Interesting Facts

I used to be able to put my feet behind my head, but I'm far too old and creaky for it now. That's a very un-interesting fact. I'm sure I have tons of trivial bits of information, but somehow, faced with a blind challenge like this, nothing comes to mind.

Oh, wait... politics sparks me... we've apparently not had a bald PM in the UK since Churchill. How about that. Now you know why Willy Hague and IDS never had a chance (apart from being crap, that is). Having said that, Blair might well buck the trend if he's in office another few years.

As for men's nipples I have no data for them other than their height.

Christine, you still lie well within the UK population spread.

It's something about -- if you measure your total arm span across, from fingertip to fingertip I guess, it's more typical for a man's arm span to be less than his height and more typical for a woman's to be more than her height.

I'm sure this is a gross generalisation, but is it at all accurate, statistically? I think my arm span was 3 or 4" more than my height, BTW.

The length unit 'fathom' was originally this fingertip-fingertip distance, because it's handy to use when measuring rope lengths. It's now standardised at 6 feet.

It is, and the distance around your neck is half the distance around your waist. The distance around your wrist is generally half the distance around your neck, but it starts getting dodgy here for some people.

(Good way to try jeans on at the store without trying them on = just see if the waistband ends touch if you wrap the waistband around your neck. Bonus = you look daft.)

I rule stupid trivia!

Does this mean you can only strangle people whose wrists you can circle with your hand? That's handy to know.

They must be the envy of the Chicago Cubs

A grey tabbie housecat is no different than a wild African cat.

I think the 4" diff was actually from the person who told me this seemingly inaccurate factoid. Thinking about it, they had suffered from (premature) osteoporosis from mid-teens, untreated until several years later, which might be meaningful.

I'll give it a go. Cheers!

There's a baseball joke like "What's the difference between a $2 million a year relief pitcher and a ditch digger?" "One is left handed."

Mom wasn't even remotely artistic, anyway.

[French, from Medieval Latin assassnus, from Arabic an, pl. of a, hashish user, from a, hashish. See hashish.]
Word History: At first glance, one would be hard-pressed to find a link between pleasure and the acts of assassins. Such was not the case, however, with those who gave us the word assassin. They were members of a secret Islamic order originating in the 11th century who believed it was a religious duty to harass and murder their enemies. The most important members of the order were those who actually did the killing. Having been promised paradise in return for dying in action, the killers, it is said, were made to yearn for paradise by being given a life of pleasure that included the use of hashish. From this came the name for the secret order as a whole, an, “hashish users.” After passing through French or Italian, the word came into English and is recorded in 1603 with reference to the Muslim Assassins.

I don't know if it's been disproven but it's not silly.
The right hemisphere of the brain is generally the creative side, and since lefties have better wiring on that side, they may be more 'in touch' w/their creative side.
There does seem to be an unusually high ratio of lefties in the arts. Any studies out there?

If there *is* any truth to it, would that indicate that my mother, for instance, had any artistic leanings... well, knocked out of her by being forced to change hands? Interesting thought.

You'll usually get an inch of variance, usually in that the arm-span is longer than height. This can be due to height being measured at the end of the day when you're all beaten down or through sickness/poor nutrition as a youth. I tried this with my dad, who had polio that affected one leg as a child, and his armspan was four or more inches longer than his height.

There are 118 ridges on a dime.

There are parts of Wisconsin that are further east than parts of Florida.

Tommy Lee Jones went to Harvard and was roommates with Al Gore.

I am the fucking life of the party.
(above may be not true)

Plus, the lead male role in the film Love Story was supposedly based on both of them.

Is how I misread this.

I was, in a bored kind of way, curious about long fingers contributing to (slightly) longer arm span.

Background: a novel I read about six months ago described a character as having unusually long fingers; 'at least three inches long,' it said.

Well, my ring and index fingers (which are the same in length, which according to blah-de-wank research study #3,437 makes me less likely to be a dyke, which is so good to know) are just over 3" long. Middle fingers are around 3.25". If this novel is correct in implying that 3" is 'unusually long,' then... well...

Incidentally, I'd say my mother's fingers were pretty close to this length too.

Can anyone beat 3.25" for a middle finger? Did this novel put three where it should have put four? How bored is it possible to get?

but i think i might be taller than you

My fingers are long, I think, in proportion to my hands overall, and quite thin and boney. And if mom is any indication, they'll probably start getting arthirtic in the next 20 years or so...

Er, does anyone need a proofreader, BTW? I'm available. No, really.

The only nation with an eponymous capital, lying on an eponymous island, is Singapore.

according to websters dictionary the term "conclusory" dates back to 1923. seems like it is useful enough and descriptive enough to be older somehow.

seems pretty conclusive

In the mid 1970's, FedEx (then Federal Express) was in deep financial debt.. so the founder Fred Smith took the company's last $5000 and played blackjack in Las Vegas

He won $27,000 which bought a little wiggle room with the creditors. The company is now worth $63 billion