amazing statistic of the day

[Pete]

Perfectly true, that there's no word in either French - or Spanish - for 'nut' - the kind you eat, that is. You just have to be specific: "noix" and "nuez" mean "walnut", not "nut" in general. Thought you'd like to know that.

I once read somewhere, that if all the offspring of a single pair of clothes-moths survived to adulthood, and themselves successfully bred, and their descendants all survived, etc. etc., by the year end they'd have eaten the weight of an artic. lorry...

 

[bonj2]

I've heard that the number of people alive today is about 10% of the number of people that have ever lived, i.e. the dead outnumber the living by 10 to 1.
I would have guessed it to about 0.1%, i.e. 1000 to 1, given that the average age of people is only a tiny fraction of the depth of history that humanity goes back in time.

 

[Smokin Joe]

98% of women said that their pussies preferred whiskers

 

[Dave5N]

There are lies, damnned lies and statistics as some politician once said. Can't remember who though

Thought it was Bernard Shaw, not a politician

 

[Haitch]

Apparenlty Disraeli

 

[trustysteed]

The Beatles were actually papier mache puppets

the Beatles were actually crap and over-hyped and not, as popular myth suggests, talented in any manner whatsoever.

 

[papercorn2000]

Leronardo Da Vinci was colour-blind.

 

[surfgurl]

I am 29, when I was at secondary school I was taught that the worlds' supplies of coal and gas were due to run out in 25 years time and that the oil supply would run out in 30 years time.
My husband, aged 47, was taught the same.
I now work in a school and the kids are taught the same.

Can anyone enlighten me as to what is going on here? Are we being fed spurious statistics or do they keep finding more supplies of these natural resources to boost the amount up to that which will run out in this time frame.
By all accounts the supply out to be very close to running out according to what the OH was taught.

 

[trustysteed]

it's just resource scare-mongering as usual.

 

[bobg]

I am 29, when I was at secondary school I was taught that the worlds' supplies of coal and gas were due to run out in 25 years time and that the oil supply would run out in 30 years time.
My husband, aged 47, was taught the same.
I now work in a school and the kids are taught the same.

Can anyone enlighten me as to what is going on here? Are we being fed spurious statistics or do they keep finding more supplies of these natural resources to boost the amount up to that which will run out in this time frame.
By all accounts the supply out to be very close to running out according to what the OH was taught.

I suppose thats why we're a generation of cynics - I seem to remember the same kind of stuff too. Not forgetting to get under your desk in the case of nuclear explosion!!

 

[Arch]

Spinach is a popular myth?
It's not very popular with me.

No, it's a decimal point thing. The idea that spinach is very much richer in iron than other veg, and hence the whole Popeye thing, was down to a misplaced decimal point in a scientific study...

 

[trustysteed]

No, it's a decimal point thing. The idea that spinach is very much richer in iron than other veg, and hence the whole Popeye thing, was down to a misplaced decimal point in a scientific study...

you learn something every day on here!

 

[Keith Oates]

You're right, I never knew popeye was a scientist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[papercorn2000]

Popeye lived in a caravan.

 

[bobg]

Popeye lived in a caravan.

You must be older than you look in your avatar!
Was there a hole in that caravan perchance?