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rebbel's avatar

What fun, lesser known, or plain interesting fact can you diss up?

Asked by rebbel (35553points) February 20th, 2022

Something that you’ve learned recently, and that made you go “wow!”
Or something you already stored twenty, thirty, fourty, fifty years ago, but can recall very vividly because of its rarity?

The Arctic has polar bears, Antarctica has not.
Arctic comes from arktos which is Greek for bear.
Anti-Arctic (Antarctic) is the opposite of Arctic.
And coincidentally there’s no bears there.

I learned about anti for the first time when we travelled from Patras to Athens, by train, and we passed a modern bridge, called the Rion-Antirion bridge, which connects Rion with Antirion (which, you guessed it, means “opposite of Rion”.

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31 Answers

Dutchess_III's avatar

“Mites are microscopic. The smallest one is only one third as wide as a human hair. Experts estimate that around 1.5 million of them live on the average human body. Mites are part of the arachnid family.”
Arachnid=spider.
Sleep well!

Blackwater_Park's avatar

The average person passes gas around ten times a day.

kritiper's avatar

2019: 60,000 babies die in India every yer due to antibiotic resistant infections. – 60 Minute report.

In 1878, 1 billion passenger pigeons were killed.

If your eyes burn when swimming in a chlorinated pool, it means someone peed in the pool.

Nova discovered on Feb 23, 1987 exploded outward at approximately 13,889 miles per second.

15 million tons of trash and garbage enter our oceans EVERY YEAR! (8–10 million tons are plastic.)

The problem with being innocent is that you don’t know what happened.

“Never debate with an amateur; they’ll kill you every time.” – Wm. F. Buckley

May 19, 2016 Report on PBS said superbugs would kill more people than cancer by 2050 if overuse of antibiotics not controlled.

Travel from Earth to the sun @ 1000 MPH and it will take you 10 years,
Travel from Pluto to the sun @1000 MPH and it will take you 450 years.

Revenge is a temporary pleasure, but a pleasure nonetheless.

A new invasive species comes into San Francisco Bay at the rate of 1 every 14 days.

“A man who refuses to reason is a fool.
A man who can’t reason is a liar.
And a man who won’t reason isn’t a man at all.” – unknown

“Despite widespread concern over global warming, humans are adding carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere even faster than in the 1990’s. Carbon emissions are growing by 3.5% a year, and no part of the world has had a decline in emissions.” – Associated Press, found in The Week magazine, Feb. 27, 2009

Dutchess_III's avatar

If your eyes burn when you’re swimming in a chlorinated pool it’s because you’re swimming with your eyes open and chlorine is getting on them. No way in hell would someone peeing in a pool affect a single thing. It would be almost instantly dispersed throughout the whole pool.

ragingloli's avatar

The parasitic Cordyceps fungus, which afflicts ants, does not actually destroy the ant’s brain, but hooks directly into the motor system of the brain, puppeterring the ant, while the ant is fully aware of what is going on.

Dutchess_III's avatar

^^^^ Ohhhh. I’ve heard about that.

rebbel's avatar

Keep ‘m coming!

Also: If one goes to a pool to swim, one swims in pee.

ragingloli's avatar

Spiders use their spider webs not only to trap prey, but they also use it as a giant ear drum.

HP's avatar

I think I already mentioned this but the teaching profession for our public schools now has such an onerous patina that 19 states have school districts now importing teachers from the Philippines.

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

Male Calico cats can not reproduce. Sorry Garfield.

kritiper's avatar

There are also no male calico cats. For the most part, they are all female.

LostInParadise's avatar

In mathematics, there is no way of distinguishing the imaginary number i from -i. If you take any equation with i and -i terns and swap i and -i everywhere in the equation, the equation still holds.

Brian1946's avatar

The government of Bhutan has a history of basing political decisions on a Gross National Happiness (GNH) index, and abandoning economic growth as their compass. It’s the only country in the world to make such a switch and the first country to become carbon negative.

Brian1946's avatar

The first movie to be dubbed in a Native American language was not Dances With Wolves.

On July 3, 2013, the 1977 film “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” premiered in Navajo. While Native American languages had appeared in films prior to this, “Star Wars” was the first major motion picture to be completely dubbed in an Indigineous American language. A collaboration between Lucasfilm and museum director Manuelito Wheeler of the Navajo Nation, the project was born out of an idea Wheeler had to preserve the Navajo language.

Indigenous languages are rapidly dying out all over the world, with some spoken by only a few remaining elders. In many ways, film is an ideal medium to help preserve these languages. That said, it’s not always easy work, especially when you have to translate words like “droid” and “lightsaber.” (The “Star Wars” team used Navajo phrases meaning “metal that is alive” and “sword of light.”) In the years since the release of Wheeler’s “Star Wars” project, other films have also been dubbed into Navajo, and many brand-new Indigineous language films have been produced.

Brian1946's avatar

Alfred Hitchcock was barred from filming in Disneyland by Walt Disney himself.

