Fun Facts

[Guest]

What fun and/or interesting facts do you know?

 

This is the place to post them.

 

Just post what the title of your fact is, a brief describtion and a link if available to more information about your fun fact.

 

Here's one to start with...

 

Hot Cakes

 

Many, many things are purportedly selling “like hot cakes” these days: Modern Art, Albums, Car's, Consoles etc The question is what’s not selling like hot cakes? Answer: Hot Cakes.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-11-19/selling-like-hot-cakes-it-doesnt-mean-what-it-used-to

[Guest MonsterFish]

The dress is black and blue.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2971409/What-color-dress-White-gold-blue-black.html

[Guest]

for some reason I always thought the dress was pale blue and gold lol

[manserpent]

Fun Fact: In Dark Souls, Siegmeyer (Onionbro) sleeps with his eyes open.

[Guest]

Fun Fact: In Dark Souls, Siegmeyer (Onionbro) sleeps with his eyes open.

 

Interesting, does it say how he manages that?

[ThatSeasonsGal]

Fun Fact: The Spanish/Portuguese weren't the first civilisation to go around Africa, the phoenicians went from Carthage to Egypt following the african coastline. Also, Leif Ericsson 'discovered' the Americas, Columbus was a genocidal bastard who killed over 2 million people.

[Guest Comrade Selina Kyle]

Fun fact about Inutil culture: This same stand up comedy show by Katty Williams is on GTA Liberty City

[Guest]

Some interesting facts

[Guest MonsterFish]

The stuff in Chilli that makes you react so badly to it and heats up the mouth and face is called capsaicin. It's a defense mechanism by the plant itself that targets the TRPV-1 receptor to stop you from eating, which doesn't really help that much since people like me love it. Interestingly, birds do not feel the burning sensation. While they do have a TRPV-1 receptor like mammals, it simply is not triggered by capsaicin so they will happily eat ghost chilli and scorpion peppers without anything happening to them. This is because the chilli plant WANTS them to eat them because Chillis are seeded and the seeds are not digested in the birds stomach (As opposed to humans, that do digest the seeds which is why the chillis have evolved capsaicin in the first place) and they spread the seeds. This can be thought of as a mutual relationship like the bees and the flowers. The birds eat the chilli which provides them with food, and in return the bird spreads the seeds. This actually makes me ponder whether that's where the term 'birds and the bees' comes from.

 

When you eat a chilli, you should not drink any liquids other than milk. Water can temporarily cool the mouth but only serves to spread the capsaicin further. Milk contains fatty acids that help to dissolve the capsaicin rather than spread it. Just remember not to touch your eye when handling chillis since when it's in your mouth the receptors in your mouth are protected by a thin layer of skin that should at least protect you a little from the pain. When you touch your eyes it's touching the nerves through a very very thin layer in your eye and perhaps onto the nerve itself.

[spoonsinger]

The media fed "celebrity chief cooking" TV programmes passion for under cooked/pink meat which has been "rested" - probably under one of those crappy serving lamps,(*), is probably going to give you a nasty dose of Antibiotic-resistant bacteria. (Especially as such chiefs - if you watch such things - can't stop touching their faces while cooking).

 

(*) (i.e. instilling into the population that food should be lukewarm and under cooked when it gets to your table when in fact it's just a commercial kitchens need to reduce costs propagated by a cadre of said celebrity chiefs)

[Guest]

Those are good facts thank you. And I never knew that about drinking milk when eating a chilli.

 

Another fun fact:

 

Steel and Chrome are both metals that corrode easily. Mix them togethor in the right amounts and you get Stainless Steel which dosn't corrode as easily.

[Guest MonsterFish]

That reminds me, here's one that might annoy the weeaboos out there.

