'DAILY FACT I LEARNED FROM THE TV'   

Wanna comment? Click here for the message board

If you want the Daily Fact sent to your cellphone as a text message you can sign up for that here

________________________________________________________________________________________

7/31

The TV taught me that not only is smoking bad for you but it's bad for your cat. They did a survey with a bunch of cats and they found that cats with smoker owners had raspier meows and couldn't climb trees as fast as the other cats. They might look cooler but it's no good in the long run.

I don't know what this is. 

7/30

The TV taught me about snowgators today. Apparently up on the Arctic Circle there are this alligators that are like 2-3 times the size of regular gators. They have really thick skin. They fight alot with the polar bears over territory issues. When they fight it looks like a sci-fi movie. They're sneaky because they can travel under the snow.

* I realized later that this fact, in fact, is not a fact. The TV wasn't turned on when I watched this show. But I'm not the only one who saw it. Click here.

7/29

The View taught me that the most germ-free bathroom stall in public bathrooms is the first stall. Most people head to the middle or the end. They also said air hand dryers are covered in germs.

Here's a list of lots of phobias. I think I'm probably running at about 20% of em. check em out.

7/28

I watched this thing about this bird called the kookaburra. They like to eat snakes. They apparently swoop down and grab snakes from behind the neck (i guess snakes don't have necks but whatever you know what I mean) then fly up and drop em from way up high to kill em.

As if it didn't suck enough for the snake- here's what it hears on the way down .

7/27

I did something stupid and accidentally erased this daily fact and now I can't remember exactly what I wrote. It was something about laundry. I do remember I linked to this here laundry disaster site.

7/26

I watched some Australian Football today and I didn't understand what the hell was going on. It starts with like a jumpball like in basketball, then dudes kicked the ball around like punters, then dudes ran around with it but dribbled it sort of sometimes. Then someone scored but I'm not sure how. Trent Croad ended up kicking 'the sealer'.

Here's some info on sealer kicker Trent Croad.

7/25

On Tech TV I learned something cool. You know who when you delete things to your recycle bin and your computer asks you if you're sure you want to delete that file. I think that's annoying. You can stop the popup question by right clicking on your recycle bin, then clicking on 'Properties', then uncheck 'Display Delete Confirmation Dialog'. No more second guessing by your computer. I thought that was cool.

Here are some other shortcuts. PC only. Mac users talk crazy talk.

7/24

Some nerdy science show told me about something called a P-300 brain wave. It gets emitted from your cerebral cortex when you see or hear something important or familiar. It helps to protect you- like if you hear a train coming your P-300 goes off and says, 'Hey stupid! Sharpen up! A train is a-coming!'  

They'll also use the P-300 wave to snag criminals and terrorists eventually maybe.

7/23

At Area 51, the government might be working on a project called 'Aurora'. A hypersonic top secret spy plane. The government denies it but there are sonic booms and weird trails in the sky. People can't get too close to Area 51 to find out. If you wander too close them government guys have the right to use deadly force.

Here's some info on Aurora.

7/22

I watched a show about dung beetles today. Dung beetles love their dung. To dung beetles, dung is like treasure. So much so that if you're a dung beetle with some dung, another dung beetle might come along and try to steal your dung. And you'd have to fight to keep your dung. 

Here's some info on reincarnation from Shirley MacClaine

7/21

Sorry no fact today. TV sucked.

7/20

On the Sci-Fi Channel I saw this movie Return of the Living Dead II. I thought it was totally unrealistic. 

Here's a song by the Zombies

7/19

I watched Super Friends today which was my favorite show when I was a kid. The Abominable Snowman captured some scientists in Alaska so Batman, Robin, and "Apache Chief" went to go save them. Apache Chief came through by supersizing himself and wrestling with the Snowman. He also was able to communicate with it too. He found out Abominable Snowman was apparently just protecting his environment. It ended relatively peacefully.

Here's some info on a different Abominable Snowman sighting.

7/18

I saw some British news show thing and they were talking about how they did some IQ test testing. They found out that blondes had higher IQs than dark-haired people and people under the sign Aquarius scored the highest IQs. But then again the test was done by Brits and they ain't all that bright so who knows... JUST KIDDING! Brits are so sensitive...

Here take yer own IQ test. I was too scared being a dark haired virgo dumbdumb.. 

***I got some emails from people saying they charge $ for this IQ test. They don't. It's only an option..

7/17 

Back in 1905, this dude Frederick Wells discovered the largest diamond ever. It was called the Cullinan and it was 3,100 carats. It was eventually cut into 9 separate diamonds. It just sort of annoys me sometimes that there is some rock sitting somewhere that if I owned it - it would change my whole life. It's a frickin rock.

Here are the top 12 diamonds. Can't I frickin just have one?

7/16

The TV told me about cryonics. Basically if you wanna get yourself frozed you have two choices. Full body frozenness or just your frozed head which they call 'neurosuspension'. In like the year 4000 they'll thaw out your head and put you on a cart and you can go on a lecture tour or something I guess.

When you get unfrozed you can hang out with these peeps and talk about the good ol days.

