"Tell Me Something I Don't Know": Trivia & Fact Thread

[Sandman87]

31 minutes ago, riley702 said:

WHAT?!? That's messed up. Wonder how they pronounce it?

I wonder if any of them are Python fans: "It's spelled A-B-C-D-E, but it's pronounced 'Throat Wobbler-Mangrove.'"

[Sandman87]

According to Guinness, the world's loudest house cat purr was measured at a sustained level of 67.8 db in 2015, and was produced by a UK cat named Merlin. That's about the same sound level as produced by a typical shower or dishwasher.

[SirOsisOfLiver]

Creedence Clearwater Revival reached the runner-up spot five consecutive times between March 1969 and October 1970, scoring number two hits with "Proud Mary," "Bad Moon Rising," "Green River," "Travelin' Band/Who'll Stop the Rain" and "Lookin' Out My Back Door" / "Long as I Can See the Light" but never had a number one.

[Petunia13]

Human fetuses grow a mustache that spreads all over their entire body. The baby eats the hair while in utero, than when born it's their first poop. 

[SirOsisOfLiver]

It's raking season in my part of the world. My wife just depressed the hell out of me by reading that the average mature tree has about 200,000 leaves.

[walnutqueen]

14 hours ago, Petunia13 said:

Human fetuses grow a mustache that spreads all over their entire body. The baby eats the hair while in utero, than when born it's their first poop. 

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little ...

[Blergh]

OK, on another note, in Japan  folks wear face masks in public places in an effort to keep OTHERS from catching any contagious respiratory ailments.

Edited September 30, 2017 by Blergh
time for a fresh start without needless angst

[Petunia13]

My mind automatically went to sheet and mud masks and I wish so much that was permissible in any culture to wear in public. I would so do that while on errands if I could do so without people think I look like Micheal Meyers. 

[Wings]

On 9/28/2017 at 3:33 PM, walnutqueen said:

On 9/28/2017 at 1:13 AM, Petunia13 said:

Human fetuses grow a mustache that spreads all over their entire body. The baby eats the hair while in utero, than when born it's their first poop. 

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little ...

I just headed straight to the toilet. 

[walnutqueen]

deleted.  

Edited September 30, 2017 by walnutqueen
OP already proved my point, and I was reactive

[PRgal]

On 9/21/2017 at 9:35 PM, riley702 said:

WHAT?!? That's messed up. Wonder how they pronounce it?

Perhaps it's AB-code?  Or ab-CODE? 

[walnutqueen]

3 minutes ago, PRgal said:

Perhaps it's AB-code?  Or ab-CODE? 

Abby something ... Abby Normal?  ;-)

Nope, it's Abby Seedy.

[Blergh]

OK, here's something  else: Back in 1903, the Dayton, Ohio based bicycle shop proprietors Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved on the sand dunes of the North Carolina Outer Banks what untold numbers of industrialists, nations and empires had been trying to achieve without success: design and test a machine that could produce heavier-than-air flight.

  What's a bit unknown here is that the actual locale they achieved this in (which has an onsite museum commemorating the duo complete with a Flyer One prototype aircraft) was a place called Kill Devil Hills. However; when the news was made known the general public, most news editors used the name of the nearby town of Kitty Hawk because they didn't want to chance any readers being offended by the true location's name!

[Mindthinkr]

1 hour ago, Blergh said:

OK, here's something  else: Back in 1903, the Dayton, Ohio based bicycle shop proprietors Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved on the sand dunes of the North Carolina Outer Banks what untold numbers of industrialists, nations and empires had been trying to achieve without success: design and test a machine that could produce heavier-than-air flight.

  What's a bit unknown here is that the actual locale they achieved this in (which has an onsite museum commemorating the duo complete with a Flyer One prototype aircraft) was a place called Kill Devil Hills. However; when the news was made known the general public, most news editors used the name of the nearby town of Kitty Hawk because they didn't want to chance any readers being offended by the true location's name!

Kill Devil Hills is also known for a very big sand dune. When my child was young we laid on our sides and rolled down it. What fun! 

[GaT]

Though we associate them with 2 completely different time periods, Martin Luther King Jr. & Anne Frank were both born in 1929, MLK on January 15th & Anne Frank on June 12th. They were contemporaries & had they lived, would have only (relatively speaking)  been 88 years old today.

[Moose135]

9 hours ago, Blergh said:

What's a bit unknown here is that the actual locale they achieved this in (which has an onsite museum commemorating the duo complete with a Flyer One prototype aircraft) was a place called Kill Devil Hills. However; when the news was made known the general public, most news editors used the name of the nearby town of Kitty Hawk because they didn't want to chance any readers being offended by the true location's name!

The towns of Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills border one another, and these two signs are literally on opposite sides of the same corner:

I've been to the Wright Brothers Memorial a couple of times, it is amazing what those two guys accomplished.

