Post a fact that will shock and surprise others...

[WillParkinson]

Until the nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia!

=or=

A lightning bolt generates temperatures five times hotter than those found at the sun's surface!

[Deep13]

1. In the '80s, U.S. soldiers used Pop-Tarts as currency in Central America. nt

[Richardo]

2. One ant can carry 8,500 pounds...

...if he's driving a fork lift.

[ScreamingMeemie]

4. ...

:spray:

Oh... I needed a laugh.

[Dr. Strange]

3. Meade county in South Dakota is larger in size than Delaware.

And has far fewer toll booths.

That's right, LynneSin, I went there!

[LynneSin]

13. Yes but how many Vice Presidents came from that county

And I'm guessing there are probably more cows than humans in that county!

[arbusto_baboso]

5. If not for people, 72 cents out of every dollar could be saved.

Recent excavations near Hadrian's Wall have unearthed a disturbing number of unusual vacuum cleaner attachments.

Otto von Bismarck had the world's largest collection of naughty souvenir keychain viewers.

[Deep13]

7. That IS weird.

Excavations near Electrolux wall have uncovered a disturbing number of unusual Romano-British artifacts.

[Forkboy]

6. Butterflies taste with their feet.

[Deep13]

8. Caligula wasn't crazy. Claudius killed more people than Caligula and Tiberius combined.

[Dr. Strange]

9. SET

Of all the words in the English language, the word set has the most definitions.

[5thGenDemocrat]

10. In all of the eighty or so runnings of the Indianapolis 500

The field has never included a driver named "Smith."
John
And, starting at "one" and counting up, "one thousand" is the first number to include the letter "a."

[cwydro]

11. Ants keep aphids as slaves.

[snooper2]

12. The Bible is just a bunch of stories-

written by elves that were outcasted from the land of Ire. :rofl:

[cwydro]

14. Bats are NOT blind.

[Heidi]

15. In general, people aren't as clever as they suppose themselves to be. (nt)

[cwydro]

17. Now, THAT is a shocker!!

:hi:

[La Lioness Priyanka]

21. otherwise known as the about average complex

:) :hi:

[abq e streeter]

16. Hoyt Axton's mother wrote Heartbreak Hotel

[EastTennesseeDem]

18. 81.3% of all percentages stated by people are just made up.

[Deep13]

19. I am becoming more liberal with age. nt

[Mr. Ected]

20. Michael Nesmith of The Monkees

His mother invented Liquid Paper (white out).

[cwydro]

29. In the immortal words of Johnny Carson:

I did not know that.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

22. What can dogs do on their day off?

They can't sleep. that's their job.

[5thGenDemocrat]

23. And, just because Emily Dickinson is the featured article on Wiki today

Almost all of Emily Dickinson's poems can be sung to "The Yellow Rose of Texas."
John
Hoyt Wilhelm, who spent some 25 years as a major league baseball pitcher, hit a home run in his first MLB at-bat and never hit another in his career.

[scheming daemons]

24. 50% of the world's edible mushrooms are grown in Pennsylvania

[LynneSin]

26. Avondale is the mushroom capital of the world

Trust me, when you drive thru Avondale you know it!

[SteelPenguin]

25. There are 10 types of people in the world

Those who understand binary, and those who don't.

[LynneSin]

27. Skip this if you're weak of the mind....

1. Each year, insects eat about a third of the world's food crops.
   
   
2. In contrast, each year the average person will "eat" several insects while they are sleeping. During the average lifetime, a person consumes about seventy insects and ten spiders during their sleep. According to some sources, beetles have a taste that is similar to apples while wasps taste like pine nuts.
   
   
3. The Department of Health and Human Services has set standards regarding how many insect parts are food can contain, called the Food Defect Action Levels. Chocolate can have up to eight insect fragments per hundred grams, while peanut butter can have only sixty fragments. Meanwhile, wheat flour can have 150 fragments per hundred grams and paprika can have 300 fragments.
   
   
4. There are about a million ants per person. Ants are very social animals and will live in colonies that can contain almost 500,000 ants.
   
