Off Topic - Cool Facts
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Silver Member Username: Young_jamesCanada Post Number: 903 Registered: Sep-05 | 1. Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of cotton.. 2. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper. 3. The dot over the letter i is called a "tittle". 4. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top. 5. Susan Lucci is the daughter of Phyllis Diller. 6. 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals. 7. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled. 8. The 'spot' on 7UP comes from its inventor, who had red eyes. He was albino. 9. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents, daily. 10. Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister. 11. Chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system; a few ounces will kill a small sized dog. 12. Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode. 13. Most lipstick contains fish scales (eeww). 14. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants. 15. Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as medicine. 16. Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower' because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters. 17. Leonardo Da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time (hence, multi-tasking was invented.) 18. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood. 19. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos. 20. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan; there was never a recorded Wendy before! 21. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, purple, and silver! 22. Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips. 23. A tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion will make it instantly go mad and sting itself to death. 24. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" was a Captain Kirk's mask painted white. 25. If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19 You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar (good to know.) 26. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand (and you thought this list was completely useless.) 27. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law, which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb. 28. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola. 29. Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It's the same with apples! 30. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying! 31. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher. 32. The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries. 33. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a space suit damages it. 34. George Carlin said it best about Martha Stewart.. "Boy, I feel a lot safer now that she's behind bars. O. J. Simpson and Kobe Bryant are still walking around; Osama Bin Laden too, but they take the ONE woman in America willing to cook, clean, and work in the yard, and they haul her fanny off to jail." |
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Gold Member Username: RovinTrinidad & T... Post Number: 6277 Registered: Jul-05 | VERY cool interesting trivia stuff there ^^ James - might come in handy 2 Jeopardy contestants .... |
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Gold Member Username: LexuscoopPost Number: 1021 Registered: Dec-05 | also in 1924 in india a monkey was put on trial for steeling, found guilty and had to pay for the item he stole and pay for the cost of the trial |
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Gold Member Username: LexuscoopPost Number: 1023 Registered: Dec-05 | in Arizona it is illeagal to have more than one di1do in your house. there is so scientific name for the back of your knee, the same with the other side of yoru elbo. the foot does not dertermin the size of something else... below the waist. your hair is dead skin particles, same with your nails people are scared of numbers... especially 666 |
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Gold Member Username: SouthernrebelMonroe, Louisiana USA Post Number: 2349 Registered: Mar-04 |
made me think of the movie Boondock Saints...that a f-in great movie  |
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Silver Member Username: MadeupnamePost Number: 181 Registered: Sep-05 | haha yea. right when i read that i thought about it too. quite a good movie. all who havnt seen it should go out and rent it right about now. |
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Gold Member Username: Sploosh56Ohio Post Number: 1175 Registered: May-04 | I really wish they would come out with asequel to that movie even though I know it will never happen. |
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Gold Member Username: Jonathan_fGA USA Post Number: 5704 Registered: May-04 | "18. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood." There was also a shortage of copper b/c of making bullets, so a lot of the wiring in older buildings (industrial, commercial) from that time used pure silver wiring run through the plant. Good to know if you're tearing one down and need some cash Of course, copper ain't cheap either, for pure copper people will pay you nearly $2 a pound now. |
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Gold Member Username: Jonathan_fGA USA Post Number: 5705 Registered: May-04 | "18. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood." There was also a shortage of copper b/c of making bullets, so a lot of the wiring in older buildings (industrial, commercial) from that time used pure silver wiring run through the plant. Good to know if you're tearing one down and need some cash Of course, copper ain't cheap either, for pure copper people will pay you nearly $2 a pound now. |
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Silver Member Username: Kaos15thPost Number: 154 Registered: Mar-05 | in Arizona it is illeagal to have more than one di1do in your house. hahaha i live in arizona how come i dont remember that law. lol |
