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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 07-29-2003 06:15 AM                        Rated G Useless fact: Why does hypothermia make people confused,even delirious? Of all the organs of the body,the brain is by far the most sensitive to changes in temperatureA drop of only three degrees Fahrenheit inside the brain's tissues can manifest itself in some notably wacked behavior."The millions of chemical reactions that routinely go on in your brain slow down in the cold," explains Murray Hamlet,director of operations at the Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine."This causes the cells of your central nervous system to stop talking to each other." The downward spiral can be quite abrupt.In the early throes of hypothermia, your motor skills gradually deteriorate (you drop a mitten in the snow and can't readily pick it up). Later you start to make bizarre judgment calls (even if you could retrieve the mitten,you decide you'd rather not). Then you hallucinate."A hypothermic person might look at the mitten," says Hamlet,"and think it's a bar of soap." By this point,our sluggish brains are receiving bad information.The signals are tainted.Oddly,though-and this is part of hypothermia's insidious advance — we don't recognize how confused we are.Survivors of advanced hypothermia often report that their experience unfolds vividly and rationally,with the insistent internal logic of a clear dream.They are often stunned when they later learn that their interpretation of events was completely off base. One of the final delirious acts common to victims of terminal hypothermia is the bizarre phenomenon known as "paradoxical undressing". Very near the end, victims feel suddenly flush and hot and are compelled to remove their clothes. Says Dr. Hamlet: "It's the last thing they ever do." Related links: online pharmacy • first aid kits • thermometers ~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 07-29-2003 06:22 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Is it true that other people probably wrote Shakespeare's plays? There has been quite a bit of controversy over the original authorship of many of Shakespeare's works.William Shakespeare was a dramatic actor who owned a theater in Stratford,England. His name appears at the top of all plays performed there.Most experts believe this is ample evidence— knowing the traditions of the day—that they are his works.Others have come up with what they consider evidence that Shakespeare either stole most of his works or that someone else altogether was responsible for them. These other candidates have included the likes of Christopher Marlowe,Francis Bacon,the Earl of Oxford,Queen Elizabeth,and Ben Jonson.None of the theories have proved strong enough to rewrite history,however. How many words did Shakespeare coin? Shakespeare is given credit for as many as 10,000 first-used words and phrases in his plays and poems.But did he actually coin them? Some of them,perhaps,but it's likely that most of the words were commonly used in his time and his plays are merely the earliest known written usage.Some historians give him credit for actually coining all 10,000,but others cut the number down to a few hundred."Alligator","pander","hobnob","skim milk", and "leapfrog",for instance,are all first noted in his works. Phrases he's been credited with include "bated breath," "one fell swoop," "be-all-and-end-all," and "hoist with his own petar." ~source used: "Just Curious, 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 07-29-2003 10:55 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why Are There Tiny Holes in the Ceiling of My Car? For the same reason there are tiny holes in the ceiling of many schools and offices. They help kill noise. Chrysler's C. R. Cheney explains: The headliners in some automobiles and trucks have small perforations in them to help improve their sound-absorbing qualities. The perforated surface of the headliner is usually a vinyl or hardboard material and it is applied over a layer of foam. The holes serve to admit sound from inside the vehicle and allow it to be damped by the foam layer to promote a quieter environment for passengers. To some, the patterns made by the tiny perforations were also pleasing to the eye, so perhaps the perforations served double duty. ~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 07-30-2003 04:11 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why is the statuette for the Academy Awards named "Oscar"? The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been honoring its best with the familiar golden statuette since 1927. In its first few years, the award had no official name. The gold-plated bronze statuette stands ten inches high, weighs seven pounds, and was simply called the "Statuette." The story goes that it acquired its name by chance. A librarian for the academy, Mrs. Margaret Herrick, happened to comment to a reporter that the trophy reminded her of her uncle Oscar Pierce, of Texas. The reporter seized upon this rather mundane comment in his story and it caught on with the public. It must have been a slow news day! ~source used: "Thoughts for the Throne" by Don Voorhees~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 07-31-2003 04:55 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - What "Bell" is Taco Bell referring to? A mission bell? The Liberty Bell? Would you believe a guy named Glen Bell? The "Bell" in Taco Bell is the founder's last name. The whole mission bell motif was a fortunate by-product, especially considering that the restaurant's original logo was a Mexican taking a siesta under a sombrero. ~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 08-03-2003 09:58 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why don't we see more bodies of small animals such as birds and squirrels