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    Favourite Facts

    The "Intelligentsia" thread has made me think of this. A thread to share the facts that you would use to kill off a preganant pause during small-talk.

    One of my favourites is that cashew nuts are expensive not because they are rare but because the harvesting of the nut is very difficult. The nut itself is surrounded by a toxic sac that has to be handled very carefully.

    Great to use at a party or anywhere there are cashew nuts

    #2
    Favourite Facts

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      #3
      Favourite Facts

      Mine: during the Middle Ages Greenland was really green, and south England had vineyards, because global temperatures were around 2 degrees higher than they are now. Despite recent global warming we're still not as warm as things were then, as we're still 'recovering' from the Little Ice Age of the 1600s.
      It's warmer now than it was then.

      South England had more vineyards back then because you couldn't go down to Tesco and buy a bottle of Australian Chiraz.

      The Greenland Ice Sheet is over 100,000 years old.

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        #4
        Favourite Facts

        Over 90% of the water in Lake Windermere is ancient glacial meltwater from the last ice age. The rivers that flow into and out of it are warmer, so the water from them doesn't disturb the ancient stuff.

        There are more bacterial organisms living on and in your body at the moment than there are people alive on the planet. Each of your armpits alone has a population larger than Sao Paulo.

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          #5
          Favourite Facts

          South England had more vineyards back then because you couldn't go down to Tesco and buy a bottle of Australian Chiraz.
          Yeah, Tesco back then was shit.

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            #6
            Favourite Facts

            Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote:
            Over 90% of the water in Lake Windermere is ancient glacial meltwater from the last ice age. The rivers that flow into and out of it are warmer, so the water from them doesn't disturb the ancient stuff.
            20% of the world's freshwater is in Lake Baikal.

            20 fucking percent.

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              #7
              Favourite Facts

              Where is Lake Baikal?

              Facts:
              Cuban right-hander Diego Segui is the only player to have played for both the Seattle Pilots and the Seattle Mariners.

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                #8
                Favourite Facts

                I believe the name Greenland (or its Old Norse equivalent) was Erik the Red's doing. Having been banished from both Norway and Iceland, he tried to attract people to sail with him to this other land, and told them how green it was to make it sound more attractive. It was an icy wasteland and most of the people who accompanied him there died.

                Or so I was told when I visited Iceland.

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                  #9
                  Favourite Facts

                  The doctor who delivered Maggie Thatcher was Nicholas Parson's Dad.

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                    #10
                    Favourite Facts

                    You people must have some really weird small-talk conversations.

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                      #11
                      Favourite Facts

                      The only member of ZZ Top not to have a beard was a woman.

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                        #12
                        Favourite Facts

                        BrunoMaggiore wrote:
                        Ok smartypants, why did they call it Greenland then.
                        it was an early attempt at creating a positive brand image (as jimski said); similarly, when they found north america they called it vinland. are there many vines in northern newfoundland?

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                          #13
                          Favourite Facts

                          Nicholas Parson's Dad missed a trick. The cunt.

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                            #14
                            Favourite Facts

                            Oh, I have another one.

                            Salmonella was named after the person who discovered it, Daniel Elmer Salmon, not because it is found particularly in salmon (I believe it is mainly found in poultry

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                              #15
                              Favourite Facts

                              In Southern California, where the Rio Hondo and Los Angeles rivers meet, there's 30,000 feet worth of sediment below the surface until there's bedrock.

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                                #16
                                Favourite Facts

                                The current president of China rules more people than any leader in the history of the world ... obvious when you think about it, but puts a bit of perspective on great historical figures

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                                  #17
                                  Favourite Facts

                                  Hang on. Southern England has vineyards now. England's Champagne-style bubbly wine can (so I'm told) be genuinely great.

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                                    #18
                                    Favourite Facts

                                    We certainly have some near Bath, I tried their "champagne" recently and it wasn't bad

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                                      #19
                                      Favourite Facts

                                      I've got another one

                                      You can live on a diet that consists solely of avocado.

                                      As you can tell, I am great when there is a pregnant pause when there is salmon, guacamole andcashew nuts in the buffet

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                                        #20
                                        Favourite Facts

                                        Thinking of diets, you can get all of your recommended daily intake of vitamins, minerals, calories, etc, from 19 pints of Guinness and a glass of orange juice.

                                        Apparently.

                                        My other favourite fact is that Tycho Brahe had a prosthetic gold nose after he lost his real nose in a duel.

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                                          #21
                                          Favourite Facts

                                          The silver medalist in the 12 hour cycle race at the 1896 Athens Olympics was the British Ambassador's butler, Frank Keeping

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                                            #22
                                            Favourite Facts

                                            Peanuts aren't nuts. They're dried peas. In fact I think I read this on OTF only a few weeks ago, so it must be true.

                                            The bloke who the world's most famous mountain, Everest, was named after, pronounced his name "Eve-rest", not "Ever-est". I posted this on OTF a few months ago, and it's definitely true.

                                            When the Mongol hordes invaded Europe, they swept right through Russia, Ukraine, Hungary and were right up to the walls of Vienna, until word came through of the death of Kublai Khan. To a man they then basically all fucked off back to Xanadu, or whatever they actually called home, overnight, as they had to be there for his burial, leaving the bemused Viennese citizens to emerge blinking from their cellars a couple of days later thinking "where the fuck did that lot go?".

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                                              #23
                                              Favourite Facts

                                              The progeny of a single bacteria doubling every 20 minutes -- given unlimited volume and nutrients -- would, in 48 hours, attain a mass greater than the earth.

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                                                #24
                                                Favourite Facts

                                                The cardboard boxes that X-Ray films are packaged in have to be made from trees that were chopped down before 1941.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Favourite Facts

                                                  A teacher of mine told us that Tyco Brahe (or one of those early astronomers) died of a ruptured bladder when he really had to take a leak but held it in because the king was giving a long speech and it would have been extremely rude to get up during the speech.

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