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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 05-05-2004 12:28 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - What is castor oil used for? The greenish extract of a large tropical plant,castor oil has been used for many years to ease constipation and induce vomiting. Basically,it's WD40 for the gastro-intestinal tract.Castor oil is a notoriously ghastly tasting liquid. Doctors recommend chilling castor oil in the fridge and mixing with cold orange juice before ingesting to make it more palatable. The mind (and tummy) reels. But castor oil isn't just for breakfast anymore. Just ask the folks at Jayant Oil Mills Group of Bombay. To quote: 'It is somewhat difficult to imagine that,barely a few decades ago,castor oil was valued chiefly as a purgative.Who would have then anticipated the commercial respectability it would attain and the national and international demand it would come to enjoy? This once dreaded substance is now used in plastics, textiles, paints, cosmetics, and a number of inks and industrial adhesives. The site goes on to explain that one reason for the current popularity of castor oil is due to the fact that its numerous chemical derivatives are "renewable sources, bio-degradable and eco-friendly."' That said, we still hope you never have to drink it.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 05-06-2004 09:30 PM                        Rated G What's the difference between white eggs and brown eggs? We started by searching LUKOL for "eggs." The results were a little too general, so we revised our search phrase to "brown eggs" (with the quotation marks) and things became clearer. One of the first results was a link to a column from Thrive Online, an Oxygen.com site devoted to women's health. The column addressed the health benefits of brown eggs versus white eggs and concluded that there is no nutritional difference. Contrary to popular belief, brown eggs aren't a healthier alternative to white eggs. The site explains, "The color difference is due to the specific breed of hen, according to the Egg Nutrition Center. Hens with white feathers and white earlobes will lay white eggs, whereas hens with red feathers and matching-colored earlobes give us brown eggs." But were there any other differences, we wondered? At Owl Kids Online, a fun science site for kids, we learned chicken eggs aren't limited to just brown or white. They also come in blue or even a nice speckled finish (though you may have to make a special request at your local supermarket for these). After exhausting our search results, we jumped over to Epicurious.com for their thoughts on the matter. We searched their food dictionary and came across the egg entry. It also assured us that the color of the eggshell had nothing to do with the taste of the egg. So, there you have it: The difference between brown eggs and white eggs is purely cosmetic; it's just a matter of a baby taking after its mom.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 05-07-2004 02:49 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - What does the "10/6" mean on the Mad Hatter's hat from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland? The image of The Mad Hatter's Tea Party is by an illustrator named Tenniel. In the picture, the piece of paper attached to the Mad Hatter's top hat reads "In this style 10/6." Looked like a price tag to us, but we wanted to be sure, so we searched LUKOL for further info. Sir John Tenniel was a prolific and noted illustrator who produced over 2,000 cartoons, including the illustrations for Lewis Carroll. We learned that Mad Hatter Day is the "second silly day" of the year (the first being April Fool's Day) and is celebrated on 10/6 (October 6 in the United States; June 10 in Britain). Was the "10/6" a reference to a date? The Mad Hatter Day is celebrated on 10/6 in honor of the number on the top hat, "some astute observers have noted that the paper in the Mad Hatter's Hat was really an order to make a hat in the style shown, to cost ten shillings sixpence." There you have it -- the "10/6" appears to be the price of the hat. So, next time you pass someone on the street wearing a hat with the price tag still attached, you can thank (or blame) John Tenniel for starting this revolutionary fashion trend.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 05-07-2004 08:11 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Does the government pay people to move to Alaska? This question strikes us as a great example of how a little bit of information can sometimes be more misleading than no information at all. To the best of our knowledge, neither the federal nor the state government of Alaska pays people to move to the "Last Frontier." On the other hand, qualifying residents of Alaska do receive an annual payment from the state, known as the Permanent Fund Dividend. The Permanent Fund was established by the state of Alaska in 1976 to protect, reinvest, and grow the revenues generated by North Slope oil revenues and the Trans-Alaska pipeline. Managed as a private corporation independent of the state government, part of the fund revenues are distributed annually to every qualifying 12-month resident of the state. This has injected over 8 billion dollars into the incomes of individual Alaskans over nearly 20 years. The last time we looked,the fund's net worth was over 27 billion dollars. Wow. Remember, you need to spend 12 months in Alaska in order to qualify for the dividend -- that's about 8 months of winter, more or less, before the pay-off. Then again, you can stock up on a lot of cold-weather gear for $1749 (the amount of the 1999 dividend check).  