In 1960, Hitchcock was coming off the success of “North By Northwest” (1959) and was working on a suspense-thriller called “The Blind Man.” Hitchcock planned to shoot some of the film in the “most magical place on Earth,” but Walt Disney himself quickly threw a wrench in that plan. Why? Disney despised Alfred Hitchcock’s hit film “Psycho” (1960).

When Disney first read about Hitchcock’s plans in the papers, some reports say he called the movie “Psycho” disgusting — particularly the infamous shower scene — and subsequently barred the famed director from shooting his film in Disneyland. What can we say? Apparently, everyone’s a critic!

Brian1946's avatar

1 degree of latitude=69.17 miles, so the circumference of the 89th parallel is approximately 435 miles.

1 minute of latitude=1 nautical mile.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Growing up our neighbors had a female calico. The just let the poor thing have litter after litter after litter, for years, hoping for a male calico.
To their frustration all the kittens looked like our nondescript, yellow tabby tom.
Poor momma cat.

Brian1946's avatar

I first heard Jessica Simpson about 20 years ago. Today I found out that she can sing. :-o

Mimishu1995's avatar

@RedDeerGuy1 actually Garfield is an orange tabby. Calico cats would have black and orange spots randomly distributed on their coats. Garfield only has a solid orange coat with stripes.

And 80% of orange tabbies are male. So the existence of Garfield is totally realistic ;)

And also Garfield seems to be an exotic shorthair, which is a blend of American Shorthair and Persian. This breed is mostly laid-back, loving and lazy. I think that really fits Garfield’s description, except for loving. Maybe the reason why Garfield and Jon don’t get along is because Jon is clueless of how cats behave?

Mimishu1995's avatar

@Dutchess_III Sleep well!

I can sleep well tonight. I already know our body is inhabited by millions of little species. Our belly button holds more species than the Amazon forest.

If anything this just further tells me that our body is much more resilient than we think. And we also need some of the species in our body because that’s where our immune system gets their training from.

Isn’t that amazing that I’m feeling healthy, and sitting and typing to you, while my body is inhabited by some creatures that could have killed me but don’t?

Mimishu1995's avatar

@Brian1946 to be fair I don’t think Hickcock should film in Disneyland either. Disney is supposed to be a child-friendly company, and Hickcock’s films contain mature themes that not every child can stomach. He should show his films to somewhere else where there are audience that actually appreciate his films as the masterpiece that they are.

If I remember it correctly, in 2005, Disney had a plan for a cartoon called Fraidy Cat, which was to be a tribute to Hickcock’s film-noir. The movie was then cancelled because they decided that the movie was just too mature for kids to fully grasp. This is to show how difficult is it to introduce Hickcock’s vision to a young audience.

But Disney called Hickcock’s film disgusting? Man, the guy went to see To Kill a MockingBird and got jealous because he couldn’t make thought-provoking films like that, and now he called someone who wanted to cooperate with him disgusting? I wonder why he never made any mature movies in his entire life :)

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

I found out the hard way, that while 16 bowls of rasin bran equals one bowl of Total cereal, that eating that much cereal will send one to the emergency room and I.C.U. for a week.

kritiper's avatar

The North pole has polar bears, the South pole does not.
The South pole has leopard seals, the North pole does not.
Both polar bears and leopard seals are the top predators in their region.

Brian1946's avatar

In 1846, Victor Hugo witnessed an impoverished man being arrested for stealing a loaf of bread. This profound scene of injustice had an impact on Hugo, and inspired the author to pen “Les Miserables” — which was eventually published nearly 20 years later.

RocketGuy's avatar

It is easier to seal a vehicle in space (14.7 psi) than it is for a vehicle under water (up to 15,000 psi).

Brian1946's avatar

Director James Cameron sold the filming rights for “The Terminator” (1984) for a buck in the ‘80s, a decision he calls one of his biggest regrets.

At the time, Cameron was an unknown director who had dreamed up an incredible sci-fi thriller with cyborgs and time travel. In order to see his brainchild on the big screen, Cameron sold the rights to producer Gale Anne Hurd in exchange for being able to direct the film. “The Terminator” went on to make $78.4 million worldwide, spawning a number of successful sequels.

Brian1946's avatar

Comprising about 70% of our universe thanks to the Big Bang, hydrogen is the most common element in the universe.

The second biggest element is helium, which makes up 28% of our universe. Scientists believe that 25% of helium came from the Big Bang event, while the other 3% was formed through stellar fusion.

Hydrogen and helium make up 98% of the universe and are followed by oxygen, which occupies a mere 1% of the known universe. It was generated from fusion within massive, pre-supernova stars.

LostInParadise's avatar

I just read about the Soviet naval officer, Vasily Arkhipov, who is credited by many for preventing the Cuban missile crisis from turning into a nuclear war. Link

Brian1946's avatar

Smell-O-Vision was first showcased in 1939 by Swiss scientist Dr. Hans Laube. Laube demonstrated that a system of ducts and fans could waft odors in and then (quickly) out of theaters. The 1960 movie “Scent of Mystery” was the first — and so far, the only — film to use the technology in theaters.

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

It might seem odd, but Alberta already had crude oil pipelines in British Columbia and the United States. The oil and gas industry just wants more capacity. 40 years too late to protest.

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