I'm a suppository of useless information

[Citizen Bleys]

Do you know what determines whether a guitarist plays right or left handed and why?

It's counterintuitive. One is meant to fret with one's non-dominant hand and pick with the dominant hand.

In modern music, this makes no sense. The pick hand just does repetitive up and down movements, just like masturbation. It is the fretting hand that requires more coordination and dexterity. Modern music would be better if right- handed players were trained to fret with their right hands; they'd get better faster.

The reason is born of the mists of antiquity. In tha 19th century, no guitarist employed a plectrum, but played fingerstyle, even as classical guitarists play today. In classical guitar, more coordination us required in the picking hand, hence teachers teaching guitarists to pick with their dominant hand. Unfortunately, since 1950, classical-style guitarists are in the minority.

What useless bits of trivia do you know about?

As an added note, such trivia *can* be useful. I've got a bunch of free beers on bets about trout I learned. watching QI. QI is not broadcast in Canada.

[Jiro]

Man, maybe that's the secret to me learning guitar then. Need to play it "backwards."

[NorthernChaosGod]

So am I meant to put you in my ass?

I still pick with my fingers when the need arises, so screw your argument. Also I use my right hand for tapping.

[Tigmafuzz]

The Titanic sunk because the binoculars were locked in a case that nobody on board had a key to. Somebody new was appointed as chief officer, so the original chief officer got bumped down to first officer, and the original first officer was bumped down to second officer, leaving the original second officer (who had the keys) with no place on the ship. The new chief officer said "Don't worry, we'll buy new ones when we get to New York." They never made it to New York. Those binoculars probably would have helped.

The first person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel was a 63 year old schoolteacher.

Although Native Americans represent less than 1% of the U.S. population, their bones make up over 50% of the skeletal collection in the Smithsonian Institution.

Moray eels have a second set of jaws located in their throat, because their heads are too narrow to create the negative pressure most fish use to swallow their prey.

There’s a twitter account that posts events that occurred during WW2 in real time.

George Cantor, the first mathematician to theorize the concept of infinity, died in a mental institution after a long battle with depression.

There is a type of Eucalyptus tree that is rainbow-colored.

La Paz, one of the capitals of Bolivia (it has two), is naturally fire-resistant. The whole town. Because it's nearly 12k feet above sea level, so it's really difficult for flames to sustain themselves.

The words "verb," "adverb," "adjective," and "preposition" are all nouns.
"Spanish" is an English word.
"Monosyllabic" is pentasyllabic.

Scholars recently authenticated a long-lost Da Vinci painting of Jesus rocking an awesome 'stache.

There's a company in California that can vaporize brown eye pigment with a laser, leaving people with blue eyes.

"Smiles" is actually on the list of ingredients on the back of a package of Goldfish crackers.

Stephen King was so drunk and messed up on drugs at the time that he doesn't remember writing mosr of Cujo.

People don't sink into lava. It's much too dense. If a person were to fall on a body of lava they would hit it with a thud, because lava is 3100kg/m³ (as opposed to water being only 1000kg/m³) and is at least 100k times more viscous than water. So falling into lava would be like a piece of styrofoam landing in a bucket of motor oil. That is, if styrofoam burst into flames instantly when landing on motor oil.

The same high school from Buffy the Vampire Slayer was also used in Grease. And Raiders of the Lost Ark. And Pretty in Pink. And Transformers. And School of Rock. And Nightmare on Elm Street. And Boy Meets World. And Who's the Boss. Also, their basketball court was used for Space Jam. And their library was used in Van Halen's Hot For Teacher.

Nils Olav, a king penguin, was adopted in 1972 to be the mascot of the Norwegian guard. In 1982, he became a Corporal. Yeah. Corporal penguin. In '87, he became a Sergeant. In '93 he became a Regimental Sergeant Major, and in 2001 he became an Honorable Regimental Sergeant Major. But in 2008 he reached the pinnacle of his career; King Harald V KNIGHTED THE PENGUIN. They had a lavish ceremony, and there were several hundred people in the crowd along with 130 guardsmen. The penguin reportedly was on his best behavior and stood proudly as he received the honor.

