Interesting facts

[Da Orky Man]

Tell us of an interesting fact you picked up during your trawl through life, something that most of us had no idea about.

Mine:
Before decimalization in the UK, the sign for penny was 'd'. This, at first, would make no sense.
However, the 'd' stands for denarius, a Roman coin, and is one of the lasting legacies of the Roman Empire.

Post you facts, tidbits, credit card details and mother's maiden name below!

 

[Daystar Clarion]

The masses never thought the world was flat. It was established very early that the world was round.

Well, unless you count the Flat Earth Society, but those guys are craaaaaaaaaazy.

 

[Trivun]

The masses never thought the world was flat. It was established very early that the world was round.

Well, unless you count the Flat Earth Society, but those goes are craaaaaaaaaazy.

A woman once spoke to Terry Pratchett (according to an interview he gave) after he poked fun at those who believe the world really is flat. She told him that he was wrong, and that the Earth really is like the Discworld. When he countered "then what does the turtle stand on", the woman replied "you think you're so smart, sonny. But it's turtles all the way down!"

That's my tidbit, sort of. Oh, here's another. There presumably exists a scientific formula somewhere that gives the exact velocity of an unladen swallow, but the variables are highly dependent on the start and end velocity, the mass of said swallow, the species and all sorts of physical factors, and indeed whether or not it is truly unladen...

 

[King Billi]

At last! The time has come in which I am finally able to unleash all the many compiled facts that so many episodes of QI have embedded in my brain...

Dammit I got nothing.


Capcha: you can do this

 

[King Billi]

Ah ha! I think I've got something.

Apparently skiing as a human activity is older than horseriding.

 

[SSJBlastoise]

Otters have a very evil side. Everyone thinks they are cute and harmless creatures right? Well, they're not, especially if you're a baby seal.

Spoiler: Spoilered quote for being a bit long and kinda disturbing

A weaned harbor seal pup was resting onshore when an untagged male sea otter approached it, grasped it with its teeth and forepaws, bit it on the nose, and flipped it over. The harbor seal moved toward the water with the sea otter following closely. Once in the water, the sea otter gripped the harbor seal?s head with its forepaws and repeatedly bit it on the nose, causing a deep laceration. The sea otter and pup rolled violently in the water for approximately 15 min, while the pup struggled to free itself from the sea otter?s grasp. Finally, the sea otter positioned itself dorsal to the pup?s smaller body while grasping it by the head and holding it underwater in a position typical of mating sea otters. As the sea otter thrust his pelvis, his penis was extruded and intromission was observed. At 105 min into the encounter, the sea otter released the pup, now dead, and began grooming.

On some occasions, they further note, otters would guard and copulate with the seals long after their victims had died -? as much as seven days afterward, in fact.

Anyway, long story short, otters sometimes rape and kill baby seals and may even rape them some more when they are dead.

Not quite sure how this came up in our philosophy class but I think it started with talking about whether or not animals had morals.

 

[freaper]

The masses never thought the world was flat. It was established very early that the world was round.

Well, unless you count the Flat Earth Society, but those guys are craaaaaaaaaazy.

Yep. That's why the orb-with-cross [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globus_cruciger] so many kings and emperors held, was round.

Spoiler: This one for example

 

[b3nn3tt]

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and nobody has yet been able to explain why.

Randomly found this on a website of useless trivia, and has since become my favourite random fact. Not that I often get an opportunity to drop said random fact in conversation, but it's always fun to pull out when the time is appropriate.

EDIT: Well bugger. It would appear that my useless trivia is even more useless than before, on account of being untrue. Back to the internet in search of a different random fact for occasions such as these. I will await the next thread of this nature eagerly.

 

[A_Parked_Car]

The regular gasoline (87-octane) that we put in our cars today was actually high-grade aviation fuel in the 1930s and '40s.

 

[VoidWanderer]

Do you know why train tracks are as wide as they are? It is the same width as two horses standing side-by-side...

 

[tardcore]

While two wrongs don't make a right, three rights make a left.

And, no matter where you go, there you are.

 

[Tortilla the Hun]

Well, I do wonder how many people have yet to hear of the quokka, until now at any rate.

Spoiler: They are believed to be the happiest animals in existence.

 

[Altorin]

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and nobody has yet been able to explain why.

Randomly found this on a website of useless trivia, and has since become my favourite random fact. Not that I often get an opportunity to drop said random fact in conversation, but it's always fun to pull out when the time is appropriate.

the mythbusters concluded that was not correct, but found it a very hard myth to bust just because the nature of ducks and the strangeness in scientifically measuring an echo, and honestly it's one I'm not positive they're right about, just because their experiments were so bungled. But there it is.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and nobody has yet been able to explain why.

Randomly found this on a website of useless trivia, and has since become my favourite random fact. Not that I often get an opportunity to drop said random fact in conversation, but it's always fun to pull out when the time is appropriate.

