Dogs can't look up.

Kuala Lumpur means dirty river.

According to the 1860 census, 85% of the population of Georgetown County, South Carolina, was enslaved. Those slaves were owned by almost 57% of the white families living in the same county.

And this was not a tiny county but one close to South Carolina's average at 21,305. The close second at about 81% enslaved is Beaufort County (population 40,053), where 66.5% of families held slaves. Twenty of the state's 30 counties had absolute majority slave populations in 1860, as did the state as a whole, which was 57.18% slave and about 45.53% slaveowner.

Only one other state, Mississippi, can match or rival those statewide numbers. South Carolina and Mississippi were the first two states to secede. These facts are very closely related.

I know because I've been spending way too much time with the 1860 census for my blog but they're pretty staggering even without my ulterior motive of self-promotion.

Dogs can't look up.

I can't remember--was it this thread or another one that I kept posting that?

Did you know about the Piltdown man?

I mean, before that troll Lord Dice brought it up?

Yep. Podcasts are good for learning stuff, Doodlebug.

Did you know about the Piltdown man?

I mean, before that troll Lord Dice brought it up?

I did not. But it sounded really kinky, so I left it alone.

Saint Caleth wrote:

Kajehase wrote:

According to the Byzantine calendar it's the year 7521.

Its like living in the future!

So you're telling me it's seventeen-thousand, five-hundred and twenty-one and WE STILL DON'T HAVE FLYING CARS?!

Good Lord! If aliens come by and challenge us to a flying-car race against the most powerful competitors in the galaxy to determine whether or not we survive as a species, they have every right to pull the trigger.

SCIENTIIIISTS!

Although is science's defense we have had video phones for several years now.

Jetpacks are curiously absent though.

Jetpacks are curiously absent though.

Perhaps that's for the best...

According to the Swedish 17th century polymath Olof Rudbeck the elder (his biggest accomplishment being that he was one of two people to independently 'discover' the lymphatic system) Atlantis was the old name for Scandinavia, and all peoples of the world originated there.

Today, it's generally agreed that he was more successful at natural than at liberal sciences.

On average, 1 billion snails are served in restaurants each year.

I got to have escargot once when my family went on a cruise for grandparents' anniversary. Tasted like heavily-marinaded mushrooms. I liked.

I just read this whole thread in one sitting.

I now have lots of stuff I should have done but didn't...

Plastic bottles were first used for soft drinks in 1970.

The meaning of 'Blue Chip' comes from blue casino chips which have a high value.

Liechtenstein once tried to invade Switzerland with 100 men; they came back with 101.

You can find cyanide in apple seeds.

Peanuts are an active ingredient in some forms of dynamite.

All Polar Bears are left-handed.

In 1843, a Parisian street mime named Frank got stuck in his imaginary box and consequently died of starvation.

You can rent Liechtenstein.

You can find cyanide in apple seeds.

GI Joe taught me that.

AlexTrebek wrote:

You can find cyanide in apple seeds.

GI Joe taught me that.

If I recall correctly, I first learned that while randomly flipping through channels and catching a medical segment on a local news show. This was probably like 30 or so years ago, and it stayed with me all this time. Weird.

DVDs are physically the same size as a CDs but can store about 13 times more data.

DVDs are physically the same size as a CDs but can store about 13 times more data.

Similarly, a stardard dual-layer Blu-ray disc has a capacity about 5x as much as a typical DVD.

This is largely possible due to the fact that Blu-ray discs are read by a blue laser, which allows for greater amounts of data compression than the longer wave-length red lasers used with DVDs.

Today's game between Manchester United and Queen's Park Rangers was slightly delayed due to one of the players (Julio Cesar) wearing the wrong kit.

Today is the 50th birthday of Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy.

The first pasta produced in Sweden was done so in 1959.

Today is the 50th birthday of Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! FF6 FOR LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!

At the Navy facility in Sasebo, Japan, there are red brick buildings dating back to 1897.

