Cool, weird facts

[Phelia]

I'm sure this has been done to death a zillion times, but I'm in the mood. Share your scraps of knowledge and show me why I should pick you for my trivial pursuit team.

It takes a photon about eight minutes to reach the Earth after leaving the sun. BUT, it's estimated to take 10,000 - 170,000 years for a photon to travel from the core of the sun to its surface. So next time you get a sunburn, you can burn it right back by calling out that photon because its ass is old, yo.

[Peregrinator]

Retweet:

The active ingredient in Neo-Synephrine nasal spray is the same as that in PreparationH.

[blobfish]

An Australian zoo housed a Galapagos tortoise named Harriet that was collected by Charles Darwin's vessel, the H.M.S. Beagle. She died in 2006.

[Typo Fu Master]

The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

[Phelia]

Fraktur, that weirdo font that looks like this:



was all the rage in 16th-18th century Europe until people with eyeballs pointed out that it was difficult to read. However, it retained popularity in Germany through the early 20th century and was the font of choice for literary works, newspapers and birthday party invitations (comic sans was, of course, a close second) (just kidding) until the Nazis decided to call it "Jewish letters" and voted it off the island.

Legible German literature = odd side-effect of Hitler's regime.

[koalabear]

Some lightning strikes go from the ground to the cloud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NZ7BollRo4

[Phelia]

Originally Posted by Peregrinator

Retweet:

The active ingredient in Neo-Synephrine nasal spray is the same as that in PreparationH.

Originally Posted by blobfish

An Australian zoo housed a Galapagos tortoise named Harriet that was collected by Charles Darwin's vessel, the H.M.S. Beagle. She died in 2006.

Originally Posted by Typo Fu Master

The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

These are great! You can all be on my pub quiz team.

RIP Harriet

[Sinny]

The key to incorporating a roux is to bring your liquid near the temperature of the roux before whisking the two together. I also know how to temper chocolate and make cheese.

[Peregrinator]

Golden eagles weigh in the neighborhood of twelve pounds.

[Typo Fu Master]

The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.

[koalabear]

Raining animals is a relatively common meteorological phenomenon, with occurrences reported from many countries throughout history. The animals most likely to drop from the sky in a rainfall are fish and frogs, with birds coming third. Sometimes the animals survive the fall, especially fish, suggesting a small time gap between the extraction and the actual drop. Several witnesses of raining frogs describe the animals as startled, though healthy, and exhibiting relatively normal behavior shortly after the event. In some incidents, however, the animals are frozen to death or even completely enclosed in blocks of ice. These occurrences may be evidence for the transport of the victims to high altitudes, where the temperature is below zero, and they show how powerful meteorological forces can be.

In Honduras, the Lluvia de Peces (Rain of Fishes) is a unique phenomenon that has been occurring for more than a century on a yearly basis in the country of Honduras. It occurs in the Departamento de Yoro, between the months of May and July. Witnesses of this phenomenon state that it begins with is a dark cloud in the sky followed by lightning, thunder, strong winds and heavy rain for 2 to 3 hours. Once the rain has stopped, hundreds of living fish are found on the ground. People take the fish home to cook and eat them.

[coachdb18]

An easy to use survival technique, a tampon can be used to quickly start a campfire ... as can a cottonball and some vaseline.

[Phelia]

Machiavelli's seminal The Prince, one of the best known political science writings of all time, is at odds with the rest of his rather prolific body of work. In his other writing, Machiavelli is a staunch proponent of free republics, suggesting that it is a satirical piece that is certainly not meant to be taken literally.

In other words, one of the most influential books in history was probably just for the lulz.

Originally Posted by koalabear

Some lightning strikes go from the ground to the cloud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NZ7BollRo4

Whoa! Cool. The music in that vid reminds me of the Edward Scissorhands score.

[Wings]

The concrete in the Hoover Dam is still curing, it is the largest chunk of concrete on the planet.

[koalabear]

If a tiger loses all his hair, he’ll still be striped. Tiger stripes are like fingerprints, each individual cat’s markings are unique. And they’re not just hair, the stripes are in their skin. Seems to be a thing with cats, since your house cat’s fur markings are also skin deep!

[koalabear]

Perhaps that’s not so surprising since our own body’s microbes outnumber us too, but the scale is pretty humbling. There are more insects in just one square mile of fertile soil than there are human beings on the entire planet!

[koalabear]

The average person manages to consume about 430 insects every year of their lives, whether they intended to or not!

[koalabear]

The interstellar gas cloud that comprises Sagittarius B contains a billion billion billion (yes, that’s three orders of billion) liters of alcohol. This factoid is bound to be a big hit at the pub!

[Phelia]

One type of jellyfish, the turritopsis nutricula, can revert back to its polyp stage after reaching sexual maturity, rendering it virtually immortal.

Originally Posted by coachdb18

An easy to use survival technique, a tampon can be used to quickly start a campfire ... as can a cottonball and some vaseline.

How???

Originally Posted by Sinny

The key to incorporating a roux is to bring your liquid near the temperature of the roux before whisking the two together. I also know how to temper chocolate and make cheese.

You are everything I want to be. Is making cheese hard? If so, is it worth it? I found a recipe for mozzarella once, but it looked like a lot of steps.

Originally Posted by WingedKiss

The concrete in the Hoover Dam is still curing, it is the largest chunk of concrete on the planet.

That is amazing and also a teeny bit terrifying!

[koalabear]

If a piece of a neutron star the size of a dime landed on earth, it would weigh about 100 million tons.

[koalabear]

The acceleration rate of a flea jumping off a dog is 20 times the acceleration of the space shuttle during launch

[Phelia]

Oh, koala. If you're gonna c&p, ya gotta source! Otherwise the internet police will come to your house and karate chop you in the earlobe.

facts are from: http://www.sciencenewsreview.com/50-weird-science-tidbits-you-probably-didnt-know/

ETA: but thank you for playing. They are cool facts! I am just trying to protect our collective earlobes.

[RobDownSouth]

Bing Crosby rented out the exterior and interior sets of Hogan's Heroes during their summer filming hiatus to a grade Z film company that then churned out the grindhouse classic Ilse - She Wolf of the SS.

[koalabear]

Easiest way to start a campfire, dryer lint and a spark from a flint.

[koalabear]

Originally Posted by Phelia

Oh, koala. If you're gonna c&p, ya gotta source! Otherwise the internet police will come to your house and karate chop you in the earlobe.

facts are from: http://www.sciencenewsreview.com/50-weird-science-tidbits-you-probably-didnt-know/

ETA: but thank you for playing. They are cool facts! I am just trying to protect our collective earlobes.

These are all facts I learned in sniper school.