Random Facts

[Kaejer]

I have too many random facts for posting in one super long post, so I'll just post a few interesting ones.

The term "raining cats and dogs" came from the time when the Black Plague was about. The streets were so filthy that dogs and cats would die from the disease and no one would clean up their corpses. So whenever it would rain hard, the corpses would float down the streets and it looked as if it had just rained cats and dogs.

If the population of China walked in a single file line at an average speed, it would never end due to the birth rate.

The Ornate Horned Frog, also known as the Pacman Frog, has the largest mouth of any creature in the world (approximately 50% of it's body length). They also have teeth in the top of their mouth to hold their prey in place; their prey being other frogs, lizards, mice, etc (similar to a snake). They also are the only animal that is capable and highly likely of eating itself to death, since it's very territorial and it's defense mechanism is to eat the invader.

Popping your knuckles is actually gas bursting in fluid in between your joints. Also it does not cause arthritis or any problems with your knuckles. The only way it can cause permanent damage is if you end up pinching a nerve or crushing something with your two bones.

Knit-picky/knit-picker is slang for someone who is very specific about certain things, especially cleanliness. However, this actually comes from picking lice or crab eggs off of hair.


On a side note, I read a few false myths that people posted. I suggest you all check out information on random little facts on http://snopes.com/, but it's very accurate and places myths in a true or false category. For example there was a study to prove the duck quack echo myth was false, and the quacks do echo. The myth started in a chain email message and eventually plagued the Internet.

[Dr Brad]

Popping your knuckles is actually gas being released from in between your joints. Also it does not cause arthritis or any problems with your knuckles. The only way it can cause permanent damage is if you end up pinching a nerve or crushing something with your two bones.

Knit-picky/knit-picker is slang for someone who is very specific about certain things, especially cleanliness. However, this actually comes from picking lice or crab eggs off of hair.

I don't believe the item about the presence of gas in between joints. There is synovial fluid. No gas. As a medical doctor, if I saw gas in someone's joints via x-ray (you can see gas or air on x-ray), I would freak out!

The other name for lice eggs is "nits".

[Kaejer]

Popping your knuckles is actually gas being released from in between your joints. Also it does not cause arthritis or any problems with your knuckles. The only way it can cause permanent damage is if you end up pinching a nerve or crushing something with your two bones.

Knit-picky/knit-picker is slang for someone who is very specific about certain things, especially cleanliness. However, this actually comes from picking lice or crab eggs off of hair.

I don't believe the item about the presence of gas in between joints. There is synovial fluid. No gas. As a medical doctor, if I saw gas in someone's joints via x-ray (you can see gas or air on x-ray), I would freak out!

The other name for lice eggs is "nits".

It's supposed to be bubbles within the fluid bursting, but I guess I didn't specify that enough. And I guess I was thinking of knitting when I spelled out knit instead of nit ;).

[Dr Brad]

Sorry. I'm not a believer of the bubbles either. Scientific reference, please?

P.S. Pretty soon we'll have to move this to the debate section.

[Kaejer]

Here's something if you wanna read it, seems like a credible site to me: http://www.physorg.com/news64162917.html.

If you google popping knuckles you could search for a medical/scientific site you trust about it, though. That is if you don't trust the above link. I'm not a doctor if any kind, so I wouldn't be able to debate anything. I just look for credible sources on the Internet to verify my knowledge .

[Dr Brad]

I found the following reference which explains this phenomenon and supports your statement:

'Cracking joints'. A bioengineering study of cavitation in the metacarpophalangeal joint.
Unsworth A, Dowson D, Wright V.
Ann Rheum Dis. 1971 Jul;30(4):348-58.

An excerpt from the article:

...when the joint surfaces are close together, large subatmospheric pressures can be produced on separating the surfaces. The results support the view that 'cavitation' is responsible for the phenomenon of cracking. Under subatmospheric pressures, the synovial fluid vaporizes and gas is released from solution. The collapse of the vapour cavities gives rise to the noise....

Available on-line via http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

Well done, KJ!

[Geve]

It is legal (UK) for a taxi cab driver to relieve his bladder on the street, if its against his back tyre, but ancient laws potentially prevent him carrying fare without a bale of hay in the boot of his cab! (for his horse, law hasnt changed since victorian times)
Imagine your driver opening his car boot for your suitcase.....and there lies a bale of hay?! :lol:

[Andey]

The average person eats 3 spiders a year in their sleep.

Hawaii hase interstate freeways.

In 1985 John Howard had a bike ride which was clocked at 152.2 mph. (k translation pls?)

Lightning very well can (and does) strike the same place twice!

Great White sharks don't get cancer!

[Lord Anwyn]

i can paralyze your ring finger

[Diplomatt]

It takes 500,000 electrons to hold a '1' in your computer memory, even though electrons are negative charge!

[onezerobin]

1 Terabyte of data is equivalent 50000 trees made into paper and printed