An acroynym is only an acronym if you say it like a word. For example, NASA is an acronym because you say and not N-A-S-A. CEO, however, is an initialism.

Organic pineapple-flavored strawberries.Yep.

The anglerfish, known for their gruesome appearance with large teeth and the light in front of their faces to attach prey, don't all look like that. Only the females do. The males are smaller and more slender, and live their lives attached to the females. When he finds a mate, he latches onto her with his teeth and fuses with her body. He becomes a parasite, connected to her bloodstream, losing his eyes and internal organs. The female will have 6 or more males attached to her.

In the film Love Actually, the 10-year-old actress who plays Johanna sang so well that her voice had to be edited to sound more realistic.

The Powerpuff Girls were originally names the Whoopass Girls.

Chopsticks were actually invented to replace knives. When the population of ancient China started growing (1766-1122 BCE), cooking fuel had to be conserved so that there would be enough for everyone. This caused citizens to chop their food pieces down smaller and smaller so that they would cook faster. With this new method of bite-sized food pieces, knives were no longer needed and chopsticks were invented.

In Utah, it is legal to own nuclear weapons. You just can't detonate them.

Hippos sweat blood have red sweat. Shortly after a hippo perspires, its sweat turns red because of unusual red and orange pigments that are secreted with it. Molecules within this pigments have been shown to absorb ultraviolet light, so the secretion works as a natural sunscreen. The substance is also rather acidic and demonstrates antibiotic properties.

18-35% of humanity has a genetic disorder that causes them to sneeze when exposed to bright lights. This condition is known as the photic sneeze reflex (sometimes referred to as "Autosomal-dominant Compelling Helioophthalmic Outburst Syndrome," or ACHOO Syndrome). The first known mention of this disorder was made back in Ancient Greece by the philosopher Aristotle, who wrote, "Why does the heat of the sun on the nose provoke sneezing?" Sneezes are normally triggered by an irritation in the nose that is detected by the trigeminal nerve. This nerve is rather close to the optic nerve, which senses visual stimuli such as a sudden burst of light from the sun. Scientists believe that when the optic nerve sends an impulse telling the brain to close the eyelids due to bright light, some of the electrical signal is picked up by the trigeminal nerve and mistaken for nasal irritation.

Male Emperor Penguins can survive up to two months without food.

In 1945, a rooster named Mike lived 18 months without a head. In the 18 months that Mike lived as 'The Headless Wonder Chicken' he grew from a mere 2 1/2 lbs to nearly 8 lbs. He consequently became famous but eventually died via choking. They fed Mike by inserting an eyedropper of grain and water into his open esophagus.

Colgate faced big obstacle marketing toothpaste in some Spanish speaking countries because Colgate translates into the command "go hang yourself."

George Foreman has made more money from his grill than his entire boxing career.

Stephen King also once said that Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter is the greatest make-believe villain since Hannibal Lecter.

The first gay couple in recorded history lived in Ancient Egypt in 2400 BC.

Ankle bracelets used for house arrest were inspired by a Spider-Man comic in the 70s.

The ATLAS experiment (the particle detector at CERN) creates over 23 petabytes of raw information per second. That's 23 million gigabytes. Per second.

Godzilla's name came from the Japanese words for "gorilla" and "whale." The filmmakers originally described the monster as a cross between a "gorira" and a "kujira", coming up with the hybridized word "Gojira." Of course, when this name became Americanized, we butchered this word even further, replacing the 'j' with a 'dzi' sound and the 'r' with a double 'l.'

Researchers have found that mammoths had similar variations in hair color as humans. Most were dark brown or black, but there were also blonde and ginger mammoths.

The infinity chili, the world's new hottest chili (rating 200k Scoville units above the Bhut Jolokia or "Ghost Chili") was grown by accident.

Replacing the $1 bill with a $1 coin would save the US government $184 million per year.

An Italian Chemist once came to Louis XIV with plans for the first bacteriological weapon ever, which would give him the power to use an infectious biological agent to destroy entire towns without deploying a single army, buying a single gun, or even moving a single finger. Louis XIV refused instantly, and guaranteed the scientist the highest possible amount anyone would be willing to pay, to keep it a secret. He even payed him an annual salary never to sell it to anyone else.

Tigers' skin is striped like their fur.