that have died of old age or illness? When an animal feels bad because it is ill or near death,it doesn't carry on with its normal routine while waiting to die on the spot.Instead,it goes to some hideaway,such as a nest,a hole in a tree,or a clump of undergrowth,to protect itself from predators during its weakened condition.Should the animal die,it dies there rather than out in the open,and that is why you don't see dead bodies lying all about.Of course,the bodies soon decompose or are eaten by scavengers. ~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 08-04-2003 06:34 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - What gave Roger Miller the inspiration to write King of the Road? In 1964,Roger Miller saw a road sign west of Chicago,Illinois, that read "Trailers for Sale or Rent." After writing that as the first line, he gave up.Some time later he was in a Boise,Idaho, airport gift shop and saw a statuette of a hobo that inspired him to finish the song. People who know Roger Miller usually refer to it as "that hobo song." Although Roger Miller had two hits in 1964, "Dang Me" and "Chug-a-Lug", his 1965 hit "King of the Road" won six Grammy Awards. The following year he had a variety show on NBC. He also became part owner of a Nashville, Tennessee, hotel aptly named King of the Road.In his early career, Roger Miller wrote songs performed by stars such as Ray Price,Faron Young,Porter Wagoner,and Johnny Paycheck.These songs included "Invitation to the Blues","Haifa Mind","Billy Bayou", and "Home". Although his recording career slowed down after 1967,in 1973 he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters' Hall of Fame. During the 1980s he won a Tony Award for writing the score to the Broadway musical "Big River" (based on Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn"),was the voice of the rooster in WaltDisney's animated film "Robin Hood", recorded "Old Friends" with Ray Price and Willie Nelson, and in 1987 won the Pioneer Award from the Academy of Country Music. Roger Miller once remarked that his hometown of Erick,Oklahoma, was so small that the city limit signs were back-to-back.When asked the location of the home he grew up in,Roger Miller replied, "It's close to extinction." While in grade school,Roger Miller picked cotton on the weekends so he could earn enough money to buy a guitar.After quitting school in the eighth grade, he herded cattle and rode bulls in rodeos. After reading a letter from former Yale professor Rocco Landesman asking him to write the musical score for "Big River", Roger Miller told his wife, "He made me an offer I couldn't understand." Roger Miller died in 1992 from a tumor under his vocal cords. He was just 56 years old.Three years later he was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.Roger Miller always had a great sense of humor.When asked how he would like to be remembered,he said, "I just don't want to be forgotten." He probably never will be forgotten. ~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 08-04-2003 07:23 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Who wrote the first encyclopedia? The Chinese did in about 220 A.D. It was called "The Emperor's Minor",and included historical texts, biographies, and literary anthologies.No copies survived.The next known extensive encyclopedic work came from Spain and was titled "Etymologiae". Saint Isidore of Seville is credited with writing it sometime between the sixth and seventh century.The 20-volume tome included entries in history,mathematics,agriculture,war, medicine,art,and theology.As a result of this early data collecting,the Vatican has made Isidore the patron saint of school children,computer programmers,and the Internet. ~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 08-05-2003 09:53 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why do women feel cold sooner than men? This is one of those weird perception-versus-reality deals that's hard to parse. First the reality part: Women do tend to have a greater ratio of surface area to body mass than do men, so they lose heat faster. And women are four times more likely than men to develop Raynaud's disease, a malady in which blood vessels in the extremities suddenly constrict, causing fingers and toes to blanch and grow exaggeratedly cold. But curiously, far fewer women suffer frostbite or freeze to death than men. Why? Here's where the perception part comes in: Dr. Murray Hamlet of the Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine raises the intriguing possibility that women might just have a more finely tuned survival mechanism. Another way of putting it: When it comes to cold, maybe women are just *smarter*. "If we stuck our hands in ice water at the same time, I'd probably be able to keep mine in longer than the average woman would," he says. "Is it because her blood vessels constrict sooner, or because she perceives cold sooner? Perception, I'd say, is the better part of survival." ~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 08-06-2003 11:25 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why do the "unimproved" roads get this weird pattern of regularly spaced ridges running across them? That ribbed pattern is called "washboarding", and it's caused neither by wind nor by rain, but, ironically enough, by the very thing that's supposed to make for smoother driving: your car's suspension. All that "quiet ride" technology under your car might feel good to you, but it can be hell on unimproved road surfaces. Imagine you're driving down a gravel road. You hit a bump, and your car dissipates the shock by bouncing in a rhythmic pattern that engineers call a "harmonic oscillation". Your car, says Forest Service engineer Tom Pettigrew, a man with a lot of country roads on his hands, becomes "kind of like a trampoline." As your bouncing car digs into the road surface, it displaces