Interesting facts

[RyQ_TMC]

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!"

I've heard that anecdote too many times, attributed to too many people to believe it anymore. It's always a woman who asks, the exchange is always the same, but the celebrity varies. So yeah, maybe TP really did have an experience like that, but I'm skeptical.

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...

I have that formula on the t-shirt I'm wearing right now...

As for my contribution: Copernicus' heliocentric theory was contested mainly on scientific, not religious grounds. It included several unfounded alterations to accepted constants (for example, it assumed the size of the universe to be several times larger than believed at the time) and wasn't that much simpler than the ptolemaeic (geocentric) system. It wasn't until Kepler showed that orbits are elliptical, not round, and until a timely supernova was used to prove that the firmament is not unchanging that the updated theory began to really take ground among natural philosophers. In fact, when Copernicus announced his model for the first time, it was widely criticized for mathematical errors. That's the reason why De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (the updated version which Copernicus spent several years working on) wasn't published until close to his death.

 

[ToffeeMC]

the only bit of trivia I have ever remembered fluently is one that I learnt from a car showroom warehouse ad. 'Cows can walk upstairs, but not downstairs'

 

[Lucky Godzilla]

Well I just finished up writing my paper on the Cuban Missile Crisis, and oh boy do I have some facts for you.

Interestingly enough, when the blockade was first erected, planners did not take into account the threat of Soviet submarines. It was only a day later that someone realized this may be an issue.

The proposed invasion of Cuba (which was unanimously decided to be the best course of action by the Joint Chief's) would have called for 14,500 paratroopers dropped in the first day (more than D-Day), 1,190 strike missions from the air force in the first day alone, and a projected 18,500 casualties in the first ten days of conflict. To prep for such an invasion, 100,000 army grunts were mobilized alongside 40,000 marines.

 

[EvilRoy]

I've got a couple I think, I'll start with the fun one and try to do a bit of digging to confirm the other one before posting it.

So 'Alice in Wonderland', crazy right? Well, oddly enough it might be a little bit more sane (although substantially less mature) than most people think. The book is actually now believed to have little to do with getting in a adolescents pants (maybe just a side bonus for Dodgson), and less to do with drugs.

The story has more to do with Dodgsons' fierce opposition to the use of irrational and imaginary numbers in mathematics as well as his views on non-euclidean geometry and algebra, which had recently started to come in vogue (yeah, there are fads in the sciences, ours are just a bit weirder) with mathematicians at many prominent institutions.

Yes, Reverend Dodgson, a math tutor, wrote a great big book making fun of the recent (relative to him) developments in mathematics. It is now a childhood classic that has been translated to nearly 100 different languages and hasn't gone out of print once in about 150 years.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Dogs can't look up.

Dogs can look up, they may not be able to crane their neck as far back as we can, but you try arching your head straight up while keeping your spine on a horizontal plane.

In fact, dogs have a greater degree of movement with their neck then we do with ours (both vertically and horizontally, and without considering spinal flexibility).

Given that, way back in the past, there were genuine threats to dogs ancestors (pre-wolves) that could come swooping down from the sky, it wouldn't have made sense on an evolutionary standpoint for dogs to not evolve with such an ability.

Certain breeds have greater flexibility then others and the dogs posture (standing or sitting) come into play too. But they can definitely look up. Generally they won't though, since dogs aren't much for stargazing.

EDIT: While not a great example, it's too adorable not to post:

Whose a cute doggy woggy!

 

[Bobic]

Here's my interesting fact. Approximately 75% of interesting facts read on the internet are a load of bull. As evidenced already by people in this thread.

But, I suppose I should throw my hat in the ring with something proper too.

Wacky scientists are creating a power plant that creates, and harnesses a tornado, to generate power. In case creating natural disasters didn't seem dangerous enough on its own, these tornadoes may be created in the proximity of nuclear power plants, to take advantage of their excess heat.

Source: A comedy non fiction book written by a cracked columnist, much better source than a random website, honest.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Everything-Going-Kill-Everybody-Terrifyingly/dp/0307464342/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369850812&sr=8-1&keywords=everything+is+going+to+kill+everybody

Also, this website I found on google.

http://vortexengine.ca/english.shtml

 

[NoMercy Rider]

I can't validate this random trivia, but have heard the same factoid from multiple sources. The reason for the British driving on the left side of the road dates back to the era when nobles and royalty traveled by chariot. During these travels, the chariot was often accompanied by a small group of swordsman. If the chariot was on the left side of the road, the swordsmen would be able to use their strong hand (right hand) to wield their sword and easily fend off any potential attackers. If the chariot was on the right side of the road, the swordsmen would either have to use their weak hand or attack across their body, putting them at a huge disadvantage.

And thus, driving on the left side of the road has lasted for all these generations. The only reason I doubt this claim is why wouldn't other European countries adopt this same strategy? Maybe someone else can either support or deny this claim.

 

[Da Orky Man]

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

Aren't you forgetting something? The Greek colony of Syracuse on Sicily, thanks to the mad scientist known as Archimedes:


They also had heat rays and giant claws, and used them to kill, main and burn as many Romans in as little time as possible?

 

[Auron225]

the only bit of trivia I have ever remembered fluently is one that I learnt from a car showroom warehouse ad. 'Cows can walk upstairs, but not downstairs'

Damn, ninja'd =S

OT: In Alaska, it's illegal to push a moose out of a moving plane. Don't ask me why on earth this law needs to exist but apparently it does!

Here's my interesting fact. Approximately 75% of interesting facts read on the internet are a load of bull.

