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May 27, 2004

Ministry of Dubious Factoids

A friend sent me this email. I can't really vouch for its accuracy, but then, I'm a blogger. I don't sweat accuracy.

Sort of like the New York Times.

Anyway, here's a list of "facts" which may either be true or false. Decide which are the true ones, and which are the fake ones.

1. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.

2. Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button.

3. A pack-a-day smoker will lose approximately 2 teeth every 10 years.

4. People do not get sick from cold weather; it's from being indoors a lot more.

5. When you sneeze, all bodily functions stop, even your heart!

6. Only 7 per cent of the population are lefties.

7. Forty people are sent to the hospital for dog bites every minute.

8. Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until they are 2-6 years old.

9. The average person over 50 will have spent 5 years waiting in lines.

10. The toothbrush was invented in 1498.

11. The average housefly lives for one month.

12. 40,000 Americans are injured by toilets each year.

13. A coat hanger is 44 inches long when straightened.

14. The average computer user blinks 7 times a minute.

15. Your feet are bigger in the afternoon than any other time of day.

16. Most of us have eaten a spider in our sleep.

17. The REAL reason ostriches stick their head in the sand is to search for water.

18. The only two animals that can see behind themselves without turning their heads are the rabbit and the parrot.

19. John Travolta turned down the starring roles in "An Officer and a Gentleman" and "Tootsie."

20. Michael Jackson owns the rights to the South Carolina State anthem.

21. In most television commercials advertising milk, a mixture of white paint and a little thinner is used in place of the milk.

22 Prince Charles and Prince William NEVER travel on the same airplane, just in case there is a crash.

23. The first Harley Davidson motorcycle built in 1903 used a tomato can for a carburetor.

24. Most hospitals make money by selling the umbilical cords cut from women who give birth. They are used in vein transplant surgery.

25. Humphrey Bogart was related to Princess Diana. They were 7th cousins.

26. If coloring weren't added to Coca-Cola, it would be green.

....

ANSWERS IN WHITE FONT (Highlight to read): Supposedly, all of them are true, which I sora doubt. But what the heck.

Re: 19, I know Travolta turned down the roles for "Officer" and "An American Gigolo." I never heard Tootsie before.

But it's possible.

If you think from going from John Travolta to Dustin Hoffman is weird, how about going from Dustin Hoffman to Harrison Ford?

Dustin Hoffman was attached for quite a long time -- throughout most of the film's development, actually -- as the star of Blade Runner.

Yes. Dustin Hoffman. Blade Runner. Fighting androids.

And it wasn't even called "Blade Runner" at the time. It was called "Dangerous Days." They bought the title, and just the title, from a William "Naked Lunch" Burroughs novella called Blade Runner, which had nothing to do with robots.

posted by Ace at 06:25 PM

Comments

Sniff, sniff. I think I smell a Top 10 "Little Known Facts" in our future. Keep up the good work, buddy.

(And you MUST check out the video of the chick losing her cellphone) -- click over for the link.

Later.

[Ace's Warning: If you go to son of nixon's site, you'll find links to stuff on Entensity.net. Some of this stuff is funny, some of it isn't, and some of it is actually pornographic, as in hard-core.

So, it's not work-safe. Unless you work at, say, Juggs magazine.]

Posted by: sonofnixon on May 27, 2004 06:47 PM

P.S. "Abu Ghraib HQ" is a nice touch. Cute.

Posted by: sonofnixon on May 27, 2004 06:59 PM

Son of Nixon,

Thanks for the tip. (Nice site design, by the way.)

Try to give a warning, though, if the site you're linking to contains stuff that isn't safe for work.

Posted by: ace on May 27, 2004 07:03 PM

Re: #18
Chameleon's eyes "provide nearly 360 degree vision without turning the head, and allow the chameleon to see in front of and behind him."

http://chamownersweb.com/misc/likkinlizerds1.htm

Posted by: Terry Notus on May 27, 2004 07:10 PM

Also,
"The highly developed [octopus] eyes have monocular vision but are so big that the field of view for both eyes reaches almost 360 degrees."
http://bss.sfsu.edu:224/courses/Fall01%20projects/giantoctopus.htm

Posted by: Terry Notus on May 27, 2004 07:34 PM

OK, last time and I swear I will give it a rest.
"Together, the ommatidia sample the surrounding visual environment, forming an almost complete picture (i.e., almost 4pi steradian)."

That means a blowfly can see behind itself without turning its head.

http://www.ub.rug.nl/eldoc/dis/science/c.schilstra/c1.pdf

Posted by: Terry Notus on May 27, 2004 07:41 PM

Pfft. My mom can see behind her without turning her head either. At least it always seemed that way growing up.