gravel and begets even more bumps. Over time, suspensions not varying greatly from car to car, the bumps turn into a series of evenly spaced ridges that can make your steering column rattle like a jackhammer. Barring some radical change in how suspensions are made, Pettigrew says, washboarding is almost inevitable on unpaved roads that see heavy use. The Forest Service has been working with logging companies to diminish washboarding by experimenting with a new system called "central tire inflation", in which an onboard computer automatically lets air out of the tires of a big logging truck so that they're nice and squishy. But there's really only one thing the average car driver can do: slow down. ~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 08-06-2003 11:46 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - How do birds find their "victims"? How do woodpeckers know where to peck to find food? They have an extremely good sense of hearing.For example,the hairy woodpecker and pileated woodpecker can actually hear those carpenter ant larvae and get right Into a nest of them quite efficiently.Woodpeckers also tap tree trunks to find the hollow places where insects might be. How do robins detect worms'? All the studies point to their doing it entirely visually,not by hearing or smell.When robins run along the lawn, cocking their heads,it looks like listening, but actually it is just looking. What the robin usually sees is the castings or pellets of mud at the entrance to the worm hole. However,worm detection methods vary from one species to another. Shorebirds like sandpipers have sensitive tips to their bills so they can feel worms that they may not see,and kiwis actually have nostrils at the tip of the bill and a very good sense of smell,allowing them to find earthworms and other food. ~source used: "The 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 08-08-2003 01:38 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why do we say "God bless you" after a sneeze? Why do we bless people when they sneeze? After all,we have no such custom for people when they cough or hiccup. In ancient times,it was believed that the soul left your body when you sneezed and that evil spirits could then enter.Blessing you with the name of God was supposed to prevent this.In the Dark Ages, it was believed that your heart stopped momentarily when you sneezed.You were, in effect,dead for an instant and had to be blessed. Sneezing is triggered by irritants such as dust,pollen,or pet dander.These particles land on the mucous lining of the nose.The irritation triggers the lungs to inhale,building up high pressure,while the airways are all tightly closed.When the air passages are suddenly opened,the breathing muscle forcibly expels the air,and any irritants,out through the nose and mouth. Dust and pollen aren't the only things expelled with the air.If you are sick,any viruses in the nasal passages or throat can also be expelled.When you sneeze, mucus-laden air is shot out of your nose and mouth at around one hundred miles per hour.A good blast can travel clear across a room.A sick person could,thus, spread their illness to anyone in the immediate area.Bearing this in mind,perhaps the next time someone sneezes,they should bless *you*! ~source used: "Thoughts fr the Throne" by Don Voorhees  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 08-14-2003 03:49 PM                        Rated G useless fact - Why don't birds fall off their perches when they sleep? Birds don't have to work at not falling off their perches. Tendons on the bottom of their feet,called flexor tendons, respond to pressure from a branch or other perch by causing the toes to wrap around the perch automatically.Humans would have to expend energy to hold on,but birds would have to exert effort to unclench.It's the relaxed position,as can be plainly seen in dead birds,which have their toes clenched up. ~source used: "The 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 08-14-2003 04:02 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - The origin of "Robot": These days,you can hardly pick up a magazine without seeing a prediction that a robot will soon be doing much of your work. Some who peer into the future may not realize that the name of the mechanical worker or servant comes from the stage. Karl Capek, a Czech playwright,was among the pioneers of modern science fiction. Capitalizing on publicity given to mechanical guns during World War I,he wrote a play called "R.U.R." The action of the drama centered on a group of mechanized monsters who revolted against their makers.Abbreviating the Czech term "robota", meaning "work" or "drudgery," Capek called one of his imaginary machinemen a "robot." His play proved a tremendous hit. Few dramas of the 1920s provoked so much discussion. As a result, industrialized modern culture borrowed from the world of entertainment and many languages adopted the word.Today we even have the science of robotics. ~source used: "Why You Say It" by Webb Garrison~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 08-18-2003 11:37 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why do we drink a toast? The early Romans began the custom of putting a piece of burned toast into wine to reduce the wine's acidity and improve its flavor,but it wasn't until the eighteenth century that the idea of drinking the toast itself came about.The idea supposedly arose out of an account by Richard Steele that appeared in "The Tatler" in Bath, England, in 1709.As the story goes,two young men who came upon a girl in a public bath were so taken with her beauty that one of them dipped a glass into the bath and drank to her charms. The other said, "Tho I like not the liquor,I will have the toast." ~source used: "Ever Wonder Why?" by Douglas B. Smith~  |  IP: Logged

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