[LeBeau]

This is a good long list of common misconceptions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_com...onceptions

Some choice ones:

Quote:

Napoleon Bonaparte (pictured) was not short; rather he was slightly taller than the average Frenchman of his time.[35][36] After his death in 1821, the French emperor’s height was recorded as 5 feet 2 inches in French feet, which is 5 feet 7 inches (1.69 m).[37][38] Some believe that he was nicknamed le Petit Caporal (The Little Corporal) as a term of affection.

Quote:

It is commonly claimed that the Great Wall of China is the only human-made object visible from the Moon. This is false. None of the Apollo astronauts reported seeing any specific human-made object from the Moon, and even Earth-orbiting astronauts can barely see it. City lights, however, are easily visible on the night side of Earth from orbit.[116] Shuttle astronaut Jay Apt has been quoted as saying that "the Great Wall is almost invisible from only 180 miles (290 km) up."[117] (See Man-made structures visible from space.) ISS commander Chris Hadfield attempted to find it from space, but said that it was "hard as it's narrow and dun-colored."[

Quote:

Drowning is often thought to be a violent struggle, where the victim waves and calls for help.[193] In truth, drowning is often inconspicuous to onlookers. In most cases, raising the arms and vocalising are impossible due to the instinctive drowning response.[193] Waving and yelling (known as "aquatic distress") is a sign of trouble, but not a dependable one: most victims demonstrating the instinctive drowning response do not show prior evidence of distress.

Quote:

Humans have more than the commonly cited five senses. Although definitions vary, the actual number ranges from 9 to more than 20. In addition to sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing, which were the senses identified by Aristotle, humans can sense balance and acceleration (equilibrioception), pain (nociception), body and limb position (proprioception or kinesthetic sense), and relative temperature (thermoception).[211] Other senses sometimes identified are the sense of time, itching, pressure, hunger, thirst, fullness of the stomach, need to urinate, need to defecate, and blood carbon dioxide levels.

[cardguy]

The origin of the word 'quiz'. It could be an urban myth - but it makes for a great story. And I love the ingenious logic behind it.

NOTE: 'quiz' originally meant 'to be confused', as can be seen in the current meaning of the word 'quizzical'.

Here is the story:

Quote:

What is the origin of the word 'quiz'?

The story goes that a Dublin theatre proprietor by the name of Richard Daly made a bet that he could, within forty-eight hours, make a nonsense word known throughout the city, and that the public would supply a meaning for it. After a performance one evening, he gave his staff cards with the word 'quiz' written on them, and told them to write the word on walls around the city. The next day the strange word was the talk of the town, and within a short time it had become part of the language.

[LeBeau]

Can't remember if this has been posted anywhere else, but this list off Quora is pretty solid:

http://www.quora.com/Facts-and-Trivia/Wh...wing-facts

Here's a few I picked, they have lots more on the site:

The time difference between when Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus lived is greater than the time difference between Tyrannosaurus and now.

The bushes in Super Mario Bros. were just recolored clouds.

There is a species of jellyfish that is immortal (turritopsis nutricula).

A small enough animal can fall at terminal velocity without suffering any injury upon impact. An ant (or even a smallish spider) dropped from a tall building will be just fine.

If you cut up a hologram, the entire image is retained in each piece.

Boston Red Sox slugger Ted Williams missed almost five full baseball seasons (1943, 1944, 1945, 1952 and 1953) fighting as a fighter pilot in World War II and the Korean War and still managed to hit 521 home runs.

1 sperm has 37.5MB of DNA information in it. That means a normal ejaculation represents a data transfer of 1587GB in about 3 seconds

Of the almost 193 current member states of the United Nations, the British have, at some point in history, invaded and established a military presence in 171 of them.

The cheeseburger would have been incredibly impractical to make until the twentieth century.

If Wayne Gretzky hadn't taken a single shot during his entire career, he would still be the all-time points leader. In other words; he has more assists than any other player has ever had goals and assists combined.

[cardguy]

Quote:

Ruin value is the concept that a building be designed such that if it eventually collapsed, it would leave behind aesthetically pleasing ruins that would last far longer without any maintenance at all. The idea was pioneered by German architect Albert Speer while planning for the 1936 Summer Olympics and published as "The Theory of Ruin Value" (Die Ruinenwerttheorie), although he was not its original inventor.

