What Fact Shocked You The Most

[klakkat]

Wouldn't the bacteria/viruses that are excreted be pretty much harmless because of the immune-systems response? Other people would still see it as a threat, but would your own body still see it as a threat after being excreted and taken in again?

It would depend on the bacteria; if is something that occurs naturally in only a very specific part of your body (for whatever reason) and then it is ejected in urine, then drinking it is possibly harmful as it gets to parts of the body it wasn't supposed to. I know its more common with feces than urine, and rare with urine, if it occurs at all (I know it's *possible* but I don't know if it does occur with urine; not a bacteriologist). Viruses shouldn't matter; they work on DNA which will be the same throughout the body.

 

[klakkat]

*deleted by author for redundancy*

 

[klakkat]

The weight of the light that our sun shines is 4 million tons per second.

That is either "energy equivalent" or it particulate matter. Light does not have mass, which means it can't have weight (mass and weight are very different).

I could probably look up the actual details of that statistic somewhere, but I'm too lazy. However, yes, the sun is losing mass in the neighborhood of a million tons per second (pathetically slowly compared to how much it has, but the number sounds big, doesn't it?).

Another fun fact: Humans generate 26 times as much energy as the Sun per unit volume.

 

[klakkat]

That maggots only eat dead flesh and are ideal for cleaning wounds. Completely knocked me on my ass i can tell you.

They generally eat dead flesh first, so used responsibly they can be used to clean wounds. However, they WILL eat live flesh. I've seen maggots kill animals before (it is rare) when they get into a wound.

 

[klakkat]

Sharks for all we fear them hate the taste of human. They will spit it out if they take a chunk from us. Sadly they take large chunks and most likly orgins that we need to you know survive.

I knew this. Most reasons for shark attack are that we are mistaken for seals, and whe nsharks get a mouthfull of scrawy bones instead of nice blubber they just spit it out but the blood then drives them crazy.
But yes they do take quite large mouthfulls.

More people die to wild pigs every year than sharks.

Also, an average of 2 people per year die to Sting Rays. So Steve Erwin either completely ran out of luck or did something stupid there...

Sudden topic shift: Ironically, us "lazy" Americans have the longest working year and work the most hours per week out of any developed country, and are one of very few nations that do not have vacation time mandated by law (most countries have between 1 and 5 weeks per year vacation, guaranteed by law).

Sidenote: I've seen a guy work 105 hours in one week. Voluntarily; he was saving up for a trip to Vegas...

 

[klakkat]

Of course this is a total fabrication, and myth. Spiders like dry, calm, and quite environments. Your mouth is none of these things. The only spider you are ever at risk of ingesting, inhaling, or eating would be a the fresh hatched floating through the air on a string of silk. Those that pop out late spring, and you can usually see running around in a massive pile of tiny spiders on silk they tried to use to launch, but failed cause it stuck to shit around them.

Edit: I spent a while reading over the facts on this thread and most of them are false. Just urban myths.

Cocaine in coke (cause of ingredients, not as an additive) is true, and drug related ones (aside from illegal drugs) tend more towards being true. Everything else should be taken with a grain of salt.

I'm pretty sure the truth to the Coke thing is that cocaine WAS an ingredient, but has not been for some time (they stopped either before or right when cocaine was illegalized, I'm unsure on that point. Addictive qualities were low, but present). I could be mistaken about them still using it as an ingredient, but it's not like there is cocaine in Coke now.

And as for bugs... Other than the flies and a few others, they don't carry diseases that humans can catch, and they have a higher protein density than meat. So eating bugs is (usually) good for you. Just avoid those disease bearing ones... I actually intend to try chocolate covered ants at some point, but they're hard to find.

Oh yeah, shocking. Rocky Mountain Oysters are considered a delicacy by some in this state. They're cow balls. This is NOT a joke; wiki it.

 

[klakkat]

You really should wonder that as the spider thing is just an urban myth. I posted that right above the your post I am now quoting. When you really think about it, then you can start to wonder how anyone can actually believe a myth as silly as that one. It is like glass being a slow moving liquid, and other facts that people accept that you would realize was false if you just gave them a moments thought.

Heh. I'm amazed at how many people believe the myth that glass is a slow moving liquid. It's pretty funny really. And before anyone comes up with whatever flawed arguments the feel like, yes, I HAVE personally done the materials research on glass, and even some historical research on the flaws with the arguments supporting the myth.

Christ. I didn't mean to post that many in a row. That's what I get for reading the whole thread in one sitting, I suppose.

