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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 02-02-2004 09:34 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why do dogs wag their tails? And what happens when they make eye contact? Tail motion and eye contact are parts of a complicated inborn system of communication among dogs. The signals let dogs figure out who is top dog in a group or when meeting a stranger. They can also communicate emotional states. Tail wagging may simply indicate excitement.Position Is important,too.The tail held high is a signal of dominance, which may be challenged or not,and a tucked tall shows a dog is kowtowing or accepts lower status. The social signals can best be observed in wolves. One of the things they do when they challenge each other is to monitor the autonomic signs,such as heart rate and blood pressure,that signal emotion. Some of these signs are read indirectly, through changes in pupillary light. If the pupil becomes wider, it generally means fear or at least ambivalence. If wolves' pupils narrow, on the other hand, based on other bodily postures and signs, It generally means they are angry, and you had better take them seriously. Signals by domestic dogs are more ambiguous because owing to human intervention in their breeding, they are divorced from the original meanings and can signify anything from "come and play" to "watch out" ~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 02-02-2004 03:42 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why are diamonds measured in carats? Gem diamonds are graded according to clarity, color, cut, and weight. Diamonds, however, are weighed in "carats." The word is derived, not from the orange vegetable, but from a bean. Precious stones were once weighed using the carob bean, which is produced by the tree "Ceratonia siliqua".The bean was used because it is always the same weight,0.2 grams.There are approximately 142 carats or carob beans in an ounce (28.35 grams). There are one hundred points to a carat,or.002 grams per point. The largest diamond ever unearthed, known as the "Cullinan", weighed a whopping 3,106 carats or about 1.3 pounds. It was found in 1905 in the Premier Mine of South Africa.The government of Transvaal purchased the "Cullinan" and presented it to King Edward VII of Britain.(During the nineteenth century,Transvaal was a Boer republic in South Africa.)The stone was sent to Amsterdam to be cut and polished.From it,nine large gemstones and ninety-eight smaller ones were created,including the largest cut diamond in the world.It is called the "Cullinan I" or "Star of Africa" and weighs 530 carats. Diamond cutting and polishing techniques were developed during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Early diamond cutters learned that certain diamond shapes resulted in greater brilliance than others. The style of cut most common today is the round shape,with fifty-eight facets,called the "brilliant cut." This cut causes most of the light entering a diamond to be reflected internally and emerge from the top. Most finished diamonds now have fifty-eight facets,thirty-three on the upper surface and twenty-five on the lower.The diameter of a diamond isn't always representative of its actual weight in carats.A diamond with a deeper cut will have a smaller diameter than one of the same weight with a shallower cut. ~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 02-02-2004 03:48 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - When is the flu not the flu? Odds are that in the past year you have had a touch of what you may have thought was the flu or "a bug." Maybe you had a headache and a few days of diarrhea or vomiting.If you had intestinal problems,however,it probably was not the flu.The flu is a virus and its typical symptoms are more respiratory in nature with aching, fever, and breathing or sinus problems. Whether or not you realized it,it is more likely you had a case of food poisoning. The main culprit of food poisoning is the bacterium "Salmonella enteritidis".Each year,roughly one third of the U.S. population will get noticeable food poisoning (salmo-nellosis) and thousands will die from it. You may get several doses of mild food poisoning a year that you really don't notice. Salmonella,as well as other bacteria, are found among the soil and feces where food animals are raised.But the animals can become infected and not show any symptoms.During processing the bacteria can be spread from animal to animal.These bacteria can be found in a host of animal food products,such as raw meats, poultry,fish,shellfish,eggs,and milk. It may surprise you to know that your own house pets can also carry salmonella. Little Fluffy or Fido or Polly can be infected. This is the reason you can't buy those cute little department store turtles anymore.It was determined that 15 percent of all cases of salmonellosis were caused by these little devils,and the government banned their sale in 1971.Incidentally,most cases of salmonellosis aren't caused by eating out, but are self- inflicted. The most common cause of salmonellosis in the United States is turkey, followed by beef and chicken. Turkeys, being large and usually sold frozen, are often undercooked. And beef is commonly eaten rare. This is why these two meats are the most dangerous.In order to thoroughly kill the bacteria,meat should be cooked to at least 170 degrees Fahrenheit. Salmonellosis is quite different from common food poisoning, which is caused by "Staphylococcus aureus".Staphylococcus food poisoning symptoms appear shortly after consumption and its toxins cause the body to purge itself through violent vomiting and diarrhea. Happily, it is usually over in a few hours. In contrast, "Salmonella" poisoning symptoms appear from several hours to a few days after the tainted food is consumed. Since