[Blergh]

Great signs, Moose! Thanks to this thread, hopefully, it WON'T be unknown to folks how AWESOME those two Outer Banks towns are (and check out nearby Manteo with the Lost Colony play). Yep, and factoring in how there were no roads and only sporadic ferries to REACH the Banks offseason yet the Bros had to make their way there with just a few basic parts and tools makes the achievement even more awe-inspiring.  Got any pics of the Dunes themselves to say nothing of the Memorial?

[Moose135]

12 seconds that changed the world.

The memorial closes at 5pm, but I was able to find a side street adjacent to the property that let me get this shot of the monument at night.

[Blergh]

Thanks for that, Moose. We REALLY could use a beacon to celebrate the triumph of human spirit on a day like today! You have no idea how much these photos have made more difference than one would imagined even a day before!

[Blergh]

 George, Lord Byron (who, by his most famous paramour  Lady Caroline Lamb's account, was 'mad, bad and dangerous to know') nonetheless did get married and had a single daughter before separating shortly after the child's birth.      Lady Ada Byron Lovelace would grow up to become would become a skilled mathematician who is credited with inventing one of the earliest computers.

[Sandman87]

Some aeronautical fun facts:

The first passengers aboard a "manned" balloon flight were a duck, a rooster and a sheep, in 1783.

George Cayley (1773-1857) designed the first glider that verifiably carried a human in flight. He developed much of the science that led to the designs of the Wright Brothers. During experiments for powered flight he developed prototype internal combustion engines that were powered by gunpowder, but never got them to work reliably.

In 1923 Amelia Earhart was the first woman to receive a pilot's license from the National Aeronautic Association.

[riley702]

Despite the expression "6 ft under", most graves are only 4 feet deep. Six feet became the law and custom after an outbreak of plague in 1600s England. They wanted to make sure that the diseased body was safely contained and wouldn't be exposed by animals or flooding. The law eventually fell out of favor both in England and its colonies. Modern American burial laws vary from state to state, though many states simply require a minimum of 18 inches of soil on top of the casket or burial vault. So, 4 ft is sufficient. And, with the advent of concrete vaults, graves are sturdy enough to be driven over.

[Blergh]

The custom for hearses to driving slowly had to do with the days of them being lit by candles and this being the best way to keep the candles from blowing out. 

[riley702]

Huh. If I had thought about it, I'd have thought it was to accommodate mourners walking behind.

[Quof]

And wearing black isn't about respect for the dead. It's so the spirit of death won't pick you out of the crowd and say "you're next."  That's also why the coffin is carried out feet first, so the dead won't look back and beckon some one to follow.

[Sandman87]

The common Norwegian Rat, Rattus norvegicus, was originally native to Asia, and migrated to Europe after ocean trade routes were established.

[Blergh]

Dandelions  NOT native plants to North America. They actually were SHIPPED OVER by European immigrants who yearned for their leaves in salads and in dandelion wine but via the wind blowing the seeds, became a weed which the immigrants' descendants had no idea what to do with.

 

Oh, and their name means 'lion's teeth' due to how their leaves appear.

Edited October 30, 2017 by Blergh

[Sandman87]

11 hours ago, Blergh said:

Dandelions  NOT native plants to North America.

The same is true of eucalyptus trees. The official story is that they were introduced to California during the Gold Rush as a potential source of useful lumber. Unfortunately, the wood turned out to be completely unsuitable for the intended purposes, because it's too tough, too dense, and too prone to warping.

 

Personally, I think that the '49ers were such perverse and rugged individualist types that they wanted a tree that could kill them without warning by frequently dropping branches, and which represented the maximum possible fire hazard for a minimum of effort (they've been known to explode during fires due to vaporized eucalyptus oil.)

[riley702]

All of the planets in the solar system could fit between the Earth and the Moon.

[Blergh]

On 11/1/2017 at 11:23 PM, riley702 said:

All of the planets in the solar system could fit between the Earth and the Moon.

Yet the planets are so spread out that while it takes only eight minutes for the light of the Sun to reach Earth, it takes FOUR HOURS for it to reach Neptune! I wonder how long it would take to get any kind of tan there ( if one didn't freeze or suffocate).

[JTMacc99]

55 minutes ago, Blergh said:

I wonder how long it would take to get any kind of tan there ( if one didn't freeze or suffocate).

Here is a view of what the sun and Neptune would look like from the surface of it's largest moon Triton. 

Looks pretty cold out there. Might want to bring some space heaters.

[Moose135]

2 hours ago, JTMacc99 said:

Looks pretty cold out there. Might want to bring some space heaters.

Can't be much worse than it was at Martinsville Speedway last Sunday!

[Sandman87]

Mercury orbits the Sun every 88 days. Pluto orbits the Sun every 248 years.

Earth is the densest planet in the Solar System. Make your own joke about dumb Earth people here.

 

On 11/3/2017 at 6:25 AM, Blergh said:

Yet the planets are so spread out that while it takes only eight minutes for the light of the Sun to reach Earth, it takes FOUR HOURS for it to reach Neptune! I wonder how long it would take to get any kind of tan there ( if one didn't freeze or suffocate).

Earth is 1 AU from the Sun, Neptune is about 30 AU, therefore there will only be roughly 1/900th as much solar light hitting you as there would be on Earth. That's assuming that atmosphere isn't a consideration.

