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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 04-10-2003 11:26 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Full Moon As is implied by the very word "lunatic", it has long been held that the full moon makes animals, including humans, go crazy. Even today, you will be anecdoted to death about the moon's mysterious biochemical power over our moods and life processes. You'll hear about something that's been called "the biological tides", the notion that because our bodies are 80 percent water, we must be profoundly affected by the moon's gravitational pull just as the oceans are. You'll also hear that more births occur around the full moon and that the murder rate rises precipitously. Is there anything to any of this? Well, yes and no—but mostly no. Even though it's more than 250,000 miles away from us, our only natural satellite does exert a certain influence on the mating patterns of animals—especially marine animals, which should not be too surprising, as the moon also governs the tides. The reproductive cycles of sea urchins, fiddler crabs, oysters, and the California grunion, to cite just a few examples, are intimately tied to the lunar calendar. Dive the Great Barrier Reef on the evening of the full moon, and you'll be treated to the amazing spectacle of thousands of coral polyps simultaneously releasing clouds of sperm and eggs in a kind of psychedelic mass orgy timed to coincide with the month's highest tide. Then too, many species of terrestrial wildlife seem to be more active on the night of a full moon, but most likely they're simply responding to the fact that a full-moon evening stays brighter, and brighter longer, than other nights, thus affording better vision for mating, hunting, and foraging. ~source used: "Why Months 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 04-11-2003 01:09 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why does a man's coat come with those useless buttons on the sleeves? Buttons were first put on sleeves during a time when men preferred their sleeves to fit very tightly.The buttons were put there so that the man could unbutton the sleeves to get his hands through. ~source used: "Ever Wonder Why?" by Douglas B. Smith~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 04-13-2003 04:02 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Do frogs really rain from the skies? Ignore all harumphing fuddy-duddies who say that this phenomenon is preposterous: It happens, and with greater frequency than you'd guess. The skies are constantly dropping stuff,and not just frogs. There are well-documented stories of crabs, birds, spiders, turtles, snails, crayfish, maggots, and even livestock raining down from the firmament. In 1997 a Korean fisherman was knocked unconscious by a frozen lump of heaven-sent squid.And a Japanese vessel sank in 1990 after being clobbered by a falling cow.How does this happen?In most cases, the culprit is a waterspout or tornado that has sucked up the unsuspecting wildlife into the upper registers of a powerful storm cell—often freezing them before hurling them earthward with the rain, sometimes up to twenty miles away from where they started.Although nature obviously isn't picky about its victims,young froglets and tadpoles do seem to be especially good candidates for this sort of mass animal hoovering. They're just the right size—small,but offering enough wind resistance and heft to get airborne.And they can be outrageously prolific. Considering that a single frog can lay as many as twentythousand eggs,a funnel that happens to make a direct hit along the banks of a lake or pond a few weeks after all those eggs have hatched can vacuum up untold legions of amphibians and blow them sky- high.You'll be glad to know that they don't all perish, however. In 1954,thousands of live juvenile frogs "came down like snowflakes" on the West Midlands of Great Britain,over an area of fifty square yards.And in 1882,eyewitnesses in Dubuque,Iowa reported finding a hailstone that contained two frogs in it. The frogs crawled away after the ice melted—alive and well, if a little dazed from their ordeal. ~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 04-14-2003 02:45 PM                        Rated G Useless fact: QWERTY keyboard The arrangement of keys on a typewriter is called "QWERTY" for the first six letters in the top alphabet row (sometimes people use all 10 letters and call it the "QWERTYUIOP" keyboard). For over 125 years people have been saying that the layout of letters on the typewriter keyboard is awkward, inefficient, confusing to learn,and makes no sense.Yet in spite of the complaints,even sophisticated computers and word processors use the same keyboard layout. Why? Some writers have accused Sholes(the inventor of thetypewriter) of arranging the keyboard so it would slow down fast typists and prevent jamming of his slow machine.The truth is just the opposite.The problem was that if two typebars were close to each other, they would jam if typed in succession. Sholes rearranged the letters so that common combinations, such as "TH," would be far away from each other.This arrangement greatly reduced the jamming problem and eventually led to faster typing speeds. In the years following the invention of the typewriter,many different keyboards were adopted and quietly died.The most famous was the "Dvorak" keyboard created by Professor August Dvorak of Washington State University.Although developed in 1932,it is still not widely accepted today. In 1953 a study by the U.S. General Services Administration proved that it doesn't matter what keyboard is used.Good typists type fast while bad typists do not. ~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 04-15-2003 06:24 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Was Captain Kidd as bad a pirate as his legend says? Captain William Kidd was a "privateer", not a pirate. Privateers were different from pirates in one very large respect: They were legal and considered a legitimate form of economic war. They used privately owned fleets to ransack the cargo-laden ships of the enemy.The fleets were provided by wealthy merchant- investors who received a cut of the loot. Privateers often operated under outright immunity from government officials (or at the very least, a wink and a nod), as long as they agreed to ransack only enemy ships. England's East India Company was one of Kidd's financial backers, and French ships were considered fair game. However, in the course of his tour, Kidd took a French ship that was sailed by Moors.To preserve ties with India,the East India Company railroaded him.Kidd was arrested in Boston and transported to England for trial. Kidd was not allowed to present his evidence; the jury found him guilty of piracy,and he was hanged. He had two children. Sara and Elizabeth Kidd lived with their mother, Sara Oort Kidd, on 56 Wall Street in New York City when William Kidd was put to death in 1701. While waiting to be hung, Kidd confessed no crimes to the chaplain, only that his greatest sorrow was dying without the chance to say good-bye to his wife and children back home. ~source used: "Just Curious about History, Jeeves" by Erin Barrett and Jack Mingo~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 04-16-2003 05:48 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why is the devil portrayed as having horns and hooved feet? This image of the devil began with medieval art, and it is believed to have been taken from the descriptions of satyrs in Greek mythology. The satyrs were attendants of Bacchus, the god of wine, and they were characterized as lazy, lecherous, evil drunkards who spent much of their time chasing nymphs through the forests. The satyrs had small horns and hooved feet. ~source used: "Ever Wonder Why?" by Douglas B. Smith~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 04-17-2003 08:00 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - If hot air rises, why is it always cooler in the mountains? Hot air rises, but it doesn't "stay" hot.On its way sky-ward, decreasing atmospheric pressure causes it to expand and, consequently,gradually grow colder in a process called "adiabatic cooling".Eventually, the formerly hot air becomes so chilly that it stops rising altogether. We all know now that the Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus got it exactly backward:It's cooler in the higher altitudes.This is because air is warmed for the most part by sunlight hitting the surface of the earth.The farther you get from the radiant effects of the ground,the lower the temperature—about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit lower for every thousand feet of ascent.(Of course, mountains are "the ground," too,but whereas sunlight warms peaks just as it warms valleys,mountains are surrounded by brisk, breezy, high-altitude air,which keeps them refrigerated.) All things being equal,the summit of Mount Everest ought to be an invigorating 104 degrees cooler than sea level. By the way,hot air doesn't always rise. Anyone who's spent a summer in,say, Washington,D.C.,knows that under certain atmospheric conditions, hot air can just lie around for weeks at a time,slow-cooking the citizens and making them yearn for the mountains. ~source used: "Why Months 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 04-19-2003 07:04 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Is the Great Wall of China the only man-made object visible from moon? A persistent popular notion, perphaps springing froma "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" of many years ago,is that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made structure that can be seen from the moon with the naked eye. Disturbed that no lunar astronaut had mentioned being able to see the Great Wall,Doug Baker,columnist for the Portland "Oregon Journal",referred to this popular belief in his column in1971.Shortly thereafter he got a definitive answer from Captain Alan Bean, the astronaut: Dear Mr. Baker: The only thing you can see from the moon is a beautiful sphere mostly white (clouds), some blue (ocean),patches of yellow (deserts) and every once in a while some green vegetation. No man-made object is visible on this scale.In fact,when first leaving earth's orbit and only a few thousand miles away,no man-made object is visible at that point either. And so it appears,on the best possible authority,that Robert Ripley was wrong. ~source used: "More Misinformation" by Tom Burnam~ [ 04-22-2003, 06:47 AM: Message edited by: Bob Maar ]  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 04-22-2003 06:46 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why are there ridges on the sides of most school buses? Those ridges are called "rub rails," and their main purpose is to add strength to the sides of the vehicle. According to John Chuhran, of Mercedes-Benz of North America: "If they were flat, the sides of buses would have more of a tendency to flex." Rub rails have an additional benefit - they also help maintain the structural integrity of the bus when it is broadsided. The rub rails help prevent the crashing vehicle from penetrating farther into the bus. ~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 04-22-2003 07:55 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why is a practice based upon general experience called a "rule of thumb"? The thumb has been used frequently as a means of making approximate measurements. Clothiers and carpenters used it to measure one inch,and cooks and brewers used it to test the temperature of heated liquids.Measurements made this way were said to be made according to the "rule of thumb." In general use the expression has been expanded to include any method or procedure based on practice or experience rather than on scientific knowledge. ~source used: "Ever Wonder Why?" by Douglas B. Smith~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 04-22-2003 11:25 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - What gangster wrote a fan letter to Henry Ford about his cars? That was Clyde Barrow. On April 10, 1934, he sat down and addressed a letter to Mr. Ford from a hideout where he and Bonnie Parker were holed-up in Florida. The letter, stamped "Received" by the Ford Motor Company three days later, read (mistakes and all): Dear Sir: While I still have got breath in my lungs I will tell you what a dandy car you make. I have drove Fords exclusively when I could get away with one. For sustained speed and freedom from trouble the Ford has got ever other car skinned and even if my business