The Random Remarkable Facts Thread

[Dancing Mustard]

The UK owns 20% of the worlds CCTV. Eek.

Is that really worrying?

[KomradeKloininov]

Canada produces 80% of the world's mustard

[Splash]

The brits eat 140 million banana's a week...

[Splash]

and Also Qusay Saddam Hussien (iraq) stole 1 billion dollars US...OMFG

[Phobia]

The UK owns 20% of the worlds CCTV. Eek.

Is that really worrying?

Yes, reminds me of the book 1984.

[Dancing Mustard]

The UK owns 20% of the worlds CCTV. Eek.

Is that really worrying?

Yes, reminds me of the book 1984.

That's crazy talk. That book had psychic policeman, government backed bombing of civillians, and cameras in citizens homes. The CCTV worries are mostly just sensationalist scaremongering.

[Splash]

I thought CCTV was China Central Tele vision (i was from china)

[Phobia]

The UK owns 20% of the worlds CCTV. Eek.

Is that really worrying?

Yes, reminds me of the book 1984.

That's crazy talk. That book had psychic policeman, government backed bombing of civillians, and cameras in citizens homes. The CCTV worries are mostly just sensationalist scaremongering.

Yeah, obviously it will never turn out like that, but some people feel they need a bit of privacy, they don't want to be caught on camera over 300 times a day in London.

I thought CCTV was China Central Tele vision (i was from china)

Closed Circuit Television, basically monitoring of an area using cameras and videos and stuff.

[heavycola]

'St Johns Wood' is the only London Underground station to contain none of the letters from the word 'mackerel' in it

[Dancing Mustard]

'St Johns Wood' is the only London Underground station to contain none of the letters from the word 'mackerel' in it

Dude! Cool fact! If it's true. I can't be bothered to think too hard right now...

[Splash]

I am just looking thourgh the guiness book of world records 2007

[Jafnhár]

RobinJ, the majority of these facts you posted are lies and urban legends that have become incredibly popular due to the internet and gullible people.

Popular misconceptions are similar to urban legends, stories about unlikely or fantastical events that supposedly happened to someone (sometimes the ‘friend of a friend’ or whoever is telling the story). The collecting, and debunking, of urban legends has quite a history - most famously on the excellent website snopes.com and the Usenet newsgroup alt.folklore.urban. Popular misconceptions are different though, as they’re not cautionary tales but are instead perceived facts about how the world is. Often, they’re so pervasive that people will insist that they must be true.

http://www.popularmisconceptions.com/blog/



For the first fact, about the rule of thumb, see http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/307000.html

It's certainly the case that, although British common law once held that it was legal for a man to chastise his wife in moderation (whatever that meant), the 'rule of thumb' has never been the law in England. Despite the phrase being in common use since the 17th century and appearing many thousands of times in print, there are no printed records that asspciate it with domestic violence until the 1970s. The false stories that assumed the wife-beating law to be true may have been influenced by Gillray's cartoon.

For the second fact, see http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/golf.asp

As for golf and this wholly unfounded "gentlemen only; ladies forbidden" word origin, its appeal is attributable to a societal shift in the nature of who now plays the game. Women these days take as many trips around the links as do their male counterparts, and golf has grown to be a pastime enjoyed by both sexes. It's thus somewhat pleasing to imagine that this now egalitarian game was at its inception intended strictly for one gender; that indeed its very name declared it off limits to the fair sex (presumably keeping them from becoming "the fairway sex" as well). Women enjoy this notion because they take satisfaction from the image of having stormed and overcome a defended male bastion, whereas men like the specious word origin because it "confirms" that it's really their game, even if the ladies now run rampant through it.

This goes on and on.

[I GOT SERVED]

This is all 100% true. I read it in The Sun.

That's a reliable source...

[dominationnation]

here is a whole site that has funny/remarkable facts.


check out the dumb laws and warnings