#2 must be at least marginally false, as one would at the very least have a scar from the umbilical cord.

#5 is an urban legend/old wives tale.

I don't buy #9. That would suggest that 10% of every day is spent in a line. From the day you're born.

#20 logically, I'm assuming that the state anthems of all 50 states are in the public domain, and as such, are not ownable. This would be especially true for a state as old as SC. He may have title to a specific RECORDING of the anthem, but couldn't possibly own complete rights to the song.

#21 is true, and what's more, when you see a Turkey coming out of an oven in a TV commercial, typically the turkey has been wrapped in duct tape and painted the desired "roasted looking" color. Also, any time a restaurant brings out a desert tray which includes ice cream, it's actually usually crisco, not real ice cream (to avoid melting).

Posted by: Beck on May 27, 2004 10:07 PM

#24 is right out - it is highly illegal to sell human body parts.

Posted by: Jim on May 28, 2004 09:42 AM

FWIW, the actual story of Blade Runner the movie is based on the Philip K. Dick story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep". In fact, Dick is probably one of the most successfuly adapted writers in SF history. check out the link for additional info:

http://www.philipkdick.com/films_intro.html

Posted by: David on May 28, 2004 12:24 PM

10-4. Duly noted.

Posted by: sonofnixon on May 28, 2004 02:53 PM

#8 is False. Newborns do have kneecaps. Kneecaps form about the fourth month of fetal life. However, they don’t show up on x-ray very well because they’re not ossified, or bony. At this point in life, the kneecaps are made of a cartilaginous material. The growth centers surrounding the kneecap form late in developmental life in utero and may not appear until just before or just after the infant is born.

Posted by: Chad on June 21, 2004 10:44 AM

#7 is Not True. According to a 1998 article in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), during a three-year study, there were 914 new dog bite injuries requiring emergency room visits per day. With 1,440 minutes in a day, that's less than one bite per minute.

Posted by: Chad on June 21, 2004 10:45 AM

#9 is clearly false. This means that one tenth of ones life would have been wasted in line. An average of about 8 hours per night. We can assume that no one is waiting in line while they are home in bed. So now we have 16 hours per day x 50 years. This gives us 292000 hours of available waking time. 5 Years is 24 hours x 365 days. This works out to be 43800 hours. This means that 15% of our waking hours for 50 years would have to be spent in line. This means, every day of our lives for half a century we would have to have spent an averade of 3.6 hours in line. I have to call this one false.

Posted by: Chad on June 21, 2004 10:45 AM

#24 False. The original formula called for caramel to give Coca-Cola its rich brown color, and although the recipe has undergone some changes through the years, none of them affected the ultimate color of the product.

Posted by: Chad on June 21, 2004 10:48 AM

Oh no! Hamas' de facto press agent at the UN complains that she can't use her credit cards or rent a card now that she's been sanctioned as a terrorist operative
Why does this keep happening to members of the "political organization" (per Tucker Carlson) of Hamas?!?!

Tucker Carlson claims that it's weird that Ted Cruz is interested in the massacre of Christians by Nigerian Muslims, because he has "no track record of being interested in Christians," then blows off the massacre of Christians by Nigerian Muslims, saying it might or might not be a real concern
Tucker Carlson enjoys using the left-wing tactic of "Tactical Ignorance" to avoid taking positions on topics. Is Hamas really a terrorist organization? Tucker can't say. He hasn't looked into it enough, but "it seems like a political organization to me." Are Muslims slaughtering Christians in Nigeria? Again, Tucker just doesn't know. He hasn't examined the evidence yet. He knows every Palestinian Christian who said he was blocked from visiting holy sites in Bethlehem, but he just hasn't had the time to look into the mass slaughter of Christians in Nigeria that has been going on since (checks watch) 2009. He doesn't know, so he can't offer an opinion. Wouldn't be prudent, you know? Don't rush him! He'll sift through the evidence at some point in the future and render an opinion sometime around 2044.
Of course, if you need an opinion on Jewish Perfidy, he has all the facts at his fingertips and can give you a fully informed opinion pronto. Say, have you ever heard of the USS Liberty incident...?
You'd think that the main issue for Tucker Carlson, who pretends to be so deeply concerned about Palestinian Christians being bullied by Jews in Israel (supposedly), would be the massacre of 185,000 Christians in Nigeria itself. But no, his main problem is that Ted Cruz is talking about it, "who has no track record of being interested in Christians at all." And then he just shrugs as to whether this is even a real issue or not.
Whatever we do we must never "divide the right," huh?
Tucker is attacking Ted Cruz for bringing the issue up because he's acting as an apologist for Jihadism, and he can't cleanly admit that Jihadists are killing any Christians, anywhere. There is no daylight between him and CAIR at this point.
One might conclude that Tucker Carlson himself isn't interested in the plight of Christians -- except as they can be used as a cudgel to attack Jews.
Just gonna ask an Interesting Question myself -- why is it that Tucker Carlson's arguments all track with those shit out by Qatarian propaganda agents and the far left? That if Jews crush an ant underfoot it is worldwide news, but when Muslims slaughter Christians it elicits not even a vigorous shrug?