 

Katanas and their derivatives (Odachi, Tachi, etc) weren't great. And the Japanese samurais knew it. Japan isn't very rich in iron, so they have to make do with what little iron they have by smelting it with a heavy carbon content. The resulting material is known as 'pig iron', and because of the high amount of carbon in the metal, it's very brittle and prone to snapping and breaking. So why did they use them? Well, the fact is that they didn't. Samurais practiced Kyudo, the way of the bow, right up until the the introduction of the matchlock rifles by the portuguese in the 15th century, and some time afterwards. Most people with Katanas charging the enemy were foot soldiers, pretty much cannon fodder to stop the enemy attacking the much more experiences kyudo practitioners.

 

A lot of people will defend the Katana by saying that 'The katana is the perfect weapon. The people who wielded knew exactly when and where to strike. They feel every breath of their enemies and know how they're gonna move.' The fact is that they were indeed drilled on how to use the katana. But so were European soldiers. In the past 2000 years the structure of the military hasn't changed much regarding entrance. When a levy entered the military in Medieval Europe, they weren't just told who to kill and they'd do it. They were drilled on how to use a weapon, which weapons were best for cutting and which weapons were best for stabbing. They'd get soldiers that were best at stabbing as polemen or something similar and the men who were best at slashing to be footsoldiers. Japan wasn't so dissimilar, men were trained in fields more than others. As with Europeans, it was mandatory for them to learn to wield a bow. In Europe it was even mandatory for peasants to learn to wield a bow.

 

I'd even go one further than this and say that the troops in Europe were much better trained than Eastern soldiers and their weaponry was far superior. Look at a katana, it either has a very small fuller or no fuller at all so the blade itself was prone to breaking. The handguard is very small so there is no catch, if a sword clashes with yours a wrong move could mean the enemy slides down the edge and cuts your arm off. The only thing it has going for it is that the curved blade means it takes longer for the enemy to go all the way down your sword. Longswords, though they look bulkier, weren't that much heavier than katanas and had a fuller which meant they were pretty strong, and a much wider handguard which practically negated any loss of limbs. Furthermore, peasants in European countries were supplied with small arms such as pikes and pitchforks which were similar to the tools they worked with every day. Eastern farmers were given nothing but a handful of taxation.

[ThatSeasonsGal]

That reminds me, here's one that might annoy the weeaboos out there.

 

Katanas and their derivatives (Odachi, Tachi, etc) weren't great. And the Japanese samurais knew it. Japan isn't very rich in iron, so they have to make do with what little iron they have by smelting it with a heavy carbon content. The resulting material is known as 'pig iron', and because of the high amount of carbon in the metal, it's very brittle and prone to snapping and breaking. So why did they use them? Well, the fact is that they didn't. Samurais practiced Kyudo, the way of the bow, right up until the the introduction of the matchlock rifles by the portuguese in the 15th century, and some time afterwards. Most people with Katanas charging the enemy were foot soldiers, pretty much cannon fodder to stop the enemy attacking the much more experiences kyudo practitioners.

 

A lot of people will defend the Katana by saying that 'The katana is the perfect weapon. The people who wielded knew exactly when and where to strike. They feel every breath of their enemies and know how they're gonna move.' The fact is that they were indeed drilled on how to use the katana. But so were European soldiers. In the past 2000 years the structure of the military hasn't changed much regarding entrance. When a levy entered the military in Medieval Europe, they weren't just told who to kill and they'd do it. They were drilled on how to use a weapon, which weapons were best for cutting and which weapons were best for stabbing. They'd get soldiers that were best at stabbing as polemen or something similar and the men who were best at slashing to be footsoldiers. Japan wasn't so dissimilar, men were trained in fields more than others. As with Europeans, it was mandatory for them to learn to wield a bow. In Europe it was even mandatory for peasants to learn to wield a bow.

 

I'd even go one further than this and say that the troops in Europe were much better trained than Eastern soldiers and their weaponry was far superior. Look at a katana, it either has a very small fuller or no fuller at all so the blade itself was prone to breaking. The handguard is very small so there is no catch, if a sword clashes with yours a wrong move could mean the enemy slides down the edge and cuts your arm off. The only thing it has going for it is that the curved blade means it takes longer for the enemy to go all the way down your sword. Longswords, though they look bulkier, weren't that much heavier than katanas and had a fuller which meant they were pretty strong, and a much wider handguard which practically negated any loss of limbs. Furthermore, peasants in European countries were supplied with small arms such as pikes and pitchforks which were similar to the tools they worked with every day. Eastern farmers were given nothing but a handful of taxation.

