Factoid of the day!

lurking · 2007-08-02T04:25:29+00:00

I keep coming across interesting little facts in classes and books. So, I thought I would share them. I will now begin sharing one fact I found interesting each day. Comments are welcome. Edit- I should have mentioned this in the main post earlier, any factoids I post are from sources that I consider extremely credible. If I doubt something then I will fact check it before posting. Should anyone not trust me and/or my selection of sources, I encourage you to research for yourself should it be needed to satisfy your thirst for knowledge. Enjoy. :) Daily Factoid #1 aug 1 In the USA, it was illegal to use the word "tornado" in weather forecasts until the 1950's. Daily Factoid #2 aug 2 The word "hysteria" has the root meaning of "wandering womb". It was for thousands of years(at least into the 1950s) believed that women acting irritable, anxious, etc, was a result of their uterus moving around within their bodies. For this reason, one of the early uses of the battery was to cause a pair of charged metal plates to move back and forth (vibrating). This device was used in a doctors office on the lower abdomen of a woman and surprise surprise, she would often leave more relaxed and calm then when she came in. The Sears catalog, which is generally attributed to the creation of home shopping, would sell a smaller home version of this machine, which led to the modern vibrator. :D Daily Factoid #3 aug 3 If you hear in a medieval history class that people ate a type of porridge as the main part of their diet, that porridge is actually more interesting then you may have thought. It was one of the precursors to beer and contained roughly 15% alcohol by volume. People would typically consume 1-1.5 gallons of the stuff per day. That's a lot of alcohol. :shock: Daily Factoid #4 aug 4 In medieval England, the forest laws made it illegal to hunt in the forests, as they all belonged to the king. If you were found in the woods with an animal's blood on your hands, you would be executed on sight. This is where we get the phrase "caught red handed". Note: I don't remember if he was the one to initiate the law, but William the Conqueror, a.k.a. William the Bastard, was one such ruler that strictly enforced this law. Daily Factoid #5 aug 5 A butt-load is an actual unit of measurement. It is roughly 450 gallons. Note that it doesn't actually have anything to do with a persons butt. Daily Factoid #6 aug 6 In the 1920's, Utah passed a law requiring that women's skirts come up no further then three inches from the ground. Well thats no fun. Daily Factoid #7 aug 7 In a study regarding teenage girls that took chastity pledges, 9/10 broke the pledge within 1 year. They also had an equal or greater rate of contracting an STD because they were much more likely to have anal sex (generally without a condom). Daily Factoid #8 aug 8 Medieval houses in the Germanic world and England were typically made from the daub and wattle process, which results in a product vaguely similar to a crappy version of modern drywall(if you know the details of the process you should get that pun). Because these house walls were so easy to break, there were often problems of people smashing right through the side of someone's house, stealing and running back out the hole in the wall. Laws to deal with this is where we get the phrase "breaking an entry" or "breaking and entering" Daily Factoid #9 aug 9 The previously mentioned daub and wattle houses generally had thatched roofs which were perfect places for rats to live. The problem of the occasional rat falling out of the ceiling while you sleep is why canopy beds were invented. Daily Factoid #10 aug 10 AM radio can be received from farther away then normal during the night for the following reason: At night, the D and E layers of the ionosphere, which absorb AM radio waves, essentially disappear, leaving only the F layer, which reflects AM radio waves. Daily Factoid #11 aug 11 The word barbarian actually comes from a Greek word referring to any non-Greeks. The reason was that it was hard for the Greeks to figure out the languages of people from the north(or anywhere else for that matter). The Greeks thought it sounded like they were just saying "bar bar bar bar". Daily Factoid #12 aug 12 The air pressure at the earth's surface is approximately 14.7 pounds per square inch. Didn?t realize there was that much pressing down on ya, huh? Also, the surface air pressure at Hiroshima the moment little boy exploded was about 716 lbs per square inch. Note: I think 14.7 is for sea level, it is likely to change slightly based on the altitude of your location. Daily Factoid #13 aug 13 Joe McCarthy, a.k.a. "Tailgunner Joe", was never actually a tailgunner, he was an observer in some combat missions but was never really involved in any fighting. He got the "achievement" of most shots fired in the war by riding along during training flights over safe zones and firing at nothing. Daily Factoid #14 aug 14 A lightning bolt is approximately 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5x hotter then the sun's surface), occurs in 1/10th of a second, and can strike an object 5 to 10 miles from its source. A bolt is only about the width of a pencil. Daily Factoid #15 aug 15 In the early 1900?s, condoms and diaphragms were made from animal hides. (Sheep skin if I remember correctly) Daily Factoid #16 aug 30 According to Buy’s Ballot Rule, if you stand with your back to the wind, turn 10-15 degrees and stick your arms strait out to your sides, your left hand will be pointing to an area of low pressure and your right to high pressure. Daily Factoid #17 aug 31 Many believe that while the Chinese invented gunpowder, they only used them for fireworks, not weapons. In fact, they had used gunpowder to make flamethrowers, shrapnel canons and more traditional ones, land mines and bombs/grenades. All of which was long before Europeans got to it. The Chinese also created an auto-crossbow that would be the fastest firing projectile weapon until WWI. note- This one is from a history channel documentary. I would like to think it is credible, but I wouldn't trust it quite as much as sources I generally go by. Such documentaries often seem to over generalize things and make small individual instances seem widespread and commonplace. Daily Factoid #18 sep 4 Godzilla’s Japanese name, Gojira, was a mix of the Japanese words for whale and gorilla. Daily Factoid #19 sep 5 The coriolis force of the earth’s rotation is much too weak to effect things on a small scale. The thing from the Simpsons about toilet water flushing in a different direction because of the hemisphere it is in was just bs, a lot of people believed it apparently.The coriolis force does have an impact though on large scale winds and tides. Factoids of the Day #20-22 sep 20 #20-The meteorological term “cyclone” refers to an area of low pressure, not just tornado type occurrences as many people believe. A tornado is always a cyclone but not all cyclones include tornados. Note: In certain parts of the world, “cyclone” does specifically refer to a hurricane/typhoon. #21-A human egg only lives for about a day without fertilization and is the largest single cell in the human body. A sperm cell is the smallest human cell, but it typically lives for 2-3 days and in some cases been known to live for as long as 8 days! Note-of course those numbers would be different outside of the human body. #22-It was once believed that Ireland was the beginning of hell, which was apparently just west of it. Part of the reasoning was just the appearance of the large jagged rocks along parts of its coast.

