ITT: We are totally intrigued by useless bits of information.

[TheNewChupe]

Did you know that there are about 38,000 US Post Office branches?

 

[deadair]

you've got to be fucking kidding me?! that's amazing!

 

[minxnim]

Holy Cow!

 

[TheNewChupe]

Did you know that for hundreds of years, balsamic vinegar was made as hobby and used liberally as a medicine to soothe an upset stomach or headache?

Amazing!

(you can throw in your own useless tidbits too)

 

[xfer]

The elephant is the only animal that can properly using gerunds!

 

[coelacanth_M]

(ok is there something terribly wrong with me if i'm actually enjoying/intrigued by these "useless tidbits?" well, the first one i could take or leave, but i was sort of into that last one about balsamic vinegar. :-/)

 

[lizard]

cats actually have two senses of smell.

Cats have a pair of vomeronasal organs (also called Jacobson's organs) on the roof of the mouth. When the cat wants to thoroughly investigate a particular scent, she will inhale through her mouth, usually curling her lips up at the same time, and bring the air over the roof of her mouth. When the cat curls her lips like this, she will often squint her eyes and maybe even flatten her ears as she concentrates. This makes her look like she is grimacing. This grimace is called a flehmen reaction. The vomeronasal organs will then analyze the scent molecule by molecule -- almost as if the cat is tasting the smell.

I've seen every type of cat do this, all the way up to lions and tigers.

 

[xfer]

holy shit i didn't know cats had jacobson's organs as well?

 

[lizard]

when cats catch a whiff of the opposite sex, they do the flehmen thing.

 

[xfer]

that holy shit was totally genuine, btw. i thought jacobson's organs were only in snakes my whole life.

 

[lizard]

cats don't seem to use it for everyday scents but when they catch a whiff of another cat's scent markings or a cat in heat, man, the flehmen thing begins in earnest. if you've never seen it before, its quite startling.

 

[lizard]

 

[FrostGiant]

October 25, 2002

100 YEARS OF COMFORT

Splinterless toilet paper celebrated


Here's an anniversary worth celebrating.

A century ago, Northern Paper Mills of Green Bay, Wis., introduced what is thought to be the first splinterless toilet paper.

Northern Tissue, they dubbed it. And as you might expect, it was regarded as a major advancement in personal hygiene. (Early New World colonists, for instance, used corn cobs.) Northern Tissue is still sold, still splinterless, but now known as Quilted Northern.

 

[TheNewChupe]

The oldest business in the United States of America is the cymbal company Zildjian which was founded in Constantinople in 1623.

 

[FrostGiant]

Every gal in Constantinople
Lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople
So if you've a date in Constantinople
She'll be waiting in Istanbul

 

[FrostGiant]

My multipurpose correction fluid was made in Milford, CT.

 

[TheNewChupe]

so is that song lyric considered totally useless information?

(i was waiting for something from that song to appear)

 

[FrostGiant]

That's nobody's business but the Turks

 

[TheNewChupe]

From space, the brightest man-made place is Las Vegas, Nevada.
(in luminescence, not intelligence)

 

[lizard]

I just went searching for an image of a fleet enema package and among my results was an allegedly erotic story involving cunnilingus.

I actually just had a manager say to me, "Smile! it's thursday, and that means its another day closer to monday!"