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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 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 Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-05-2004 09:46 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why is Australia considered a continent and Greenland an island? There is really no guideline for differentiating between a continent and a big island.Geographers just decided that Australia should be a continent.In fact,Europeans consider the New World (North and South America) to be one continent, not two, because it is one land mass.Why they don't use the same logic and consider Europe and Asia to be one land mass and therefore one continent,is baffling. If you look at a world map, Greenland appears to be as large as Australia. This, however, is an illusion created by flattening a three-dimensional (3-D) globe shape of Earth onto a two- dimensional (2-D) flat piece of paper. Sixteenth-century sailors found it difficult to plot their courses on a chart because early maps did not take into account Earth's spherical shape. On Earth, the lines of longitude converge on the poles. A man named Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594) found a way to put segments of this sphere on a flat paper so that sailors could lay out their compass course by a straight line. Mercator imagined them on 2-D paper. To make the segments fit onto a flat square, the northernmost and southernmost regions had to be exploded or expanded to larger than their actual proportions.A map of this type is called a "Mercator projection." This is why Greenland and Antarctica look much larger on a map than they do on a globe. Australia is actually three and a half times the size of Greenland. Australia contains 2,966,200 square miles. Greenland has "only" 840,000 square miles. Greenland is not really one big island, but is actually several smaller islands covered by a thick ice cap.Without its ice cap,Greenland's land area would be closer to 650,000 square miles. ~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 03-09-2004 11:12 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - What are those weird antennas on top of a giraffe's head? Those aren't antennae, they're skin-covered horns. Both males and females sport them, but they have no positively proven purpose - though it's possible that they serve as cooling towers. "The horns are heavily vascular, with an open bone structure," says large-mammal specialist John Lehnhardt."They may provide a heat-dispersal opportunity." The male's horns come into play during sparring sessions, but they do no damage - sort of like jousting with a pair of carrots. ~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 03-10-2004 02:14 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why do cats "make bread" with their paws? The kneading motion with the forepaws,often done when the cat is in a pleased or expectant mood,probably imitates the kneading of a mammary gland by a nursing kitten,stimulating the release of milk;it is also called milk-treading. However,there are also scent glands on the feet, and scratching or kneading with front or back paws may also be involved in scent-marking,whether done on a favorite person or object. ~source used: "Book of Science Questions and Answers" by C. Ray~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-12-2004 06:41 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - If a healthy dog has a cold, wet nose, does a warm, dry nose mean the dog is sick? The dog's wet nose is relatively misunderstood.It Is not an invariable Indicator of health, good or bad. It is normal for a dog to drain some fluid out of the nose,and the nose may be wet and cold because of evaporation.And it Is true that a dog with a high fever may have a dry,warm nose. However,many factors,especially the environmental temperature, may also cause a healthy dog to have a warm and/or dry nose. Just feeling the nose is no substitute for taking the temperature and a medical examination. ~source used:"Book of Science Questions and Answers" by C. Ray  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-13-2004 09:13 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Which is the correct dollar sign - a capital S with two vertical marks or with a single vertical line? Both are used. There is a theory that the sign was originally made by superimposing a U over the S - combining the initials of the newly formed United States. That,obviously, would result in a double line through the S. However,there seems to be no doubt that the dollar and its appearance were both strongly influenced by the Spanish peso, which we call "piece of eight" because it carried the figure 8. President Jefferson,strongly anti-British,wanted to be sure that the infant United States used a unit of currency as far removed from the British pound as possible. So he wrote,in 1782,that our basic unit should be the Spanish dollar (peso),"a known coin and most familiar to the minds of the people... already adopted from South to North and therefore happily offers itself as a unit already introduced." The first dollars were not actually minted until 1794.It seems likely that the dollar sign evolved from a desire to retain the general appearance of the piece of eight, with the two vertical bars added to prevent actual confusion between the Spanish dollar(as the peso was widely called) and the American.Be