Hugh might be a good Magnusson.

In India it against the law to commit sodomy, any other gay sexual act and to be a transvestite. Yet transvestites are thought to hold the power to curse you so no one goes after them. They cant legally get jobs either but thats ok because its thought of as good look to have sum at your wedding, if you dont please them money wise there, they can cure your marriage even your first born.

Hitler is a least partially responsable for the hippie van, George Orwell was a Socialist, and Tesla disliked Edison

EDIT: you can't play the saxophone or polo left-handedly

DjDemonAsh:
Words about glass...

Ok, here's the deal. In a simple, "never took higher science in secondary school" ruling of the states of matter being Liquid, Solid, Gas and Plasma, let's just stop all the pointless arguing and agree Glass is a Solid.

I don't care about what happens to glass over a period of a hundred+ years, a hundred years from now the cheese in my fridge could be a sentient life form, but today it is a solid and thats the way, a-ha a-ha, I like it, a-ha a-ha.

Abolished:
-Coca-Cola would be green if colouring weren't added to it.

Yes, but Pepsi would be crystal clear if nostalgia was added to it. : D

Abolished:
-Earth is the only planet not named after a god.

Semi-true. Earth's name "EARTH" is not a god, but its other names (Terra, Gaia) were.

stubbmann:
Anyway, Anne Boleyn (second wife of henry the eighth) had three breasts and six fingers on her left hand (or did she?)

Not in the movie she didn't, and her sister absolutely refuses to show her tits. Damnit Scarlet, show us your rack already!

you can never actaully touch anything, at the molecular level there is always space between you and whatever your "touching"...perfect excuse if you're a pervert.

in AD 404 a tragic event finally put an end to the gladiators. A Christian monk named Telemachus entered the arena in Rome and tried to separate two combatants. The crowd went berserk, climbed over the walls into the arena and tore the monk limb from limb. The Emperor Honorius permanently banned all gladiator contests. random enough

One of the best modern theories of Faster-than-light travel involves making the space-constant ('C', aka the speed of light, 300,000km/s) faster so that the limit of speed allows faster than normal light.

Basically, "go the speed of light, make light go faster, then you can go faster than light".

What we call the sky is merely the limit of our vision into the atmosphere. The sky, like the horizon, is always as far away as one can see.

You share your birthday with at least nine million other people around the world.

The world's first speed limit regulation was in England in 1903. It was 20 mph.

Napoleon Bonaparte is the historical figure most often portrayed in movies. He has been featured in 194 movies, Jesus Christ in 152, and Abraham Lincoln in 137.

The Eiffel Tower receives a fresh coat of 300 tons of reddish-green paint every seven years.

In M&M candies, the letters stand for Mars and Murrie, the developers of the candy in 1941.

The first safety feature for an automobile was invented in 1908 by John O'Leary. He patented a large net, to be installed on the front fender, to scoop pedestrians out of the way before they could be run over.

The original name of Los Angeles was El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles del rio Porciuncula, translating into:The Village of our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the Porciuncula River.

In 1945 a computer at Harvard malfunctioned and Grace Hopper, who was working on the computer, investigated, found a moth in one of the circuits and removed it. Ever since, when something goes wrong with a computer, it is said to have a bug in it.

The term "devil's advocate" comes from the Roman Catholic Church. When deciding if someone should be sainted, a devil's advocate is always appointed to give an alternative view.

Theodore Roosevelt was the only U.S. president to deliver an inaugural address without using the word "I". Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower tied for second place, using "I" only once in their inaugural addresses.

On average, right-handed people live 9 years longer than their left-handed counterparts.

On average, people fear spiders more than they do dying. However, statistically you are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by the bite of a poisonous spider.

John Lithgow is Brad Pitt's uncle... >_>

At the height of their popularity, ABBA made more money in one year than other Swedish giant Volvo. Or, depending on the source, they were second to Volvo. Either way, that means beating out Saab, Ericsson, Electrolux, IKEA, and other major corporations, and that's damned impressive.

That, and they reportedly turned down $1,000,000,000 to reunite in 2000.

Ohio is actually the 48th state. A formal declared date of statehood was not given until 1953, which was retroactively set to 1803 where we all know it to be today.

