Random facts

[Prophet Tenebrae]

There are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on the Earth.

[hr]

IMAGE:www.btinternet.com/~brother.war/white10-2.gif

[novium]

but more connections between some sort of brain cells (I can't remember) than there are stars.

Quoting Prophet Tenebrae from 23:25, 16th Jul 2005
There are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on the Earth.

[hr]

IMAGE:www.btinternet.com/~brother.war/white10-2.gif

[hr]

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"

[novium]

http://www.britannica.com/dictionary?bo ... &query=IOU
"Etymology: from the pronunciation of I owe you
1 : a paper that has on it the letters IOU, a stated sum, and a signature and that is given as an acknowledgment of debt"

Quoting Atangaladhion from 08:34, 16th Jul 2005
No, it is I Owe Unto.

[hr]

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"

[ninman]

Graham Bell did not invent the telephone. The Blue Whale is NOT the largest living organism, neither is it a Giant Redwood tree.

A rather interesting story is one where a young man by the name of Walter Scott fooled a room full of New Yorks finest card magicians in 1930. The story goes that he was blindfolded while on of the men shuffled and cut an ordinary pack of playing cards. Walter Scott then dealt six hands of five card draw poker, and his hand contained 4 Aces and a King, and nobody saw how he did it.

What is really interesting about that story is that while Walter Scott had been a card hustler earlier in his youth, he had given up playing cards six years earlier in 1924, when he joined a Hawaiian music band. This is something that none of the magicians present on that day knew. The other even more interesting thing is that while almost all the members of the highly exclusive inner circle of card magicians in New York were present, the one who was not present, is the very man who was and still is considered the greatest card magician in history. He was called Dai Vernon.

The whole story that surrounds the events of that day are extremely fascinating. For instance Dai Vernon was a man who spent almost all of his life looking for card hustlers so that he could learn their secrets, and when a man with Walter Scotts skill showed up at his door, it was at the very time that he was away somewhere. In fact it was 26 years after the event before the two actually met each other.

[flarewearer]

From the early sixties until the early nineties at precisely 9 o’clock, the frequency of the tones used to supply the standard GPO time service TIM‘s 3 'pips'– ('at the third stroke') – changed from its normal 900hz to 2500hz.
This relatively small and normally unnoticed change in the tones was part of the engineering test and monitoring process of Britain’s 'semi secret' telephone line based Nuclear Early Warning System.

[hr]

image:www.magnificentoctopus.com/x/stormy.png

[kaybee]

Quoting munchingfoo from 15:46, 16th Jul 2005
If you were to spend $26m dollars every day since the birth of christ you still wouldn't have spent as much money as the US has on "Defence" since 1900. $19.5 Trillion.

[hr]

[s]
My entire life in boolean logic

¬emptyGlass(pint) => drinking(Andy)
emptyGlass(pint) AND ¬stomache(full) => buy(pint)
emptyGlass(pint) AND stomache(full) => buy(vodka)
emptyGlass(vodka) => buy(vodka)
¬emptyGlass(vodka) => drinking(Andy) [/s]

IMAGE:t3300.homepage.dk/Awesome.gif

You been reading "You are here" by Rory Bremner?????????????

[Guest]

The novelist Evelyn Waugh died after hitting his head on the porcelain of a toilet bowl.

[Guest]

Apart from Iain Duncan Smith every Leader of the Conservative party since its foundation has been a member of the Carlton Club. Mrs Thatcher was given honorary membership in 1975. IDS was offered membership but refused on the grounds that women could not become full members.

[physicist]

The spire on United College clocktower is not original to the tower (the tower having been built in 1450). It was added after someone objected to the use of cannons off the top of the tower during the Reformation.

Tin cans were invented in 1810 - it was nearly fifty years until someone invented the can opener.

Long pier at the harbour is a third of the length of the original wooden pier.

[Midget]

"And when the aunt returned,
Matilda and the house were burned."

-Hilaire Belloc "Cautionary Tales".

Ironically he died by falling asleep at his fireplace and falling into the fire.

[hr]

IMAGE:img9.imgspot.com/u/04/241/18/160019.jpg Come and see 'Corpus Christi' 4-29 August, Edinburgh Fringe!

[Eliot Wilson]

Enoch Powell's (in)famous (and much misunderstood) so-called "Rivers of Blood" speech in 1968 was delivered on Adolf Hitler's birthday, April 20th. Which is the day before the birthday of Her Majesty The Queen.

[hr]

Bill and Ted beat the Grim Reaper at Twister

Bill: "You played very well, Death, especially with your totally heavy Death robes."

Death: "Don't patronise me."

[i like that quote]

The pseudoynm that Hannibal Lecter uses whilst in Rome in the film Hannibal is Dr. Fell. This was taken from Dr. Fell, 17th century Dean of Christchurch College and Bishop of Oxford.

Fell who founded the Oxford University Press is most famous for saying he would reprieve a student rather than boot him out if he could translate some latin on the spot. The students response was to translate four lines of Martial :

I do not love thee, Dr Fell,
The reason why I cannot tell;
But this I know, and know full well,
I do not love thee, Dr Fell.

[Eliot Wilson]

The author Michael Crichton is very tall - 6'6", I believe.

Only one British Prime Minister has ever been assassinated - Spencer Perceval was shot in the lobby of the House of Commons in 1812 by John Bellingham.

William Pitt the Younger was treated for gout by the father of his successor as Prime Minister, Henry Addington; Dr Addington prescribed a bottle of port each day.

It is commonly believed that the Ford Edsel was a commercial disaster at least in part because its radiator grille vaguely resembled a vagina.

Anne Boleyn did not, contrary to popular belief, have six fingers, though the thumb on her left hand was bifurcated.

Attila the Hun died of a nosebleed.

[hr]

Bill and Ted beat the Grim Reaper at Twister

Bill: "You played very well, Death, especially with your totally heavy Death robes."

Death: "Don't patronise me."

[Chain Mailer]

There is a certian chemical in Pringles that is addictive for a short length of time (about 10 minutes) so when you pop, you literally can't stop without rehab ;P

[hr]

Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious

[Webbie]

Sting gets 50% of the royalties of Dire Straits' "money for nothing" becasue he wrote the "i want my MTV" bit at the beginning

You can get 400 quarterpounders from one cow

The maximum allowed amount of fly eggs in a can of Heinz Baked Beans is 30, if there are 29 in there, they let it through.

Ra Ra Rasputin Russia's greatest love machine was impotent.

[Prophet Tenebrae]

Prior to Genghis Khan's conquest of China, the population was around 100 million, the next census after the conquest showed the population to be around 60 million. It is unclear how many of these deaths are directly attributable to Ghengis Khan.

[hr]

IMAGE:www.btinternet.com/~brother.war/white10-2.gif

[flarewearer]

Quoting Prophet Tenebrae from 13:27, 18th Jul 2005
Prior to Genghis Khan's conquest of China, the population was around 100 million, the next census after the conquest showed the population to be around 60 million. It is unclear how many of these deaths are directly attributable to Ghengis Khan.

How many of them are directly attributable to your good self?

[hr]

image:www.magnificentoctopus.com/x/stormy.png

[Nickel]

The unlocking codes for US nuclear weapons was 00000000 for 16 years

[Guest]

the Bank of England was founded in 1694 by a Scotsman - William John Patterson.

[Guest]

the Bank of England was founded in 1694 by a Scotsman - William John Patterson.