Kajehase wrote:

Today is the 50th birthday of Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! FF6 FOR LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!** spoiler omitted **

Yes, praise me, peons!

-Pandas are not originally hervibore; they are carnivores that had to adapt to their enviroment, where the only thing in abundance was bamboo. It so happens, however, that bamboo is an extremely poor source of sustenance, which is why pandas need to spend most of their time eating it.

-The first cause of baby panda death is their parents accidentally sitting on top of them. Seriously.

-Whales are thought to come from a 4-legged hyena-like close relative of camels.

-Camels have 2 hunches. Dromedaries have 1.

Jerry Springer's first job after graduation was as political advisor to one Robert F Kennedy.

Kajehase wrote:

Obama's celebrating by invading Canada?

Puerto Rico

Gotta admit that invading Canada would be more slaad-like, though.

The area of Japan know as 99 Islands actually consists of closer to 200 islands.

Sugar in the Raw® gets its distinctive color and flavor from molasses.

The area of Japan know as 99 Islands actually consists of closer to 200 islands.

Similarly, the Thousand Islands in the US and Canada actually number 1,864.

Finland, which is sometimes poetically called the Land of a Thousand Lakes actually has closer to 10'000 lakes.

And yet, in the Ten Thousand Islands, there are actually only hundreds not thousands.

Japanese sports-writer Daisuke Nakajima had an idea - he was going to cover the game between fallen giants Glasgow Rangers and the small-fry team Elgin City in the Scottish Division Three. So, he got on a plane from Tokyo to London (14 hours), jumped on a train to Edinburgh (5 hours), took a car the 188 kilometers to Elgin, and discovered the game had been cancelled due to security reasons.

The Japanese have vending machines that dispense hot coffee in a can. They also have vending machines that dispense cold beer as well.

The motto on Sir Terry Pratchett's coat of arms is "Noli Timere Messorem" (Don't Fear the Reaper).

Prior to the Beach Boys' song, there was no such place as "Kokomo". An island, now known as Sandals Cay, was given the name after, though it was later dropped.

The Japanese have vending machines that dispense hot coffee in a can. They also have vending machines that dispense cold beer as well.

just one of the reasons I love japan.

Prior to the Beach Boys' song, there was no such place as "Kokomo". An island, now known as Sandals Cay, was given the name after, though it was later dropped.

Actually, Sandals Cay is the tails side of Kokomo. Like Guam, it was flipped over by Jesszilla and a keketar playing the kaiju-sized version of Toss Across.

Orthos wrote:

Prior to the Beach Boys' song, there was no such place as "Kokomo". An island, now known as Sandals Cay, was given the name after, though it was later dropped.

Actually, Sandals Cay is the tails side of Kokomo. Like Guam, it was flipped over by Jesszilla and a keketar playing the kaiju-sized version of Toss Across.

I was tempted to ask who got the points for that one, but since there's a keketar involved clearly the points don't matter.

The Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, is the original home of the buffalo wing.

Prior to the Beach Boys' song, there was no such place as "Kokomo". An island, now known as Sandals Cay, was given the name after, though it was later dropped.

I think the people who live here might disagree with you.

Kokomo, Indiana

Orthos wrote:

Prior to the Beach Boys' song, there was no such place as "Kokomo". An island, now known as Sandals Cay, was given the name after, though it was later dropped.

I think the people who live here might disagree with you.

Kokomo, Indiana

I'm confident that clearly isn't in any way other than the name related to the song in question =P

I don't know... I hear the surf is good in Kokomo, IN.

For inspection purposes, the Japanese government limits a radioactive source to a 10 curie strength.

The granite from Grand Central Station exposes its employees to 120 mrem of radiation each year.

Brazil nuts contain small amounts of radium. Although the amount of radium, a radioactive element, is very small, about 1–7 pCi/g (40–260 Bq/kg), and most of it is not retained by the body.

The US Capitol Building in Washington DC is so radioactive, due to the high uranium content in its granite walls, it could never be licensed as a nuclear power reactor site.