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Strange but True

ratemyeverything.net — 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321. Most lipstick contains fish scales. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. The electric chair was invented by a dentist. The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated. All polar bears are left handed. Question - This is the only food that doesn't spoil. What is this?

Who dugg this? Made popular Feb 3, 2007

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  • jmontes, on 10/12/2007, -4/+121FTA: "People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond."

    I don't believe this one for..., well..., a millisecond. The phrase "Bless You" is not only much older than man's ability to measure a millisecond, and I very much doubt anyone could have noticed such a short stoppage by direct observation.
  • LaueOfficer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+77"I do" IS the longest though.
  • dtraneighty8, on 10/07/2008, -3/+78"The name of all the continents ends with the same letter that they start with."

    Nice to know that dismissing the words "North" and "South" is ok.


    and "Elephants are the only animals that can't jump."

    not true. Rosie O'Donnell is an animal
  • FarcicalFart, on 10/12/2007, -3/+74"'I am.' is the shortest complete sentence in the English language"

    This is false, the shortest sentence is actually: "Go." The subject is "you" because it is a command.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+72I read that WHOLE thing... ^_^ _> >_<

    I DID try to lick my elbow too... stupid guy and his being right about me licking my elbow. Grrr....
  • scratched, on 10/12/2007, -0/+45It IS in fact possible to lick your elbow. I believe if you go to the Guiness Book of world records website you can find pictures of it because they get pictures of it all the time and they don't want anymore. It is anatomically possible to lick your elbow, it's just rare that a person can do it.


    Also, someone mention the thing about saying "bless you" when you sneeze. If I remember correctly, that saying arose from an idea that sneezing was spirits (or your spirit) trying to escape(or get in) your body, which is why people say "bless you". I doubt people have known your heart stops long enough for that phrase to have come from that idea...
  • gcnaddict, on 10/12/2007, -0/+37The page isn't loading for me right now but I have an answer to that food question:

    Honey doesn't spoil. There was some honey found in Egypt which was found to be older than 2000 years but the honey still remained "fresh."


    edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey
    Yep. Seems like I was right. The sugar content is too high for bacteria and the moisture content is too low for yeast and various fungi.
  • ThinkBox, on 10/12/2007, -3/+39It happened to me once
  • vsujohn2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+34I need to get snopes on this *****
  • ThinkBox, on 10/12/2007, -4/+37 It happened to me once
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+34That was really wierd. Has anyone else pressed the "submit comment" once and had it submit the comment three times?? Is this an undocumented feature of digg :-)
  • faz9, on 10/12/2007, -5/+32If its on the internet, it must be true.

    Buried as inaccurate.
  • jeff303, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23It's most definitely NOT Pascal's Triangle. The first few rows of Pascal's are as follows:

    1 1
    1 2 1
    1 3 3 1
    1 4 6 4 1
  • TheBrandman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23Licking your elbow and typing? You, sir, are quite the contortionist.
  • FarcicalFart, on 10/12/2007, -2/+25Wrong, the subject is still you. Yes it isn't there, but it is still considered the subject.

    "* The subject can also be implied. In the following imperative sentence, the subject is the implied "you" that is the recipient of the imperative mood.

    Take out the trash!"

    Its called implied subject.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subject_%28grammar%29

  • tsupersonic, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19Hehe, I knew that you can't lick your elbow, actually I knew a lot of the facts

    "The name of all the continents ends with the same letter that they start with." - North and South America? Well if you take out North and South, it works...
  • nreynolds, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17I thought "Go" was the shortest sentence. It has a verb and the noun is implied.
  • Ediebriquette, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18Obviously, the can was invented before the can opener. Makes no sense for the can opener to be invented first, does it?

    Tom: "hey, I just invented the can opener!"
    Dick: "What's a 'can'?"
  • Herv3, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19@Akaji

    Here's what I found strange.

    1x1 = 1
    11 x 11 = 121
    111 x 111 = 12321

    etc.
  • SteveRogers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16Actually, it's 22,514. See, I can memorize numbers, too... just not nearly as many.
  • Dundasbro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15You can lick your elbow, my best friend can do it. Then again she can also wrap right arm around her head and touch her left ear so there's some obvious flexibility there.

    Something I got from google image search - http://printergirl.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/elbow.jpg
  • nerditup, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15then you have never played Donkey Kong Country.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -9/+23I'm licking my elbow right now... :-)
  • jmack111, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1429
    In Chinese, the KFC slogan "finger lickin' good" comes out as "eat your fingers off"

    Thats Great!!!!
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13A friend of mine has been able to lick his elbow for a few years.
  • mtnsoccerguy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15What about us white men?
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Great, those annoying stupid facts pages you always end up stumbling upon on stumbleupon have made it to digg... Next we'll be featuring random single images of bare-chested women on the front page.
  • Arachnivore, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12"Elephants are the only animals that can't jump."
    They must mean mammals 'cause I can think of plenty of creatures in the animal kingdom that can't jump. Sea urchins, snails, sponges...
  • DrDigg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Well the marilyn monroe thing is false according to snopes
    http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/mmtoes.htm
  • garbs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11"A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours."

