'Blimey, I never knew that' amazing facts

[Publius Ovidius]

Did you know that the reason why windows steam up in cold weather is because of all the fish in the atmosphere?
Did you know that Moslems are forbidden to eat glass?
Did you know that the oldest rock in the world is the famous Hackenthorpe Rock, in North Ealing, which is 2 trillion years old?
Did you know that Milton was a woman?
Did you know that from the top of the Prudential Assurance Building in Bromley you can see 8 continents?
Did you know that the highest point in the world is only 8 foot?

 

[Barrel of Fun]

The Hackenthorpe Book of Lies

Smashing! A thread about facts and I end up with a book to add to my er...book list.

Tank who.

 

[The Large One]

England have never scored five goals in a World Cup Finals match.

 

[acrossthepond]

Dog's can't look up.

 

[vegster]

I think you're assuming a fairly small average size of cod there, say 4-5kg. If they all grew to 12 kg or so you're looking at nearer 3km.

Is it wednesday Rufflehound ? My knowledge of Cod is quite good but I would suggest that a Cod Sexually maturing about 3 years old will probably be a maximum of 2 Kg, even allowing for rapid growth. So over 3 generations you would probably have a spread of 1.5 Kg to 5 Kg. giving an average of about 3kg. still, that would be a couple of very nice fillets.

 

[Barrow Boy]

Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.

Polar Bears are left handed.

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

Glen Murray will score at home tomorrow

 

[pasty]

I will swear blind all morning tomorrow that I am not going eat another mystery-meat burger at Withdean, but will be found scoffing one at half time.

 

[Easy 10]

I will swear blind all morning tomorrow that I am not going eat another mystery-meat burger at Withdean, but will be found scoffing one at half time.

Bacon baguettes are where its AT

 

[severnside gull]

The ARA General Belgrano, which was sunk in the Falklands Conflict was previously the USS Phoenix.

and as such escaped unscathed when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour

 

[severnside gull]

Bacon baguettes are where its AT

can you eat them with a spork?

 

[Brighton TID]

My mate Gary's dog once ate the poo of his other dog, whilst walking on the Downs

 

[SUIYHP]

The onion was revered as a holy object in ancient egypt

 

[Acker79]

You can eat anything with a spork. Fact.

 

[S'hampton Seagull]

Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people

 

[MJsGhost]

and as such escaped unscathed when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour

Gotta love QI!

 

[Trufflehound]

Is it wednesday Rufflehound ? My knowledge of Cod is quite good but I would suggest that a Cod Sexually maturing about 3 years old will probably be a maximum of 2 Kg, even allowing for rapid growth. So over 3 generations you would probably have a spread of 1.5 Kg to 5 Kg. giving an average of about 3kg. still, that would be a couple of very nice fillets.

I was using Wikipedia's "average 5-12 kg", and average 5 million eggs per female. If you assume that all of those are female apart from just enough lucky blokes to fertilise them, then after 3 generations you'll have 125 million trillion fish, which if they all grew to the full 12kg would be 1500 million trillion kg of fish, or 1.5 million trillion tons.

If you assume for the sake of argument that they have the same density as water - 1 ton = 1 cubic metre - then that's 1.5 million trillion cubic metres.

There are one thousand million cubic metres in a cubic km, so that's 1500 million cubic km of cod.

Spread that out evenly over the 510 million square kms of the earth's surface, and you get a fin or two less than 3 km deep worldwide.

Hence it would be one km deep only if you assume the average weight to be 4kg.



Now, if that isn't the most boring post you've ever read on NSC...

 

[vegster]

I was using Wikipedia's "average 5-12 kg", and average 5 million eggs per female. If you assume that all of those are female apart from just enough lucky blokes to fertilise them, then after 3 generations you'll have 125 million trillion fish, which if they all grew to the full 12kg would be 1500 million trillion kg of fish, or 1.5 million trillion tons.

If you assume for the sake of argument that they have the same density as water - 1 ton = 1 cubic metre - then that's 1.5 million trillion cubic metres.

There are one thousand million cubic metres in a cubic km, so that's 1500 million cubic km of cod.

Spread that out evenly over the 510 million square kms of the earth's surface, and you get a fin or two less than 3 km deep worldwide.

Hence it would be one km deep only if you assume the average weight to be 4kg.



Now, if that isn't the most boring post you've ever read on NSC...

not quite the most boring.....

I think that that weight estimate is too high for the purposes of this equation. Yes,the average " mature " weight may be 5-12Kg but we are talking a theoretical 3 generations from scratch and as such I would think that a 6 year old Cod would probably not be at the 12Kg end of the scale. try to imagine that the third generation although more of them, would be the least weighty generation as they are 3 years behind !

 

[Trufflehound]

not quite the most boring.....

I think that that weight estimate is too high for the purposes of this equation. Yes,the average " mature " weight may be 5-12Kg but we are talking a theoretical 3 generations from scratch and as such I would think that a 6 year old Cod would probably not be at the 12Kg end of the scale. try to imagine that the third generation although more of them, would be the least weighty generation as they are 3 years behind !

Shall we agree on 4kg average and one kilometre deep then?

 

[The Merry Prankster]

Study finds left-handers don't die earlier
By Emma Ross, Associated Press Writer
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press
May 28, 1998
LONDON -- Left-handed people don't necessarily die any younger than right-handers, according to new research that disputes the findings suggested by some studies.

In a nine-year study, Dr. Simon Ellis and his colleagues at Keele University in England examined the link between left-handedness and the risk of dying earlier using 6,049 people ranging in age from 15 to 70.

"Handedness did not make a significant contribution to the outcome of death," concluded the study, published Friday in this week's issue of The Lancet, a British medical journal.

The question of whether lefties die younger is controversial. Several studies have suggested a connection, but others have shown no link.

One theory suggests that older age groups contain fewer left-handers not because they die earlier, but because many in the older generation were forced as children to become right-handed, whereas children today are less likely to be pressured into switching.

Researchers found in 1991 that the proportion of left-handers decreases with age, dropping from 13 percent in 20-year-olds to less than 1 percent in 80-year-olds.

That led scientists to suggest that left-handedness may be associated with a shorter lifespan, perhaps because southpaws are less adapted to survival and thus more prone to immune disease or accidents.

One study suggested that right-handed people live about nine years longer than left-handers.

But some researchers, such as Richard Peto, professor of medical statistics and epidemiology at Oxford University, dispute those conclusions.

"I haven't seen any competent studies showing a link," said Peto, who was not involved in the Keele University study. "You've got to adjust for age."

In the study, the left-handed group was younger than the right-handed group, but the analysis accounted for the effect of age.

The investigators initially received 6,097 correctly completed questionnaires to their initial mailing to people between 15 and 70 years old. Nine years later, they attempted to trace the respondents: Forty-eight could not be traced, 387 had died and the remaining 5,662 were known to be alive.