7/15

The chef guy Emeril cooked some squash soup today. He kept saying the word 'squash' and I thought the word sounded funny. Emeril was making fun of people who grow big giant squashes. So if you grow big giant squashes Emeril was making fun of you today fyi.... heh... 'squash' It's just a funny word. Squash.

Here's Emeril's recipe.

7/14

I watched a show about this guy Doug Danger who strives to be bigger than Evel Knievel. He was doing real well breaking records jumping cars and stuff, but then one day he messed up huge and crashed into a concrete wall shattering his whole left side and losing his memory and stuff. Don't worry though. He's fine now and continues to jump over stuff like a big lunatic.

Here's the video of the crash. Parental discretion advised.

7/13

Surfers and water-type athletes do this thing called rock running. Basically you swim down to the ocean floor and pick up a big rock and then start running across the ocean floor as far as you can. Helps build lung capacity and strength and all that. They recommended that you should drop the rock and swim to the surface before you run out of air. Sounds like sound advice to me.

Here's a picture of David Hasslehoff.

7/12

On Discovery Channel today I watched a show about robots and artificial intelligence. The evil geeks were working on teaching robots to think on their own and work with other machines. What's wrong with these people? Why are they doing this? Didn't they see Terminator! And Terminator 2! WTF! We know where this is going! See how sneaky too! They start by making them cute! All helpful and stuff. Then BAM! Next thing you know you're enslaved by giant robots working in a factory that produces bigger stronger robots and you have some bar code stamped on your neck!

7/11

I watched The View this morning (..I know). And this guest dude talked about all the little tricks supermarkets use to entice you to wanna buy stuff. How they put on different music at different times of the day and how they put kids stuff on the lower shelves and how companies pay for preferred placement of products. I don't like to think about how there's dudes sitting around in some meeting figuring out how to trick me.

Here's how you can protect yourself from such trickery.

7/10

Back in the old days, this dude Jeremy Bentham got all obsessed with corpses having a more active role among the living. Whether that was having stuffed person around the house or just a head on your mantle he thought it would revolutionize our attitude toward dead folk. After he died he was stuffed and now hangs out in like a closet so people can walk by and gawk at him...just as he wanted. 

Here he be. RIP.

7/9

During World War II, Honolulu had a big brothel business going for the GI's. Mostly the prostitutes were American chicks from the mainland. Because demand outweighed supply they decided the best way to handle all the GI's would be to charge $3.00 for three minutes. The GI's who participated became known as 'three minute men'. They didn't really seem to care. Some of them hadn't seen a woman in months.

7/8

I found out today that William Lear, the guy behind the Lear Jet, is also the guy who invented the 8-track tape cartridge. That is why to this day all Lear Jets come equipped only with 8-Track tape stereos. No CD players or nothing. Apparently William Lear does not like failure of any kind and continues to force the issue by not allowing anything else on his jets in the hopes of the 8-track making a comeback. Ok well that's not true. But the first part is.

Wanna buy a Lear Jet from the 70's?

7/7

So what do you do if you're a major league pitcher and you lose a game 27-3? Hang it up? Retire? Not if you're Lefty O'Doul a baseball player from the 1920-30's. He was dropped from the majors cause he couldn't cut it as a pitcher and then reinvented himself as an outfielder and returned to the majors five years later and to become a hitting champion and future hall of famer.

Here's his stats.

7/6

In five billion years the sun will burn out. But before it does so it will swell up and scorch the Earth and all the planets in the Solar System. Seas will boil and blah blah blah. That will be that then. Oh well. Hopefully we'll have big superbrains and will able to project our beings into another reality other than the physical while retaining absolute consciousness. 

Here are some less realistic end of the world theories.

7/5

Sorry no fact today. I was hung over and tv and me weren't seeing eye to eye. I was all glazey and in and out of naps.

7/4

The expression 'One if by land. Two if by sea.' comes from Paul Revere's time. If the British were coming, the signal across the Charles River would be putting lanterns in the North Church steeple. One lantern if the Brits were coming by land. Two if by sea.  Maybe everyone knew this already and I just missed it in elementary school. 

Back then I wasn't reading about colonial lanterns, I was reading about this lantern.

7/3

The first two primates to go into space were monkeys named Able and Baker. These two female monkeys were chosen from a whole pool of monkeys after some serious NASA training. They apparently had the right stuff. When they returned to earth they were heroes but unfortunately Able died a few days later from a routine operation. But Baker lived on and received a medal. She died at the age of 27 in 1984 which is three times her normal life expectancy. 

Here are some famous monkeys throughout history.

7/2

Bandicoots can produce offspring after only 12 days of gestation. One of the shortest gestation periods of all mammals. It's like this, bandicoots do some hot bandicooty action. Boom. 12 days later. Baby bandicoot. I bet guy bandicoots must freak out sometimes.

Here's a bandicoot.

7/1

There's a new technology some cops use to prevent them from leaving their K-9 in the squad car for too long on hot days. When the car heats up past a certain point it will automatically open the windows, beep the horn and page the cop about their overheated dog. Philadephia K-9 officers got these 'hot dog units' for all their cars after a K-9 was left unattended on a hot day and died from the heat.

Here's a memorial for Woodrow, the fallen K-9.

Click here to the previous month!>>>