that as it may,the single line is now standard with the U.S. government,as shown in the "Style Book of the Government Printing Office". ~source used: "Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins"~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-15-2004 09:57 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Did men always perform all of the roles - male and female - in Japanese Kabuki theatre? Although this was true in European theatre in Shakespeare's time, the reverse was true in Japan - at least in the beginning. Perhaps that was because the art form was invented by a woman. Kabuki first came about in the spring of 1603 in Kyoto. Women, led by a shrine maiden named Okuni, dressed up in elaborate costumes with heavy makeup and danced with exaggerated movements before the Kitani shrine, playing both male and female roles. The people loved this new art form,and it became very popular. In 1629,however,shogun lemitsu decreed it immoral for women to dance in public and made Kabuki an all-male affair.Men and boys would don heavy makeup and play both male and female roles-not unlike Elizabethan era theatre.Not many yearslater,however,under another shogun,letsuna,boys were prohibited from participating in these dramatic productions,transforming the plays once more and making them an all-adult male venture.Even now,traditional Kabuki is still played by a male cast of characters.Men who specialize in women's roles are called "onnagata". ~source used: "Just Curious about History, Jeeves"  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-18-2004 11:05 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why did the Egyptians worship cats? If you're an avid cat person,the answer of course is self- evident: Because cats are divine.Egyptians literally believed that to be true,to the point that if a household cat died,its owners would shave their eyebrows in mourning and lovingly transport the cat carcass to one of the cities devoted to mummifying cats for their journey to the next world.(They apparently didn't make it. In 1888, about 300,000 cat mummies were discovered still lounging around this world in the ancient city of Beni Hassan.We guess it illustrates once again how hard it is to get cats to go where you want them to.) There were practical reasons for worshipping cats,though.The Egyptians were very dependent on grains for their main staples of bread and beer, and they knew how much the cats contributed to their lives and economy by keeping rats and mice in check. Unfortunately, this worship of the cat had its downside,too.In 525 B.C., the Persians went to war with the Egyptians.Mindful of the Egyptians' religion,the Persians lined up a row of cats in front of their warriors. Egyptian soldiers were put into a crisis of faith-they quickly discovered that they couldn't swing a sword or fire an arrow for fear of hurting a cat and "hissing off the cat goddess Pascht.The wily Persians quickly defeated the Egyptians.It was a cat-aclysm and a cat-astrophe. ~source used: "Just Curious 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 03-20-2004 08:03 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Nicotine: Much in the news since U.S. surgeons-general began issuing warnings about it,nicotine is a native American chemical.But its name has traveled around the world from France,where it was coined. Jean Nicot,an early student of language,won appointment as ambassador to Portugal.While serving in Lisbon,he frequently talked with sailors who had made the long voyage to the New World.Around 1560 he obtained from some of them seeds of a plant unknown in Europe;from these seeds the first tobacco plants seen in France were grown. When scientists began dimly to realize that tobacco includes a potent substance,whose nature was then unknown,they called it "nicotine" in honor of Jean Nicot. ~source used: "Why You Say It" by W. Garrison~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-20-2004 03:01 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - How dragon got its name: A fabulous beast,usually depicted as a sort of winged alligator or crocodile with the claws of a lion,the dragon gets its name from the Greek drakon, meaning "serpent."It was long regarded as the symbol of sin and St.George's slaying of the dragon was regarded as symbolic of the eventual triumph of good over evil, right over wrong. In ancient Britain the dragon was the symbol of war,and to this day it is the national symbol of Wales, for the Welsh flag shows a red dragon on a field of green and white.The Chinese and Japanese,by the way,take a very different view of the dragon,regarding him as a benevolent watchman and indeed a symbol of fertility. ~source used: "Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins"~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-22-2004 12:23 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Who was Jesse Owens? There have been many heroes in the long history of the Olympic Games. One such hero competed in the 1936 games and is still an inspiration to athletes today. He was Jesse Owens. Owens was only 23 when he competed in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany. He had more to overcome than just athletic competition.Jesse Owens was an African-American. His father was a sharecropper in Alabama, and his grandfather had been a slave. In the 1930s, African-Americans were barred from playing on major league sports teams,a