Its unfortunately not true. A duck's quack echoes just as much as any other sound. There were scientists who brought a duck into a cathedral and listened for the echoes when it quacked and they existed. Apparently even scientists get bored...

The ancient Greeks had an interesting weapon described by the historian Thucydides as being long tubes, with bellows at one end and a brazier at the other. When the bellows were squeezed the air through the pipe caused a rush of flame when they reached the brazier. For ease of moving them about they were mounted on cart wheels, and to protects the users from arrows they were given a surrounding structure of wood and hide to act as armour.
Yes, thats right. The ancient Greeks had flame-throwing tanks

 

[Radoh]

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and nobody has yet been able to explain why.

Randomly found this on a website of useless trivia, and has since become my favourite random fact. Not that I often get an opportunity to drop said random fact in conversation, but it's always fun to pull out when the time is appropriate.

A duck's quack DOES echo, it's just that the quack itself sounds like an echo enough to mask the real echo.
Mythbusters did a thing on it.

Additionally, a Strawberry has more Vitamin C than an Orange, Florida is larger than the whole of the UK, the human heart is capable of shooting blood twenty feet into the air, masturbation has numerous health benefits, watching porn but not masturbating before a workout greatly improves the workout's effectiveness, and Dolphins are actually extremely violent creatures.

 

[Legion]

Goldfish don't actually have poor memories, it's a myth. Different studies have shown under various conditions that they can associative items with being fed (so expect food whenever they see it) as well as remember feeding times.

Dogs can't look up.

 

[VladG]

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and nobody has yet been able to explain why.

Randomly found this on a website of useless trivia, and has since become my favourite random fact. Not that I often get an opportunity to drop said random fact in conversation, but it's always fun to pull out when the time is appropriate.

And like a lot of random factoids, It's wrong.

It would be impossible for a sound wave not to reverberate where other sound waves would. Just stands to reason.


And there's my fact: The echo of a duck's quack is extremely similar to the main noise, it's very hard to tell them apart.


Ah, what the heck, here's another one: The total surface area of an average adult's lungs is around 70 square meters. That's more surface area than a small 3 room apartment.

 

[xplosive59]

Otters have a very evil side. Everyone thinks they are cute and harmless creatures right? Well, they're not, especially if you're a baby seal.

Spoiler: Spoilered quote for being a bit long and kinda disturbing

A weaned harbor seal pup was resting onshore when an untagged male sea otter approached it, grasped it with its teeth and forepaws, bit it on the nose, and flipped it over. The harbor seal moved toward the water with the sea otter following closely. Once in the water, the sea otter gripped the harbor seal?s head with its forepaws and repeatedly bit it on the nose, causing a deep laceration. The sea otter and pup rolled violently in the water for approximately 15 min, while the pup struggled to free itself from the sea otter?s grasp. Finally, the sea otter positioned itself dorsal to the pup?s smaller body while grasping it by the head and holding it underwater in a position typical of mating sea otters. As the sea otter thrust his pelvis, his penis was extruded and intromission was observed. At 105 min into the encounter, the sea otter released the pup, now dead, and began grooming.

On some occasions, they further note, otters would guard and copulate with the seals long after their victims had died -? as much as seven days afterward, in fact.

Anyway, long story short, otters sometimes rape and kill baby seals and may even rape them some more when they are dead.

Not quite sure how this came up in our philosophy class but I think it started with talking about whether or not animals had morals.

Yeah but...

 

[bafrali]

"Here's an interesting fact: you're not breathing real air. It's too expensive to pump this far down. We just take carbon dioxide out of a room, freshen it up a little, and pump it back in. So you'll be breathing the same room full of air for the rest of your life. I thought that was interesting."

I dunno. Rats can't vomit?

 

[iampenguinlord]

The masses never thought the world was flat. It was established very early that the world was round.

Well, unless you count the Flat Earth Society, but those goes are craaaaaaaaaazy.

A woman once spoke to Terry Pratchett (according to an interview he gave) after he poked fun at those who believe the world really is flat. She told him that he was wrong, and that the Earth really is like the Discworld. When he countered "then what does the turtle stand on", the woman replied "you think you're so smart, sonny. But it's turtles all the way down!"

That's my tidbit, sort of. Oh, here's another. There presumably exists a scientific formula somewhere that gives the exact velocity of an unladen swallow, but the variables are highly dependent on the start and end velocity, the mass of said swallow, the species and all sorts of physical factors, and indeed whether or not it is truly unladen...

That story also featured in a book by Stephen Hawking, except it was a scientist giving a lecture on astronomy. However the story and idea dates back to at least 1779.

An interesting fact: Around half of the people who have ever lived were killed by mosquitoes. Female mosquitoes (the ones that bite humans) can carry hundreds of fatal diseases.