Does that include this one? =P

 

[Da Orky Man]

I can't validate this random trivia, but have heard the same factoid from multiple sources. The reason for the British driving on the left side of the road dates back to the era when nobles and royalty traveled by chariot. During these travels, the chariot was often accompanied by a small group of swordsman. If the chariot was on the left side of the road, the swordsmen would be able to use their strong hand (right hand) to wield their sword and easily fend off any potential attackers. If the chariot was on the right side of the road, the swordsmen would either have to use their weak hand or attack across their body, putting them at a huge disadvantage.

And thus, driving on the left side of the road has lasted for all these generations. The only reason I doubt this claim is why wouldn't other European countries adopt this same strategy? Maybe someone else can either support or deny this claim.

Originally, everyone tended to drive in the left because most are right-handed, so you can keep you sword closer to any people passing by. However when Napoleon started conquering everything he could find, he got his armies to walk on the right because Napoleon himself was left-handed, so marching on the right meant he was safer from his own soldiers. From then on, anywhere the British colonised drove on the left, and the French, on the right.
However, when the US split away, they wanted to cast ties off with Britain, so adopted the French way. Due to America's economic dominance and strong car industry, in the 20th century, most of the world proceeded to switch to the right.

 

[SecondPrize]

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...

That's exceptionally cute but... I don't think that makes up for seal murder, rape and necrophilia.

OT: If you are attempting to kill or catch a motionless fly, swing at it from an angle starting slightly ahead of it, as flies always take off at an angle, moving forward and gaining elevation at the same time.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Whilst not interesting facts per se, people often try to sound philosophical by asking philosophical sounding questions which have obvious answers.

- 'Which came first: the chicken or the egg?'. The answer is egg, reptiles mostly lay eggs and were chilling on Earth before birds showed up on the scene.

- 'Is the glass half empty or half full?' It's both. One half is empty and the other half is full.

If you want weird interesting facts then you need to checkout www.qi.com, apparently happy dogs wag their tail to the right and sad dogs to the left.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

Fact: Many people believe the initials ER that are found on British post boxes stand for "Elizabeth's Reign" in reference to our current queen.

The words are actually latin and they stand for "Elizabeth Regina" which literally means Queen Elizabeth. The same goes for the older ones which sport GR or VR - "George Rex" and "Victoria Regina" or King George and Queen Victoria respectively.

Fact: Over half of the London Underground is actually overground.

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

George Stephenson built the Stockton and Darlington Railway to a 4ft 8ich gauge simply to match the width already employed on the various horse-drawn wagonways in the mines. It seems the chosen gauge was more incidental than anything else. An extra half inch was added some years later to alleviate problems on curves.

Then Isambard Kingdom Brunel comes along and decides to build his railways to a 7 foot and quarter inch gauge simply because it offered greater stability. This was known as broad gauge but it died out some years later as standard gauge had been adopted more widely and transitioning between the two was found to be a nightmare. I believe a law was actually passed which forbade the construction of further broad gauge lines.

Then of course there are all the various narrow gauge lines...

I dunno. Rats can't vomit?

Neither can horses.

 

[TBman]

echidnas have backwards rear legs and a 4 headed penis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIPgY_xtRw8

 

[klaynexas3]

Salvador Dali did cocaine with Sigmund Freud.

I thought that was an interesting little tid bit.

 

[kailus13]

The USSR suffered the highest losses in the second world war. China suffered the second highest.

 

[Legion]

Dogs can't look up.

Dogs can look up, they may not be able to crane their neck as far back as we can, but you try arching your head straight up while keeping your spine on a horizontal plane.

In fact, dogs have a greater degree of movement with their neck then we do with ours (both vertically and horizontally, and without considering spinal flexibility).

Given that, way back in the past, there were genuine threats to dogs ancestors (pre-wolves) that could come swooping down from the sky, it wouldn't have made sense on an evolutionary standpoint for dogs to not evolve with such an ability.

Certain breeds have greater flexibility then others and the dogs posture (standing or sitting) come into play too. But they can definitely look up. Generally they won't though, since dogs aren't much for stargazing.

EDIT: While not a great example, it's too adorable not to post:

Spoiler

Whose a cute doggy woggy!

May I politely suggest watching the film 'Shaun of the Dead'.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Dogs can't look up.

Dogs can look up, they may not be able to crane their neck as far back as we can, but you try arching your head straight up while keeping your spine on a horizontal plane.

In fact, dogs have a greater degree of movement with their neck then we do with ours (both vertically and horizontally, and without considering spinal flexibility).

Given that, way back in the past, there were genuine threats to dogs ancestors (pre-wolves) that could come swooping down from the sky, it wouldn't have made sense on an evolutionary standpoint for dogs to not evolve with such an ability.

Certain breeds have greater flexibility then others and the dogs posture (standing or sitting) come into play too. But they can definitely look up. Generally they won't though, since dogs aren't much for stargazing.

EDIT: While not a great example, it's too adorable not to post:

Spoiler

Whose a cute doggy woggy!

May I politely suggest watching the film 'Shaun of the Dead'.

So you made an offbeat reference to shaun of the dead. Sorry if I wasn't able to sync up with your train of thought, but there is a large number of people who DO claim that dogs can't look up. It's not something isolated to shaun of the dead so you can see how I might not have figured it out. Maybe if you said something like "Big Al says Dog can't look up" I might have got a clue.

Sorry if I spoiled your attempt at quirky in-jokes. But unless that film was a persons only experience of that notion, then chances are few people will make the association.

 

[Kenbo Slice]

True Romance and Natural Born Killers were written as one movie before being split into two seperate movies.