I remember reading about this. A scottish claymore could break a regular katana if the wielder was strong enough

[Guest MonsterFish]

 

-snip... people say that round here, right?-

I remember reading about this. A scottish claymore could break a regular katana if the wielder was strong enough

 

 

Hell, a person could snap a regular katana with their bare hands if they were strong enough.

 

[ThatSeasonsGal]

 

 

-snip... people say that round here, right?-  Yep

I remember reading about this. A scottish claymore could break a regular katana if the wielder was strong enough

 

 

Hell, a person could snap a regular katana with their bare hands if they were strong enough.

 

 

I use a longsword, so I don't have much experience with katanas, I do think I could snap one with a blow though. They never looked very resistant

[Guest MonsterFish]

Here's another one from the bellows of history.

 

The battle of Stirling during the First Scottish War for Independence, made famous in the movie Braveheart, was actually fought along a bridge - a fact that actually helped the Scots. The bridge was small so only 2 cavalry troops could cross the bridge at a time. William Wallace had waited for some cavalry to cross and then charged them in a surprise attack. The English, led by John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, could not turn back across the bridge (Horses don't do 'back') and their archers remained few. With little morale and few troops to fend off (It's theorised that the archers could have actually held the Scotts back), a retreat was ordered and the Scotts marched south.

 

If the battle took place, as depicted in the film, on flat plains the Scottish army would have more than likely be utterly decimated by the heavy cavalry that the English deployed.

[Caffeine Addict]

The hands of a clock move "clockwise" because the first clocks were invented on the northern hemisphere and represent the movement of the shadow on a sundial.

 

[Guest MonsterFish]

The Stegosaurus and the Tyrannosaurus Rex never did battle. The Stegosaurus was a dinosaur that roamed the European and American flats in the Lata Jurassic era, an era that was in the middle of the age of dinosaurs. The T-Rex was present in the cretaceous era, the era that saw the K-T mass extinction event and the end of the dinosaurs. There was more time passed between the Stegosaurus and the T-Rex than there was between the T-Rex and the human.

 

The pyramids in Giza were built when Woolly Mammoths still roamed the land.

[Guest]

If Pinocchio said the statement “My nose will grow now” it would cause be a paradox.

 

Pinocchio’s nose grows when he tells a lie, so if he said ‘my nose will grow now’ – if his nose does grow that would mean he wasn’t lying, but if he wasn’t lying, his nose wouldn’t grow..

[Guest MonsterFish]

You physically can't touch your elbows together and point towards the ground.

[Caffeine Addict]

You physically can't touch your elbows together and point towards the ground.

 

I don't get this one, I can touch my elbows together and point to the ground with my index fingers. (Or did you mean something else? )

 

Regarding elbows: You can't lick your own elbows. (Be honest, who tried? )

[Guest MonsterFish]

>.>

Saying you can't touch your elbows together and point them downwards or something similar is something you say to a girl to trick them. You'll say 'You can't touch your elbows together along your belly' or something, they'll try and it pushes their boobs together and outwards.

[Caffeine Addict]

>.>

Saying you can't touch your elbows together and point them downwards or something similar is something you say to a girl to trick them. You'll say 'You can't touch your elbows together along your belly' or something, they'll try and it pushes their boobs together and outwards.

 

sneaky sneaky

[Guest MonsterFish]

But while we're talking about not being able to do stuff. If you put the second knuckle on your middle finger along a surface, you can't move your ring finger. This is because it shares a tendon with your middle finger, so it's not possible to move it.

 

Another one you can try out at home. If you scratch your ear it sounds like pacman.

[Guest]

A strawberry is not an actual berry, but a banana is. By technical definition, a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single seed. The strawberry, however has its dry, yellow "seeds" on the outside (each of which is actually considered a separate fruit).