John Cage wrote a song called 4'33", which is, of course, 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. In three parts.

The Dodge Charger Daytona and Plymouth Superbird, in spite of appearances, do not share a single body panel.

The Chevrolet Nomad wagon was originally based on the Corvette.

Tesla is now credited with the invention of the radio, not Marconi.

Hollywood exists because Edison owned the patent on the video camera, and southern California was roughly as far away from Edison's New Jersey shpo as one could get while still being in the United States at the time, and thus as far away from Edison's lawyers as possible.

Edison attempted to dissuade the American public from using Tesla's proposed alternating current by electrocuting stray animals. This actually helped solidify AC's hold.

Comedian George Carlin's birthdate (5/12/37) is also the zipcode for George, Iowa (51237). Okay, that only works under the American system of month/day/year date writing, but shut up.

Yes, all this dross is actually rattling around in my head. It's no wonder I never get anything done. I may have more later.

TheNecroswanson:

Khell_Sennet:

Abolished:
-Earth is the only planet not named after a god.

Semi-true. Earth's name "EARTH" is not a god, but its other names (Terra, Gaia) were.

I thought Gaia was a Titan. (Not referencing God of War, referencing 12 years of studying Greek Mythology... 'Twould be a shame if I was wrong....Sad face.))

EDIT: Just checked the wiki article: lists Gaia as a goddess who birthed titans.... What? I know she was the progenitor of the titans, but a god? That's.....Contradictory is it not?

Gaia was a full Goddess, she and Ouranus (Uranus) birthed the Titans who were a "form" of god, the titans in turn gave birth to the "Olympians" which are thus the third generation deities. All three are "gods" in their own right.

On the topic of things people may not know, the true story of Zeus...

Kronos (Chronos) knocked up Rhea, his sister and wife... While the bun was in the oven (so to speak), Kronos recieved a prophecy that one of his sons would overthrow him. As he did not WANT this, he stuck his holy meat into Rhea's snatch and kept it there so she could not give birth. This put Rhea in a shitload of pain, so she slipped a shiv into her womb for Zeus to use to escape...

And thus, Zeus took the shiv and sliced off his father's wedding tackle, and the Olympians poured out (fully formed). Castrated, Kronos left in shame (and probably considerable pain) and thus Zeus was now Big Chief. As to Kronus's severed manhood, I don't recall anything about the meat, but the berries were thrown (by zeus) across the sky and landed in the ocean. The landed nads in turn formed the final Olympian, Aphrodite, who rose from the ocean in a burst of seafoam.

Greek mythology pwnz movies for fucked-uppedness.

Khell_Sennet:

Greek mythology pwnz movies for fucked-uppedness.

I think Egyptian mythology, which personally I think Greek mythology poached liberally from, could give it a run for its money.

Anarchemitis:
One of the best modern theories of Faster-than-light travel involves making the space-constant ('C', aka the speed of light, 300,000km/s) faster so that the limit of speed allows faster than normal light.

The speed of light in a vacuum is actually EXACTLY 299792458m/s.

iamnotincompliance:
At the height of their popularity, ABBA made more money in one year than other Swedish giant Volvo. Or, depending on the source, they were second to Volvo. Either way, that means beating out Saab, Ericsson, Electrolux, IKEA, and other major corporations, and that's damned impressive.

That, and they reportedly turned down $1,000,000,000 to reunite in 2000.

yes they turned it down for 2 reasons, they were making more money sitting at home and there's is still a LOT of bad blood

Unknown_Exile:

The original name of Los Angeles was El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles del rio Porciuncula, translating into:The Village of our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the Porciuncula River.

that's still the full name of it, it's just commonly called los angeles

much like the full name of the uk is the united kingdom of england, scotland, wales and northern ireland

nilcypher:

Khell_Sennet:

Greek mythology pwnz movies for fucked-uppedness.

I think Egyptian mythology, which personally I think Greek mythology poached liberally from, could give it a run for its money.

Greek Myth did not rob Egyptian, nor did Roman rob either. There are similarities which suggests many of that era's religions based off an unknown originator, but all these religions developed before contact with eachother. If you study mythology, the god Apollo was also "different"... Not different like Hermaphroditus who had all the genitals of both genders, or Priapus who had a dick measuring between 2 and 3 meters long... Different as in HE did not originate with the other gods, and is an outsider.

