does anyone have any weird facts?

[Halcyon]

A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court.

[AndrewJ]

1. Daffy Duck's middle name is "Dumas"
   
   
   
2. Betty Boop is a red head. She appeared in her only colour cartoon, Cinderella, with red hair
   
3. In Disney's Fantasia, the Sorcerer's name is "Yensid" (Disney backwards.)
   
4. In the Wizard of Oz Dorothy's last name is Gail. It is shown on the mail box.
   
5. The stop-motion puppet for King Kong was covered with rabbit fur
   
6. Red Dawn was the first movie to have a PG13 rating
   
7. In E.T: The Extra Terrestrial, there was a matte painting which showed all the fast food restaurant chains in the world along one street, and a drive in movie theater showing Star Wars
   
8. In Star Wars the aliens playing in the band are played by members of the ILM creature shop, including Phil Tippett, and the executive producer
   
9. "Jaws" is the first movie ever to make over 100 million dollars
   
10. In The Empire Strikes Back there is a potato hidden in the asteroid field
    
11. In Return of the Jedi there is a tennis shoe hidden among the rebel fleet
    
12. There are Star Wars ships hidden in Star Trek: First Contact, Space Balls, and Independence Day among others
    
13. In Raiders of the Lost Ark there is a wall carving of R2-D2 and C-3P0 behind the ark
    
14. Walt Disney holds the world record for the most Academy Awards won by one person, he has won twenty statuettes, and twelve other plaques and certificates
    
15. There is a statuette of R2-D2 attached to the model of the mother-ship from Close Encounters of the Third Kind and on the Borg ship on Star Trek: The Next Generation
    
16. The eye pieces on the Borg in Star Trek: First Contact, flash in Morse code, spelling out the names of several members of the production team
    
17. James Bond's car had three different license plates in Goldfinger
    
18. Gary Cooper was the first Academy Award winner for best actor to make his acceptance speech on television
    
19. 101 Dalmatians, Peter Pan, Hercules and Mulan are the only Disney movies where both parents are present and don't die by the end of the movie
    
20. Paul McCartney purchased the rights to the Happy Birthday song we all know, so if you want to use it in a production, you have to pay him royalty fees
    
21. Cheech and Chong were awarded the first Bronze Taco, on July 24 1984
    
22. Humphery Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam" in Casablanca
    
23. Captain Kirk never said "Beam me up, Scotty"
    
24. Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson."
    
25. Gone With the Wind had the working titles Tote the Weary Load and Ba! Ba! Black Sheep
    
26. The Brothers Grimm wrote 211 fairy tales
    
27. It used to be illegal to swim by daylight
    
28. Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head."
    
29. The original story from Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights begins, "Aladdin was a little Chinese boy."
    
30. William Shakespeare claimed that honorificabilitudinitatibus was the longest word used in any of his plays
    
31. The words "Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotr immatossilphioparaomelitoatakechymenokichlepikossy phophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopelei olatoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon", "Taumatawhakatangihangihangakoauotamateaturipukaka piikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu" and "Nordosterjokustartilleriflygspaningssimulatoranla ggningmaerielunderhallsuppfoljknintssystemdiskussi onsinlaggsforberedelsearbeten" are all in the spell checker, but not in any dictionary, yet the words ""Pnemonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis " and "Floccipaucinihilipilification" are in the English Dictionary, but not in the spell checker!
    
32. The two longest one-syllable words in the English language are "screeched" and "strengths."
    
33. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.
    
34. "I" is the most spoken word in the English language
    
35. "You" is the second most spoken English word
    
36. "O" is considered to be the oldest vowel in the English language
    
37. The letter W is the only letter in the alphabet that doesn't have 1 syllable... it has three.
    
38. Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village"
    
39. Canada makes up 6.67 percent of the Earth's land area
    
40. Alberta is home to Canada's largest Ukrainian Easter egg
    
41. The fastest broadcaster in history is Canadian Gerry Wilmont, from Victoria B.C. He was a hockey commentator
    
42. A Canadian invented the paint roller
    
43. A Canadian was the creator of "Superman"
    
44. Canada is home to the International Federation of Bodybuilders
    
45. Nova Scotia boasts Sober Island, 30 miles from Wine Harbor
    
46. New Brunswick is the lobster capital of the world
    
47. 15 percent of Americans secretly bite their toenails
    
48. Deborah Ann Fountain, the 1981 Miss New York State, was disqualified from the Miss U.S.A pageant for padding her bathing suit
    
