Housepets!

Radio Blue Heart wrote:The United States, Liberia and Myanmar (Burma) are the only countries in the world that do not officially use the metric system.

In fact, NASA lost the Mars Climate Orbiter probe in 1999 because one of the engineering teams basically mixed up the then-used Metric system for one of the readings with the Imperial unit, causing the probe to fly too close to Mars and disintegrate in the upper atmosphere.

I remembered this fact because we were taught the importance of learning the conversion table for units in a class. My class kinda sucked at converting between systems then (like 1 mi=1.6 km, learned that the hard way )

Dissension wrote:

Radio Blue Heart wrote:The United States, Liberia and Myanmar (Burma) are the only countries in the world that do not officially use the metric system.

??? The United States, by act of Congress, officially recognized the metric system in 1866. In 1893, the Mendenhall Order based our fundamental measures of length and mass on metric units. All extant countries officially recognize or use the metric system, despite persistent myth to the contrary.

And again with the Metric Conversion Act of 1975. But, the imperial system is still the dominant system of the United States.

The metric system still has opponents.

I think we should switch to Planck units.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_units

I actually had the idea years ago of the "ideal" units being orders of magnitude larger/smaller than Planck units so they're of practical sizes. For instance:

Length: 1.616 centimeters / .636 inches / 100 decillion Planck lengths
Mass: 2.177 kilograms / 4.789 pounds / 100 million Planck masses
Time: .539 seconds / 100 tridecillion Planck times
Charge: .188 Coulombs / 100 quadrillion Planck charges
Temperature: 1.417 Kelvin / 1.417 degrees Celsius / 2.551 degrees Fahrenheit / 100 nonillion Planck temperatures

They would make calculations much easier for scientific purposes. For example, the speed of light would just be 1 billion exactly. If I could instantly make the entire world be able to adopt units, these would be what they would be. But it would be too difficult to do if even the second had to be changed.

I think one of Greg Egans' novels uses units like that, at least he describes distances in terms of "kilotau". Been a while since I read it.

"Tthhee Ppaarrttyy" is both Justice's and Uffie's fifth single.
Also, the kilogram is the only metric unit still based on the mass of a physical object- at this moment it is a platinum cylinder.

Mickey the Luxray wrote:"Tthhee Ppaarrttyy" is both Justice's and Uffie's fifth single.
Also, the kilogram is the only metric unit still based on the mass of a physical object- at this moment it is a platinum cylinder.

It's also a filthy stain on Cross.

And the cylinder is actually a platinum-iridium alloy.

The 225-year-old typeface of Twinings Tea is the oldest continuously used commercial logo in existence.

Beard second: Defied as the distance an average physicist's beard grows in one second. About 5nm.

Due to the duo's anonymizing masks, scalpers have been known to try and sell Daft Punk tickets to their own shows.

Argent wrote:Due to the duo's anonymizing masks, scalpers have been known to try and sell Daft Punk tickets to their own shows.

Imagine how awkward that would be.

Today marks the 20th anniversary of Power Rangers.

No one can confirm the true origin of the word “Oreo.” Some believe it was derived from the French word for gold, or because its original packaging was mostly gold. Others have offered the hypothesis that it comes from the Greek word for mountain, perhaps because the test version of the cookie had a hill-like shape.* There are also a number of different varieties of Oreos, some exclusively sold within a country or area. Personally, I prefer the Golden Oreos. XD

The beginning of Daft Punk's "Revolution 909" is said to be a reference to the anti-rave stance of the French government.

Also, Golden Oreos are the bomb. c:

False. The double-stuffed Oreo is an unimprovable cookie. :B

If it was actually double stuffed... XD

Toothpaste advertisements show toothbrushes with significantly more toothpaste than you actually need. Have you been using toothpaste that way? Then congratulations, they successfully tricked you into doubling or tripling your toothpaste purchasing habits for years.

What if you really like to think that you have rabies when you're brushing your teeth and act all weird and stuff?! D:

Okay the tiger has a point.

You can make your own toothpaste. All you need to do is mix baking soda with a bit of vegetable oil, and maybe some mint extract for flavor. This really comes in hand if you run out of toothpaste and don't have time to go for more.

Make sure you don't swallow it because vegetable oils, in particular castor oil, can act as laxatives so you could end up cleaning out much mroe than just your mouth.

Radio Blue Heart wrote:You can make your own toothpaste. All you need to do is mix baking soda with a bit of vegetable oil, and maybe some mint extract for flavor. This really comes in hand if you run out of toothpaste and don't have time to go for more.

Considering how easy it is to see out of toothpaste coming, that doesn't seem too useful!

I guess that fits the thread title.

On the 19th day of September, 1984, former United States president Gerald R. Ford was was trapped in the Van-Pelt Dietrich library elevator.

the black box in planes it bright orange...

The HK 4.73x33 caseless cartridge suffered a cook-off temperature of only 338 degrees Fahrenheit.

hanDesu wrote:the black box in planes it bright orange...

Also, planes aren't made of that material because it would be too heavy to fly and also expensive.

They should really put those black boxes in cars too.

the stones that are used for the great wall of china are stack together using rice

Hlaoroo wrote:They should really put those black boxes in cars too.

what? XD

The Great Wall of China is not actually visible from space, but plenty of modern highways and railways are.

the great wall of china is actually just alright

Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and kale are different variants of Brassica Oleracea.

The coverage maps for phone services (from companies like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint) have been repeatedly proven false, which is why you rarely see them in commercials anymore.

A six clawed lobster has been caught off the coast of Massachusetts.



Full details here.

http://laughingsquid.com/six-clawed-lob ... achusetts/

If they develop thumbs they might start boiling us!
"Craaaab people! Craaaab people!"

"Heroin" is a trademarked name.
In the early 1900's, Bayer marketed Heroin as a cure for morphine addiction.

Punchy wrote:"Heroin" is a trademarked name.
In the early 1900's, Bayer marketed Heroin as a cure for morphine addiction.

How ironic...

The book Alice in Wonderland was banned in China in the 1930s because it was deemed that the anthropomorphisation of animals was derogatory to humans. The ban has since been lifted.

Shrimp have their hearts in their heads. As you can imagine, moral decisions are very difficult for them.

The first effective breech-loading cannon was invented by a man named "de Bange".

Every second, the space bar on a keyboard is pressed around 6,000,000 times.

Dang that's some serious Cookie Clicker action right there.