Fascinating Facts and Trivia

Heaven 17 got their name from a fictional band in the book 'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess.

The band The Boo Radleys got their name from the character Boo Radley in the book, 'To Kill A Mockingbird' by Harper Lee.

The band The Teardrop Explodes got their name from a comic book(I forget which one)

People still write letters from around the world to the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes(I suppose the character in the books was so real to them) and to the address given in the stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 221B Baker Street. This address does exist as it used to be the headquarters of the now re-named Abbey National bank (now Santander) and they used to have someone answer all of Holmes' correspondence.

(25-05-2019 20:05 )GreenMachine Wrote:  Heaven 17 got their name from a fictional band in the book 'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess.

The band The Boo Radleys got their name from the character Boo Radley in the book, 'To Kill A Mockingbird' by Harper Lee.

The band The Teardrop Explodes got their name from a comic book(I forget which one)

The Teardrop Explodes got their name from a June 1971 edition of Daredevil Vol 1 #77...

Paul Simpson, the keyboard player of the band, found the comic in the basement of 14, Rodney Street, Liverpool in September 1978. The comic had been left by the previous tenant. The rest, as they say is history.

Truly amazing!!

The longest English word is 189,819 letters long but the full name for the protein nicknamed titin would take three and a half hours to say out loud. Want to try it for yourself look here https://pastebin.com/wkKH8xD8 and the very best of British luck to you.

Octopuses lay 56,000 eggs at a time. The mother spends six months so devoted to protecting the eggs that she doesn’t eat. The babies are the size of a grain of rice when they’re born.

Kleenex tissues were originally intended for gas masks. When there was a cotton shortage during World War I, Kimberly-Clark developed a thin, flat cotton substitute that the army tried to use as a filter in gas masks. The war ended before scientists perfected the material for gas masks, so the company redeveloped it to be smoother and softer, then marketed Kleenex as facial tissue instead.

Boxer Muhammad Ali was often sited for not being a particularly hard hitter by his rivals and boxing writers a like.Ali revealed later in his life that he often held back in fights because he suffered from calcium build up on the bones of his hands which caused him great pain.This was kept a secret since before his triumph in the Olympics as he would not have been able to complete.As a pro it affected his stronger right hand more causing him to take on some opponents using his left hand predominantly,most famously against Rudi Lubbers in 1973.

More amazing factoids
Blue whales eat half a million calories in one mouthful. Those 457,000 calories are more than 240 times the energy the whale uses to scoop those krill into its mouth.

That tiny pocket in jeans was designed to store pocket watches. The original jeans only had four pockets: that tiny one, plus two more on the front and just one in the back.

Turkeys can blush. When turkeys are scared or excited—like when the males see a female they’re interested in—the pale skin on their head and neck turns bright red, blue, or white. The flap of skin over their beaks, called a “snood,” also reddens.

The man with the world’s deepest voice can make sounds humans can’t hear. Tim Storms, can’t even hear the note, which is eight octaves below the lowest G on a piano—but elephants can.

Butterflies taste with their hind feet.

Tomato sauce was sold in the 1800's as medicine.

A donkey will sink in quicksand, but a mule won't.

A lion in the wild, usually makes no more than 20 kills a year.

India has a Bill Of Rights for cows.

Dartboards are made out of horse hairs.

In 1980, a Las Vegas hospital suspended workers for betting on when patients would die.

In France, there’s a place called Y.

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.

The Bible is the world’s most shoplifted book.

Half of all bank robberies take place on a Friday.

In Utah, it is illegal to swear in front of a dead person.

A crocodile cannot stick it’s tongue out.

A snail can have 25,000 teeth.

And finally, it is illegal to carry an icecream in your back pocket in Kentucky.

More, more, more!
Banging your head against a wall for one hour burns 150 calories.
Alternatively, you can walk your dog for 45 minutes, which also burns 150 calories – and is much less painful.

In Switzerland it is illegal to own just one guinea pig.
This is because guinea pigs are social animals, and they are considered victims of abuse if they are alone.

Pteronophobia is the fear of being tickled by feathers. It’s also a fear of feathers themselves. The word “ptero” is the Greek word for feather, and “phobia” is also Greek, meaning fear.

Snakes can help predict earthquakes.
They can sense a coming earthquake from 75 miles away (121 km), up to five days before it happens.