 

[Pauldohert]

Less formally in the Molvanian language you could use


‘Virkum stas?’

for


'Can I drink the water? '

 

[Ron_dK]

Zlkavszka Paul,

Virkum stas :
while clutching your stomach in a gesture of gastric distress