49. The only two bald Presidents were Martin Van Buren and Dwight D. Eisenhower
    
50. In a speech made in 1961, John F. Kennedy was recorded as speaking at 327 words per minute, the fastest in public history
    
51. John F. Kennedy could read four newspapers in twenty minutes
    
52. David Rice Atchinson was President of the United States for only one day
    
53. The full name for Los Angeles is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula
    
54. The bikini bathing suit was so named because it was created the same year the atomic bomb was tested on Bikini Isalnd
    
55. Benjamin Franklin was considered to be America's first cartoonist, he was also the first to suggest that clocks may be moved forward or backward to extend the daylight hours
    
56. South Dakota is the only U.S state which shares no letters with the name of it's capital, Pierre
    
57. Maine produces more toothpicks than any other U.S state
    
58. The only city whose name can be spelled completely with vowels is Aiea, Hawaii, located approximately twelve miles west of Honolulu
    
59. The Florida Citrus Bowl football game was previously named for the tangerine
    
60. The full name for Bangkok is Krungthep Mahanakhon Bovorn Ratanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok pop Noparatratchathani Burirom Udomratchanivetmahasathan Avatarnsathit Sakkathattiyavisnukarmprast
    
61. You have to pay a tax in Denmark to use the back seat of your car for passengers
    
62. Dublin is home to the Fairy Investigation Society
    
63. There is a law in France against selling dolls without human faces
    
64. The KGB is headquartered at No. 2 Felix Dzerzhinsky Square, Moscow
    
65. Walloons speak French
    
66. The Vatican city registered 0 births in 1983
    
67. Spain leads the world in cork production
    
68. There are 1,792 steps in the Eiffel Tower
    
69. here are 269 steps to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
    
70. 160 cars can drive side by side on the Monumental Axis in Brazil, the worlds widest road
    
71. There is a city in Norway called "Hell"
    
72. The Anglo-Saxons called May Thrimilice because cows at that point could be milked three times a day
    
73. The Roman emperor Caligula made his horse a senator.
    
74. In the first century AD, Roman doctors endorsed the brushing of teeth with urine
    
75. Ancient Romans ate flamingo tongues and considered them a delicacy
    
76. The only animal which was allowed into an ancient Roman temple was a cat
    
77. In ancient Egypt, you could be put to death for killing a cat
    
78. An Egyptian has to say "I divorce thee" three times to be legally divorced
    
79. Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, or Akhenaten, was married to Nefertiti, and was king Tutankhamen's father, he also decreed that the sun god Aten was the only god to be worshipped by Egyptians during his reign
    
80. Cleopatra's last name was Ptolemy, she was Greek, not Egyptian
    
81. The plant centaury is so named because it's medicinal properties were said to have been discovered by Chiron, the mythical centaur doctor and teacher.
    
82. In ancient Greece, "idiot" meant private citizen or layman
    
83. Vincent Van Goh sold only one painting in his lifetime, Red Vineyard at Arles
    
84. Vincent Van Goh committed suicide while painting Wheat Field with Crows
    
85. Salvador Dali once arrived at an exhibition with flies glued to his face
    
86. Salvador Dali was expelled from art school for refusing to allow professors to critique his work
    
87. Michelangelo's sculpture Pieta is the only work of his to bear his signature, it is on Mary's mantle strap
    
88. Leonardo da Vinci invented the scissors.
    
89. Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand while drawing with the other
    
90. Leonardo wrote backwards, so that the only way to properly read his writing was to hold it up to a mirror
    
91. After studying it for 47 days, the New York Museum of Modern Art discovered that the Matisse painting Le Bateau was hanging upside down
    
92. If an equestrian statue has two legs the air, the person on the horses back died in battle, if the horse has only one leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle, if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes
    
93. Ionic columns have 23 flutes
    
94. Botticelli illustrated Dante's Inferno
    
95. most peoples hair stops growing at 3 ft 91 cm
    
96. One human hair can support 3kg
    
97. Blondes have more hair than dark haired people
    
98. The human brain uses the same amount of energy as a 10-watt lightbulb
    
99. The human brain is 85% water
    
100. Children grow faster in the springtime

Not a fact, but a question.............

Does anyone know why Wales is not represented on the Union Jack ?

[Graham]

Originally Posted by yesman

Not a fact, but a question.............

Does anyone know why Wales is not represented on the Union Jack ?

Because it is a Principality, not a Kingdom.

PS It is actually correctly called the "Union Flag", the "Union Jack" is only flown from the Jack Staff on a ship.

[carlingman]

The correct spelling of wierd is actually weird.

[Theodoric]

Originally Posted by Graham

Because it is a Principality, not a Kingdom.