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Silver Member Username: Touche6784USA Post Number: 933 Registered: Nov-04 | 29. celery has negative calories because it is nothing but cellulose which we cant digest. if we were cows than celery may be a source of energy. apples have a decent amount of sugar giving them a much higher calorie count than celery. that statement is the same as saying sugar cubes are fat free. |
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Silver Member Username: Safe_crackerChicago, IL US Post Number: 355 Registered: Jan-06 | in Arizona it is illeagal to have more than one di1do in your house. hahaha i live in arizona how come i dont remember that law. lol So what are ya saying Avalanche, you have more than one D1ldo? LOL..  |
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Silver Member Username: Young_jamesCanada Post Number: 905 Registered: Sep-05 | ^^^LOL |
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Silver Member Username: Kaos15thPost Number: 157 Registered: Mar-05 | lol polo you caught me you need some lol lol its just that i never heard the law i know theres another one here where its illegal to have a donkey in a bathtub. |
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Gold Member Username: 54danny54Betsy layne, Kentucky..GO... USA duh Post Number: 1939 Registered: Nov-04 | 29. celery has negative calories because it is nothing but cellulose which we cant digest. if we were cows than celery may be a source of energy. apples have a decent amount of sugar giving them a much higher calorie count than celery. that statement is the same as saying sugar cubes are fat free umm yea they do have more sugar butg its a natural sugar...the sugar u buy has more saturated fat(alot more i might add |
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Silver Member Username: Islandboy808Mililani, Hawaii US Post Number: 709 Registered: Nov-05 | "18. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood." Even the quarters at that time were made from pure silver, because they used the copper were used to make bullets.I forget what the dates were but ist pretty common,I had a few of them allready but spent them.It has a distinc sound when it bumps other coins.A little more of a hollower sound,if thats even a word. |
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Silver Member Username: Opie_harSomewhere, One of them USA Post Number: 122 Registered: Oct-04 | "there is so scientific name for the back of your knee, the same with the other side of yoru elbo." Not sure about the back of your knee, but the other side of your elbow, where they usually draw blood from is called the anticubital space. |
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Gold Member Username: Project6Post Number: 6696 Registered: Dec-03 | Seems like somebody want to promote hemp (James??) LOL The Declaration of Independence was NOT written on hemp, it is made of parchment. Susan Lucci and Phyllis Diller are not related. That is an urban legend and no basis in fact. Phyllis Diller had 5 children and none of them were Susan Lucci. Her parents' names are Jeanette and Victor A ducks quack can echo. Another urban myth. You just can't hear it very well. The red dot on 7-up is nothing more than a design. Call 7-up's 800 number and find out. 1 cup of celery is 17 calories and 1 cup of apples = 65 calories. Celery does however take a lot more calories to digest than the calories it contain. About the 12 newborns being given to wrong parents---no documentation exists on how this myth came about. It's fscinating how a myth like this even pops up when there is absolutely nothing to back it up. Main reason -to scare people. Donald Duck and Finland - complete BS. There is no such thing in the history of Finland that this happened. The Oscars were never made out of wood during WW2. It was made out of plaster and was to be exchanged for the golden statuettes after the war. The only wooden Oscar made was given in 1938 given to ventriloquist named Edgar Bergen. Check the Oscars' official website. Here is one about the wife beating law in England about the rule of thumb. Some feminist BS http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000512.html Motorola and Victrola...also wrong check out Wikipedia Chewing gum while cutting onions - not true. Try it. Beans and astronauts - this is so ridiculous. It is very unpleasant for the astronaut but will not damage the suit. I talked to a few astronauts and they laugh everytime they hear this crap. Foam however, will damage the shuttle<IMG SRC="https://www.ecoustics.com/bbs/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":-)" BORDER=0> |
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Silver Member Username: IronslaveOffutt AFB, Nebraska U.S.A. Post Number: 298 Registered: Sep-05 | did you know that it it illegal to go whale hunting in Oklahoma.... it's also illegal to heard more than 2000 sheep down hollywood Blvd. Coke was originally made With Cocalne and sold as a medicine... and when introduced as a soft drink it was originally uncarbonated Popsicles were ivented by accident wehn a person was making a drink outside and left in a hurry... he accidentally left the stirring spoon in the drink and it was frozen when he returned.... aint is now a word in the dictionary. Potato Chips were also invented by accident.. it was origginaly made when a restaraunt cook was angry because a customer was not happy with their Scallpoed potato's ... he finnally sliced them as thin as possible and served them to the customer... i have way to much time on my hands..... |
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Silver Member Username: NemenTrinidad & Tobago West... Post Number: 371 Registered: Dec-05 | lol hahaha whales in oklahoma.... |
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Gold Member Username: Project6Post Number: 6699 Registered: Dec-03 | It will be so cool to hunt whales in oklahoma. |
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THE REAL PELON Unregistered guest | actually i think its "ain't" thats now in the dictionary. not "aint" |