Khell_Sennet:

nilcypher:

Khell_Sennet:

Greek mythology pwnz movies for fucked-uppedness.

I think Egyptian mythology, which personally I think Greek mythology poached liberally from, could give it a run for its money.

Greek Myth did not rob Egyptian, nor did Roman rob either. There are similarities which suggests many of that era's religions based off an unknown originator, but all these religions developed before contact with eachother. If you study mythology, the god Apollo was also "different"... Not different like Hermaphroditus who had all the genitals of both genders, or Priapus who had a dick measuring between 2 and 3 meters long... Different as in HE did not originate with the other gods, and is an outsider.

this is true a lot of religions poach stuff from others, there is a lot of similarities in them such as a great civilization or race of advanced ppl before a great catastrophe (the great flood story), from what i've read it's the grove ware ppl and they were brilliant to say the least. whomever they were they happened to put a henge like thing right on the tropic of cancer in egypt

the creation myth in judeo-christian belief is poached from summerian/babylonian religions with a couple words changed. so yeah everyone borrows from one another

anyways another addition

after saturday night live played their (in)famous more cowbell sketch, members of the blue oyster cult had people come up to them and express their sadness for the death of the cowbell player (played by Will Ferrell) but the band never had a dedicated cowbell player, in don't fear the reaper it was the singer who played the cowbell

poeple can lick thier elbows it's very possible check out youtube type in lick own elbow first video will be good and there are others which can count for it

Anarchemitis:

The shortest peice of music known is by Walking Concert titled Run to Be Born. The track is 8 seconds long.

I don't understand the OP's trivia.. I listen to pretty much only 'underground' or 'rare' music, and I have at least a few albums that would fall under or around 8 seconds. But not only that.....

There, I just tapped on my desk for 3 seconds, beating the record. I wonder if anyone is going to argue that a beat isn't music just because it's not done on a conventional instrument?

Re: Greek Myth... (and probably LOTS of things people didn't know...)

Greek mythology originates from one unknown source and the combination of the Micenean and Mesopotamian culture. Mesopotamia is what is now Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey; this is where Greece got the art of writing and many of its customs. The "unknown" component is this great unsolved mystery, as it provides parallels between religions of the time which hint at them all originating from the same place. Similarities in creation myths and other beliefs and the duplicative nature of the dieties is thought to be due to numerous nations all being originated from elsewhere (possibly northern europe or the UK).

For those not well versed in ancient gods, the Greeks and Romans has almost identical pantheons, with Rome having additional dieties Greece does not. Egyptian gods, Babylonian, Mesopotamian, Phonecian, and Sumerian also sharing closely related stories and gods, but not so carbon-copy as Rome to Greece.

Zeus = Jupiter
Poseidon = Neptune
Hades = Pluto
Ares = Mars
Aphrodite = Venus
Hephaestus = Vulcan
Hermes = Mercury

It goes on... The most noteworthy Roman god that doesn't have a counterpart in Greek myth would be Janus (pronounced Yan-Us), who was the two-faced god of passageways, who looked forwards and back at the same time.

Quick sidetrack, Janus is the originator of the month "January", which is the point of the year when you look to the past and the future as the year ends. February was named for the latin word of Purification (because everything must be pure when it's cold enough to freeze my f**king balls off)... January and February were add-in months, which didn't exist in the original calender as winter was a null-season, these months were originally the LAST two of the year, then later adjusted to the first and second month. This was retarded IMHO as it threw off the last four months (see below)...

For those who can put 2 and 2 together (5?), the prefixes Sep Oct Nov and Dec, which denote the last four months of the year, are also numerical references to (in the order above) 7 8 9 and 10. Dec, December, Dec, Decade, Decimeter, etc... December, prior to Jan/Feb's add-in, was the Tenth and final month of the year, November the ninth, and so on. That's the meaning of those months' names.