bacteria can multiply extremely rapidly, a small amount of them can spread rather quickly in unrefrigerated foods. By rapidly fanning out from one small spot in a food, such as a dip,they can contaminate one area of the dip but not another. Consequently,two people could eat out of the same bowl of dip and only one might get sick. There are a few ways to protect yourself from home food poisoning.Keep your refrigerator setting below 40 degrees Fahrenheit;defrost foods in the fridge or microwave, not on a countertop;use different utensils and plates to handle meat after cooking,not the ones used for the meat before and during cooking.Salmonella can linger for months in your kitchen, on cutting boards,dishtowels,sponges,etc.Be sure to keep all these items spotless! ~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 02-05-2004 11:16 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Were all gladiators either slaves or prisoners? Well,think of the job description:"Fight and be killed for the amusement of others." Consider the oath when you signed up where you agreed to be "burned with fire, shackled with chains, whipped with rods and killed with steel." Would you choose to apply for a job like this? To be fair, there were a few perks. You were treated and fed fairly well in gladiator school. You might survive for a few battles and be showered with prize money,gifts,fame,and adulation.("Thrax is the heart throb of all the girls," read graffiti found on Pompeii's gladiator arena.) Finally, there was the infinitesimal chance that you'd survive enough bouts to be released from being a gladiator and go back to your life as a slave or freeman,or become a nobleman's bodyguard or an instructor in a gladiator school. So,yes,the vast majority of gladiators were slaves,condemned criminals,and prisoners of war,but not quite all.Some desperate and bankrupt freemen,jumping at the hiring fee,glory,and any prize money they might manage to win,joined the ranks for an agreed-upon term of service.Some survived long enough to go free again. And finally, there were the dilettantes and novelty-act gladiators. These wanna-be noblemen included the insane emperor Commodus, who wanted to display valor by jumping into the ring with real gladiators. They usually survived their "battles" by virtue of the fact that they were supplied with real swords while their opponents were given dull weapons ... or none at all.(Commodus himself eventually paid for his macho displays when he was deliberately strangled by an assassin during what was supposed to have been a fixed wrestling match.)The novelty gladiators - dwarfs and women were both quite popular - also had less of a risk of being forced to die in their battles because they were there more as a diversion for the blood-jaded Commodus crowd. ~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 02-05-2004 02:50 PM                        Rated G Uselss fact - Why do pigeons constantly bob their heads? Head bobbing is a common trait among ground birds like pigeons, pheasants,partridges,and chickens.Ornithologists call it the "optokinetic response",and it seems to help the birds' vision.Remember that a pigeon's eyes are set on the sides of its head,so that when it's walking around,the world sort of sails by in a confusing blur,like landscape viewed from a fast-moving train. The optokinetic response appears to compensate for this. Next time you're down at St. Mark's Plaza, take a look. The pigeon has a kind of inchworm gait.It jerks its head forward,then brings its body to meet it,then jerks its head forward again.The net result:The bird gets a series of fixed snapshot images,rather than a long, continuous blurry one.(A twirling ballerina uses a similar strategy,keeping her head aimed at a fixed point as long as possible while her body rotates.) Back in the late seventies, Barrie J. Frost, a visual neuro- scientist at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, put pigeons on a tiny treadmill. They walked, but they didn't move relative to their environment,and they stopped bobbing - scientific proof,in case you needed any,that if you're going to get anywhere,you have to stick your neck out. ~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 02-05-2004 03:10 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Where did the term "chickenpox" come from? What about cowpox and monkeypox? The term "chickenpox" originated in 1720.It is the popular name for varicella,a mild eruptive disease that bears some resemblance to smallpox.It chiefly affects children. The name is based on the mildness of the disease compared to the much worse and often deadly smallpox. The chicken is considered the mildest of all barnyard fowl (that's one of the reasons we use the word chicken as a synonym for cowardly). The term "pox" actually comes from smallpox rather than chickenpox. Persons infected with smallpox first break out in a red rash that eventually turns into blisters. If the blisters are scratched or broken for some reason,they leave a "pock" mark or scar on the skin.The person can thus become covered with "pocks," from which the word pox is derived. Most children in the United States come down with chickenpox before they are 10 years old.Although chickenpox is typically not dangerous,recent studies have shown that aspirin should not be given to a child that has the disease.Doing so could cause Reye's syndrome,a rare brain malady. People who have had chickenpox and are cured are immune to the disease for the rest of their lives. Most people have heard of smallpox and chickenpox, but not many are familiar with cowpox. Cows carry a virus very similar to smallpox that causes a very mild disease. Many people living in the country knew that if you had been sick with cowpox, you could never contract smallpox. In 1796, a British doctor, Edward Jenner,noticed that milkmaids did