The More you Know

[Advint]

So this is sort of like a Today I Learned thing, except for just any old fact you know or have learned. Its not really a competition, just good old brain food for when one of you get on jeopardy. Oh, and if its something that may seem 'far fetched' I suggest you provide source material so that we don't have a war of words on our hands.

And to start this off, this is something I actually did learn today, but is interesting none the less.

In 1795 the history of can's began when the French Government, Led by Napoleon, offered a prize of 12,000 francs to anyone who could invent a method of preserving food for its army and navy.
Come 1809 Nicolas Appert, "father of canning," recieved the 12,000 franc prize from the French government for preserving food by sterilization.
August 25, 1810, Peter Durand, received the first patent for the idea of preserving food using tin cans. The patent was granted by King George III

Where you can learn more on this: (Here)

I'll be following this looking for some daily brain food myself, that is if there is any.

[AKM]

Speaking of canning, I read once about one of the early arctic expeditions where two guys got sick early and went on canned rations.  Unlike most everyone else in the expedition who died of starvation or exposure, these two died of lead poisoning.  The reason was that the canned foods their were eating came out of cans that were sealed with lead beads.

 

I think it was Franklin's expedition, but could be wrong.

[Advint]

Sucks to die from having to eat food, only to receive lead poisoning
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Your skin is composed of roughly 1.6 trillion skin cells, this of course varies by size. Of those billions of skin cells, between 30,000 and 40,000 fall off every hour, over a 24 hour period you lose almost a million skin cells.

I.E. that's a lot of dust.

Don't believe me? Fine.

[Guest Youngmemer]

The most romantic animal on the planet is a flatworm called Diplozoon Paradoxum. When two of these flatworms find each other they literally fuse together and live out the rest of their lives...

 

 

sucking blood from fish

 

 

How romantic...

[Advint]

Parasites Ewww.....

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Remember that musical made movie "The King and I"

Well, the king of Siam really did send letters to Lincoln offering elephants to aid in the war effort during the American Civil War. Lincoln graciously declined stating it's lack of practicality for use in America.

Source.

[Guest Youngmemer]

How would they not be practical, just imagine Lincoln charging in to battle on an elephant. So Badass

 

whenever you can't think of anything to say for dirty talk, it's actually better to say you'll make them be a pig than saying you're a lion in the sack...

Pigs orgasm for 30 minutes and Lions last for 10 seconds as well as having spiky penises.

 

Pig > Lion

[AKM]

If I recall an 8th grade video in science class correctly, they also have corkscrew penises.  Maybe that's where the term "drilling" originated.

[Guest Youngmemer]

I don't know why all of mine have been about animals but hey...

 

Some kinds of snails can sleep for 3 years at a time. I can barely stay asleep for 6 hours, lucky bastards

[Advint]

Subconscious behavior also known as best guessing determines what you will do ahead of time. It does so long before you ever come to the conclusion to do it. Like when your deciding whether or not to pass the guy in front of you on the high way. Guess what you already made that decision moments before you acted on it. In other words the little voice in your head is only referring to what you have previously decided to do. So much so that if electrodes were hooked up to your brain, they could tell with 100% efficiency what you were going to do before you did it. This of course within a small time frame.

Source.

[Advint]

The United States has roughly 9 firearms for every 10 citizens, which is roughly 270 million of the 875 million estimated firearms in the world. India tops second with an estimated 46 million firearms in civilian hands. China comes up third with about 40 million. With these staggering numbers its no wonder that the miss attributed (to Isoroku Yamamoto) quote "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass," is so popular among internet forums.

Source.

[Myst42]

There is a theory that claims that every planet is itself a living organism with eco-biological systems and even the ability to procreate into other planets

It's called "The Gaia Theory"

[Advint]

Camels store water in their bloodstream, with the ability to down a whopping 30 gallons in just 13 minutes. While the fatty hump is for nourishment when food is scarce.

[Advint]

Henry Ford, often credited for the assembly line, in fact did not invent the assembly line. Instead it was Ransom E. Olds (Oldsmobile / Olds Motor Vehicle Company) who developed the first assembly line which enabled his company to produce 20 cars per day. Though Henry Ford certainly capitalized on the assembly line, improving it to great extents.

[Guest Youngmemer]

Contrary to common belief, Germany is not the biggest consumer of beer per person. That prestigious award goes to the Czech Republic with 132 liters per person per year (for you barbarians that's 278 pints) compared to Germany's 108 liters (228 pints) per person per year.

[Advint]

Polaris (the north star) has been estimated to be 323 light years from the sun. One light year is about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion Kilometers), which brings Polaris to 1938 trillion miles (3230 kilometers) away. Why does this matter you ask? Well Polaris is the closest of a family of stars known as a Cepheid variable, and this as you may have noticed, can be used to calculate distance. Allowing scientists to determine just how big our universe is, and extrapolate distances between solar systems. Making Polaris still a valuable means of navigation even in modern times.

[Advint]

This very year (2014) a 13 boy named Jamie Edwards built a nuclear fusion reactor as an after school project. He was given a $3,350 budget after a proposal made to the school. Imagine what they must have thought when a canister of deuterium (Heavy Hydrogen) showed up via special delivery.