As to the rest... April's sacred to Venus and derives from a Latin word which means "to open", Venus was a slut so I guess it isn't THAT hard to figure out... That or spring blooming "opening up", but I prefer my first possibility. May is named for the goddess Maia, and June for Juno (Hera). The month March is named for Mars (Ares), but not from his persona as the god of war. Prior to that title, Mars was actually an agriculture diety, and thus March, the season of planting, was his month. July and August were named for Julius and Augustus Caesar.

Ok, not so quick of a sidetrack, but Mythology is my thing...

So Greek and Roman Gods seem identical, but to people of the time, Jupiter and Zeus were two separate and individual entities. Belief in that time was that Demons, Spirits, and Gods were local phenomenon. Greek gods only resided in Greece, Egyptian Gods stayed in Egypt, and Roman Gods bummed around Italy. It was common practice that everyone held ONE god higher than the others (primary worship) but paid tribute to most gods at some point or another, and acknowledged ALL their gods in some form. A blacksmith who worships Hephaestus would thank Hephaestus every time he finished a creation, but would still acknowledge Ares if it were a weapon, or Hestia if it were an object for the home, or Hermes if a horseshoe.

Gods being local, travelers would still honor THEIR gods when abroad, but also respected and paid tribute to the gods of the land they were in. If in a foreign land, you must abide by that land's customs (damn, I could go on for days about how immigrants today can learn from this) and honor that land's beliefs. This plus what I'll mention next is where the term "When in Rome" comes from.

"When in Rome"... In Rome, Caesar was thought to be a conduit to the gods, and while citizens and travelers were free to practice and express their own beliefs freely and openly, it was law and custom that you can worship however you like, but you must ALSO acknowledge Caersar's divinity and worship him as well. Well damn, that's not so odd. In some way or another, EVERY nation had a period where you must honor and worship the head of state. But this didn't sit well with a religious cult who followed the teachings of "Jesus Christ". These "Christians" were monotheistic (as opposed to the rest of the country and surrounding nations of the time being polytheistic). Their "God" said that he was the ONLY god and that his followers cannot worship or tribute anyone but him. Now keep in mind, as open minded and accepting as Rome was, these citizens refused the one and only stipulation on religious freedom of the land, they would not recognize the Caesar as a god. This is a criminal offense, and the Christians were deemed an illegal cult and discovered members were fed to the lions.

Christians these days bemoan how they were persecuted by the Romans, but they have no leg to stand on. They were an illegal underground organization who sought to undermine the beliefs and laws of their nation. Rome wasn't asking much of them, they could have continued to worship Jehova just so long as they also worshiped the Caesar, but they refused and were thus punished in a fair an legal manner. How this underground cult became the second largest world religion is a matter for another post, but there is quite a lot of irony in that Rome is now the central authority of a religion it detested and tried to exterminate.

Ooh... One final myth story, well two but they're related.
HERMES, messenger god of travel. Hermes was THE god for anyone on the road. It doesn't matter if you are a devout worshiper of Ares or Artemis, while traveling outside your city, you begged every mercy possible from Hermes to provide save and speedy travel. As such, there are/were stone statues along the roads, statues to the god Hermes. These statues (named Herms) would often have depictions of hermes's face carved into it, or his symbol, or on occasion a full bust. This was not the noteable feature, it was the fact these Herms all had embossed carvings of a penis and testicles on the side. Why? To give the god a handjob of course... Travelers would rub the shaft for good luck, which may answer why Hermes was rarely depicted frowning. Also about Hermes, he had a child born of Aphrodite, named Hermaphroditus... Try figure what Hermaphroditus was the god/ess of...

While we're discussing the origins of various gods, let me bring up the interesting tale of Dionysos, the god of wine and revelry. His mother, Semele, was knocked up by Zeus, in all his pimping glory. Hera, Zeus' wife, was understandably annoyed by her husband's philandering, so she disguised herself as an old lady and tricked Semele into asking Zeus to reveal himself in his true form, in order to prove his godliness. Zeus did so, and the poor woman was literally vaporised by his awesomeness.

Now, where things get interesting is that Zeus took the fetus that was Dionysos, and sewed him into his thigh. Fast forward a few months, and Zeus gave birth to his own son.

And if you think that's weird, you should check out how Athena was born.

Almonds and pistachios are the only nuts mentioned in the Bible.