not get smallpox.He proved that if he infected someone from the scab of a cowpox sore,that person would never get smallpox.It was the beginning of vaccination.Since that time, medical researchers have developed vaccinations to prevent many diseases,including rabies,diphtheria,tetanus,yellow fever,polio,measles,and mumps. We are thankful for more than just the milk that cows give us. You could say that because of this docile animal,we have all been spared from catching many terrible diseases. ~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 02-07-2004 01:20 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why do we say "corny"?: Originally a contraction of "corn-fed," was first used by actors and vaudevillians to describe audiences in "the sticks." To a show business professional of the early days of this century "every town outside New York was Bridgeport," by which he simply meant that away from the main stem, audience reactions were unsophisticated - in a word, "corn-fed". So that great entertainer George M. Cohan once pointed out in a well-remembered song, "only forty-five minutes from Broadway" you would find" hicks" and "jays" galore.Since these "corn-fed" audiences relished a broad and unsubtle brand of humor,it became known as "corn-fed humor" - a phrase which now is simply "corny joke." source used: "Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins" by William & Marry Morris~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 02-10-2004 09:11 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why do I have to have my cat- vaccinated against rabies if it never goes out? First,it is a legal requirement in more and more states,and second,there aren't any cats that never go out,there are only cats that aren't supposed to go out. Eventually, any cat leaves the safety of home to visit the veterinarian,to be boarded,to leap or fall out an unguarded window,etc.There was even one case in which a New York City cat was bitten by a rabid bat that flew in through a window. A rabies vaccination is an insurance policy against the owner's having to worry about rabies at all. The vaccination is intended to create a barrier between wild animals that might have rabies and human beings.It is much more likelyfor example, for a lost pet that accidentally wanders into the woods to have contact with a rabid bat or skunk than for its owner to meet a rabid wild animal directly. The Initial vaccination for a kitten is good for a year. Boosters are available that confer immunity for one year or three years. ~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 02-10-2004 02:14 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why is the climate of Western Europe so mild compared to the other regions of the world on the same latitude? England is at a higher latitude than most of Newfoundland, but has a much milder climate. This is due to ocean currents and winds. The prevailing winds in Western Europe blow off the North Atlantic. Oceans absorb and radiate heat moreslowly than land masses do. Therefore, the ocean usually has a more moderate year-round temperature than does the adjacent land,which has temperature swings that closely follow the changes in air temperature.Add to this the fact that the warm Gulf Stream current flows north near the British Isles and you have a situation where warm winds blow inland off the Atlantic over Western Europe. Cities like Chicago and New York, which are at much lower latitudes than England (Chicago is over five hundred miles farther south than London) have much more severe winter weather. Yet the average January temperature range for Chicago is from 14° F to 29° F; London's, 35° F to 44° F.Northwest Minnesota, which is farther south than London, has a mean January temperature of 1° F. London's mean January temperature is a balmy 43° F. The prevailing winter winds in Chicago and Minnesota blow from the northwest out of Canada, bringing arctic blasts of cold air. Winds known as Alberta clippers blow from the province of Alberta,Canada,across the Great Lakes and the Northeast, bringing bitter cold.Alberta clippers generally are rapidly moving weather systems and don't bring much snow but occasionally they stall and create blizzard conditions. ~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 02-11-2004 12:35 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Where does the word "arena" come from? It was passed down to us from the ancient Romans.To sop up the endlessly flowing blood,the staging area of an ancient Roman arena was made of wood but covered with sand."Sand" is "harena" in Latin,from which the word "arena" was spawned.Underneath the wood and "harena" was a dark, noisy labyrinth filled with the stench and noise of prisoners, gladiators, and wild animals, who could "magically" enter the arena by way of a series of trapdoors. ~source used: "Just Curious About History, Jeeves"n 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 02-13-2004 06:35 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - What are the job definitions for all the credits you see at the end of a movie? When a movie is over,if you stay to watch all of the credits at the end you'll be there for quite some time.Rather than describe each of these credits,it's better to cover those that most people wonder about. "Gaffer": the head electrician in charge of all lighting personnel. In the early days of film, producers had to rely on natural light. Stages had canvas roofs that could be opened and closed to allow varying degrees of sunlight to fall on the sound stage. Gaffing hooks, traditionally used for landing large fish, were used to move the canvas back and forth. The person responsible for setting the proper amount of light on the stage became known as the gaffer. "Best boy": there are two best boys, one for lighting and one for the grips.The grip is a