The intention did not stretch only to the eventual collapse of the buildings, but rather assumed such buildings were inherently better designed and more imposing during their period of use.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruin_value

[Mikev75]

The Bangor, Maine airport is doing a nice business for itself by being an Air Rage destination of choice for pilots.

Have an unruly/crazy/drunk passenger? Just drop 'em off in lovely Bangor! The airport has a special prosecutor and holding cells for this express purpose.

If the shit has really hit the fan, the airport boasts one of the longest commercial runways in the world and not much around besides potato fields.

Ever met a Mainer? It doesn't get much more stoic. They are the ideal folks to help the loons and drunks chill out.

I was on a flight from the UK and we had to make an unplanned stop there to dump some asshole with a Liverpool accent who'd had about 10 too many.

The Bangor guys handled it quite efficiently. It's also where they drop off the No Fly List types as well as some medical cases.

[cardguy]

Picturing the size of Africa.



http://blog.supplysideliberal.com/post/6...-revisited

[cardguy]

Electromagnets work because of the contraction of length due to Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity.

Fascinating to see Special Relativity at work in such a common everyday item.

[cardguy]

Quote:

A gravity hill, also known as a magnetic hill and sometimes a mystery hill, a mystery spot, or a gravity road, is a place where the layout of the surrounding land produces the optical illusion that a very slight downhill slope appears to be an uphill slope.

Thus, a car left out of gear will appear to be rolling uphill against gravity.

There are hundreds of recognised gravity hills around the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_hill

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gravity_hills

This one tickles me since I love the idea of a novel optical illusion only being discovered due to a new invention (in this case the car).

[LeBeau]

(11-03-2013 10:51 AM)cardguy Wrote:  

Quote:

A gravity hill, also known as a magnetic hill and sometimes a mystery hill, a mystery spot, or a gravity road, is a place where the layout of the surrounding land produces the optical illusion that a very slight downhill slope appears to be an uphill slope.

Thus, a car left out of gear will appear to be rolling uphill against gravity.

There are hundreds of recognised gravity hills around the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_hill

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gravity_hills

This one tickles me since I love the idea of a novel optical illusion only being discovered due to a new invention (in this case the car).

Yeah I've been to the Moncton one in New Brunswick a few times, pretty trippy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magnetic_Hill_(Canada)

[LeBeau]

Found a blog tailor made for this thread (and forum).

Cute girls with interesting pieces of history as captions:

http://factsandchicks.com/

[JoyStick]

Interesting story about Zanesville, OH.

http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmake...ruary-2012

[LeBeau]

(11-09-2013 02:20 AM)JoyStick Wrote:  

Interesting story about Zanesville, OH.

http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmake...ruary-2012

Good find, that's jokes, of all places....

[cardguy]

(11-09-2013 02:15 AM)LeBeau Wrote:  

Found a blog tailor made for this thread (and forum).

Cute girls with interesting pieces of history as captions:

http://factsandchicks.com/

Hot chicks and really interesting facts. Not sure which part of my body was the most stimulated!

[cardguy]

I mentioned this photo in an earlier post:



Well - there was a letter in today's paper saying the photo was probably doctored.

It is possible that the photo was doctored to place Hitler in the photo. But the correspondent thinks it is more likely that the photo was changed slightly to remove part of Hitler's moustache to make him more recognisable - since he used to wear a much bushier moustache at the time the photo was taken.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/lette...tlers.html

You can see what I am talking about below:

[cardguy]

I have mentioned it before - but for those who haven't come across it.

The above photograph is of a young Adolf Hilter celebrating the announcement of World War One.

[samsamsam]

(11-09-2013 02:15 AM)LeBeau Wrote:  

Found a blog tailor made for this thread (and forum).

Cute girls with interesting pieces of history as captions:

http://factsandchicks.com/

Dude that is pretty awesome. I stumbled across this because of that link. I always love hearing about how technology is making lives better, rather than capturing and sharing more cat videos.

Billboard In Lima, Peru Creates Drinking Water Out Of Thin Air

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/18...01882.html

[LeBeau]

This video + science breakdown was pretty interesting:

[the chef]

this channel is cool for anyone who has a chemistry/biology background and is interested in synthesis of random shit.