   
5. A cockroach can live nine days without eating. This is also the same amount of time that the body of a cockroach can live after its head has been cut off before it eventually dies from starvation.
   
   
6. Mosquitoes are more likely to bite children than adults, blonde-haired people rather than brown-haired people, and people wearing dark clothing. They are also attracted to people who just ate bananas or finished exercising. This is because foods high in potassium and exercising cause your body to release lactic acid, which is attractive to mosquitoes.
   
   
7. A housefly will regurgitate its food and eat it again.
   
   
8. Termites have been known to eat food twice as fast when heavy metal music is playing.
   
   
9. Aphids are born pregnant and can give birth when they are only ten days old.
   
   
10. The average bed contains between two million to six million dust mites.
    

[Dr. Strange]

28. The novel "Gadsby" does not contain the letter "e".

http://www.spinelessbooks.com/gadsby/

[Mugu]

30. When driving a motorcycle you turn the handlebars the opposite direction

from the direction you want to turn.

[KansDem]

31. "Ethel" (Vivian Vance) and "Fred" (William Frawley) of "I Love Lucy" didn't like each other...

The Ricardos' next-door neighbors, Fred and Ethel Mertz...

...she returned to the play at the La Jolla (California) Playhouse, where she was seen by Desi Arnaz who decided she was perfect for the role of Ethel Mertz (the Arnaz' first choice, Bea Benaderet was unavailable) in the "I Love Lucy" (1951) television series. At first she didn't want the part (too frumpy), and she always hated being cast as the wife of William Frawley (she was 39, he was 64; the two never got along). Frawley, an alcoholic and then on the professional skids, had actively campaigned for the role of Fred Mertz after learning that Gale Gordon was also unavailable. The runaway success of the series forced the two to work together, but their scenes often barely mask their mutual dislike.

IMDB

[mcctatas]

32. random traffic law

In Maine, it's illegal for a police officer to tell you to have a nice day after giving you a traffic ticket.

[Moondog]

33. Hedy Lamarr, legendary beauty and star of European and American films during the 30s and 40s

was the co-inventor of a frequency-hopping technology issued a US patent in 1942. This technology is credited with being the basis of current spread-spectrum technologies.

[Dr. Strange]

34. Some weird deaths

There were weird deaths listed in a thread last week, but here's some more:

There was a Pope that never was. Stephen II was elected on 23 march 752, but died the following day. Since he was never consecrated, his name was omitted from the Vatican records and given to his successor.

Kurt Gödel, the Austrian/American mathematician, died of starvation when his wife was hospitalized. Gödel suffered from extreme paranoia and refused to eat food prepared by anyone else. He was 65 pounds when he died.

Critic Alexander Woollcott suffered a fatal heart attack during an on-air discussion about Adolf Hitler.

Allan Pinkerton, founder of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, died of gangrene after tripping and biting his tongue.

[no name no slogan]

35. This lounge has become the lamest fucking forum on DU

and that takes a lot, considering we have 9/11, the gungeon and sports to contend with (not to mention GD-P)

[KamaAina]

36. +XV

:(

[rug]

38. Check your PM.

[Richardo]

39. That's a fail on the 'shock and surprise' criteria

:D

[mcctatas]

40. No sex threads!

oh wait, lamest fucking not lamest fucking :P

[Dr. Strange]

41. Bullshit.

Pinkerton dies of gangrene? That's fascinating material!

[motely36]

45. +20-6!

[bigwillq]

47. ha ha

:rofl:

[KamaAina]

37. Tyra Banks is afraid of dolphins.

That's right, dolphins. Seriesly.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=8870829&mesg_id=8870951

edit: header

[MGKrebs]

42. There have only been about 8000 Bugatti's ever built.

And they have been making cars off and on since 1909.

[Moondog]

43. Isadora Duncan was killed in freak accident whilst riding in a Bugatti.

[BlueJazz]

44. Rod Stewert was a Studio Musician (He played the Solo on the 60's Hit.."My Boy Lolipop"

[MGKrebs]

46. Gordon Lightfoot is still alive.

I feel bad that I was surprised by this.
Some might remember that he was in a coma (for several weeks) back in 2002. He survived and is touring and recording again.