Really TRUE odd factoids

[Blue Hills]

Counterintuitive factoid here.

From 1970 to 1979 the league table for days lost due to strikes was, counting down:

Canada straight to number 1 with a bullet, then

Italy
Australia
US
Britain

 

[Blue Hills]

Buster Edwards is well known as one of the Great Train robbers.
Ditto for later having a flower stall near Waterloo station.
He became a victim of crime himself in the early 90s when a bloke claiming to be a on a romantic mission nicked two bunches of flowers from him and ran off.
He was actually brought to justice - went to court, given a conditional discharge plus costs.
Dexter Fletcher, actor, then director behind the Elton John biopic Rocket Man.

 

[Blue Hills]

Tony Blair didn't use a mobile phone until 2007 after he left office.
Apparently his first text to alastair campbell was:
"This is amazing, you can send words on a phone".
(apparently he had acquired the thing at the end of the previous year but never used it - and had been given a government one in 1997 but never used that)

 

[Seevio]

If you die in the same hospital in which you were born, your average velocity will be zero.

 

[Blue Hills]

Spud U like, the chain of baked potato eateries, was for a fair old while owned by the British School of Motoring.
No, I have no idea why.
Some pissed exec/marketing whizz sold the management some line on "synergy" one pissed Friday afternoon?

 

[Beebo]

If you die in the same hospital in which you were born, your average velocity will be zero.

And your net metres climbed will be zero too.
Maybe life is pointless after all 😁

 

[Dave7]

There have been at least 5000 people that have gone over Niagara Falls....... some intentional, some not.
Of these only 17 have survived, the 1st recorded one being a female teacher in 1901.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

And your net metres climbed will be zero too.
Maybe life is pointless after all 😁

I don;t want to introduce pedantry to this


OK - I do


but actually this is not accurate

in most hospitals the maternity ward - and hence the delivery suite is not that close to the A&E and 'Old Person' ward

and in many cases of new hospitals - not even on the same floor - old people's wards are often high up to have better views for long term patients


Hence - overall you will have travelled at least a few dozen yards - possibly a few hundred - and climbed as well - possibly


I would mostly worry about a parent who shoves a smart phone into a kids hand at birth with Strava already running so as to map things properly
and anyway - can Strava map journeys within journeys????

otherwise how will th ekid map their rides once they can ride a bike


life is just full of questions

 

[classic33]

There have been at least 5000 people that have gone over Niagara Falls....... some intentional, some not.
Of these only 17 have survived, the 1st recorded one being a female teacher in 1901.

And her cat!
No one record says if the cat survived.

Niagara Falls has moved back seven miles in 12,500 years and may be the fastest moving waterfalls in the world.

*Recorded up to 25mph at the top,
68mph on the falls themselves, and 30mph at the base.

 

[classic33]

Gainesville, Georgia passed a measure, in 1961 making it illegal to eat fried chicken with anything other than your hands.

It was a publicity stunt to promote the city as the “poultry capital of the world.”


In El Salvador, a first offense of drunk driving can land you a death sentence by firing squad.

 

[Tribansman]

The Dyslexia Research Trust is based in Reading

 

[classic33]

Under the UK’s Tax Avoidance Schemes Regulations 2006, it is illegal not to tell the taxman anything you don’t want him to know, though you don’t have to tell him anything you don’t mind him knowing.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Horses can't vomit underwater.

 

[matticus]

Horses can't vomit underwater.

That's harsh criticism - I'd like* to see YOU try it!

(*n.b. I wouldn't really - that was just for comedic effect)

 

[Chris S]

Horses can't vomit underwater.

Who found that out and how?