 

[klakkat]

Sorry for the misspelling, but my father has colitis and he was told that he recieved it because he stopped smoking and there are literally ZERO smokers who suffer from it, cigarettes put it into remission. Colitis is an over reaction of the immune system causing inflammation, so simply redirect the immune system to fighting cigarettes and boom, problem solved.

The other medicines for colitis are more damaging, one gives lymphoma, the other did something to my Dad's liver and his pancreas, and when he stopped taking the medicine, it went away.

Do you know if its the nicotine itself that's reducing the inflammation? If so, it would be considerably safer to switch to nicotine patches or gum. Worth asking your doctor about, at least.

 

[Toners]

Most of the post had already been debunked, please read the rest of the thread ¬.¬
EDIT: and for God's sake, child, use the edit function... I'm almost tempted to report that O.O

 

[klakkat]

Most of the post had already been debunked, please read the rest of the thread ¬.¬
EDIT: and for God's sake, child, use the edit function... I'm almost tempted to report that O.O

Yeah, deleted it. I've read through now, I hadn't at that point, sorry. You can probably delete all the stuff you quoted me on from your post, that's just wasting text too

 

[Toners]

Most of the post had already been debunked, please read the rest of the thread ¬.¬
EDIT: and for God's sake, child, use the edit function... I'm almost tempted to report that O.O

Yeah, deleted it. I've read through now, I hadn't at that point, sorry. You can probably delete all the stuff you quoted me on from your post, that's just wasting text too

I didn't report it, so you're good I think
and yeah, deleted vast portions of text from original post ^.^
could have used spoiler tags, I just thought it wasn't particularly worth it
EDIT: actually... I was referring to the previous 8 posts. You should probably condense that down into one, otherwise it's considered spamming (which is what I was originally worried about, the admins are pretty strict on that kinda thing)

 

[Redingold]

The facts that most surprised me were a bunch in the QI 'E' anual on the amount of unwanted insect and animal matter you're legally alowed to sell in food, i'd copy it up but i 'friend' scabbed it and never gave it back. Can someone fill in for me?

Certainly.

Permitted levels of shit allowed in your food in the USA:

Frozen broccoli:
60 aphids and/or thrips and/or mites per 100 grams

Curry powder:
100 insect fragments per 25 grams + 4 rodent hairs

Chopped dates:
5 insects or the equivalent in insect fragments per 100 grams

Hops:
2,500 aphids per 100 grams

Dried mushrooms:
20 maggots and 75 mites per 15 grams

Peanut butter:
30 insect fragments + 1 rodent hair per 100 grams

Ground pepper:
475 insect fragments + 1 rodent hair per 50 grams

Whole pepper:
1 milligram of mammal droppings per pound

Pizza sauce/tomato paste:
30 fruit fly eggs per 100 grams or 15 eggs and 1 maggot or 2 maggots

Golden raisins:
10 whole insects or the equivalent in bits + 35 fruit fly eggs per 8 ounces

Sauerkraut:
50 thrips per 100 grams

Sesame seeds:
5 milligrams of mammal droppings per pound

Canned or frozen spinach:
50 aphids and/or thrips and/or mites per 100 grams

Tinned tomatoes:
10 fruit fly eggs per 100 grams or 5 eggs + 1 maggot or 2 maggots

Ground thyme:
925 insect fragments per 10 grams + 2 rodent hairs

Wheat flour:
75 insect fragments + 1 rodent hair per 50 grams

I'm glad I'm not American.

 

[Redingold]

Violin strings were once made from cat guts.

No, they weren't. They were made of sheep guts. The catgut thing was to stop anybody copying the Italian string-makers, because killing cats was unlucky.

 

[Redingold]

it is spider silk is the strongest substance known to man. Im just going off the top of my head but it you had a 1 inch thick cable made out of spider silk, you would need a 10 inch thick steel cable to be as strong

4 words.

Aggregated carbon nano rods. Scratches diamonds easily.

 

[Redingold]

JRCB, it would not take about 1.25 seconds for light to get from the earth to the moon. It would take 0.00 seconds to go that far. Look up the Gamma Factor

What's that? The speed of light is a fundamental constant, an unbreakable speed limit (non-locality aside). I think that the Uncertainty Principle allows things to violate the speed of light in extreme conditions, which is how Hawking radiation escapes black holes.

 

[Avida]

Certainly.