PS It is actually correctly called the "Union Flag", the "Union Jack" is only flown from the Jack Staff on a ship.

Plus Wales was administratively incorporated into England by Henry VIII in 1535 (or possibly 1536, I forget), so it was officially part of England during the period that the Union flag was being designed and modified.

EDIT I suppose that there's now no reason why the Welsh should not start a campaign to change the flag. Or is such a campaign already in existence? Or do they feel that it wouldn't fit in with independence? Or does anyone really care?
__________________

Originally Posted by Saxodriver

<Snip>
Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head."
<Snip>

Pine seed, or possibly pine cone, actually.
__________________

Originally Posted by Saxodriver

<Snip>
Cleopatra's last name was Ptolemy, she was Greek, not Egyptian
<Snip>

Macedonian.

[Stuart]

Stanley Kubrick worked on James Bond!

Seriously. He did not direct, but he did design the lighting for the scenes in the hangar deck of the Stromberg ship in "The Spy Who Loved Me". This was apparently a massive problem as, due to the reflective nature of most of the set, they could not use conventional studio lighting (it would have shown up), yet they needed bright lighting..

[ikthius]

Originally Posted by Saxodriver

1. Daffy Duck's middle name is "Dumas"
2. Betty Boop is a red head. She appeared in her only colour cartoon, Cinderella, with red hair
3. In Disney's Fantasia, the Sorcerer's name is "Yensid" (Disney backwards.)
4. In the Wizard of Oz Dorothy's last name is Gail. It is shown on the mail box.
5. The stop-motion puppet for King Kong was covered with rabbit fur
6. Red Dawn was the first movie to have a PG13 rating
7. In E.T: The Extra Terrestrial, there was a matte painting which showed all the fast food restaurant chains in the world along one street, and a drive in movie theater showing Star Wars
8. In Star Wars the aliens playing in the band are played by members of the ILM creature shop, including Phil Tippett, and the executive producer
9. "Jaws" is the first movie ever to make over 100 million dollars
10. In The Empire Strikes Back there is a potato hidden in the asteroid field
11. In Return of the Jedi there is a tennis shoe hidden among the rebel fleet
12. There are Star Wars ships hidden in Star Trek: First Contact, Space Balls, and Independence Day among others
13. In Raiders of the Lost Ark there is a wall carving of R2-D2 and C-3P0 behind the ark
14. Walt Disney holds the world record for the most Academy Awards won by one person, he has won twenty statuettes, and twelve other plaques and certificates
15. There is a statuette of R2-D2 attached to the model of the mother-ship from Close Encounters of the Third Kind and on the Borg ship on Star Trek: The Next Generatio<snip>

where did you find these, and can you prove the star wars ones?

ik

[Jules]

In The Empire Strikes Back there is a potato hidden in the asteroid field
In Return of the Jedi there is a tennis shoe hidden among the rebel fleet




Why? lol

[Graham]

In 2001 A Space Odyssey there was a small picture of a surfer on the main Antenna of the Discovery space craft!

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by whyme38

In The Empire Strikes Back there is a potato hidden in the asteroid field
In Return of the Jedi there is a tennis shoe hidden among the rebel fleet




Why? lol

I don't know, but in the Lucasfilm game, Rebel Assault 2, you could enter a cheat code and the whole game would suddenly be about where to buy the best shoes in the Universe... It was a good laugh, in a bizarre sort of way..

[Theodoric]

Originally Posted by whyme38

In The Empire Strikes Back there is a potato hidden in the asteroid field
In Return of the Jedi there is a tennis shoe hidden among the rebel fleet

Why? lol

Never mind why. Where?

Presumably there is a source for these claims.

PS This potato. Was it a plug for Spuds 'R' Us? And the tennis shoe, not Nike, I hope.

[dilli-theclaw]

Originally Posted by Theodoric

Never mind why. Where?

Presumably there is a source for these claims.

PS This potato. Was it a plug for Spuds 'R' Us? And the tennis shoe, not Nike, I hope.

With regards to the potato thing.... This was mentioned by the special effects people on the extras DVD with the original trilogy DVD set.

As for the shoe one - I've heard about this too. But I'm not sure where.

[TheBlueRaja]

It is possible to travel faster than the speed of light - but only if you are dealing with quantum entanglement.

High brow or WHAT!

[Kaz61]

Winnie The Pooh's middle name is "the"

Ok it may be obvious but try asking someone what Winnie the Pooh's middle name is.....tee hee everyone says "don't know"

Look!! that's all I've got everything else seems to be covered