Share Your Interesting But Not Very Useful Facts

[Saleen836]

.
Sean Connery was once stopped for speeding by Sergeant James Bond!

[straight dad]

Termites are the second largest source of global methane emissions second only to decaying debris from natural sources such as wetlands, rivers and streams.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

straight dad said:

Termites are the second largest source of global methane emissions second only to decaying debris from natural sources such as wetlands, rivers and streams.

I know you have done some research to back that up, but I strongly suspect that my offspring can produce more methane than a few billion termites.

[Dr Jekyll]

Greenland sharks are thought to reach sexual maturity at the age of 150.

[Superleg48]

If you close your eyes for 5 seconds and then reopen for them for 5 seconds and repeat this process.......it keeps going dark and then light again.

.....working on getting my post count up.....and hailing a taxi as we speak.

[General Price]

Superleg48 said:

If you close your eyes for 5 seconds and then reopen for them for 5 seconds and repeat this process.......it keeps going dark and then light again.

.....working on getting my post count up.....and hailing a taxi as we speak.

What if you are in a cave?

[Lily the Pink]

General Price said:

Superleg48 said:

If you close your eyes for 5 seconds and then reopen for them for 5 seconds and repeat this process.......it keeps going dark and then light again.

.....working on getting my post count up.....and hailing a taxi as we speak.

What if you are in a cave?

Then he'll probably fail to hail.

[Tye Green]

a second is defined as being equal to the time duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the fundamental unperturbed ground-state of the caesium-133 atom

[.:ian:.]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

straight dad said:

Termites are the second largest source of global methane emissions second only to decaying debris from natural sources such as wetlands, rivers and streams.

I know you have done some research to back that up, but I strongly suspect that my offspring can produce more methane than a few billion termites.

Another contender is the collective output from the participants of the Dirty Takeaway Pictures thread.

[nonsequitur]

Saleen836 said:

.
Sean Connery was once stopped for speeding by Sergeant James Bond!

007 mph over the speed limit, no doubt.

[eldar]

A dairy cow produces the annual equivalent greenhouse gases to that of driving a Range Rover 11,000 miles.

Fortunately for global warming dairy cows do not, generally, drive.

[talksthetorque]

eldar said:

A dairy cow produces the annual equivalent greenhouse gases to that of driving a Range Rover 11,000 miles.

Fortunately for global warming dairy cows do not, generally, drive.

I bet the climate change deniers are milking that fact.

[john2443]

The reason the tax year ends on the strange date of 5 April is that when we changed from the Julian to Gregorian calendar in the 1750s, it moved on 11 days from the equally random 25th of AprilMarch* so that year had 365 days like the previous ones.

• This is a Quarter Day, the Feast of the Annunciation.

Edited by john2443 on Friday 26th March 15:05

[Dr Jekyll]

john2443 said:

The reason the tax year ends on the strange date of 5 April is that when we changed from the Julian to Gregorian calendar in the 1750s, it moved on 11 days from the equally random 25th of April* so that year had 365 days like the previous ones.

• This is a Quarter Day, the Feast of the Annunciation.

There was also the complication that what would otherwise have been February 1752 became February 1753 so had 28 days instead of 29, so the financial year ending in spring 1753 would have been a day short without specific adjustment.

[Rostfritt]

john2443 said:

The reason the tax year ends on the strange date of 5 April is that when we changed from the Julian to Gregorian calendar in the 1750s, it moved on 11 days from the equally random 25th of April* so that year had 365 days like the previous ones.

• This is a Quarter Day, the Feast of the Annunciation.

This is not very useful but certainly interesting. Makes a lot of sense having the financial year not end just after Xmas these days as it probably wouldn't leave a lot of companies' stock or financial position in a very typical place and just generally be a nightmare for those in financial services dealing with extra work after the festive season.

[The Moose]

h0b0 said:

Apparently, it was not funny back in 2009 when it was posted on here. Does quoting an uncensored post on pistonheads get me in trouble?



For reference, there was a much riskier joke on the same page that I am not going to quote.

Oh you tease. Oh yes I am...

I still don’t get it

Cheers

The Moose

[The spinner of plates]

When 'the clocks change' doesn't happen every 6 months...

Clocks go forward end of March and then back again end of October.

So 7 months and 5 months.

Yup, I'm not sure how I got into my 40's without realising this either.. but there you go

[A Winner Is You]

Joseph Stalin only flew in an airplane once in his life, to the Yalta Conference. He did most of his other travelling by armoured train.

[tertius]

Rostfritt said:

john2443 said:

The reason the tax year ends on the strange date of 5 April is that when we changed from the Julian to Gregorian calendar in the 1750s, it moved on 11 days from the equally random 25th of April* so that year had 365 days like the previous ones.

• This is a Quarter Day, the Feast of the Annunciation.

This is not very useful but certainly interesting. Makes a lot of sense having the financial year not end just after Xmas these days as it probably wouldn't leave a lot of companies' stock or financial position in a very typical place and just generally be a nightmare for those in financial services dealing with extra work after the festive season.

Though I think John made a typo as the Feast of the Annunciation is 25 March not April. Which makes sense as unlike 25 April the 25 March is indeed 11 days before 5 April ...

[nonsequitur]

A Winner Is You said:

Joseph Stalin only flew in an airplane once in his life, to the Yalta Conference. He did most of his other travelling by armoured train.

AWIY, Thank you for getting this thread back on track.