    From Wikipedia:

    The life cycle of the dragonfly, from egg to death of adult, varies from six months to as much as six or seven years. Female dragonflies lay eggs in or near water, often in or on floating or emergent plants. Most of the life cycle is spent in the larval (naiad, aka nymph) form, beneath the water surface, using internal gills to breathe, and catching other invertebrates or even vertebrates such as tadpoles and fish. In the adult (flying) stage, larger species of dragonfly can live as long as four months.
  • hackwrench, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Gram isn't a unit of weight. Newton is however.
  • garyh84, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Skafia... YouTube!
  • orangysb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9ya but what were the actual words used in Chinese? show me a picture with the alleged slogan and not these trivias written online in English which can be completely *****

    i fail to see how finger lickin' good can be translated into eat my fingers off

    finger lickin' good - 好到舔手指
    eat my fingers off - 吃掉自己的手指

    totally different
  • Bleeblaow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9You know what's not amazing?

    11111111111 x 11111111111 = 123456790120987654321 (that's eleven ones)
    and
    1111111111 x 1111111111 = 1234567900987654321 (that's ten ones)

    No wonderful pattern there. The only thing special going on is that you're squaring a number x in a base n system such that all digits of x are the multiplicative identity, "1". If we call the amount of digits y (eg. for "111", y = 3), then so long as y < n, x^2 ends up being a palindrome.

    I don't have the time to offer a write proof on it, but if you look at the case of 111111111 vs. 1111111111 with long multiplication, you'll see that you eventually are forced to "carry" a one in the process, which ***** up the chance of it being a palindrome.


    Again, note that it has everything to do with the base. In base 10:
    11111111111 x 11111111111 = 123456790120987654321
    In base 16, it becomes a palindrome again:
    11111111111 x 11111111111 = 123456789a987654321

    I don't know how mathematicians (I'm only a student of math) see it, but I don't think the stuff noted is anything special even as far as number theory goes, as the result are contingent on what base we work in, which is a pretty arbitrary thing. It gives the reader the false impression that for any number with a large amount of 1's being squared, we get some neat palindrome, and that's not true.
  • ShBm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10I came across this the other day with StumbleUpon, and, after noticing a few that were wrong, I skipped over it. One was from MythBusters, but I can't remember what it was, and now I can't check. Also, FarcicalFart is right. I'm pretty sure "Go" is the shortest sentence. It is complete as the subject "you" is implied. However, any one-word command would count as a sentence, but I can't think of any shorter than two letters. So, there could be one that ties as the shortest, though I doubt it.

    DiggTaggr gave me this link. Is it the same? http://jesuitnola.org/upload/clark/lkfacts.htm
  • Reziarfg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9In a world where most of the population replaces "I did well" with "I did good" I think such controversies fall on deaf ears.
  • mvsmom, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Go, go gadget tongue. Or elbow.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9"I'm ____ing my own ____ right now"

    GO-->
  • catmistake, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"All polar bears are left handed"

    Pure. Unadulterated. *****.
    Many people repeat as fact the claim that all polar bears are left-handed. The origins are no doubt a long-held belief among the Inupiaq. Its likely a philosophical description, in which left and right are metaphors for spiritual or psychological concepts.

    http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/bear-facts/myths-and-misconceptions/
    "Scientists observing the animals haven't noticed a preference. "
  • JoCliMe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Hm, now this awful chain mail has reached digg? Actually, this one was rather informative.
    And for the record, it is *not* impossible to lick your elbow.
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=MLsBQP6fHFY
    also, you don't have to be double jointed in order to do it, I personally have, and am not.
  • catmistake, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11Then... the shortest sentence would have to be:

    "I."

    As in,
    Q: Who agrees?
    A: I.
  • Managore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Pro tip:

    To get the nth line of Pascal's triangle, just calculate 11^n (assuming we start with a 0th line)

    11^0 = 1
    11^1 = 11
    11^2 = 121
    11^3 = 1331

    and so forth.
  • XISUPERMANIX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7"Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush."


    Proved false on Mythbusters saying the distance didn't matter because a very very small amount of feces particles are found in the air everywhere even in your kitchen.
  • GNUGNOME, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Dont think duggmirror caught that one.
  • orangemarmalade, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7@purple: a whale IS a mammal
  • Niek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7The site is very slow... Coral cache here: http://www.ratemyeverything.net.nyud.net:8080/post.aspx?post=980
  • Bleeblaow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Wow! Except orange is accented on the first syllable and syringe is accented on the second. You basically have to force them to rhyme such that it sounds unnatural. Good work.
  • yournightmare, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"Elephants are the only animals that can't jump."
    They must mean mammals 'cause I can think of plenty of creatures in the animal kingdom that can't jump. Sea urchins, snails, sponges..."

    --Even then...I know damn good and well that manatees can't jump.
  • psygnisfive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7And nitrogen and hydrogen are both diatomic in air, but they didn't say dinitride or dihydride. why not 9% OXYGEN? I'll tell you why: the compiler does't know what the words mean.
  • Prysorra, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@ FarcicalFart

    Incorrect. The word you are looking for is "transitive".

    The "to be" verbs can be intransitive in the present tense.
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