The "I Bet You Didn't Know" thread...

I'll bet you didn't know that more people are killed by hammers and clubs each year than by rifles.

 

That:

-avocados are poisonous to birds

-falling coconuts kill more people each year (around 150) than sharks (about 4)

-internet spam is not named for the canned pork product; it’s an homage to a 1970 Monty Python’s Flying Circus skit in which a group of Vikings sing ‘SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, lovely SPAM, wonderful SPAM!’ drowning out all other conversation

-a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball

-a typical American will eat 28 pigs’ worth of pork in their lifetime

-one calorie is defined as the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius; it is the energy equivalent of one-thousandth of a gram of TNT, which is also measured in calories

-Russian children blow out the candles on a birthday pie

 

According to wikipedia:

Smell

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The wet, textured nose of a dog​

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While the human brain is dominated by a large visual cortex, the dog brain is dominated by an olfactory cortex.[108] The olfactory bulb in dogs is roughly forty times bigger than the olfactory bulb in humans, relative to total brain size, with 125 to 220 million smell-sensitive receptors.[108] The bloodhound exceeds this standard with nearly 300 million receptors.[108]
Consequently, it has been estimated that dogs, in general, have an olfactory sense ranging from one hundred thousand to one million times more sensitive than a human's. In some dog breeds, such as bloodhounds, the olfactory sense may be up to 100 million times greater than a human's.[121] The wet nose, or rhinarium, is essential for determining the direction of the air current containing the smell. Cold receptors in the skin are sensitive to the cooling of the skin by evaporation of the moisture by air currents.

I actually read something the other day that I thought had said it was 10,000 times more sensitive, that's why I checked it out.

 

That:

-It is impossible to lick your elbow.

-A crocodile can't stick it's tongue out.

-A shrimp's heart is in their head.

-People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because there was a time it was thought your sould left your body during a sneeze.

-In a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80 years, no one reported a single case where an ostrich buried its head in the sand (or attempted to do so).

-It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.

-A pregnant goldfish is called a twit

-Between 1937 and 1945 Heinz produced a version of Alphabet Spaghetti especially for the German market that consisted solely of little pasta swastikas.

-On average, a human being will have sex more than 3,000 times and spend two weeks kissing in their lifetime.

-More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call.

-Rats and horses can't vomit.

-The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.

-If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die. If you keep yours eyes open by force, they will pop out.

-Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a million descendants.

-Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.

-If the government has no knowledge of aliens, then why does Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, implemented on July 16, 1969, make it illegal for U.S. citizens to have any contact with extraterrestrials or their vehicles?

-In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.

-The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

-Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.

-23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on them and photocopying their buttocks.

-In the course of an average lifetime you will, while sleeping, eat 70 assorted insects and 10 spiders.

-Most lipstick contains fish scales.

-Cat's urine glows under a black-light.

-Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.

 

You are starting to repeat!

 

Then, I heard a place in Aspen, CO was so crowded it was "nuts to butts." Maybe the 21st century to "balls to the wall?!"

 

The dynamic range of a dogs sense of smell is even more impressive than their sensitivity to smell. They can smell things that a human can't begin to smell, yet they seem to enjoy eating cat crap.

 

Male bovines are colorblind while female bovines aren't. The reason a colorblind bull charges a red flag, is that by waving a red flag at it you are calling it a female and it takes that as in insult.

 

OK, back to nautical history from a friend's dad... In the olden days when animals were carried on board ships in the lower holds, manure piled up. Piles of manure actually generate enough heat and fumes to be combustible and in the lower holds of a ship, if a crew member decided to light up..."BOOM!"

Bags of manure were eventually marked Stow High In Transit, abbreviated by S(tow) H(igh) In T(ransit). The crew was directed to make sure those "**** bags are stowed high."

If it is true, makes sense on how an odd word refers to manure....