crew member who works with the camera and electric department to set up and move equipment such ascranes and dollies.One best boy is second in command to the gaffer and the other best boy is second in command to the key grip. "Key grip":the person in charge of everyone who moves anything (grips).Grips move scenery and cameras, set up and take down scaffolding,etc.In live theater they are called stage hands. "Foley artist":the person who creates sounds that cannot be recorded during the filming.Sounds that are later added to the film might be footsteps,creaking doors,thunder,or breaking glass.In radio,they were called sound effects men. "Property master": this person,who is in charge of the prop department,is responsible for obtaining any object that an actor will come in contact with during the film.Anything that an actor can move is a prop,whether it is a plate,a weapon,or a broom.If the object is never moved,such as a picture hanging on the wall, it is a decoration.For instance,a lamp on a table is a decoration.If an actor is supposed to pick it up and throw it, then it's a prop. ~source used: "What makes flamingos pink?" by BillMcLain~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 02-26-2004 01:52 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why is a gasoline bomb called a "Molotov cocktail"? There are a couple of theories of origin, but the Molotov name probably comes from Stalin's premier and foreign minister, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov.It was while he was minister of defense that Russians started the policy of using petrol bombs as an anti-tank weapon so that in any situation, they would have some sort of defense,even if ammunition were low.However,it must be noted that Molotov's original surname was Scriabin.Just as Stalin adopted a name for its meaning, Scriabin chose Molotov, the Russian word for hammer,to be his new last name.So it could be that the gasoline bomb got its name from the tool and not the man.Regardless of how the Molotov cocktail got its name,the double meaning has a certain explosive impact. ~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 02-26-2004 02:02 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Do camels exist anywhere in the wild? Yes, but sadly they appear to be headed the way of,well,"Joe" Camel.The genus "Camelus" originated in North America forty million years ago,give or take a few weeks. It was a smallish animal then, about the size of a hare,and humpless. Over time, some took the land bridge to Asia; others moseyed down to South America, where they evolved into guanacos, vicunas, alpacas, and Harnas.For unknown reasons,the North American prototype became extinct ten thousand years ago. Today, as a result of its usefulness to humans, the one-humped (dromedary) camel survives only in domesticated form. But in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia and western China, about one thousand two-humped (Bactrian) camels still live in the wild. They're endangered, though, mostly because humans are constantly taming them.It's easy to understand why. With shorter legs and thicker hair than their Arabian counter-parts,Bactrians are valuable beasts - the Toyota trucks of the Gobi - capable of hauling up to a thousand pounds of people, cargo, and Chinese takeout. ~source used: "Why Moths Hate Thomas Edison" by H.Sides~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-04-2004 01:17 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why do golf balls have dimples? If you were going to design an object with a wonderful aerodynamicshape,you would never design a ball. Because a ball is round, air will flow smoothly around the front half of the ball when it's in flight. However, as the air flows behind the ball it causes turbulence,which causes drag and slows the ball down. A slower ball means a shorter flight. To be just a bit more scientific,when the air pressure in front of the ball is significantly higher than the air pressure behind the ball,drag occurs.A solution to the problems of an aerodynamic ball would be to somehow increase the pressure behind the ball so it approximates the pressure in front of the ball. Because of the dimples in a golf ball,air flowing around the ball is less turbulent,because each dimple creates a smaller area for the turbulence and there is much less drag. To put it simply, dimples in a golf ball greatly reduce drag and the ball flies farther. In fact in some studies, a dimpled ball flew four times as far as a smooth ball. If you'd like to prove this theory to yourself,it's quite simple. Take a golf ball and sand it down until it's perfectly smooth. Then tee off and see how far the ball travels. Then tee off again with a regular ball and see how much farther it goes. ~source used: "What Makes Flamingos Pink" by B. McLain~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-05-2004 12:14 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - What's Mickey Mouse's original name? Mickey was born Mortimer Mouse and remained so until Walt Disney's wife,Lillian,talked Walt into changing the name. Mortimer/Mickey,however,wasn't Walt's first cartoon character. That honor belongs to Oswald the Rabbit,contractually owned by Universal Studios.When Oswald became popular,Disney,who did not share in the profits from his creation,was displeased.He left with these words for his distributor:"Here,you can have the little bastard! He's all yours." From the ashes of a bunny named Oswald rose Mickey and the Disney empire. (Mortimer Mouse wasn't dead forever,as it turned out.In later episodes of Mickey Mouse comics and cartoons,a mouse with an elongated, sinister face named Mortimer appeared as a brutish rival of Mickey's out to win Minnie's love.) ~source used: "Just Curious,Jeeves" by E.Barrett & J.Mingo  |  IP: Logged

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