Johnny Depp is uncomfortable with the idea of watching himself on film and refuses to watch any of his own movies.

Universal Music Group has a special contract with Google that lets them take down any video on YouTube, for any reason, even if they do not own the copyright to it.

Leanordo Da Vinci designed a robot.They hadn’t yet invented the electric motor or the computer back in the 15th century, so it was rather basic, but still pretty cool. It was a suit of armor rigged with pulleys and cables to move around. It could sit, stand, move its arms, and even raise its visor. Da Vinci first demonstrated his robot in public in 1495, and had intended it for combat use. The designs were lost for centuries afterward, only to be rediscovered in the 1950s. Since then, the robot has been recreated by following the original instructions, and it actually works.

Albert Einstein was born German, but when he reached the age of fifteen he renounced his nationality, so he didn't belong to any nation.

In 1979, pieces of the US space station Skylab fell from the sky and landed in the Australian municipality of Esperance. Esperance fined the United States $400 for littering.

Once while riding a private plane with his family, Rowan Atkinson had to take control and guide the plane, because the pilot had passed out 45 minutes into the flight.

A Japanese Christmas tradition is eating KFC.



...I need to sleep.

[Shorty]

If kept in a square or rectangle tank, jellyfish will inevitably become stuck in the corners and die. To house jellyfish, they need to be kept in round/cylindrical kreisal tank. By definition, a kreisel tank is circular, which helps the water to constantly flow in a cycle. Even the bottom of the tank is curved so that there are no obstacles or changes in the flow of the current. With its unique inlet and drain, the filtration system uses a special screen to prevent the jellyfish from getting sucked in and liquefied. Separate inlet and outlet chambers assist this operation helping the jellyfish to stay away from the sides of the tank. Combined, both the filter and tank design create an equilibrium in water pressure so the jellyfish don’t get stuck in one place but rather swim freely.

I want one.

[Slothy]

In 1945, a rooster named Mike lived 18 months without a head. In the 18 months that Mike lived as 'The Headless Wonder Chicken' he grew from a mere 2 1/2 lbs to nearly 8 lbs. He consequently became famous but eventually died via choking. They fed Mike by inserting an eyedropper of grain and water into his open esophagus.

What the smurf did I just read?

[I Took the Red Pill]

In 1945, a rooster named Mike lived 18 months without a head. In the 18 months that Mike lived as 'The Headless Wonder Chicken' he grew from a mere 2 1/2 lbs to nearly 8 lbs. He consequently became famous but eventually died via choking. They fed Mike by inserting an eyedropper of grain and water into his open esophagus.

What the smurf did I just read?

"In 1945, a rooster named Mike lived 18 months without a head. In the 18 months that Mike lived as 'The Headless Wonder Chicken' he grew from a mere 2 1/2 lbs to nearly 8 lbs. He consequently became famous but eventually died via choking. They fed Mike by inserting an eyedropper of grain and water into his open esophagus."

[Slothy]

Smart ass.

[Citizen Bleys]

Better to be a smartass than a dumbass.

[Jinx]

nyuk nyuk nyuk

[Jiro]

Very good point.

[Beowulf]

I tend to remember a lot of what I read. Especially if its a topic I'm fascinated by, such as astrophysics.

Time travel, for example, is theoretically possible. Forward, at least. Backwards...I believe not due to the wormhole would collapse on itself.

In order to travel forward in time, you need to attempt to go the speed of light. Now, as weird as this sounds, the universe does not like that. So time would slow down around you. Basically, more or less, you would travel near the speed of light for a full day, and roughly 100 years around you would pass.

I think. My math COULD be wrong...

It takes light approximately 6 hours to reach the start formerly known as a planet, Pluto. It would take us approximately 24 years. So roughly 100 years would pass in a day of traveling at light speed.

Neat. I need to do this.

[Tigmafuzz]

The female bedbug has no sexual opening. To get around this, the male uses his penis to DRILL A VAGINA into the female.

[Beowulf]

The female bedbug has no sexual opening. To get around this, the male uses his penis to DRILL A VAGINA into the female.

Holy trout

[Tigmafuzz]

Holy trout

It's called "traumatic insemination." There's a type of spider that does it, too