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Silver Member Username: Touche6784USA Post Number: 934 Registered: Nov-04 | "umm yea they do have more sugar butg its a natural sugar...the sugar u buy has more saturated fat(alot more i might add" that is one of the stupidest things i have read. sugar is sugar regardless of it being in a fruit or processed from sugar cane. fat comes from four basic building blocks, three fatty acids and a glycerol. there is no way in hell that sucrose turns into three fatty acids and a glycerol even through the chemical and thermal purification process. this is basic biology/biochemistry. before you open your mouth try to figure out what it is that you are talking about. if you can justify how fat gets into processed sugar be my guest but i will find it hard considering the nutrition facts for sugar say ZERO fat. |
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Gold Member Username: B101Queen City, NC USA Post Number: 1565 Registered: Sep-05 | 31. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher. funny......... |
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Silver Member Username: Touche6784USA Post Number: 935 Registered: Nov-04 | "your hair is dead skin particles, same with your nails " im sorry chicken man but hair is formed by dead hair cells and nails are a modified form of hair. |
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Silver Member Username: Touche6784USA Post Number: 936 Registered: Nov-04 | 26 is also incorrect. you wont sink in quicksand to begin with. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quick_sand |
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Bronze Member Username: AdddisorderPost Number: 82 Registered: Jan-06 | in florida its illegal to to it missionary style |
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Platinum Member Username: GlasswolfWisteria, Lane USA Post Number: 11364 Registered: Dec-03 | It's illegal to sell sextoys in Texas, too.. which I was informed by a female friend going to college in Tx. 26. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand (and you thought this list was completely useless.) -Also a great way for women to find a date. |
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Platinum Member Username: GlasswolfWisteria, Lane USA Post Number: 11365 Registered: Dec-03 | A lesson in acceleration: ------------------------------------ First, some useful info: * One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500. * Under full throttle, a Top Fuel dragster engine consumes 1½ gallons of nitromethane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced. * A stock Dodge 426 Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster's supercharger. * With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle. * At the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitromethane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F. * Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases. * Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder. * Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting the fuel flow. * If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half. * In order to exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4G's. In order to reach 200 mph well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8G's. * Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this sentence. * Top Fuel Engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light! * Including the burnout the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load. * The red-line is actually quite high at 9500 rpm. * The Bottom Line; Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000.00 per second. The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile (10/05/03, Tony Schumacher). The top speed record is 333.00 mph (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run (09/28/03 Doug Kalitta). Putting all of this into perspective: You are riding the average $250,000 Honda MotoGP bike. Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged and ready to launch down a quarter mile strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the RC211V hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph (293 ft/sec). The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment. The dragster launches and starts after you. You keep your wrist cranked hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within 3 seconds the dragster catches and passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile away from where you just passed him. Think about it, from a standing start, the dragster had spotted you 200 mph and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race course. |
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Gold Member Username: B101Queen City, NC USA Post Number: 1575 Registered: Sep-05 | ^^Good 1! lol |
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Silver Member Username: Young_jamesCanada Post Number: 910 Registered: Sep-05 | Hey guys, the next one is a long read, but imo, it's pretty intresting. It explains how it's impossible to have a santa, lol. This was a project that someone done in university here near me. |
