Current Events > Random Interesting Facts ITT

(+) Yeah! (+)

YugiNoob posted...

When Aztecs discovered avocados, they named them ahuacatl, which translates to testicle :3

They're currently share the French word for laywer, which isn't much different.

A 70-year-old woman once completed seven marathons in seven days, across all seven continents:

Chau Smith was always an avid runner, and, in 2017, she decided that for her 70th birthday, she would complete seven marathons in one week across all of the continents. Traveling made it challengingfor example, Smith made the race in Egypt just minutes before the start because her plane to Cairo was delayed. But despite the obstacles, she completed her goal.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/15/farm-metal-from-plants-life-on-earth-climate-breakdown

For the past couple of years, Ive been working with researchers in northern Greece who are farming metal. In a remote, beautiful field, high in the Pindus mountains in Epirus, they are experimenting with a trio of shrubs known to scientists as hyperaccumulators: plants which have evolved the capacity to thrive in naturally metal-rich soils that are toxic to most other kinds of life. They do this by drawing the metal out of the ground and storing it in their leaves and stems, where it can be harvested like any other crop. As well as providing a source for rare metals in this case nickel, although hyperaccumulators have been found for zinc, aluminium, cadmium and many other metals, including gold these plants actively benefit the earth by remediating the soil, making it suitable for growing other crops, and by sequestering carbon in their roots. One day, they might supplant more destructive and polluting forms of mining.

Dogs like squeaky toys for a dark reason:

Ever wonder why your little puppy obsesses over those squeaky toys? Because dogs are descendants of wolves whose instincts include hunting smaller animals. The sound a squeaky toy makes is very similar to the sound a small animal makes when being hunted. When Ol' Lassie hears that, she gets excited because of these killer survival skills.

Tag

Birds sing so early in the morning because its the time of the day with the least noise pollution. The term scientists gave it is called The Dawn Chorus.

The man who founded Atari also started Chuck E. Cheese:

In 1972, Nolan Bushnell started the gaming company Atari, which gave us the classic arcade game Pong. Bushnell sold the company just four years later and the following year, he opened Chuck E. Cheese! In fact, there is one game in Chuck E. Cheese that actually is called Ping, a knockoff of his original arcade game, which he couldn't use since he no longer owned it.

While we're on the subject of anthropomorphic rodents... Chuck's full name is Charles Entertainment Cheese. Although his backstory is somewhat sad...

The Public Relations manager mentioned an online book with details on his childhood with a part that says: "Because Chuck E. was an orphan, no one knew when his birthday was, so he never had a birthday party of his own," the book reads. "This made Chuck E. sad."

Also, Chuck E. has apparently changed species. From his creation in 1977 until 1992 he was a rat, but in 1993 he became a mouse lol

The caterpillar thing reminds me of rat-kings/squirrel-kings. Have those been covered?

Kami_no_Kami posted...

The caterpillar thing reminds me of rat-kings/squirrel-kings. Have those been covered?

I don't think so:

A rat king is a collection of rats whose tails are intertwined and bound together by one of several possible mechanisms, such as entangling material like hair or sticky substances like sap or gum or getting tied together. Historically, this phenomenon is particularly associated with Germany.
A similar phenomenon with squirrels has been observed, which has had modern documented examples.
Some zoologists remain skeptical, saying that, while theoretically possible, the rats would not be able to survive in such a condition for a long time, particularly if the temperatures rose or if they bit their own or another's tail to try to free themselves. Since black rats cluster together during winters for warmth, it could be possible for a rat king to be naturally-occurring. Any fabrications would most likely have been created using dead rats, given how difficult the process would be if the rats were alive. Proper observation of the phenomenon, under scientific scrutiny, occurring naturally with live rats from the start till the end, has yet to happen. However, experts support the idea of isolated freak accidents due to the existence of occasional well-observed cases involving squirrelsalso members of the rodent family. A 2007 study published in Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Science, Biology, and Ecology, following the finding of the University of Tartu specimen, concluded that the phenomenon is possible but rare.

There may be 2,000 active serial killers in the U.S. right now:

Thomas Hargrove has been archiving homicides for years through his Murder Accountability Project. Through his experience, he came up with an algorithm that found patterns in recent unsolved murders linked to at least one other murder through DNA. This allowed him to estimate the number of unsolved cases in the U.S. at any given time. According to The New Yorker, he believes that the number of active serial killers in the U.S. is around 2,000.

Chuck E Cheese originally started out as Pizza Theater, but changed its name to Showbiz Pizza later on. Eventually it changed its name one more time to Chuck E Cheese.

Beethoven could still hear after going deaf:

Upon going deaf, Beethoven discovered that if he bit onto a metal pole that connected to the piano he was playing, he could hear almost perfectly well. This process is called bone conduction, and while technology has evolved, the science is the same: Vibrations are transferred from the conductive metal into our bones. When this happens, our ears pick up the signal with no sound distortion.

