Odd factoids

[Dirk]

Roman soldiers did not have beards. At this time, the Romans considered body hair to be barbaric and therefore it was forbidden.

 

[Chris S]

Due to a design error HMS Hood sat 4 or 5 feet lower in the water than intended. As a consequence, it was a very 'wet' ship and diseases such as tuberculosis were relatively common aboard.

Sailors who served aboard often referred to it as the largest submarine afloat.

One of my teachers was in the Navy during WWII. His train was delayed and HMS Hood departed without him. If it had been on time we wouldn't have had to suffer him 40 years later.

 

[Tin Pot]

No, we're not. Damned unsporting of you. Anyway, I've been back to check, and I got it completely wrong. What he actually said was:

"If you scale a grain of sand down to represent the sun, then the earth would be a microscopically small object about an inch away and the next nearest star would be about 7 miles distant"

Let's see you fact check that away, you cad.

In fairness, I’m yet to hear any analogy for astronomical distances that is more informative than simply saying “these things are farking unbelievably far away from each other”

 

[jefmcg]

"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space."

 

[Dirk]

If two galaxies collide the chances of any suns, or planets, actually hitting each other is infinitesimally small.
Space is mostly empty.

 

[Tin Pot]

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a factoid as a brief or trivial item of news or information and as an item of unreliable information that is repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact.

 

[jefmcg]

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a factoid as a brief or trivial item of news or information and as an item of unreliable information that is repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact.

Actually, they give two definitions, both have been honoured here.

A brief or trivial piece of information, esp.any of a list of such items presented together.

 

[Dirk]

At this very moment, the largest vessel underway, in British coastal waters, is the cruise ship 'Lorna Ellen' at 138279gt.

 

[classic33]

In space the skin on your feet peels off!

In the micro-gravity environment, astronauts are not using their feet Therefore the skin on their feet starts to soften and flakes off. As laundry facilities do not exist in space, astronauts will wear the same underwear and socks for a few days. Those socks then need to be taken off very gently. If not those dead skin cells will float around in the weightless environment.

 

[TVC]

The dictionary definition of the word Farage (rhymes with carriage) is "The small puddle of fetid brown liquid found at the bottom of wheely bins".

 

[Tin Pot]

Actually, they give two definitions, both have been honoured here.

A brief or trivial piece of information, esp.any of a list of such items presented together.

Pretty sure I said that

 

[Drago]

Wheelie bins were invented by Sir Bamford Wheelie in 1940, as a convenient means for Tommies to carry valuables looted from dead Jerries.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

The need to always be right and correct others in public is classed as a mental illness

 

[Tin Pot]

The need to always be right and correct others in public is classed as a mental illness

No it isn’t.

:P

 

[jefmcg]

Pretty sure I said that

That will learn me for skimming a one sentence post.