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Author Topic: Useless Fact's Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 12-18-2002 11:34 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Does the government still print two-dollar bills? In spite of what many people think, the Treasury Department still prints two-dollar bills. However, when a new bill is created it often takes quite some time for people to adjust to it. For some reason, the two-dollar bill has never become popular. Many people consider it unlucky, while others still believe it is not valid currency. Although the government can create and print new types of bills, it cannot force banks, businesses, or individuals to use them. If bank customers request a denomination in sufficient quantity, the government will quickly supply the bills needed to stock the bank vaults. U.S. bills are currently available in denominations of $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100. Up until 1969 the government also produced bills in denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000. These bills were used primarily for transferring funds between banks. With the electronic transfers used today these larger bills are no longer needed. However, they are still legal tender and may occassionally be found in circulation even today. The largest bill ever printed was a $100,000 gold certificate issued in 1934. These bills were used only for official transactions and were never placed in circulation. Although U.S. bills, which are sometimes referred to as "notes," were printed and backed by the government, these are no longer printed. In 1913 Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act, which authorized Federal Reserve Banks to issue bills. These are the only bills being printed today. You can order uncut sheets of bills through the mail by contacting the mail-order division of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. ~source used: "Do Fish Drink Water?" by Bill McLain~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 12-19-2002 06:34 AM                        Rated G useless fact -How did they figure out that fluoride prevents tooth decay? Although adding fluoride to toothpaste and drinking water is a relatively new thing,scientists have noticed fluoride's effects since the early 1800s. The soil and water around Naples,Italy,is very high in fluoride,and as a result its residents historically have had little or no tooth decay. This was noted in 1802,and by the 1840s,fluoride lozenges were passed out in many European communities to fight tooth decay.By 1915,a few cities in the United States had begun treating drinking water with fluoride.By the 1950s,fluoride-treated water was cropping up everywhere,and Crest became the first toothpaste to add fluoride. ~source used:"Just Curious Jeeves" by Jack Mingo & Erin Barrett~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 12-20-2002 07:31 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why is salt a good food preservative? The purpose of "salting" meat is to preserve it so it can be eaten long after the animal has been slaughtered. In the presence of salt, water leaves animal tissues by osmosis, which dehydrates the meat so that no bacteria can grow and decompose it. There are a number of different salt preservation methods such as soaking in brine (a salt and water solution) or laying the meat in a bed of salt crystals. In ancient times, salt was more highly prized than gold and was the foundation of ancient economies throughout history. Aside from its materialistic value, salt also played an important part in religions of the world. In the Christian religion, in both the Old and New Testaments, covenants were quite often sealed with salt. Jesus said that the meek, the poor in spirit, the merciful, those persecuted for the sake of righteousness, the peacemakers, and the pure of heart were "the salt of the earth," which was a marvelous compliment. On the Sabbath, offerings in the Jewish temple included salt. Today Jews still dip bread in salt to commemorate those ancient sacrifices. Many Buddhists believe that salt wards off evil spirits. When Buddhists enter their homes after attending a funeral, they throw salt over their shoulders to scare off any evil spirits that might be clinging to their backs. When the Dalai Lama died in 1933, he was buried sitting up in a bed of salt. The Hopi Native Americans worship the Salt Mother and have a legend that the angry Warrior Twins put valuable salt deposits far from civilization to punish the human race. Only those who were brave and willing to work hard would be able to get the salt. ~source used: "What Makes Flamingos Pink?" by Bill McLain~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 12-21-2002 08:51 AM                        Rated G Useless Fact- How do astronauts go to the bathroom in space? No snickering here, folks; this is serious business. When you gotta go,you gotta go,even if you're an astronaut. Consider the problem.In your regular earth toilet, the user (A)places him-or herself above the toilet (B).Waste gets from point A to point B by means of the miracle of gravity. In space, you don't have gravity.Stuff just floats.You see the difficulty this presents.