Really TRUE odd factoids

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

classic33

Leg End Member
The longest English word is nearly 190,000 letters in length

It's the chemical name of Titin, the largest known protein. It begins, "Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylalanylprolylthreonylphenylalanylthreonylglutaminylprolylleucylglutaminylserylvalylvalylvalylleucylglutamylglycylserylthreonylalanylthreonylphenylalanylglutamylalanylhistidylisoleucylserylglycylphenylalanylprolylvalylprolylglutamylvalylseryltryptophylphenylalanylarginylaspartylglycylglutaminylvalylisoleucylserylthreonylserylthreonylleucylpro and goes on for tens of thousands of letters.

The word in full can be found here.
 

classic33

Leg End Member
"hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia" is the fear of long words.
 

classic33

Leg End Member
Bill Frost was a Welsh inventor who apparently took to the air 8 years before the Wright brothers in his ‘Flying Machine’ in Saundersfoot in 1895 before crashing into a tree.

Nany people from Saundersfoot claimed that he flew in his glider/airship on or around 24th September 1896. He travelled, it was claimed, for about 500 yards, a distance that, if true, was considerably longer than the Wright Brothers managed seven years later in 1903.
 

DaveReading

Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
Location
Reading, obvs
Many people from Saundersfoot claimed that he flew in his glider/airship on or around 24th September 1896.

That story would be slightly more convincing if it could make up it mind which it was - glider or airship ?

If the latter, it wouldn't be particularly newsworthy (except maybe in Wales), more than 100 years after the Montgolfier brothers were piloting hot-air balloons.
 

Beebo

Firm and Fruity
Location
Hexleybeef
That story would be slightly more convincing if it could make up it mind which it was - glider or airship ?

If the latter, it wouldn't be particularly newsworthy (except maybe in Wales), more than 100 years after the Montgolfier brothers were piloting hot-air balloons.
Wiki says it had two gas chambers sufficient to lift it and powered by a fan so clearly not a plane.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost_Airship_Glider
 

Chris S

Legendary Member
Location
Birmingham
Joaquin Phoenix was born Joaquin Bottom.
 

classic33

Leg End Member
Ever wonder why rugby balls are oval?

The first ever rugby balls were made by a Richard Lindon who fashioned it out of hand stitched leather casing and pigs’ bladders. Apparently, pigs’ bladders naturally take on an oval shape.

The trademark oval ball only took over from the spherical ball they’d originally used in 1892.
 

classic33

Leg End Member
The same whistle has been used for the first opening Rugby World Cup game since 1987.

It’s named after the Welsh referee Gil Evans, the first to use it.
 

classic33

Leg End Member
On the 20th June 2020, in the small Siberian town of Verkhoyansk, North of the Arctic Circle, a heat wave baking the region peaked at 38 degrees Celsius — just over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It was the highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic.
 

CharlesF

Guru
Location
Glasgow
Two pounds of pepper and ginger, a pair of scarlet trousers and 1,000 eels.

In medieval England, people paid their rents with all manner of items – and one of the most bizarre was eels.

The idea of accepting eels as rental payment may strike modern readers as unusual. But in early medieval England (1000-1300), eel-rents were commonplace. During the period, before there was enough available coinage, landlords often accepted in-kind rents such as eggs, ale, grain, and, especially, eels. The fish were remarkably plentiful, accounting for 25 to 50 per cent of fish in England’s rivers.
 
Top Bottom