hasent been strictly legal it don't hurt enything to tell you what a fine car you got in the V-8. Yours truly, Clyde Champion Barrow The next month, on May 23, 1934, both he and Bonnie died behind the wheel of a stolen, beige 1934 Ford V-8. ~source used: "Just Curious About History, Jeeves" by Erin Barrett & Jack Mingo  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 04-23-2003 11:33 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Sleep: Even when extremely tired, most people have great difficulty sleeping between 9 and 11 A.M. and between 7 and 9 P.M. When we're sleeping, a biochemical switch in the brain prevents the brain from ordering your muscles to move. If this switch did not work, people would walk, talk, eat, or even commit violent acts while sleeping. This is one of the causes of sleepwalking. In a condition known as "night terrors," victims physically act out their dreams while in a sleepwalking state. Around the turn of the century, people averaged 9 hours of sleep per night. The chimpanzee gets about 10 hours of sleep a day. Research has shown that if we are removed from the stress of the modern world, we will sleep an average of 10.3 hours a day, about the same as the chimpanzee. Sleep deprivation has become a national malady. Most of the people in the United States do not get enough sleep. This adversely affects driving and performance at work.If you are having a nightmare and cannot move, just blink your eyes or wiggle your tongue to break the paralysis. Astronauts sleeping in a weightless environment tend to draw up their knees and wrap their arms loosely around their torso. This puts the spine in a restful, natural curve, and might be the best position for the rest of us when we sleep. ~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 04-23-2003 03:43 PM                        Rated G Useless Fact - Is scuba diving really bad for your bones? The average scuba enthusiast has little to worry about, but commercial divers who make frequent descents of more than 100 feet have been known to suffer from a crippling affliction known as "dysbaric osteonecrosis" —or, more ominously, "bone death". It's a degenerative condition that can make bones dangerously brittle and cause excruciating pain in the joints. Veteran scallop and urchin divers or frogman mechanics who service oil rigs seem to be particularly susceptible to osteonecrosis over the long haul. Though the science behind the malady isn't yet fully understood, here's what we do know: Under pressure, nitrogen is squeezed out of the bloodstream into the surrounding tissues. When a diver rises slowly, the nitrogen is reabsorbed gradually into the blood. Should heascend too quickly, however, gas bubbles will linger in the tissues, blocking the flow of blood to the bones and resulting in a painful, perhaps fatal, case of the bends. But that's just the short term. Osteonecrosis occurs after lengthy exposure to great depths, when areas of the bone—especiallyaround the knees, shoulders, and hips—start to weaken from lack of blood. Little lesions and spiny spurs begin to form on the bones, and if not allowed to mend, bone tissues start to die off. Unless the person stops diving altogether, the bone will become prone to chipping or breaking or, in the most extreme cases, will degenerate into severe arthritis, with joint-replacement often being the only viable treatment. Such is the fate of 20 percent of Maine's commercial scallop divers, a sad and hobbled class of retirees who make Joe Namath look spry. ~source used: "Why Months 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 04-25-2003 08:13 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Al Capone: Al Capone was a remarkable character. His business card identified him as a secondhand furniture dealer. None of his brothers were gangsters.In fact,his brother Vince was a policeman in Omaha. He got "knifed" for the first time by a hood in a bar fight over some dame.It was 1917, he was 18 years old,and the punk was already on the road to ruin. Despite all the bootlegging,whoring,shakedowns,and murders,the law couldn't get Capone on anything more serious than income tax evasion.So they arrested him for that.He considered this a serious injustice,complaining that it was unconstitutional self- incrimination to make him report income from illegal activities. He sort of had a point but was sentenced to eleven years in jail anyway.He served eight years of his sentence,then retired to his luxurious estate in Florida in 1939.Eight years later,he died from an old case of syphilis. ~source used: "Just Curious about History, Jeeves"by Erin Barret & Jack Mingo~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 04-25-2003 07:20 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Should fish be worried about the high pressures deep in the ocean,or about being electrocuted when lightning strikes? All the fish have internal pressures that are equal to the pressures outside their bodies at their normal depths.This is true of both tissues and the gas-filled bladders in the abdominal cavity that many fish have. They would only be in trouble if they changed depth greatly.If they come up a great deal,they might explode.If they went a great deal deeper,they might Implode. Most deep-sea fish do not have gas-filled bladders,which is a good thing, because gases expand and contract much more than fluids or tissue. As to electrocution,fresh-water fish need have little fear because fresh water is not a good conductor of electricity. Because of its salt ions, however, sea water is a fairly good conductor.But even ocean fish are relatively safe.If lightning strikes the water surface, you get a high density of current right at the point where it strikes but current is free to flow in all possible directions, and it spreads out tremendously because of the great volume of conductor.Thus,depending on the size of the lightning strike,the strength of the current at any single point is not high. If a fish stays completely underwater,so current could flow around it,and a few meters away from the point of incidence,It would probably be safe,but if it goes too close,it would be fried,of course. ~source used:"The Book Of Science Questions and Answers"by C. Claiborne Ray~  |  IP: Logged

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