[nonusnomeni]

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B6%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%87,_%D0%AE%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B9

[ТigегШооd]

This very year (2014) a 13 boy named Jamie Edwards built a nuclear fusion reactor as an after school project. He was given a $3,350 budget after a proposal made to the school. Imagine what they must have thought when a canister of deuterium (Heavy Hydrogen) showed up via special delivery.

I heard of him & yes, very very ambitious, clever boy, I would travel to England just to shake his hand!

 

[Advint]

When a sun is at the end of its life, it goes super nova, which is basically an explosion on a very large scale. Just before this happens a sun starts to produce iron in its core, which subsequently 'kills' the sun. This is because iron cannot be fused by the fusion reaction taking place within its core, it instead absorbs energy being generated. 

Additional: This results in the collapse of the star to a very small size milliseconds before the supernova. During the supernova the exploding star forms rare elements such as gold and silver, this occurring during a very small time frame of the supernova. This is why these elements are so rare, comparable to others.

[Advint]

Toys for Tots, is actually not the full name of the organization that is known for giving toys to children in need around the united states during the christmas season. It is fully known as The Marine Toys for Tots Foundation and was recognized in 1995 by the secretary of defense as an official activity of the U.S. Marine Corps. Toys for Tots has covered all 50 states since 1996, and in the life span of the program 469 million toys have been distributed to over 216 million children.

[Advint]

Our sun will eventually become what is called a Red Giant, growing to a size which will eventually consume the earth. But don't worry the sun isn't running out of hydrogen anytime soon, giving us a good 5 billion years time. Read Giants form when suns (similar to our own) run out of hydrogen, resulting in the outer layers heating up and expanding. And if your thinking humanity will be safe on mars, think again. The current estimates put the Red Giant at just Mars.

If you think that's big, you may want to think again. Betelgeuse (Pronounced Beetle-juice) Is whats known as a red supergiant and can be easily seen in the night sky in the Orion constellation. While I don't have an exact estimate for you, know that it's pretty big (hence the category name). And its not even the biggest, the largest known star doesn't even have a proper name it is known as UY Scuti.
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Id also like to encourage people to post something even if it means looking it up just for the post. As it feels like I'm just posting this stuff for the hell of it some days. As well, don't be discouraged to throw in some brain food with a comment for another post, can't hurt.

[eAthena]

A martyr (Greek: μάρτυς, mártys, "witness"; stem μάρτυρ-, mártyr-) is somebody who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, refusing to renounce, and/or refusing to advocate a belief or cause, usually a religious one.

 

Meaning

 

In its original meaning, the word martyr, meaning witness, was used in the secular sphere as well as in the New Testament of the Bible.[1] The process of bearing witness was not intended to lead to the death of the witness, although it is known from ancient writers (e.g. Josephus) and from the New Testament that witnesses often died for their testimonies.

During the early Christian centuries, the term acquired the extended meaning of a believer who is called to witness for their religious belief, and on account of this witness, endures suffering and/or death. The term, in this later sense, entered the English language as a loanword. The death of a martyr or the value attributed to it is called martyrdom.

The early Christians who first began to use the term martyr in its new sense saw Jesus as the first and greatest martyr, on account of his crucifixion.[2][3][4] The early Christians appear to have seen Jesus as the archetypal martyr.[5]

The word martyr is used in English to describe a wide variety of people. However, the following table presents a general outline of common features present in stereotypical martyrdoms.

 

Common features of stereotypical martyrdoms[6]
1. A hero A person of some renown who is devoted to a cause believed to be admirable.
2. Opposition People who oppose that cause.
3. Foreseeable risk The hero foresees action by opponents to harm him or her, because of his or her commitment to the cause.
4. Courage and Commitment The hero continues, despite knowing the risk, out of commitment to the cause.
5. Death The opponents kill the hero because of his or her commitment to the cause.
6. Audience response The hero's death is commemorated. People may label the hero explicitly as a martyr. Other people may in turn be inspired to pursue the same cause.

[Hentai-chan]

Just recently learned dug up a little info on the SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES (I was so excited, I said to myself "**** it, I am abusing Caps Lock!"). Supermassive black holes, or SMBH, possess characteristic that seperate them from what is defined as lower-mass black holes. First of all, their average density (its mass divided by the volume due to Schwarzchild radius) can be less than water. It is due to Schwarzchild radius that it's mass is directly proportional to its size while density is inversely proportional to the volume. Every galaxy is thought to possess one. In fact, our beloved Milky Way has one, sitting right in the middle of it.

 

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

[Cynical Misanthrope]

The biggest star that we know of as of today is called VY Canis Majoris. If you were flying a standard airliner at cruising altitude around this star, it would take 59 million years

[Advint]

Oh, the wondrous brain food which has been set before me. I thought long on martyr's, I pondered the mysteries of a black hole at the center of the galaxy, and I marveled at the size of stars. That of course only quenched my brain for a day, and it will surely need more.
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You may enjoy this one: The size of breasts actually determine as to how sensitive or pleasurable a sensation one can feel from nipples. This is because the bigger breasts get the more the nerve tissue is elongated and therefore stretched. This stretching of the nerves causes a lack of sensitivity. Does this however mean that larger breasts can not feel as much pleasure as those less 'gifted.' As it concerns the nipple yes, but there are 'techniques' to derive more pleasure from breasts, most of which concern the lower portion and underside of the breast.