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Silver Member Username: Young_jamesCanada Post Number: 911 Registered: Sep-05 | There are approximately two billion children (persons under 18) in the world. However, since Santa does not visit children of Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or Buddhist (except maybe in Japan)religions, this reduces the workload for Christmas night to 15% of the total, or 378 million(according to the Population Reference Bureau). At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that comes to 108 million homes, presuming that there is at least one good child in each. Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 967.7 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with a good child, Santa has around 1/1000th of a second to park the sleigh, hop out, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left for him, get back up the chimney, jump into the sleigh and get on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the purposes of our calculations), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household; a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops or breaks. This means Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second--3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a Poky 27.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run (at best) 15 miles per hour. The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium sized Lego set (two pounds), the sleigh is carrying over 500 thousand tons, not counting Santa himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that the "flying" reindeer could pull ten times the normal amount, the job can't be done with eight or even nine of them, Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth (the ship, not the monarch). 600,000 tons Traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance-this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and creating deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second, or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip. Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of accelerating from a dead stop to 650 m.p.s. in .001 seconds, would be subjected to acceleration forces of 17,500 g's. A 250 pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs. ***Copyright Steve Lewis, December 24, 2003*** |
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Silver Member Username: LewassBloomfield Hills, MI USA Post Number: 231 Registered: Jan-06 | Damn Glasswolf, reading all that info about dragsters really turned me off to them... I am a huge fan of cars/aircraft basically anything with an engine. But after reading those stats, drag racing is the most wasteful pointless sport in the world. But I am really shocked at how much valuable resources are wasted in less than 4 and a half seconds. Not to mention that going fast on the ground will soon become a thing of the past. Some day humans will look back on this generation and see how hypocritical we are for "worrying" about natural resources and yet still allowing for something as pointless and wasteful as Top Fuel drag racing. |
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Silver Member Username: LewassBloomfield Hills, MI USA Post Number: 232 Registered: Jan-06 | I mean come on, I thought it was pretty cool watching the dragsters. But after you've seen one, you've seen them all! I'm sitting here paying out the @ss to put gas in my ride, and some @sshole is out there right now burning up all the damn fuel. Hahaha Sorry I'm just ranting and raving, but $1000 per second?! Come on! |
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Silver Member Username: LewassBloomfield Hills, MI USA Post Number: 233 Registered: Jan-06 | Also, check this out: www.dumblaws.com You would be surprised by how stupid some state laws are, check out your state! |
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Silver Member Username: RideredderCornell, IL USA Post Number: 248 Registered: Sep-05 | Here's a good one. Top 10 Accidental Discoveries: 1. Viagra Men being treated for erectile dysfunction should salute the working stiffs of Merthyr Tydfil, the Welsh hamlet where, in 1992 trials, the gravity-defying side effects of a new angina drug first popped up. Previously, the blue-collar town was known for producing a different kind of iron. 2. LSD Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann took the world's first acid hit in 1943, when he touched a smidge of lysergic acid diethylamide, a chemical he had researched for inducing childbirth. He later tried a bigger dose and made another discovery: the bad trip. 3. X-rays Several 19th-century scientists toyed with the penetrating rays emitted when electrons strike a metal target. But the x-ray wasn't discovered until 1895, when German egghead Wilhelm Rontgen tried sticking various objects in front of the radiation - and saw the bones of his hand projected on a wall. 4. Penicillin Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming was researching the flu in 1928 when he noticed that a blue-green mold had infected one of his petri dishes - and killed the staphylococcus bacteria growing in it. All hail sloppy lab work! 5. Artificial sweeteners Speaking of botched lab jobs, three leading pseudo-sugars reached human lips only because scientists forgot to wash their hands. Cyclamate (1937) and aspartame (1965) are byproducts of medical research, and saccharin (1879) appeared during a project on coal tar derivatives. Yummy. 6. Microwave ovens Microwave emitters (or magnetrons) powered Allied radar in WWII. The leap from detecting Naz!s to nuking nachos came in 1946, after a magnetron melted a candy bar in Raytheon engineer Percy Spencer's pocket. 7. Brandy Medieval wine merchants used to boil the H20 out of wine so their delicate cargo would keep better and take up less space at sea. Before long, some intrepid soul - our money's on a sailor - decided to bypass the reconstitution stage, and brandy was born. Pass the Courvoisier! 8. Vulcanized rubber Rubber rots badly and smells worse, unless it's vulcanized. Ancient Mesoamericans had their own version of the process, but Charles Goodyear rediscovered it in 1839 when he unintentionally (well, at least according to most accounts) dropped a rubber-sulfur compound onto a hot stove. 9. Silly Putty In the early 1940s, General Electric scientist James Wright was working on artificial rubber for the war effort when he mixed boric acid and silicon oil. V-J Day didn't come any sooner, but comic strip image-stretching practically became a national pastime. 10. Potato chips Chef George Crum concocted the perfect sandwich complement in 1853 when - to spite a customer who complained that his fries were cut too thick - he sliced a potato paper-thin and fried it to a crisp. Needless to say, the diner couldn't eat just one. |
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