Permitted levels of shit allowed in your food in the USA:

Frozen broccoli:
60 aphids and/or thrips and/or mites per 100 grams

Curry powder:
100 insect fragments per 25 grams + 4 rodent hairs

Chopped dates:
5 insects or the equivalent in insect fragments per 100 grams

Hops:
2,500 aphids per 100 grams

Dried mushrooms:
20 maggots and 75 mites per 15 grams

Peanut butter:
30 insect fragments + 1 rodent hair per 100 grams

Ground pepper:
475 insect fragments + 1 rodent hair per 50 grams

Whole pepper:
1 milligram of mammal droppings per pound

Pizza sauce/tomato paste:
30 fruit fly eggs per 100 grams or 15 eggs and 1 maggot or 2 maggots

Golden raisins:
10 whole insects or the equivalent in bits + 35 fruit fly eggs per 8 ounces

Sauerkraut:
50 thrips per 100 grams

Sesame seeds:
5 milligrams of mammal droppings per pound

Canned or frozen spinach:
50 aphids and/or thrips and/or mites per 100 grams

Tinned tomatoes:
10 fruit fly eggs per 100 grams or 5 eggs + 1 maggot or 2 maggots

Ground thyme:
925 insect fragments per 10 grams + 2 rodent hairs

Wheat flour:
75 insect fragments + 1 rodent hair per 50 grams

I'm glad I'm not American.

*shudder*, kudos for having the book by the way.

By the way i always though "Golden raisins: 10 whole insects or the equivalent in bits" was hilarious, makes me think theres some horrible jigsaw going on in soting factories.

 

[Nerethos]

JRCB, it would not take about 1.25 seconds for light to get from the earth to the moon. It would take 0.00 seconds to go that far. Look up the Gamma Factor

What's that? The speed of light is a fundamental constant, an unbreakable speed limit (non-locality aside). I think that the Uncertainty Principle allows things to violate the speed of light in extreme conditions, which is how Hawking radiation escapes black holes.

Sorry, after I posted it I remembered that if you were at the light's perspective, it would take 0.00 seconds due to time dilation. To everyone else it would be 1.25 seconds.

 

[minarri]

Cigarette Smoke cures Ulcerative Colitis and Crone's disease.

LOL Crone's Disease? Is that a disease that turns you into a shriveled old lady?

Yeah I really doubt that colitis and Crohn's Disease would be cured by something so harmful

Sorry for the misspelling, but my father has colitis and he was told that he recieved it because he stopped smoking and there are literally ZERO smokers who suffer from it, cigarettes put it into remission. Colitis is an over reaction of the immune system causing inflammation, so simply redirect the immune system to fighting cigarettes and boom, problem solved.

The other medicines for colitis are more damaging, one gives lymphoma, the other did something to my Dad's liver and his pancreas, and when he stopped taking the medicine, it went away.

I was just poking fun at the misspelling; no hard feelings. After all, "crone" isn't a word you see every day!

I won't dispute that smokers who quit may then develop the conditions. However, while beginning to smoke once more may reduce the symptoms of the diseases, even if you ignore the fact that you're pumping carcinogens and particulates into your body to my knowledge there's no real evidence to suggest that smoking cures anything (holy overly-lengthy sentence).

Unfortunately drug development is a tricky thing: do you rush drugs to the market in an effort to save (or improve) as many lives as possible, or do you first submit to lifelong studies to investigate the possible side effects? There's no right answer. Personally I'd rather expose myself to the possible serious side effects of a drug than to something that will positively cause health problems (smoking). But since that's an opinion I neither have the right nor wish to say that your or your father are mistaken in thinking otherwise.

 

[Ghost]

LOL @ octuple (if that's what 8 of them is referred to) and quadruple post above

i find this interesting and disgusting, Earwigs have two penises (at least one variety does), and 2 huge ones may i add, the size of their body apparently...

it's ok to be jealous of a tiny insect, don't worry.

EDIT:

"Did you know that the average chocolate bar in the U.S. contains at least 8 pieces of an insect in it? Harvesting of the cacao beans occurs in the tropical countries of South America with low sanitation levels. Cacao tree beans are cut and piled in the farmer's field where they ferment for 6 days. During this process, children and adults walk over the piles; insects, rodents, small animals and other living things that make their nests in the piles. Actually the The U. S. Department of Health publishes a book entitled "The Food Defect Action Levels" in which they list unavoidable defects in food (insect, rodents etc.) all allowed by FDA."

i never believed the old 'better not eat that chocolate bar, it has 8 spider legs in it!' thing, but i guess it could easily be true ;_;

(also why 8 spider LEGS? presumably the spider abandoned its body and head before leaping into the pile of fermenting cacao beans? or is the body so mashed up into the chocolate we never notice?)