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lurking

17 years ago

Indeed, what was a stereotype for "non-civilized" non-romans has turned into a whole different thing. It cracks me up playing something like the diablo 2 expansion where they are just some race of conan the barbarian(theres another one) type people running around.

Deleta

17 years ago

Yay for Lurking and yay for random facts!

lurking

17 years ago

Deleta wrote...

Yay for Lurking and yay for random facts!

Now thats a good response :D

lurking

17 years ago

#12 added. enjoy

lurking

17 years ago

#13 added. enjoy.

Deleta

17 years ago

ZOMG NO WAY Tailgunner Joe IS A LIE!? NOOOO!
Lurking you have destroyed me! Na jk. Keep it up.

lurking

17 years ago

#14 added. enjoy.

lurking

17 years ago

#15 added. enjoy.

lurking

17 years ago

#16 added. enjoy.

lurking

17 years ago

#17 added, enjoy.

Minsc

17 years ago

I didn't know about the auto-crossbow. That is pure loliness.

lurking

17 years ago

#18 added, #11 edited.

I looked back over the factoids and found that whenever I wrote #11 I must have had some kind of dumb brainfart. "Barbarian" originates from greek, not latin. It was the Greeks that considered foreign language to sound like "bar bar", not the Romans. Latin did adopt a similar version of the greek word which did eventually turn into the current english word barbarian, but it did indeed originate with greek. Sorry about the confusion.

sakda2503

17 years ago

lurking wrote...

Factoid 4 added to first post. Enjoy.

lurking

17 years ago

#19 added, enjoy.

lurking

17 years ago

#20-22 added. enjoy.

I've been busy since the fall semester started and won't be on fakku as regularly because this semester will be so busy. That means the factoid of the day won't continue regularly which is why I added 3 factoids all at once.

Blue.Sky

17 years ago

nooo lurking we must have factoids. Maybe you should get some one to fill in for u o.O?

lurking

17 years ago

I thought about it, but then I couldn't really ensure the reliability. This is all the random facts I came up with when I first started the thing anyway. As I remember or learn more I may pop on once in awhile to add them, but wont exactly be daily, as you've seen over the past few weeks.

Of course people can always post their own facts here and it just won't go into the main post until I have a chance to double check the accuracy and put it into the main post.

There are also two(i think) other similar threads on FAKKU, one of random facts and one of science stuff, although I've read over them and have some doubts about some of the information posted.

I'm just really busy this semester. I'm getting my BA after this semester and originally planned for it to be an easy, relaxed semester, but due to the ineptitude of the advisers I ended up having to take more then I planned.I'm currently taking 5 classes, including another semester of Chinese and two seminars. Even when I do have a free weekend now and then, I tend to be traveling a lot this semester. I'll still be on FAKKU now and then, just not necessarily on a daily basis and probably not responding to as many posts on the forums as I have in the past.

Blue.Sky

17 years ago

Well at least ull be dropping in with ur factoids once in awhile. Gl with ur semester.

DarklordZebulon

17 years ago

Wow !! :shock: I'm impressed !!, You really have so much knowledge. I like a interesting facts, and I wouldn't said this thread is useless. At least it can exceeded my knowledge & it can make me smiling or laugh when reading some of it. For me the really funny is the fact of Barbarian and "Caught red handed" :lol:(although too bad I also can't understand some of it, B'cuz my english is not so good. :cry:)

I said you must always updating this thread and keep filling it with more interesting & unique facts, Keep it!! :D

lurking

17 years ago

DarklordZebulon wrote...

I'm glad you like it. Unfortunately it wont be updated all that often because I've got a heavy workload now and a lot of it is discussion based instead of lectures. What language do you speak aside from English? I can try to re-phrase some things you don't understand if you'd like.

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