[Blergh]

On ‎11‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 1:55 AM, Sandman87 said:

Mercury orbits the Sun every 88 days. Pluto orbits the Sun every 248 years.

Earth is the densest planet in the Solar System. Make your own joke about dumb Earth people here.

 

Earth is 1 AU from the Sun, Neptune is about 30 AU, therefore there will only be roughly 1/900th as much solar light hitting you as there would be on Earth. That's assuming that atmosphere isn't a consideration.

So nectarines not to be found there -despite that fruit's usage in the old memory trick.

Edited November 17, 2017 by Blergh
missing not

[Petunia13]

Goosebumps/Fear Street writer RL Stine made 40 million dollars a year in the 90s. 

[Blergh]

On ‎11‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 8:56 PM, Petunia13 said:

Goosebumps/Fear Street writer RL Stine made 40 million dollars a year in the 90s. 

Yet, will Mr. Stine's legacy be as to future generations as William Shakespeare's or Mark Twain's have proven despite neither of them making anywhere close those monies in their lifetimes? Time will tell. 

[Blergh]

OK, here's a royal trivial deal:  Prince Phillip did not take any pajamas on his honeymoon with the future Queen who DID take one of her Corgis with her-yet they soon conceived Prince Charles and have stayed married 70 years in spite of their unconventional tastes.

[DeLurker]

"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" by Eric Idle from Monthy Python's Life of Brian is the most requested song to be played at funerals in England.

[walnutqueen]

Baby birds instinctively poop over the edge of their nests.  Even those fake nests we baby bird rehabbers create out of strawberry baskets & Charmin. The baby bird butts wiggle, too, while doing their doo.  Which usually (conveniently) occurs right after you feed them.

Easier than changing diapers ...

[Zola]

Apparently there are roughly 7 billion rats on the planet. And given that there are approximately 7 billion humans on the planet, it means we all have our very own rat to keep us company.

[Blergh]

There are formulas for telling close temperatures using cricket chirps in both Celcius and Fahrenheit. Basically, all one has to do is count the number of chirps within a set amount of seconds then add a number and one usually gets the approximate temperature!

 

https://www.almanac.com/content/predict-temperature-cricket-chirps

[ratgirlagogo]

22 hours ago, Zola said:

Apparently there are roughly 7 billion rats on the planet. And given that there are approximately 7 billion humans on the planet, it means we all have our very own rat to keep us company.

Awwww, how cute!   Everybody has their own little rat guardian angel!.  We'd better hope the rats can explain to the humans how to survive global warming and nuclear winter - since we all know they're almost certain to survive, along with the cockroaches.

[auntlada]

Some people are going to have to go without a rat. I intend to have a rat army.

Edited January 27, 2018 by auntlada
I always see the typo right as I hit submit.

[Blergh]

26 minutes ago, auntlada said:

Some people are going to have to go without a rat. I intend to have a rat army.

Hey! You are more than welcome to my 'share'!

[ratgirlagogo]

3 hours ago, auntlada said:

Some people are going to have to go without a rat. I intend to have a rat army.

Hey, I ALREADY HAVE MY RAT ARMY.  They come in peace, they tell me.

[Zola]

The world is currently $69 Trillion in debt, with the US being the biggest debtor owing just over $20Tn (basically every US household (126m) owes around $160,000  and counting. or $64,000 per person)

Experts believe it would be impossible to pay off the debt even with the most draconian of economic measures. 

And since beginning this post (and checking data) some 5 minutes ago, the world owes a further $17million

And what is really bewildering is watching those numbers on the respective national debt dashboards just dial on and on and on to the point of it being somewhat irrelevant 

http://www.usdebtclock.org/world-debt-clock.html

https://www.nationaldebtclocks.org/

Edited January 28, 2018 by Zola

[ABay]

That's just my student loans. Sorry, people of Earth.

[NutMeg]

On 1/27/2018 at 11:57 PM, auntlada said:

Some people are going to have to go without a rat. I intend to have a rat army.

 

On 1/28/2018 at 12:23 AM, Blergh said:

Hey! You are more than welcome to my 'share'!

Ewwww, you're welcome to my share too, I have an aversion (formerly phobia) of rats and would rather surround myself with an army of cats...

[ratgirlagogo]

1 hour ago, NutMeg said:

an army of cats...

The rats make a better army because they enjoy living in large groups.  I will certainly bring along whatever cats I have at the time of the Collapse - but every cat is always going to consider itself the Supreme Commander.   I suppose I'll have to convince my cats that they collectively make up my Joint Chiefs of Staff, or something.

[NutMeg]

13 minutes ago, ratgirlagogo said:

The rats make a better army because they enjoy living in large groups.  I will certainly bring along whatever cats I have at the time of the Collapse - but every cat is always going to consider itself the Supreme Commander.   I suppose I'll have to convince my cats that they collectively make up my Joint Chiefs of Staff, or something.

You're right: an imposing number of cat mercenaries is therefore what I'll need.