24 July 2012

"Fun facts"

The sentence "I never said she stole my money" can mean seven different things depending on where the emphasis is placed when the sentence is spoken aloud:
I never said she stole my money.
I never said she stole my money.
I never said she stole my money.
I never said she stole my money.
I never said she stole my money.
I never said she stole my money.
I never said she stole my money.
(There are actually way more than seven possibilities if emphasis is placed on more than one word).  

Here are other items from the Reddit thread:

The triceratops and man lived closer chronologically than a triceratops and stegosaurus.

Cleopatra lived closer chronologically to the moon landing than to the building of the pyramids.

"John, where James had had "had", had had "had had"; "Had had" had had a better effect on the teacher."

What is commonly called "seaweed" is technically not a plant. They are all forms of algae. This includes larger, more complicated forms like kelp, which actually has vascular tissue like most terrestrial plants. To make things more confusing, moss has no vascular tissue, but it is a plant.

The black stripes of a zebra's coat absorb more sunlight and get warmer than their white counterparts. This causes the heat to rise off the black stripes and cold air falls on the white stripes, causing circulation over the zebra, allowing it to stay cool in the direct sunlight.

Wombat scat is cubic in shape [blogworthy after I find a photo].

3 comments:

  1. Wombat scat

    I had to see it to believe it, but here it is:

    http://zactopia.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/why-you-should-give-a-square-shit-about-wombats/

    http://robertwalls.wordpress.com/2010/06/11/wintering-with-wombats/

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  2. I do the emphasis swap with lyrics all of the time. i.e. 'You are so beautiful to me'. What? Are you saying noone else finds me beautiful or that you wrote this song simply because I am nice to you? Make sense, man!

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  3. Shake well before use. so... SHAKE WELL before use or shake WELL BEFORE use?

    And the sentence "Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo." makes perfect sense If you know that the verb buffalo mean to intimidate with a display of power.

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