[LeBeau]

Can't remember the last time I saw a fight with a lantern:

Quote:

Duels traditionally took place at dawn, when the poor light would make the participants less likely to be seen, and to force an interval for reconsideration or sobering-up. For sometime before the mid-18th century, swordsmen duelling at dawn often carried lanterns to see each other. This happened so regularly that fencing manuals integrated lanterns into their lessons. An example of this is using the lantern to parry blows and blind the opponent.[6] The manuals sometimes show the combatants carrying the lantern in the left hand wrapped behind the back, which is still one of the traditional positions for the off hand in modern fencing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duel

[Katatonic]

(11-26-2013 12:09 AM)LeBeau Wrote:  

Can't remember the last time I saw a fight with a lantern:

Quote:

Duels traditionally took place at dawn, when the poor light would make the participants less likely to be seen, and to force an interval for reconsideration or sobering-up. For sometime before the mid-18th century, swordsmen duelling at dawn often carried lanterns to see each other. This happened so regularly that fencing manuals integrated lanterns into their lessons. An example of this is using the lantern to parry blows and blind the opponent.[6] The manuals sometimes show the combatants carrying the lantern in the left hand wrapped behind the back, which is still one of the traditional positions for the off hand in modern fencing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duel

I read that more often than not, simply showing up for a duel was enough to satisfy a disagreement. It showed that both parties had courage and honor and that any differences they had could be settled in peaceful manner.

I have been saying for years that if dueling were to be legal again, there would be a pittance of the cunts out and about today.

[cardguy]

Old man talks about witnessing the assasination of Abraham Lincoln!

[cardguy]

Why mercury thermometers are banned from airplanes.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Mercury thermometers are not allowed on planes is because of how the mercury would react to aluminum, which is the material used for an airplane's frame. First of all, why is aluminum used?



When aluminum rusts, it produces a protective coating of aluminum oxide that protects the metal from further rusting. Also, aluminum is light, strong and cheap.

However, when mercury meets the aluminum, the mercury will break through the aluminum oxide which creates a lot of heat and then eat away the aluminum under.
-----------------------------------------------------------

[2 hour time lapse video of mercury attacking aluminium]

[cardguy]

I read this during the financial crisis. It is quite an interesting economic parable to think about.

Quote:

“Once upon a time, there was a poor Irish village where everyone was in debt to each other. A rich German arrived at the local hotel and, as a deposit on a room, put down a €100 note. The hotelier grabbed the note and ran next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher used the note to pay his supplier — who rushed to the local pub and paid his bar bill.

“The publican slipped the note to a local lady of the night for services previously rendered, and she took it back to the hotel to pay what she owed for room hire. But, as she put the note on the counter, the German reappeared, said he had decided not to stay after all, picked up the note and left.

"And that,” Darius concludes, “is how a bail-out works.”

[Tytalus]

(07-29-2013 09:19 PM)LeBeau Wrote:  

Also re: WWII nukes, I had a high school teacher tell us that the 2nd one wasn't necessary, and the U.S. actually wasn't completely committed to that path. Apparently during the negotiations over Japan's surrender, there were some misconceptions and/or wrong translations, and the U.S. felt like Japan wasn't actually backing down the way they intended to....anyone else heard this or seen any sources?

I recall reading a history book about this in high school. According to that text, several generals investigating Hiroshima still wanted to fight and sent reports back to Tokyo that it "wasn't that bad - we should still fight". The americans dropped another bomb to intimidate the japanese. A land invasion would have been brutal, long term and very costly. Also the Russians would have invaded Hokkaiddo and split up Japan like Germany as well.

[Katatonic]

(12-25-2013 09:59 PM)cardguy Wrote:  

I read this during the financial crisis. It is quite an interesting economic parable to think about.

Quote:

“Once upon a time, there was a poor Irish village where everyone was in debt to each other. A rich German arrived at the local hotel and, as a deposit on a room, put down a €100 note. The hotelier grabbed the note and ran next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher used the note to pay his supplier — who rushed to the local pub and paid his bar bill.

“The publican slipped the note to a local lady of the night for services previously rendered, and she took it back to the hotel to pay what she owed for room hire. But, as she put the note on the counter, the German reappeared, said he had decided not to stay after all, picked up the note and left.

"And that,” Darius concludes, “is how a bail-out works.”

They all owed each other the same amount of money, so the German was irrelevant.
It would be nice if that is how a bail-out actually works, but it's not. The GM bail-out alone cost US tax payers $10 billion.