Random facts

[MattII]

Australia is the only continent without an active volcano.

Australia is not a continent, it is simply the largest land mass in the continent of Oceania

You cannot lick your elbow.

Sahara meant 'desert' in Arabic.

 

[Quasar1011]

"Meteorologists claim they're right 85% of the time."
That exactly covers Monday to Saturday. Sunday is always wrong (usually rainy).

Nah. As a meteorologist, I can tell you we are up to 87%.

Startaff, you must wash your car every Saturday. Stop that, and our forecasts will improve!

 

[YNCS]

Mozart wrote the nursery rhyme 'twinkle, twinkle, little star' at the age of five.

Mozart wrote the music to the nursery rhyme "Twinkle, Twinkle, Litte Star" at the age of five.

 

[YNCS]

The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards."

That's one theory. However, there are two others that also seem reasonable:

* Old style cement trucks carried 9 cubic yards of cement, so if you wanted a full truckload you wanted "the whole 9 yards."

* A bolt of cloth is 9 yards long (this has been standard since the 1840s). If you wanted an entire bolt you wanted "the whole 9 yards."

The U.S. Government will not allow portraits of living persons to appear on stamps.

There's a story that a politican wanted his picture on a postage stamp. He wrote to the Postmaster General to inform the Post Office of his wish. The Postmaster General wrote back "no living person can be portrayed on a U.S. postage stamp. So if you want to be on a stamp, drop dead."

 

[Startaff]

Nah. As a meteorologist, I can tell you we are up to 87%.

Startaff, you must wash your car every Saturday. Stop that, and our forecasts will improve!

Ehi! Don't blame me for your inaccuracy! I NEVER wash my car, in any day of the week! ;-)

 

[DoubleT]

Australia is not a continent, it is simply the largest land mass in the continent of Oceania

Sorry but Australia is an continent, thats why Australia isent an island. By the way the largest island in the world is Greenland, and is in the Kingdom of Denmark...

And yes the Vikings must have bin alittle drunk when they named Greenland Or just found the only patch of grass.

Radom Fact:

The Viking's cald the North American continent Vinland....

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Yes yes yes. And 85% of statistics are amde up on the spot.
(seriously, several of these are false, or urban legends...)

 

[LLXerxes]

And yes the Vikings must have bin alittle drunk when they named Greenland Or just found the only patch of grass.

I heard he wanted foriegners and enemie vikings to go there because it is "green"
They named Iceland Iceleand because they didn't wabt others to go there, because it is ice.

 

[Rik Meleet]

The only nation whose name begins with an 'A', but doesn't end in an 'A' is Afghanistan.

Azerbaidjan ?