Odd factoids

[Threevok]

Percy Spencer (generally credited with inventing the modern microwave oven) only did so, because there were not enough food programmes on TV at the time

 

[Drago]

The species known as the giraffe used to be short necked animals, until a breeding pair were taken to a knocking shop frequented by Tory cabinet ministers.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Red Bull will give you wings ..

In Canada, Red Bull adverts contain the disclaimer "Does not give you actual wings".

(This is really true)

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

The floorspace of all the Tescos in Britain combined is larger than Denmark.

 

[Threevok]

Those plastic curtains at the back of B & Q are actually gateways to other B & Q stores.

So when you ask a member staff a question and they disappear behind the curtain - chances are, they are hiding from you in Warrington, Bexley Heath, Stirling, Neath, Sudbury....

 

[Tim Hall]

The wise men in the bible Nativity story came from Yorkshire.

"They came from the East Riding, on a camel."

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

If the library of Alexandria hadn't burned down circa 48 B.C., anthropologists have theorized that nuclear arms would have been readily available during the American Civil War.

 

[Dirk]

This leads to an amazing factoid - at 48 and 5/6ths years of age, I am the youngest old person in England.

And my mate Tony, at 73 and 1/6 th years, is the oldest young person.

 

[Profpointy]

If the library of Alexandria hadn't burned down circa 48 B.C., anthropologists have theorized that nuclear arms would have been readily available during the American Civil War.

That's not entirely implausible to be fair

 

[Dirk]

Cheryl Cole was an apprentice welder when she first left school.

 

[winjim]

The world's oldest gas balloon race is the Gordon Bennett Cup, named after Gordon Bennett, a man so rich that he once bought a restaurant on the spot, simply in order to kick out a man who was sitting in his favourite seat. On the way out, he handed the deeds to the waiter.

This is the origin of the phrase "Gordon Bennett".

 

[Drago]

Soichiro Honda was a radical from a land of utter conformity. He would often wear pink suits, enough to make Toga Kawasaki apopleptic with rage.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

That's not entirely implausible to be fair

I read it somewhere - might have been Niall Ferguson

 

[Drago]

Larry Hagman often wore a gorilla suit to go shopping.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Belphegor's prime is 1,000,000,000,000,066,600,000,000,000,001: a palindromic prime number with 666 in the middle and 13 0s on either side. It is named after Belphegor, one of the seven princes of hell.