Salt is mentioned more than 30 times in the Bible.

Seven suicides are recorded in the Bible.

Strict Puritan laws had their origins from practical reasons. Smoking was banned - farmers would raise badly needed food crops instead of tobacco. Cooking was banned on Sundays - to prevent house fires during the long hours the family was at church. Young men were banned from hunting - to prevent weapons from falling into Indian hands.

The Bible devotes some 500 verses on prayer, less than 500verses on faith, but over 2000 verses on money and posessions.

The patron saint of dentists is St. Apollonia. She reportedly had her teeth pulled out in 249 AD by an anti-Christian mob.

The shortest verse in the Bible consists of two words: "Jesus wept" (John 11:35).

The longest word in the Bible is "Mahershalalhashbaz" (18 letters) which is found in Isaiah 8:1.

"Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, La Allah Il Allah, La Allah Il Allah U Mohammed Rassul Allah" is heard by more people than any other sound of the human voice. This is the prayer recited by muezzins from each of the four corners of the prayer tower as Moslems all over the world face toward Mecca and kneel at sunset. It means: "God is great. There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God."

Sherlock Holmes never said 'Elementary, my dear Watson.'

Since 1896, the beginning of the modern Olympics, only Greece and Australia have participated in every Games.

According to tradition, the first engineer to build a bridge across the Tiber in Ancient Rome was given the name Pontifex, meaning "bridge builder." The Pontifex was seen as someone who "connects" people, and that symbolism was so powerful that Roman high priests--including Julius Caesar--later adopted the title Pontifex Maximus. During the Roman Imperial age, the emperor was always the Pontifex Maximus. The title eventually passed from Roman emperors to the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. Today, the Pope still carries the title Pontifex Maximus.

Traces of cocaine were found on 99% of UK bank notes in a survey in London in 2000.

Kastere:
It's impossible to light a trail of Gasoline with a Cigarette, However, it's possible to cheat and shove a match into the head of the cigarette, light it, and use the resulting flame instead of cheap special effects.

The first Rayman game for PSX has sold more copies than Halo 3. (10 million)

About Rayman, I'd believe it. About the cigs, I'm wondering if you're just trying to get me killed as I am now curious enough to test that.

Okies, back to the Gods.

As Jeffers pointed out, Zeus is a horndog and the gods conceive children in mysterious (or fucking bizarre) ways. To paraphrase my Greek Mythology teacher from college, anything humped by a god will produce a child... ANYTHING.

If Zeus were to stroke off on the peak of Mount Olympus and the money shot were to land on a patch of grass, THAT GRASS will give birth to either a demigod, mortal, or monster.

Zeus himself has humped almost everyone in Greece during his time. Gods aren't picky, banging either gender and monsters in equal measure. Zeus was a sadist who enjoyed tormenting his victims by raping them while in the form of an animal, often birds as he was a sky god. People always rag on Hera about being a bitchy wife, but Zeus was sleeping around almost five times as much as she was.

The Greek definition of a hero is not what we call a hero today, and the difference between the two is the highest irony I know. We see shows like Disney's or Kenin Sorbo's Hercules where Herc is the noble self-sacrificing good guy who defeats the evil sinful villain. The old Greek definition of "Villain" was a person who could not protect what was theirs, IE a robbery or rape victim. That chick that just got nailed in the back alley, screaming for him to stop, what a horrible person she was, she's a villain. Now a "Hero" was someone who takes whatever they want, the robber in a mugging, he's such a hero and a great man. That's how they saw it.

So... When they say "Heracles" (Hercules) was a hero, they usually fail to mention what KIND of hero he was. He wasn't noble, generous or kind. Heracles threw people off mountain cliffs for entertainment and/or because they got in his way. He was a rapist, murderer, thief, and totally psychotic. Great role model for kids, right Disney?

everytime you sneeze you have a small chance of getting a nosebleed at the exact moment and spraying blood over everyone near and having them look in terror at you before... Ah well I had it once and it was entertaining.

Oo and by the way the computergame theme song that is most played with a guitar is not the one-winged-angel-omygodsepirothissosmexy medley it is the dr. wily segment from megaman 2 and it sounds AWESOME!