The Soviet Union lost around 10 million men during WW2, which is the equivalent of the entire US Army being lost 20 times over.

Combined with their civilian casualties (which were around ~14 million) this added up to about 14% of the pre-war population being killed. (though more recent studies have suggested casualties were even higher for both the military+civilians from what I've read)

That would be the equivalent of about 44 million Americans dying in a comparable conflict or 70 million Europeans (from the entire EU)

Walk into a public place sometime, like a mall or whatever, in your neighborhood, and imagine 1 in 10 of the people you see there being killed in the space of 5 years.

It's so staggering it's hard to even conceive of really.

Out of every 10 nazi soldiers killed in WW2 9 were killed by soviets.
Stalin is said to be responsible for 60 million deaths, mostly SU citizens killed in purges and starved.

With a quick check you can find mention of a Victoria as a given name of a famous person back from the 3rd century, [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_(Gallic_Empire)]the mother of Emperor Victorinus of the Gallic Empire[/url], not to mention the roman goddess that novotnus talked about. It is not an unusual name, both on its male and female form, on latin countries due to its meaning, so there were probably a good number of other unknown Victorias in the world before that particular one came along. Unless you were mentioning it being a common name in the UK... then your friend was probably right.

Yeah I know, but explaining it kinda robs it of its comedy.

count me in!

- McDonald's has a Ski-Through location. (attached pic)

- Longest name in the Bible: Mahershalalhashbaz (Isaiah 8:1)

- July 4, 1054 Chinese astronomers noted a "guest star" in the constellation Taurus (Supernova 1054 - CM Tauri - The remnant of this supernova is the famous Crab Nebula M1). The "guest star" was visible to the naked eye for over 650 days, at least from China.

- Professor Stephen Hawking - Aliens almost certainly exist but humans should avoid making contact.
"If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans."
"We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet."


thanks for hosting a giveaway!
+1

He is also a vampire hunter. FACT: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1611224/ :-D

Obviously this is not an entry, but +1 for the giveaway.

Thats good. I believe it because my brother once cracked a rib sneezing. That doesn't count as a fact as I can't prove it. He would never come in here and admit he did it.

For an archaological dig to be worthwhile, it is usually refuse pits that are sampled rather than graves. For this reason, Yorkshire Archaological Trust has several thousand tons of comprolites - or partly fossilised faecal matter from the viking and early medieval eras of York in permenant storage.
The YAT is also in possession of the worlds largest known coprolite, which is not only on public display at The DIG, but is regularly handed to and caressed by visitors before they are told what it is.
Curator of the coprolite is Doctor "Bones" Jones - the worlds formost coprolite expert, or as he likes to put it "The worlds formost expert on s*** - all kinds of s***!".

...and if you don't believe me...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyds_Bank_coprolite

I know. I was named after him.

Dude, that's completely untrue. I don't know why this myth persists...

Anyway, my entry: Unicorns exist!
My real entry: Modern sharks have barely changed in 100 million years; a testament to their awesome evolutionary design! Some species can detect 1 part per million of blood in seawater. No escape!

DAMN, you're right. I feel kind of stupid now. I'm usually more carefull with things like this. Santa Claus is real though, right?

I changed it. Hopefully you were the only one that noticed.

Yes, little one, of course he is ;)

Cockroaches are actually not the insects most likely to survive a nuclear explosion. Organisms more simple than them are actually more likely to survive, as demonstrated on an episode of Mythbusters.

The average human's body weight is roughly 10% skin. The human body is composed of at least 60% water, meaning that given the right circumstances we can become ice, generally at temperatures less than the freezing point of water by itself.

Nearly all of electrical circuitry is composed of linear, or trigonometry based relationships. To get relationships that are non-linear requires the use of diodes, semi-conductors, which vary from linear to exponential based on the provided input of voltage and current.

Just know about this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonbow