-In ten minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons combined.
-If the US government has no knowledge of aliens, why does Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, dated July 16, 1969, make it illegal for American citizens to have any contact with extraterrestrials or their vehicals?
-Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
-The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as a substitute for blood plasma.
-'Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis' is the longest word in the English Language. It's a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica dust.
-'Dreamt' is the only word in the English language that ends in 'mt'.
-The 'sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick' is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.
-American Airlines saved more than £25,000 in 1987 by cutting one olive from each salad served in first-class.
And finally...
-Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
Wasn't that debunked?
By the way, this list was from the king of tabloid trash newspapers - The People.
Posts: 241 | From: England | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
More importantly...how many people will try to say the tounge twister. I still get my hubby with toy boat and it's funny b/c he has a spanish accent. He doesn't like the fact that I can say it, got him back for not being able to roll my R's Posts: 1119 | From: Bronx, NY | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
There's lots of animals that can't jump. snakes, oysters, clams, snails, slugs, pretty much anything without legs
-------------------- "We assure you that protecting senior citizens from vice-presidential shotgun blasts was, is, and will remain the highest priority of this administration" Posts: 12 | From: Cottageville, SC | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by phaeton: There's lots of animals that can't jump. snakes, oysters, clams, snails, slugs, pretty much anything without legs
There is a snake called the jumping viper which can be found in central and south America. It can strike with such force as to propel its body up to 3 feet off the ground.
Also, there are some clam (and other mollusk) species which can use a jet-propulsion-like method of expelling water in order to evade predators. When doing so, they can often "jump" several feet off of the ocean floor.
-------------------- Is here no telephone? Posts: 323 | From: Brooklyn, NY | Registered: Jul 2005
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-If the US government has no knowledge of aliens, why does Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, dated July 16, 1969, make it illegal for American citizens to have any contact with extraterrestrials or their vehicals?
posted
The original "fact" that I remember seeing was that elephants are the only mammals that can't jump. Whether this is a true statement, I don't know.
-------------------- Back in the days before electricity, we were forced to watch TV by candlelight. Posts: 229 | From: Paoli, PA | Registered: Dec 2005
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quote:In ten minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons combined.
I don't think nuclear weapons release all that much energy every ten minutes.
quote:Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
Apart from Uranus.
quote:'Dreamt' is the only word in the English language that ends in 'mt'.
What about undreamt?
quote:'Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis' is the longest word in the English Language.
I thought it was smiles.
-------------------- "You learn something new every day if you're not careful" - Wilf Lunn Posts: 893 | From: Durham City, England | Registered: Aug 2005
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ETA I know it is a "real" word, but I just don;t like them onions!
-------------------- "British English speakers point to Americans adding more syllables so that they can make even more noise without actually saying anything." Llewtrah
Posts: 2235 | From: Sussex , UK | Registered: May 2004
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quote:Originally posted by NobbyNobbs: The original "fact" that I remember seeing was that elephants are the only mammals that can't jump.
But they are the only mammals that can fly!
-------------------- "The fact that "uvula" and "vulva" look and sound similar was just a happy coincidence." - Lainie Posts: 548 | From: England | Registered: Sep 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Spikey: But they are the only mammals that can fly!
What about pigs?
-------------------- IIRC, it wasn't the shoe bomber's loud prayers that sparked the takedown by the other passengers; it was that he was trying to light his shoe on fire. Very, very different. Canuckistan Posts: 3694 | From: Arizona | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by NobbyNobbs: The original "fact" that I remember seeing was that elephants are the only mammals that can't jump. Whether this is a true statement, I don't know.
I suspect dolphins and whales would find it quite challenging - or does jumping out of the water count?
(ETA: The only quadruped, maybe?)
-------------------- But of course, I could be wrong. Posts: 858 | From: UK | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
I think all quadrapeds have four knees. The thing is that most quadrapeds walk just on their toes on the hind legs. So what looks like a knee bending backwards (what I assume you meant since all quadrapeds have some sort of joint between the foot and the body) is really the ankle.
If you look at this picture of a horse skeleton, you'll see the knees for the rear legs (about the height of the bottom of the ribcage). Lower down are the ankles. So it looks like the horse's rear knees bend backwards since the real knee blends into the horses body.
ET: Better horse skeleton picture.
-------------------- IIRC, it wasn't the shoe bomber's loud prayers that sparked the takedown by the other passengers; it was that he was trying to light his shoe on fire. Very, very different. Canuckistan Posts: 3694 | From: Arizona | Registered: Aug 2005
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-------------------- "How dare your reality hinder my ability to believe what I want!" Joe Bentley Posts: 697 | From: Backwoods of Arkansas | Registered: Dec 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Andrew of Ware, England:
quote:Originally posted by Snafu: -The 'sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick' is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.
'Red lorry, yellow lorry' is also pretty hard.
"We reweave rips"
BB "that's hard to say once" &S
-------------------- "How dare your reality hinder my ability to believe what I want!" Joe Bentley Posts: 697 | From: Backwoods of Arkansas | Registered: Dec 2003
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Canuckistan
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
quote:Originally posted by Andrew of Ware, England:
quote:Originally posted by Snafu: -The 'sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick' is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.
'Red lorry, yellow lorry' is also pretty hard.
Hows about "Unique New York"?