(I'm certainly not going to spell it out for you.)So scientists had to use a different way to get waste from point A to point B.What they came up with was a high-tech vacuum cleaner. Here's how it works.The astronaut sits firmly on a special toilet seat.The seat makes a firm seal with the astronaut's skin,preventing anything from drifting off Into the cabin.Then he or she switches on a fan inside the toilet.This creates a gentle suction that pulls the waste into the toilet. The solid stuff collects in a special bag, while the wet stuff flows through the bag into a pipe and eventually gets pumped to a storage tank. When the astronaut is done,he or she closes the top of the toilet tightly and opens a valve that permits the air Inside the toilet to escape into the vacuum of space. This causes the moisture in the solids to boil away instantly.A special gizmo packs away what remains for disposal when the spacecraft gets back to the ground. Great, you say. But what if, as so often happens in the space program,it doesn't work? Well, there are several backup systems.If all else fails, there's always the "Apollo bag," so called because it was what the astronauts used on the Apollo flights.Basically, It's a plastic bag.You use it pretty much the way you'd figure you'd use it. Believe me, being an astronaut is a lot less glamorous than it's made out to be. ~source used: "Know It All" by Ed Zotti~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 12-21-2002 09:19 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - "Thumbs up"? Romans did not give a thumbs-up sign in the arena as an indication that the downed gladiator should be spared death. There is some question as to just what the Latin expression verso pollice, "to turn the thumb," means exactly. But according to Kevin Guinagh's Dictionary of Foreign Phrases and Abbreviations (New York, 1972), the popular interpretation is quite the reverse of the ancient Romans'. Says Guinagh (p. 289): "Actually the Romans pointed the thumb upward toward the chest when they wanted the vanquished slain, and down when they wanted the victor to spare his opponent." ~source used: "The Dictionary of Misinformation" by Tom Burnam  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 12-23-2002 05:55 AM                        Rated G Useless fact -"Tulip": So closely is the tulip now identified with the Netherlands that it is often thought to be of Dutch origin. This is hardly the case, for it comes from Central Asia, where it flourished on the steppes. The Turks prized the tulip and were cultivating it assiduously by the sixteenth century and perhaps long before. ("Tulip" derives, ultimately, from the Turkish for "turban.") In the mid-sixteenth century Augerius Gislenius Busbequis, the Austrian ambassador to the court of Suleiman the Magnificent, who was Sultan of the Turkish Empire, brought back bulbs for his garden in Vienna. From there it reached Western Europe, and by 1562 Antwerp had received a whole cargo of bulbs from Constantinople. In 1634-37 the famous tulipomania gripped all of Holland. Rich and poor alike speculated in the bulbs, and there are records of single bulbs selling for $750, $1,500, and $4,000.The Netherlands is, to be sure, headquarters for tulip bulbs, though growers and fanciers in Belgium are equally ardent. ~source used: "The Dictionary of Misinformation"by Tom Burnam~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 12-23-2002 04:27 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - In poker, what is the "Dead Man's Hand"? TWO PAIR, consisting of the black aces and eights.It's called the Dead Man's Hand because it's what Wild Bill Hickok was holding,along with a jack (some say queen) of diamonds, at the moment he was killed. Gunfighter Hickok made it a policy never to sit with his back to the door,but when another player playfully sat in his seat,Hickok broke his own rule. Unfortunately, it just so happened that this was the day drifter Jackie McCall came through the door with a gun.He shot Hickok from behind,and since then some superstitious gamblers dread getting aces and eights. ~source used: "Just Curious Jeeves" by Jack Mingo & Erin Barrett~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 12-26-2002 08:35 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Which drains a battery faster,using it for four hours straight or using it for four one-hour periods? Using a battery-operated device continuously for four hours would run down a