Post by Brad-LaSpirits on Jun 17, 2007 0:24:06 GMT -5
1. The name of the mathematical sign for infinity (?) is lemniscate,
and was devised by mathematician John Wallis in 1655, although
similar symbols were used by eastern religions much earlier.
2. American newspaper owner William Randolph Hearst was expelled from
Harvard University in 1885 for raucous behavior after presenting his
professors with chamber pots (historically used as toilettes) with
their individual pictures and names painted inside.
3. The incredibly fast American SR-71 spy-plane (designed to make
reconnaissance flights over the USSR) required so much titanium in
its construction that the CIA ended up buying Russian titanium on the
black market in order to meet the demand.
4. When Henry Waterman invented the lift (elevator) in 1850, he
intended to transport barrels of flour, and never imagined that it
would be widely used to transport people.
5. Want to sound smart? Trying working the longest non-technical word
into your next conversation: floccinaucinihilipilification, which
means ?useless?. However, the floccinaucinihilipilificatiousness of
this advice should be obvious. You?ll just sound silly.
6. It is illegal in North Carolina to use an elephant to plough a
field.
7. United States taxpayers now have a total debt of over
$59,000,000,000,000 - which works out to be $516,000 per U.S.
household according to USA Today as of 5/29/07.
8. Galileo sketched a design of the first ballpoint pen.
9. According to Time Magazine, if every home in the United States
paid its bills online, solid waste would be decreased by
1,600,000,000 tons each year.
10. According to Discover Magazine, Abdulhamid II, sultan of the
Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s, censored all references to water
in chemistry books because he was convinced that H2O stood for "Hamid
the Second is nothing". Cuckoo!
and was devised by mathematician John Wallis in 1655, although
similar symbols were used by eastern religions much earlier.
2. American newspaper owner William Randolph Hearst was expelled from
Harvard University in 1885 for raucous behavior after presenting his
professors with chamber pots (historically used as toilettes) with
their individual pictures and names painted inside.
3. The incredibly fast American SR-71 spy-plane (designed to make
reconnaissance flights over the USSR) required so much titanium in
its construction that the CIA ended up buying Russian titanium on the
black market in order to meet the demand.
4. When Henry Waterman invented the lift (elevator) in 1850, he
intended to transport barrels of flour, and never imagined that it
would be widely used to transport people.
5. Want to sound smart? Trying working the longest non-technical word
into your next conversation: floccinaucinihilipilification, which
means ?useless?. However, the floccinaucinihilipilificatiousness of
this advice should be obvious. You?ll just sound silly.
6. It is illegal in North Carolina to use an elephant to plough a
field.
7. United States taxpayers now have a total debt of over
$59,000,000,000,000 - which works out to be $516,000 per U.S.
household according to USA Today as of 5/29/07.
8. Galileo sketched a design of the first ballpoint pen.
9. According to Time Magazine, if every home in the United States
paid its bills online, solid waste would be decreased by
1,600,000,000 tons each year.
10. According to Discover Magazine, Abdulhamid II, sultan of the
Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s, censored all references to water
in chemistry books because he was convinced that H2O stood for "Hamid
the Second is nothing". Cuckoo!