-------------------- People need to stop appropriating Jesus as their reason for behaving badly. It's so irritating. (Avril) Posts: 8429 | From: New York run by the Swiss (Toronto) | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by GenYus: I think all quadrapeds have four knees. The thing is that most quadrapeds walk just on their toes on the hind legs. So what looks like a knee bending backwards (what I assume you meant since all quadrapeds have some sort of joint between the foot and the body) is really the ankle.
I always thought that refered to the forelimbs, not rear. Don't most mammals (like us) have elbows, not knees, on the forelimb? My dog sure does, evident when I get her to lie on her tummy, forelimbs stretched out in front, not up behind.
Not sure what's going on with that horse then. Maybe elephants aren't the only ones with four knees.
-------------------- "We don't keep a certified whale-vomit expert on staff." - Larry Penny, Director, Natural Resources Department, Town of East Hampton Posts: 377 | From: New Zealand | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by GenYus: I think all quadrapeds have four knees. The thing is that most quadrapeds walk just on their toes on the hind legs. So what looks like a knee bending backwards (what I assume you meant since all quadrapeds have some sort of joint between the foot and the body) is really the ankle.
I always thought that refered to the forelimbs, not rear. Don't most mammals (like us) have elbows, not knees, on the forelimb? My dog sure does, evident when I get her to lie on her tummy, forelimbs stretched out in front, not up behind.
Not sure what's going on with that horse then. Maybe elephants aren't the only ones with four knees.
It's just a matter of terminology. We all have elbows and wrists on our forelimbs and knees and ankles* on our backlimbs (to use the human terms). They might be called different things in different species, but they are the same joints everywhere.
ETA *heels is probably a better word.
-------------------- Små hönor skall inte lägga stora ägg för då blir de slarviga i ändan Posts: 1334 | From: Sweden | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Floater: It's just a matter of terminology. We all have elbows and wrists on our forelimbs and knees and ankles* on our backlimbs (to use the human terms). They might be called different things in different species, but they are the same joints everywhere.
Aren't "knees" and "elbows" different in that knees have a kneecap (an extra bone at the joint), whereas elbows only have the joint?
-------------------- "I've allowed my love of gravy to distract from my prescriptivist linguistic crusade!" -T-Rex, Dinosaur Comics Posts: 726 | From: New Jersey | Registered: Apr 2004
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quote:Originally posted by OTL: Aren't "knees" and "elbows" different in that knees have a kneecap (an extra bone at the joint), whereas elbows only have the joint?
I'm just talking about corresponding joints at the same relative place in the skeleton of different animals. Whether there are kneecaps or not is a different matter, which I know next to nothing about. Besides, the word kneecap seems to me to be the result of having them in our knee joints.
-------------------- Små hönor skall inte lägga stora ägg för då blir de slarviga i ändan Posts: 1334 | From: Sweden | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Floater: I'm just talking about corresponding joints at the same relative place in the skeleton of different animals. Whether there are kneecaps or not is a different matter, which I know next to nothing about. Besides, the word kneecap seems to me to be the result of having them in our knee joints.
You said "same joints", not corresponding joints. We all do have joints part way down each limb, but I think you'll find the elboe and knee are physiologically different joints.
As for the purpose of the thread though, elbow and knee send the lower limbs in opposite directions. Some mammals seem to have foreward moving lower fore-limbs, others backward moving ones.
-------------------- "We don't keep a certified whale-vomit expert on staff." - Larry Penny, Director, Natural Resources Department, Town of East Hampton Posts: 377 | From: New Zealand | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by NZUL: You said "same joints", not corresponding joints. We all do have joints part way down each limb, but I think you'll find the elboe and knee are physiologically different joints.
The same as in being in the same relative place in the skeleton of different animals. That's why I wrote forelimbs/elbows, backlimbs/knees, using the terminology for human anatomy. I'm sorry if you didn't get it.
quote: As for the purpose of the thread though, elbow and knee send the lower limbs in opposite directions. Some mammals seem to have foreward moving lower fore-limbs, others backward moving ones.
The terms elbow and knee has nothing to do with how the animal in question moves. They are just terms for specific joints in specific locations of the body. As for how quadropeds move they generally use their forelimbs to drag the body forwards and their backlimbs to push it (to use a simple picture).
-------------------- Små hönor skall inte lägga stora ägg för då blir de slarviga i ändan Posts: 1334 | From: Sweden | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Andrew of Ware, England:
quote:Originally posted by Snafu: -The 'sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick' is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.
'Red lorry, yellow lorry' is also pretty hard.
"We reweave rips"
BB "that's hard to say once" &S
I love the one I learned in theatre...you have to say it really fast, and if you say it right, you won't laugh at the end. Ready? "I am a mother pheasant plucker. I pluck mother pheasants. I am the most pleasant mother pheasant plucker who ever plucked a mother pheasant."
-------------------- My mom, about my nervousness with Jeopardy!: "Don't worry about it. Just get drunk and you'll do fine." Blog Just call me Mickey 2 Posts: 3295 | From: Radford, VA/Herndon, VA/Orlando, FL | Registered: Jan 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Snafu: -If the US government has no knowledge of aliens, why does Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, dated July 16, 1969, make it illegal for American citizens to have any contact with extraterrestrials or their vehicals?
The original intent of this was to prevent people from stealing moon rocks. The wording got changed a bit over time. And it has since been repealed.
Posts: 64 | From: Irvine, CA | Registered: Sep 2005
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