battery faster than using it for an hour on,then an hour off, for four cycles.The reason is that batteries have a tendency to recover a little bit if not used for a time. A battery's current comes from electrons that are a byproduct of a chemical reaction between two substances,and how those substances are physically arranged affects how the reaction proceeds.They actually move from one side to another.The rest period time allows the ingredients to equalize and lets the liquids get where they are supposed to be. There is some recovery with continuous use,but if a battery is used until it is completely dead,you get more service with intermittent use than with continuous use.The difference between intermittent and continuous use is greater with a device that makes a heavy drain on a battery,a toy with a motor that runs,for example,than with a clock with very light hands that runs continuously. The physical arrangement helps explain why rechargeable batteries made with nickel and cadmium may exhibit what has been called a memory effect.For example,if a battery designed for an hour of use is used for ten minutes and then recharged,and if this process is repeated several times,the next time the battery is needed for a full hour,the power drops off fairly quickly,as if the battery had a memory of what was expected of it. ~source used:"Book of Science Questions and Answers" by C. Claiborne Ray~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 12-26-2002 12:15 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why Does Your Voice Sound Higher and Funny When You Ingest Helium? The kiddie equivalent of the drunken partygoer putting a lampshade on his head is ingesting helium and speaking like a chipmunk with a caffeine problem. Sound is the sensation produced by stimulation of the organs of hearing by vibrations transmitted through the air or other mediums. Low-frequency sound is heard as low pitch and higher frequencies as correspondingly higher pitch.The frequency (pitch) of sound depends on the density of the medium through which the vibrations are transmitted;the less dense the medium,the greater the rate(frequency)of vibration,and hence,the higher the pitch of the sound. The densities of gases are directly proportional to their molecular weights.Because the density of helium (mol. wt. 4)is much less than that of air,a mixture of about 78 percent nitrogen (mol. wt. 28) and about 20 percent oxygen (mol. wt. 32),the vocal cords vibrate much faster (at a higher frequency)in helium than in air,and therefore the voice is perceived as having a higher pitch. The effect is more readily perceived with male voices,which have a lower pitch than female voices.The pitch of the voice[can]be lowered by inhaling a member of the noble(inert)gas family(to which helium belongs)that is heavier than air, such as xenon (mol. wt. 131.29). ~source used: "Do Penguins Have Knees?" by David Feldman~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 12-27-2002 10:30 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Are the streets on the Monopoly game real streets from somewhere? Yes, Altantic City. Or at least they were when Charles Darrow sold the game to Parker Brothers in the 1930s. If you're planning a trip to see the originals, however, you'll be disappointed to see that many of the game's upscale streets, like Pacific Avenue, are now pretty seedy; that Marven Gardens, misspelled in the game, is way out of town; that none of the railroads stop there anymore; and that St. Charles Place was replaced by a casino parking lot. There's still plenty of free parking spaces and a jail, though. ~source used: "Just Curious Jeeves"by Jack Mingo & Erin Barrett~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 12-28-2002 10:36 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Most ticks are deaf, blind,and slow as Christmas.So how do they find you? They smell you. Scientists have learned what sets ticks off by attaching itty-bitty electrodes to the olfactory organs on their legs.At a range of about twenty or thirty feet,a tick can smell the carbon dioxide on your breath. Closer in — a few feet away — it begins to respond to ammonia and other chemicals in your sweat, and closer still, it becomes stimulated by your body heat. Basically, there are two kinds of ticks: "Ambush" ticks sit patiently on vegetation, waiting with their forelegs extended, until a likely critter brushes against them. "Hunter" ticks, on the other hand, will actually go after their prey, engaging in hot pursuits of thirty feet or more. And they're faster than you might think. Daniel Sonenshine, author of "The Biology of the Tick", has clocked a tick crossing his desk in less than ten seconds. Impressive, yes. But consider that only one tick in a million finds enough food to survive to adulthood.Nature is inefficient, thank goodness. ~source used: "Why Moths Hate Thomas Edison" by Hampton Sides~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 01-02-2003 08:10 AM                        Rated G Useless Fact - Why are nonsweet wines called "dry"? "Sweet" makes sense. Sweet wines *do* have more sugar in them than dry ones. The main purpose of the sugar is to combat the acidity of the tannic and other acids found in wine. Consumers may disagree sharply about how much sugar they prefer in wines, but can't we all agree that "dry" wine is just as wet as sweet wine? Surprisingly, few of our wine experts could make any sense of "dry" either, but two theories emerged. Spirits expert W. Ray Hyde argues that the terminology stems from both the sensory experience of tasting and more than a little marketing savvy:Sugar stimulates the saliva glands and leaves the mouth wet. Acids, on the other hand, have an astringent quality that leaves the mouth feeling dry. Winemakers know that the consumer prefers a "sweet" wine to a "wet" wine and a "dry" wine to an "acidic" wine. ~source used: "Do Penguins Have Knees?"by David Feldman~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 01-02-2003 09:09 AM                        RatedG Useless fact - Are the vitamins in a potato really in the peel? A simple enough question, but the answer is a little complicated.Not all of a potato's vitamins are found in the peel; in most cases, the vitamins are spread pretty evenly throughout the potato. But eating the peel is still a good idea. Certain minerals that your body needs, such as calcium and zinc, are found in larger amounts in the peel.The peel is also a good source of fiber. Fiber consists of things your body can't digest. As the fiber scrapes along your insides, it sops up bad stuff and carries it out of your body. Most of us could use a lot more fiber in our diets.What's more, in baked potatoes, the peel does contain more than its share of vitamins. Baking causes vitamins and other nutrients to pile up in the peel.So eating the peel sounds like a great idea, right? Well, it is, except for one thing: It also might poison you. Here's the scoop. Potatoes are members of the nightshade family. The stems, seeds, and skins of this family are poisonous—some more so than others. In fact, you may have heard of a plant called deadly nightshade, which can kill. Potatoes aren't as bad as deadly nightshade, but they're not completely harmless either. While the flesh of the potato (the white part) is okay, the leaves and skin I contain substances called glycoalkaloids Eat enough of these and you could get sick.That's why you should never eat potato eyes—that's where the glycoalkaloids concentrate. If you come across some old potatoes that have sprouted (the eyes have begun to grow), throw them out immediately. Sprouted potatoes are loaded with glycoalkaloids, and are pretty rank in general. The potatoes grown in this country have been carefully chosen for the low amount of glycoalkaloids in them, so you'd have to eat a * lot* of potato skins before you noticed any ill effects. Most potato scientists (there really are such people) think the benefit of the fiber and other good things in the peel outweighs the slight danger of poisoning.Still, it never hurts to be careful. ~source used: "Know It All"by Ed Zotti~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 01-02-2003 03:38 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - What is true or pure gold? Pure gold is too soft to be used for jewelry so it is usually alloyed with copper, silver, nickel, or some other metal to give it strength and durability. Adding these metals to gold can give the gold a rose, green, or white hue. Gold is measured in "karat" weights. Some typical karats are: 24 karat = 100 percent gold 18 karat = 75 percent gold 14 karat = 58.5 percent gold 10 karat = 41.6 percent gold The higher the karat weight, the more valuable the jewelry. In the United States, jewelry must be at least 10 karats to be called gold. According to U.S. law, all gold jewelry must be marked with the karat weight. This mark is usually on the inside of rings and on the clasps of necklaces or bracelets. A word of warning. Other countries use different standards for gold. For example, in Mexico it is legal to call an item gold if it is at least 8 karats. ~source used: "Do Fish Drink Water?" by Bill McLain~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 01-02-2003 05:09 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Who was the Teddy bear named after? President Theodore Roosevelt.As the story goes,someone tethered a bear cub to a tree for him to kill on a hunting trip. When he refused to shoot the bear,he became a hero of sorts.Stuffed bears were made to commemorate the event. ~source used: "Just Curious Jeeves" by Jack Mingo & Erin Barrett~  |  IP: Logged

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