Beethoven died in 1827.

Ants have a built-in FitBit:

While previous research found that ants use visual cues, a 2007 study discovered that desert ants have an internal pedometer that helps them keep track of their travels and find their way back home.

The human brain generates 23 watts of power

180mTa is the only known stable nuclear isomer to exist
Tantalum-180 has a half-life of eight hours. Tantalum-180m1 has a half-life of "lol i dunno", and estimated to be 10^15 years

Duke Nukem and Big the Cat from Sonic have the same voice actor.

If Greenland is assigned as being part of Denmark, then out of all the Nordic countries, Iceland has the least amount of land mass north of the Arctic Circle. In fact, aside for circa half of the tiny island of Grimsey, all of Iceland resides south of the Arctic Circle.

Stressed men have altered proclivities:

A 2012 study published in the journal PLoS ONE found that men who are feeling stressed out prefer women with curvier figures. The study had one experimental group perform a stressful activity, while the other control group did not. Afterward, they were shown pictures of women with various body types. When the men in the control group were asked to rate the women on a scale of one to nine, they rated pictures of women with higher BMIs as the most attractive.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/6/3/AAZgIXAADQzf.jpg

A few facts based on a sunscreen myth-busting vid I recently watched:

There is not much difference in effectiveness among the different SPF values; anything 30 or higher is considered adequate. What matters more is that the sunscreen is broad-spectrum, meaning they block both UVA and UVB rays.

Putting on sunscreen does not prevent your body from producing any Vitamin D as no sunscreen completely blocks all sunlight from reaching the skin, nor is anyone's application of said sunscreen perfect either.

And speaking of imperfect application, a few commonly-forgotten application areas include the back of the neck, under the chin and the lips.

You still need sunscreen even if it's cloudy as clouds don't prevent radiation from reaching your skin. Windows don't either. And even if you are in the shade, bright reflective surfaces such as sand and snow can reflect the radiation to your skin.

Having darker skin =/= protection from the sun and thus doesn't mean you don't have to wear sunscreen.

There's no such thing as a 'healthy tan'. Excluding naturally tan people, tanning is basically a distress response from the skin after being bombarded by radiation, and it's not much better than a sunburn.

Crows holds grudges:

In 2010, researchers in Seattle found that formerly captured crows were able to remember the face of their abductor even years after the incident. Once they identified the suspect in question, they would threaten them by diving down and swarming the person that they had felt threatened by years before.

indica posted...

Crows holds grudges:

In 2010, researchers in Seattle found that formerly captured crows were able to remember the face of their abductor even years after the incident. Once they identified the suspect in question, they would threaten them by diving down and swarming the person that they had felt threatened by years before.

Simpsons did it

Famous artist Robert Crumb's brother, Charles, had a deep sexual fascination for the relationship between Robert Newton's Long John Silver and child star Bobby Driscoll's Jim Hawkins (of 1950's Treasure Island) and explored this repressed fascination through a series of fan fiction comics centered around the characters. Perhaps fortunately, he remained a virgin throughout his life. This topic is briefly covered in the 1995 film about Robert Crumb, entitled Crumb. Charles died three years before the film was released.

Canada once heavily targeted LGBTQ individuals:

During the Cold War era, Canada spent thousands on its historic "Fruit Machine." This device was supposedly able to identify gay men and lesbian women by monitoring subjects as they were shown pornographic images with homosexual content.This, unfortunately, led to the wrongful persecution of many of Canada's fine citizens. In 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized for the mistreatment of these people.

You can always "see" your nose:

The human brain is capable of amazing things, but in order to do those things, it needs to block out distractions through a process called unconscious selective attention. The nose is one of those distractions. In his landmark 1960s study, Ulric Neisser discovered this phenomenon after he asked participants to count the number of times basketball players passed a ball in a video. What the large majority failed to notice in the video was a girl walking through the middle of the court with an umbrella, because they were so focused on counting.

indica posted...

What the large majority failed to notice in the video was a girl walking through the middle of the court with an umbrella, because they were so focused on counting.

Like the gorilla?

Not so much an interesting fact as it is funny news, but probable future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols recently pitched an inning in a one-sided win for the Cardinals. He gave up 2 home runs and got an ERA of 36 lol

LinkPizza posted...

Like the gorilla?

Exactly like that

Jochen Rindt, an Austrian racing driver, died in an accident during a practice session before the 1970 Italian Grand Prix. With a tally of 45 points, he had become the leader in the 1970 season; however, none of the other racers surpassed it through the remaining four events.
To date, Jochen Rindt remains the only Formula 1 driver who earned the championship title posthumously.

There is a club exclusive to celebs who die at 27 years of age, called the "27 Club". As a result , everyone in included posthumously.