Sydney Sweeney has passed from celebrity to Meme Legend

Garth Merenghi is interviewed by the only man who can fathom his ineffable brilliance -- Garth Merenghi
From the comments:

I once glimpsed Garth in the penumbra betwixt my wake and sleep. He was in my dream, standing afar, not looking my way, nor did he acknowledge me. But I felt seen. And that's when I knew I was a traveler on the right path. I'm glad he's still with us.

Now that's some Merenghian prose.
Garth Merenghi on the writer's craft

Greetings, Traveler. If you still have not experienced Garth Merenghi -- Author, Dream-weaver, Visionary, plus Actor -- the six episodes of his Darkplace are still available on YouTube and supposedly upscaled to HD. (Viewing it now, it doesn't appeared upscaled for shit.)
I think the second episode, "Hell Hath Fury," is the best by a good margin. Try to at least watch through to that one. It's Mereghi's incisive but nuanced take on sexism.

TJM Returns with a discussion of Auteur Theory.

Podcast: The elections! NYC, Virginia, New Jersey, Texas, California, and the future prospects of the Republican party...

Update on Scott Adams:

Scott Adams had approval for this cancer drug but they hadn't scheduled him to get it. He was taking a turn for the worse. Trump had told him to call if he needed anything, so he did. Talked to Don Jr (who is in Africa) , then RFK Jr, then Dr Oz. Someone talked to Kaiser and he was scheduled. Shouldn't have needed it but he did and he says it saved his life.
Posted by: Notsothoreau

"Trump" goes trick-or-treating

Funny retro kid costumes, thanks to SMH
Good to see people honoring Lamont the Big Dummy

Four hours of retro Halloween commercials and specials
The first short is the original 1996 appearance of "Sam," the dangerous undead trick-or-treater from Trick r' Treat.

ICYMI: Australian journalist actually presses Kamala Harris when she repeatedly dodges questions about Biden's mental fitness
Kamala admits she didn't have the stamina to run for president, while continuing to insist he had the mental capacity to serve as president. He was too frail to run but perfectly strong enough to govern. Yeah sure whatever lying whore.

On Wednesday, we'll see the "Beaver Super-Moon." Which sounds hot.

Podcast: Historian and Pundit Robert Spencer joins us for a wide-ranging discussion about the Islamists in our midst: Mamdani in NYC, all across Europe, and others.

Full Episode: The Hardy Boys (and Nancy Drew) Meet Dracula
I don't remember this show, except for remembering that Nancy Drew was hot and the opening credits were foreboding and exicting

According to Grok, Latrine John-Pissoir has never failed to mention she is "black" (or "queer") during her book interviews
She may not know what the hell her book is about, but she definitely knows that "every day I wake up black and queer." Join the club, sister!

Schmoll: 53% of New Jersey likely voters say their neighbors are voting for Ciattarelli, while 47% say the cheater/grifter Mikie Sherrill
The "who do you think your neighbors are voting for" question is designed to avoid the Shy Tory problem, wherein conservative people lie to schmollsters because they don't want to go on record with a likely left-winger telling them who they're really voting for. So instead the question is who do you think your neighbors are voting for, so people can talk about who they themselves support without actually having to admit it to a left-wing rando stranger recording their answers on the phone.

Hackers take over University of Penn website, calling the school a "dogshit elitist institution full of woke retards" and threatening to release its admissions files to prove illegal racial discrimination
No lies detected so far

Live Now: Dana Loesch is interrogating Heritage President Kevin Roberts on his insistence that the gay Nazi Nick Fuentes is an absolutely essential "conservative" voice whose ideas we must take seriously and who we must absolutely not exclude based on his Naziism

TJM Complains about Wreck-It Ralph The very topical premiere of TJM's YouTube Channel.

Interesting football history: How the forward pass was created in response to the nineteen -- 19! -- people killed playing football in 1905 alone
The original rules of football did not allow forward passes. The ball was primarily advanced by running, with blockers forming lines with interlocked arms and just smashing into the similarly-interlocked defensive lines. It was basically Greek hoplite spear formations but with a semi-spherical ball. As calls to ban the sport entirely grew, some looked for ways to de-emphasize mass charges as the primary means of advancing the ball, and some specifically championed allowing a passer to throw the ball forward.