fact rather hard to believe today. Adolf Hitler, in power in 1936, believed that the German people were the super race and that everyone else was vastly inferior, especially Jews and African-Americans. The stadium in Berlin was to be a showcase for Hitler's belief in the superiority of the German people. Jesse Owens proved Hitler wrong. Competing against top German athletes, he won four gold medals in the sprints and long jump, a record that was not equaled for almost 50 years when Carl Lewis did the same in 1984. In winning the four medals,Owens broke three Olympic records and tied a fourth.The 10 African-Americans on the United States Olympic team won 13 medals. Hitler refused to shake any of their hands and decided that African-Americans should not be allowed to compete in future games. One of the most stirring moments occurred when Jesse Owens fouled on his first two attempts at the long jump and had only one jump left.It's been rumored that a German long jumper, Luz Long, told Owens to place a towel behind the takeoff board to use as a starting point. Whether it is true or not, the fact is that Owens's final jump set an Olympic record.Luz Long and Jesse Owens,two competitors,walked off the field arm in arm. Of all the tributes paid to Jesse Owens during his lifetime, perhaps the most memorable are the words written on his gravestone, OLYMPIC CHAMPION 1936 A WINNER WHO KNEW THAT WINNING WAS NOT EVERYTHING ~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 03-23-2004 01:27 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - How long does it take a skunk to reload? Skunks store their noxious spray in two glands the size of Ping- Pong balls. They can squirt the stuff over and over again in rapid-fire sequence, letting fly with as little as a teaspoon or as much as half a cup."Skunks can form a sort of U and 'look' at you with both ends at once, firing with bull's-eye accuracy," notes University of New Mexico mammalogist Jerry Dragoo. Theoretically,the skunk will eventually run out of spray if he gets angry enough,but in practice it never seems to happen. Dragoo,who was once sprayed by a single skunk eight times in one torturous minute, puts it this way:"I've yet to come across an empty gland." ~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 03-24-2004 03:22 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - How dry is dry cleaning? "Dry" in this phrase has a meaning very different from the customary definition: "without moisture of any kind." Actually, "dry cleaning" is more accurately called, in some sections of our country, "French cleaning," for the phrase is a literal translation of the French "nettoyage a sec",. which means cleaning by the dry method, or cleaning without water. In other words, "dry cleaning" is "without water," which means that any of a large variety of liquid solvents - benzine, carbon tetrachloride and naphtha, for example - may be used in the process.The method was first developed in France midway through the nineteenth century and its great merits are that it causes no shrinking of the materials cleaned nor does it cause a garment to lose its shape. ~source used: "Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins"~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-26-2004 12:08 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why is poison ivy poisonous? Poison ivy,poison oak,and poison sumac are all members of the cashew family and cause contact dermatitis,or skin rash.Poison ivy produces an alcohol (catechol) that is stored within its plant tissue.Merely touching the leaves will cause no reaction. The leaves must be broken to release the allergin. These plants evolved poisons to protect themselves from plant- eating animals,not just to ruin our camping trips.If you wash your hands and other areas of the body within ten minutes of exposure, you can avoid an allergic reaction,as the allergin cannot penetrate the skin this quickly.However,wash with water alone,because soap removes protective oils from the skin. In the United States, poison ivy and western poison oak are responsible for more clinical cases of dermatitis than all other plant and chemical sensitizers combined.Believe it or not, in California over 50 percent of all workmen's compensation cases are caused by poison oak-induced dermatitis.That's one itchy state! ~source used: "Thoughts for the Throne" by D. Voorhees~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-31-2004 10:12 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why is milk white? Those chalky-white mustaches that color our lips after chugging down a refreshing ice-cold glass of creamy milk is caused by the protein called Casein. Rich in calcium, Casein helps contribute to milk's white color. In addition,the cream that is found in milk contains white colored fat.The more cream in milk the more white it is. Low and non-fat milk appear more grayish rather than white because they contain less cream. Another reason milk looks white to our naked eyes is because some objects do not absorb very much light.Rather than absorb light,these objects reflect light.For instance,red colored objects reflect only red light and absorb the other colors of light in the rainbow spectrum.The molecules that make up Casein and cream reflect light. That's why milk is white. ~source used: "What Makes Flamingos Pink?" by Bill McLain~  |  IP: Logged

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