Mental Floss

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Ethys

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Okay, so Mental Floss is actually the name of a really interesting magazine, but I'm hijacking it for this post.

This thread was inspired by Diana's 'have you ever wondered' thread. There are some really funny questions in there, but also interesting ones! It reminded me how much I love random bits of trivia. I know a lot of things that will do me no good until I am on Jeopardy raking in the millions.

I know I'm not alone here.

TELL ME YOUR RANDOM THINGS THAT YOU KNOW! I want to know all the useless tidbits! :D

I will start.

Did you know that golfers used to have two caddies instead of just one? The second was called a forecaddy, and their job was to hunt down the balls that went wayyyy off where they weren't supposed to, such as in the woods or grass. That is why golfers will sometimes still yell 'fore!'. It used to be a way to say 'heads up!' to the poor caddy that had to go tromping off to find the stupid thing :D
 
The eye evolved in the following manner.
  • Single celled organisms evolved a light-sensitive organ which allowed them to detect light levels. This allowed them to swim deeper to avoid being cooked by radiation, thus allowing more successive generations.
  • In multi-cellular organisms, the eye then evolved a socket, to focus the direction from which light was coming, allowing them to discern light levels over short distances.
  • The film of the eye was evolved, allowing discerning between light and shadow.
  • The eye continued to fine tune until it could perceive shapes and colours.
  • When creatures left the oceans, the eyelid became the method by which our eyes remained wet in spite of being outside of the ocean.
  • Our eyes were made for oceans, this is why they suffer the occasional error on the surface. Like mirages, or the blind spot, or basic deceptions which fool the eyes--like spiral videos on YouTube. :ferret:
Creationists can now stop doing this. :rotfl:

 
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A thread all about fun facts :D

1. There is a poison which scientist will never release To public/other because it only takes a drop smaller than the human eye can see to kill someone INSTANTLY. So even if they find a antidote, it doesn't matter and it'll still stay hidden away.


2. When you go shark sighting in a cage, sharks are starting to go after the floatation Devices on the top edges of the cage so the cage sinks and it can get to you from above. Once they get one, the person can't be pulled up or else the cage will flip leaving you exposed. (Also when they pop one, they go for the other one, so it's not coincidence or an accident)

So the person kinda have to climb out with help of others, which is hard to do because of the gear you're wearing and going back to gravity, but the cage is wobbling from the shark. A shark hasn't gotten someone that way yet as far as I'm aware, but they've been getting awfully close o.o
 
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Clearly sharks are getting more intelligent from watching Sharknado and realizing their true potential.

DAMN YOU, SYFY! GIVING THEM IDEAS!

Ahem.

The first world war ended at precisely 11 o'clock on 11/11/1918.
Eleven should be your favorite number. All of you.


Also, only 2 presidents who have re-run have failed to be re-elected for a second term since 1932 - Jimmy Carter and George HW Bush.
Kind of makes you wonder why people keep re-electing the people they complain the most about when looking to point fingers about ruining the country.
 
all the letters for 'typewriter' are on the top row of the keyboard.
 
Lots of people know Shakespeare made up tons of words that entered common usage, but not many seem to know that he also created the name Jessica when naming a character in one of his plays.

Tongues have unique prints and could hypothetically be used to identify someone in the same way as fingerprints.

Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon, but Buzz Aldrin was the first man to pee on the moon.
 
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The coldest places in the universe are actually right here on earth, in laboratories where individual atoms are cooled down to just a fraction above absolute zero. The next coldest place is the Boomerang Nebula (about 5,000 light years away from Earth), which is 1 Kelvin, or just one degree above absolute zero.

Aphantasia is the inability to visualize things in your imagination and it's a condition that was only just identified about a month ago as of now, but there have been recorded instances of it going as far back as a century.

Blue eyes are blue the same way that the sky is blue, by reflecting certain wavelengths of light.

