Featuring Fasab’s Fun Fact File

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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Today we are featuring Fasab’s Fun Fact File.

Another selection of random and interesting facts that may well come in handier than you think! 

And you are about to read, or try to, some of the longest words ever presented in the history of blog!!!

Enjoy.

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Honeybees use the sun as a compass which helps them navigate

nature's compass

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An average driver spends approximately 2 hours and 14 minutes

kissing in their car in a lifetime

kiss car

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The highest recorded speed of a sneeze is 165 km per hour

sneeze-cartoon

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Actress Jamie Lee Curtis invented a special diaper for babies that has a pocket

jamie-lee-curtis-diaper-patent

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On an American one-dollar bill,

there is an owl in the upper right-hand corner of the “1” encased in the “shield”

and a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner

United_States_one_dollar_bill,_obverse,upper_right

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A dog by the name of Laika was launched into space

aboard the Russian spacecraft Sputnik 2 in 1957

laikalogo

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On average, an American home has 3-10 gallons of hazardous materials

hazmat

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People whose mouth has a narrow roof are more likely to snore.

This is because they have less oxygen going through their nose

snoreCartoon

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In one day, a human sheds 10 billion skin flakes.

This amounts to approximately two kilograms in a year

skinflakes

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The Arctic Ocean covers an area of about 14,056,000 sq miles

arctic_ocean

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Over 50% of lottery players go back to work after winning the jackpot

lottery winners

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The phrase

“Often a bridesmaid, but never a bride,”

actually originates from an advertisement

for Listerine mouthwash from 1924

often-a-bridesmaid-but-never-a-bride-i5

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A cesium atom in an atomic clock beats over nine billion times a second.

Cesium fountain atomic clock

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Pluto was discovered on February 10, 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh

pluto

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America’s longest place-name is really Massachusetts’

“Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamauugg”

Native American for

“you fish on your side, I fish on my side, nobody fish in the middle,”

It is also known as Lake Webster.

Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamauugg

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The longest town name in the United Kingdom (and Europe) is in Wales

“Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch”

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

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In New Zealand there is

“Taumata­whakatangihanga­koauau­o­tamatea­turi­pukakapiki­maunga­horo­nuku­pokai­whenua­kitanatahu”,

which translates roughly as

“The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of mountains,

the land-swallower who travelled about, played his nose flute to his loved one”.

At 85 letters, it has been listed in the Guinness World Records as the longest place name in the entire world.

Taumata­whakatangihanga­koauau­o­tamatea­turi­pukakapiki­maunga­horo­nuku­pokai­whenua­kitanatahu

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But that doesn’t include the formal name or Bangkok, Thailand which is over 150 letters long

“Krungthepmahanakonbowornratanakosinmahintarayudyayamahadiloponoparatanarajthan

iburiromudomrajniwesmahasatarnamornpimarnavatarsatitsakattiyavisanukamphrasit”

The translation here is pretty much the unabridged history of the city rather than a word. 

krungthep mahanakhon

The land of angels, the great city of

amorn rattanakosin

immortality, various of devine gems,

mahintara yudthaya mahadilok pohp

the great angelic land unconquerable,

noparat rajathanee bureerom

land of nine noble gems, the royal city, the pleasant capital,

udomrajniwes mahasatarn

place of the grand royal palace,

amorn pimarn avaltarnsatit

forever land of angels and reincarnated spirits,

sakatattiya visanukram prasit

predestined and created by the highest devas.

Bangkok

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The French Don’t Have A Word For “Entrepreneur”

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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Despite the fact that it has huge corporations like Cartier, Dassault, L’oreal, Lafarge, Michelin, Peugeot-Citroen, Renault, and many more, President George W Bush once astutely remarked that the French don’t have a word for “entrepreneur”.

It’s hard to say whether he thought they had no entrepreneurs in France, or that the French had borrowed the word we used for themselves. But it is too dangerous territory to delve too deeply into trying to understand how Dubya thought or why he said some of the things he said. Let’s just instead enjoy the humor of them. 

But what is interesting is to delve a little deeper into the words that the English language has borrowed, and then assimilated, from other languages.

I have only noted a few examples here, a comprehensive list would run into the thousands. It makes me think that they didn’t say very much to each other in Britain before they were invaded and new words brought into their language.

Here is a short list. The origin of some of the words may well surprise you.

 

ARABIC: admiral, adobe, albatross, alcohol, alcove, alfalfa, algebra, algorithm, apricot, arsenal, artichoke, assassin, candy, carat, cipher, coffee, cotton, giraffe, guitar, harem, jar, jumper, lacquer, lemon, lime, magazine, mattress, muslin, orange, safari, sequin (clothing ornament), sofa, spinach, sugar, talc, tangerine, tariff, tuna, zenith , zero

 

DUTCH: ahoy, bamboo, bazooka, Brooklyn, bundle, caboose, coleslaw, cookie, cruise, dam, decoy, dike, dope, easel, elope, freebooter, gherkin, Harlem, holster, landscape, loafer, rucksack, scone, sketch, skipper, spook, trigger, wagon, yacht, yankee

 

FRENCH: abattoir, amateur¸ architect¸ astronomy, balloon, banquet, bikini, boutique, bureaucracy, cadillac, caliber, canon, carbon, cartel, chandelier, chauffeur, dagger, delicious, denim, deputy, diagram, education, ejaculation, election, empire, eviction, fiancée, flamboyant, flatulence, foreclose, fraternity, galoshes, glacier, gourmet, hangar, harassment, harmony, homicide, hypocrisy, identity, ignorance, imagination, immunize, irrigation, jealousy, jeopardy, journalism, kennel, kilometer, laundry, lemonade, liberty, lieutenant, lunatic, macabre, magician, mathematics, medicine, millionaire, mortgage, music, narcotic, native, negligee, nonchalant, oblique, occupy, optician, organism, ounce, pacific, panache, paragraph, perfume, pigeon, pirate, pistol, prejudice, president, psychiatry, quantity, queue, quote, racism, raconteur, rapport, rendezvous, residue, rhubarb, sabotage, salon, scabbard, secret, soufflé, tart, tourniquet, trenchant, trespass, turbulent, turtle, umpire, union, universal, vacation, valiant, vampire, vestibule, voyeur

 

GERMAN: hamburger, pretzel, larger

 

HEBREW: alphabet, jubilee, sycamore

 

INDIAN: avatar, bandana, bangle, bazaar, bungalow, cashmere, catamaran, chutney, curry, dinghy, doolally, dungarees, guru, gymkhana, hullabaloo, jungle, juggernaut , khaki, loot, polo, pukka, pundit, pyjamas, shampoo, shawl, swastika, thug, typhoon, veranda, yoga

 

IRISH: brogues, galore, gob, hooligan, poteen, shamrock, slob, whiskey

 

NATIVE AMERICAN: caribou, cisco, Eskimo, hickory, moccasin, moose, pecan, skunk, tomahawk, as well as many place names including, Mississippi, Michigan, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Wyoming, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois

 

And finally for this example,

 

SPANISH: alligator, armada, avocado, barbecue, bonanza, burro, cafeteria, California, canyon, cargo, Caribbean, chocolate, cigar, Colorado, corral, desperado, Florida, guerrilla, hurricane, jerky, Montana, mosquito, Nevada, oregano, patio, plaza, ranch, stampede, tobacco, tomato, tornado