The oldest movie on 4K Blu-ray disc is The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a horror film from 1920, currently available in Germany. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th oldest films are 1931's Dracula and Frankenstein, and 1933's The Invisible Man, also horror films.

Aspragus makes your pee smell funny. Now that I think of it, since I drink a fuckton of beer, your piss smells like a damn brewery, and my sense of smell is normally gimped under standard conditions.

A restaurant in New York only employs Italian grandmas as chefs:

It is true that everybody thinks their Italian grandmaor nonnais best cook around. So it was a genius idea when Joe Scaravella decided to gather up as many nonnas as he could to work in his restaurant in Staten Island. Enoteca Maria combines the skill of these delightful, talented grandmothers and has them create and cook recipes from their own family cookbooks.

indica posted...

A restaurant in New York only employs Italian grandmas as chefs:

It is true that everybody thinks their Italian grandmaor nonnais best cook around. So it was a genius idea when Joe Scaravella decided to gather up as many nonnas as he could to work in his restaurant in Staten Island. Enoteca Maria combines the skill of these delightful, talented grandmothers and has them create and cook recipes from their own family cookbooks.

That happens at any ethnicity-esque restaurant. Like my Subway for example.

Master Sergeant John C. Smith purposefully botched several executions of Nazis in the aftermath of World War II, so that it took them much longer to die, painfully, at the end of the rope. One of them was hanging for nearly half an hour before he finally died.

His birthday is Sunday, be sure to pour one in his honor.

Subway has more operating units than any other company, including Mcdonalds.

America's first bank robber deposited the money back into the same bank:

At the Bank of Philadelphia on Aug. 1, 1798, a sum of $162,821 was stolen from the vault. There was no sign of forced entry so it was thought to be an inside job. Patrick Lyon was imprisoned as the prime suspect, as he had been the carpenter that worked on the vault doors.
But then, they realized a man named Isaac Davis had been depositing large sums of money into the Bank of Philadelphia. It turned out, he was one of the robbers involved. In 1799, Lyon was freed, and Davis only ended up repaying the money without serving a day in jail.

Franz Reichelt's death is perhaps the oldest surviving footage of someone's death recorded on film. In 1912 he jumped off the Eiffel Tower with a parachute he designed that did not work.

One year later suffragette Emily Davison death was filmed in The 1913 Epsom Derby when she went on the racetrack and reached for the King of England's horse.

Two Russian military officers individually prevented nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union, two decades apart. In 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vasily Arkhipov was one of three commanding officers aboard a Soviet submarine when a miscommunication caused the men to believe war had already broken out between the Americans and the Soviets. Everyone was ready to launch nuclear torpedoes at U.S. submarines, but the concurrence of all three high-ranking officials was required, and Arkhipov refused to green-light the attack.

Similarly, in 1983, the Soviet early-warning radar system malfunctioned and gave the impression that an ICBM had been launched by the United States, followed by several other missiles. Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov correctly assumed it was a false alarm and disobeyed direct orders in the Soviet Air Defence Forces to retaliate by launching nuclear weapons at the United States, which would've almost certainly ignited World War III.

It's quite scary how close the world came at times...

Somebody seriously wrote up a longass paper on how big boobas are more aerodynamic than small ones. The title is "Analysis and Qualitative Effects of Large Breasts on Aerodynamic Performance and Wake of a Miss Kobayashis Dragon Maid Character" lol

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/0/5/AAPV5JAADSf9.jpg

After Gen. Douglas MacArthur vowed to return to the Philippines in the Second World War, chewing gum was manufactured with the three-word promise "I Shall Return" printed on it in order to boost the morale of local Filipino residents -- a constant reminder that America would be back.

Another bit of World War II trivia: the BBC would often begin its wartime radio broadcasts with the opening few notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (the well-known "bum-bum-bum BUM") because if you convert this into Morse code as dot-dot-dot-dash, you get the letter V, in this context symbolic for "Victory."

This little pupper has 5 legs (you can see the paw of the 5th one by the lady's right hand pinky finger)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/2/4/AAPV5JAADSxc.jpg

Germany uncovers 2,000 tons of unexploded bombs every year:

During World War II, the Allied forces dropped over a total of 2.7 million tons of bombs on Germany. Due to certain defects in their delay timers, a large number of bombs never explodedaround 10 percent, or 200,000 tons. As they've been discovered in years since, it's routine for German citizens to be evacuated from buildings or sectioned off on streets, while bomb experts handle the devices.

Sharks existed before trees:

Trees are young'ns compared to the geezer sharks that rule the sea. Sharks have existed for around 400 million years, while trees became their own official species only 350 million years ago. Other notable animals that outlive our leafy ancestors are the horseshoe crab as well as the jellyfish.

Learned today that actress Mila Kunis used to be addicted to World of Warcraft

Justice Friends was your favorite show ;)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/3/5/AAatkdAADTPT.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/1/4/AAZgIXAADS5G.jpg