Want to prove yourself the king of strange trivia when you're down the pub? Every day, we'll be regaling you with an odd fact about the world - each one of them guaranteed 100% absolutely probably true, and not just taken from Wikipedia*.
Friday, September 19: Today is the birthday of the smiley :-) While such literary giants as Vladimir Nabokov and Ambrose Bierce had previously proposed typographical methods of indicating a joke, the modern emoticon was invented n 1982 by Scott Fahlman of Carnegie Mellon University in America, and announced at 11:44 am on September 19. The frowny :-( was invented simultaneously
Tuesday, September 16:
In Pulp Fiction did you notice that all of the clocks are stuck on the time 4:20? No, we don't know why either.
Monday, September 15:
No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple. Don't believe us then go on, try and find one.
Friday, September 12: General John Sedgwick is widely credited as having the finest last words in military history. As the tale is normally told, at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House during the American Civil War, Sedgwick was upbraiding his Union troops for being scared in the face of Confederate fire. 'I am ashamed of you, dodging that way,' he said, adding cheerily: 'They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance.' At which point, a Confederate sharpshooter shot him in the head from a thousand yards away.
However, some sources indicate that, spoiling a good story, these were only his second-last words. A soldier apparently pointed out that dodging was actually quite a good idea, to which Sedgwick boringly replied: 'All right, my man; go to your place.' Which isn't as funny.
Thursday, September 11: Bottlenose dolphins - they're lovely, gentle, intelligent, nurturing creatures, right? No. They are actually mass-murdering sea-psychos who may well kill for fun and kidnap female dolphins so they can gang rape them. At least, that's according to New Scientist.
Wednesday, September 10: Satanic Leaf-Tailed Geckos like group sex. Well, that's what it saya here, anyway. Further research sheds very little extra light on the subject, but that's mostly because Googling "Uroplatus phantasticus group sex" brings up some very, very naughty websites that have little to do with lizard husbandry.
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