Facts you made up

[Kmeister]

The phrase "A Rolling Stone Gathers no Moss" originates from when Kate Moss turned down an invitation from Mick Jagger to become part of his Harem.

[Ya Bezzer!]

Large areas of Scotland exist only on maps and in actuality are really sea.

 

The whole area south of Stranraer and Newton Stewart, the islands of Coll and Tiree and areas of western Islay and Skye.

 

The deception was to confuse Soviet submarine commanders during the cold war and was taken so seriously Caledonian MacBrayne still run ferry services to the non existent islands of Coll and Tiree who's only passengers are MoD employees bound by the Official Secrets Act.

[Hedgecutter]

Large areas of Scotland exist only on maps and in actuality are really sea.

Shetland is a classic example of this. If you sail into that box just off the coast of Aberdeen then you'll find nothing but North Sea, maybe a few supply vessels (and that loon from Trawlermen) at best.

Eta: Only now do I realise that the place is just a fictional location for an average BBC detective series. What an eejit I am.

Edited March 19, 2016 by Hedgecutter

[Hedgecutter]

Statistically, Geocaching is the most deadly pastime in Australia, mostly through animal bites.

[Dee Dee]

Some quick fire factoids.

Mice can only fart through their noses.

Wearing red socks increases your chances of developing gout by 219%.

99% of pyramid shaped tea bags are made in Egypt.

Napolean Bonaparte invented the sock puppet.

Barry Robsons dad was, none other than, Allan Tracy, from Thunderbirds.

Joe 90 was a Tom McB.

Smegma is considered a delicacy in Kosovo.

[Richie95]

Wasps make are the main ingredient used to create mustard.

[Ya Bezzer!]

In 1987 a hawksbill turtle crawled ashore on a nesting beach near Goa, India, laid it's eggs, lost it's bearings and ended up crawling in the opposite direction from the sea.

 

13 years later a Polish expedition on Annapurna, the world's 10th highest mountain, found the sea turtle at approximately 21,000 feet.  It had survived for an indeterminate time by eating snow and digging a tunnel in the ice.

 

Assuming the turtle had crawled in a straight line it would have traveled over 1,200 miles.

[AsimButtHitsASix]

Malta is actually connected to Italy by a very narrow land bridge but the Maltese government keep it hidden from the maps for tourist purposes but it was even paved in the 1980s to give the "islanders" an escape route in case of nuclear attack.

Edited March 21, 2016 by AsimButtHitsASix

[D.A.F.C]

The island of Sardinia was where the children's game sardines was invented. This took place in 1942 as the locals piled into wardrobes to hide from nazis.

One local Anne Frank took this game very seriously and became world champion.

[Hedgecutter]

The illusion that Highland Spring water comes from the Highlands has so far raked in enough tax for the government to fund the entire upgrade of the A9.

[tamthebam]

on a similar note bottle of Strathmore Spring are actually filled from a secret pipe connected to Station Park's main tap. The company have fooled Forfar Athletic for years by having the groundsman on their pay role and getting him to tell the Chairman "that thae 3G pitches need a hoor o' a lot of wa'aterin' ken". 

[dee_62]

The Citizens Advice Bureau is, in fact, a clandestine government agency responsible for more successful assassinations (post WWII) than the rest of the British Secret Service and the CIA combined.

[topcat(The most tip top)]

The Citizens Advice Bureau is, in fact, a clandestine government agency responsible for more successful assassinations (post WWII) than the rest of the British Secret Service and the CIA combined.

Most historians reckon the KGB are still ahead by 5

There are long running threads on espionage forums arguing about whether the current Russian spooks are the same entity or a new organisation with no history because the old KGB got liquidated.

[banana]

The nickname 'daddy longlegs' was coined by gold medalist Dick Fosbury's four year old daughter when he turned up at the 1968 Olympics high jump after-party dressed as a crane fly.

[Grim O'Grady]

One local Anne Frank took this game very seriously and became world champion.

You only tell 1/2 the story DAF, let me embellish the full story for our readership .

Back in 1942 Anne whilst holidaying in Sardinia got into a spot of bother with the local SS (that's another story) & had to flee sharpish, being an island there was nothing left for her to do but swim. She hit a current that swept her to Malta, where after a decent plate of egg chips & beans, she acquired a bike & cycled the bridge to Italy (see above for confirmation of the bridge). She cycled as far as Roma (Rome) but a bicycle thief nicked her bike, so she ran from there to Amsterdam in the Netherlands (Holland), the Getmans upon hearing of her epic trek awarded her the Iron Cross & that's how the Iron Man marathon got it's name. The Getman's took it off her & denied all knowledge of this when they found out she was Jewish & killed her of course. She would have gotten away with it had she not gone to the papers to blab about it, or she might have had had she not put down what school she went to. The papers had to quickly cut the story & made up some story about a giant turtle with a faulty satnav ending up up some mountain many years earlier being found by a polish expedition (lead by Mr Sheen).

Eddie Izzard took great inspiration from Anne's IC record, which lead him to run away a lot recently for charity etc.

Grimbo

[dee_62]

"In 1492 Columbus sailed the Ocean blue".  What the song doesn't go on to say is that at the behest of the Queen of Spain, Columbus took a series of flags to be allocated to any nations that he "discovered".

 

In the 15th century, many countries had flags forced upon them. (including the home nations).  The use and recognition of flags was not the same as it is now.

 

Brazil's flag was handed over to Mexico originally but the majority of Mexicans didn't like the colours too much, so all the Portuguese speaking Mexicans left their homes and headed to Rio to follow the flag.

 

America itself wanted what was to become the Canadian Flag, but relented when they were offered Alaska as a peace offering from the Native Canadians.

[D.A.F.C]

Six AM was originally called half noon.

[D.A.F.C]

You only tell 1/2 the story DAF, let me embellish the full story for our readership .

Back in 1942 Anne whilst holidaying in Sardinia got into a spot of bother with the local SS (that's another story) & had to flee sharpish, being an island there was nothing left for her to do but swim. She hit a current that swept her to Malta, where after a decent plate of egg chips & beans, she acquired a bike & cycled the bridge to Italy (see above for confirmation of the bridge). She cycled as far as Roma (Rome) but a bicycle thief nicked her bike, so she ran from there to Amsterdam in the Netherlands (Holland), the Getmans upon hearing of her epic trek awarded her the Iron Cross & that's how the Iron Man marathon got it's name. The Getman's took it off her & denied all knowledge of this when they found out she was Jewish & killed her of course. She would have gotten away with it had she not gone to the papers to blab about it, or she might have had had she not put down what school she went to. The papers had to quickly cut the story & made up some story about a giant turtle with a faulty satnav ending up up some mountain many years earlier being found by a polish expedition (lead by Mr Sheen).

Eddie Izzard took great inspiration from Anne's IC record, which lead him to run away a lot recently for charity etc.

Grimbo

Ah yes, such a heartwarming tale. As told in the movie Ghostbusters II.

[Bobby Skidmarks]

You can cure hiccups by catching AIDS.

[Dee Dee]

If you have bad AIDS you can cure yourself by catching good AIDS, but not vice versa. I don't know what happens, to you. If you do have good AIDS and, then, catch bad AIDS. I've heard it's very very bad. Terrible, in fact.