The color pink technically doesn't exist as it's not on the visible spectrum of light, rather it only exist as an illusion created by our brains when you remove the color green from white light.

The color blue is especially effective at preventing the release of melatonin in the brain, which is a hormone that helps us fall asleep. So if you've ever wondered why so many websites have blue as their primary color, now you know.

Around 70% of the human population is lactose intolerant, meaning that people who can consume dairy products without getting sick are actually in the minority. The ability to digest lactose stems from a gene mutation that is believed to have originated from central Europe about 7,500 years ago, called the lactase persistence trait. You see, infants are able to produce an enzyme called lactase that allows them to easily digest the lactose in their mother's milk. Usually, they stop producing that enzyme when they're around 5-8 years old, but those with the lactase persistence trait will continue to make lastase well into adulthood, allowing them to drink all the milk that they want. Pretty neat, huh?
 
The color blue is especially effective at preventing the release of melatonin in the brain, which is a hormone that helps us fall asleep. So if you've ever wondered why so many websites have blue as their primary color, now you know.
This makes me wonder how many infant males have sleep issues because of how their parents painted their room.
 
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THE BUBBLES IN THE BEER KNOWN AS GUINNESS FLOATS DOWNWARD AND NOT UPWARD. WHAT EVEN.
 
- Cats can find their way home from far away by sensing the magnetic fields in the earth, one of the reasons they don't get lost as often and have to be kept inside for at least two weeks after a move.

- New sprouts from short-needled pine trees are edible and can be used in salads.

- Moose have killed more people than most predators, mostly because of their higher population number, their crossing of roads and plain bad luck.
 
Fire is a plasma, if you ever wondered what fire is. 8D


Dandelions are edible. Leaves and flowers and roots. O__O Wild violets are also edible. In fact, there's edible plants all over the place, that we never think about.
 
Fire is a plasma, if you ever wondered what fire is. 8D
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A thread all about fun facts :D

1. There is a poison which scientist will never release To public/other because it only takes a drop smaller than the human eye can see to kill someone INSTANTLY. So even if they find a antidote, it doesn't matter and it'll still stay hidden away.

There's a lot of poisons like that aren't hidden away, like the nerve agent VX gas. The LD50 for a lot of stuff is terrifyingly low. For instance, H2S is a naturally occuring gas can be found in something as mundane as a water tank, and if you so much as get a breath of it, there's a very real chance you're dead within minutes with zero chance of resurrection.

Anyways, high heels were originally invented so butchers could keep their feet out of the blood on the floor. It would later evolve into a high fashion item for the upper class citizens in Europe- the men. Somewhere along the line women apparently looked at those foot murdering contraptions and decided to make it their own. Likewise, pink used to be seen as a very masculine colour until fairly modern times.
 
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BODY FACTS: Because we all have one so it should be fascinating for everybody :D

  • If the average male never shaved his facial hair in his lifetime [and lived to a ripe old age] his beard would likely be over 30 feet long. Facial hair grows faster than hair on any other area of the body, even for females! Eyebrow wax, anyone?
  • Your small intestine is actually bigger than your large intestine! Say what?! It's true! It's your largest internal organ. Mind blown.
  • Women blink nearly twice as often as men do. Not really sure why. Maybe we're just regularly blinded by how fucking beautiful we are and our eyes need a momentary break.
  • Babies are born with 300 bones, though by adulthood they have 206. My theory is that aliens steal them, but I guess the 'official' and 'scientific' theory is that they meld together after being in pieces to make it easier to be born. Whatever. I still say aliens.
  • On average, right-handed people live about 9 years longer than left-handed people. Probably because left-handed people are communists and we find out.
 
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On average, right-handed people live about 9 years longer than left-handed people. Probably because left-handed people are communists and we find out.
So THAT explains my leftist leanings!
 
  • Women blink nearly twice as often as men do. Not really sure why. Maybe we're just regularly blinded by how fucking beautiful we are and our eyes need a momentary break.
*Women+Gwazi
 
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