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 05-07-2004 08:17 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - What's the difference between African and Asian elephants and what are their average weights? The African elephant (Loxodonta africana) is the largest living land animal, weighing up to 7,500 kg (8 tons) and standing 3 to 4 meters (10 to 13 feet) at the shoulder. The Indian elephant (Elephas maximus) weighs about 5,500 kg (6 tons) with a shoulder height of 3 meters. The Indian elephant's ears are smaller than those of the African elephant. The Indian elephant is native to the Indian subcontinent and southeastern Asia, while the African elephant is found in sub- Saharan Africa. Both species live in habitats ranging from thick jungle to savanna. They live in small family groups, although most bulls live in bachelor herds apart from the females (cows). The Indian elephant is considered an endangered species, and the African elephant is classified as threatened.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 05-07-2004 08:35 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - What is the origin of the expression "blue chip"? Blue chip stocks are typically thought to be the issues floated by the large, reliable, good-return companies -- historically, the General Motors, IBM, Dow Chemical, etc. (bell-wethers all). We'd be willing to bet (an especially apt figure of speech, as it turns out) that those "blue chip" companies would rather not be asked where the term "blue chip" itself comes from. The phrase dates back to 1904, and comes from the blue chips used as the (everyone sitting down?) ... highest denomination chips in poker games. Poker, as in gambling, as in bet your money and lose your shirt. "Blue chip" stocks today may be the most stable and valuable stocks, but the folks who started using the expression on the Stock Exchange evidently were well aware that the similarities between their enterprise and a high-stakes poker game ran deep.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 05-07-2004 08:41 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - What is a quasar? And do quasars pose any danger to us on Earth? The cool name "quasar" comes from the phrase "quasi-stellar radio source." Quasars are very bright centers of young galaxies that are incredibly far away. The light they generate takes billions of years to reach us, so that looking at a quasar is like viewing the birth of a galaxy long, long ago. The good news is that they're not dangerous. Though they emit an enormous amount of energy (probably as a result of black holes), the "total energy collected by radio astronomers over the history of radio astronomy amounts to about the energy required for a mosquito to make one push-up." They're also very far away. We're never going to hit one.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 05-07-2004 08:46 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - What exactly was the "sweating sickness" that took so many lives in England during the 16th century? The article "The English Sweating Sickness", originally published in 1997, has this to say: "In the summer of 1485, a rapidly fatal infectious fever struck England... Sudor Anglicus, later known as the English sweating sickness, was characterized by sudden headaches, myalgia [muscle pain], fever, profuse sweating, and dyspnea [labored respiration]. Four additional epidemics were reported in the summers of 1508, 1517, 1528, and 1551, after which the disease abruptly disappeared." The article goes on to investigate the cause of the disease and draws some tentative conclusions about a viral cause. However, the authors then explain that without molecular confirmation from the tissues of victims, any hypothesis about the cause of English sweating sickness remains speculative. We looked up "sweating sickness" at Britannica.com to see if they had additional detail or more current speculation. Here we learned that John Caius, an English physician and author of a 1552 account of the epidemic, attributed it to dirt and filth, although one 20th century writer notes its resemblance to infectious "relapsing fever," which was transmitted by lice and ticks.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 05-07-2004 02:24 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - What country drinks the most beer per capita? Browsing Lukol Beer directory we discovered that the Czechs are the world's leading beer drinkers, downing more than 160 liters a year. However, these statistics were a few years old (1995), so we headed back to the front page to perform another search. We clicked on several relevant-looking articles and finally came upon one that answered the question. In an article dated August 11, 2003, we confirmed that Czechs are tops when it comes to downing more than a few brews. The article, "German beer sales continue slide," states: "German beer consumption has declined steadily in recent years. Still per capita consumption is 127 liters, with only Czech beer drinkers consuming more." Cheers to the Czechs!  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 05-09-2004 03:13 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - How did coins get their names? One can bank on the fact that most coins derive from Latin words,and are named after people,places,or things. Even the word coin,translates from the Latin "cuneus," meaning wedge,and was thusly named because early coins ressembled the wedges the dies used to coin coins.Our cent,from the Latin "centum," meaning one hundred,our dime,from the Latin "decimus," meaning tenth,and the French franc,from the Latin "Franconium Rex," meaning King of the Franks,are all examples of the naming of money,the root of all evil,which translates from the Latin word "mona," meaning to warn! On to a more weighty manner in which people named coins, that being physical weight. The English pound, translates from the Latin "pondo," meaning pound, or, to get more heavily into detail, from the Latin "libra pondo," meaning a pound of weight. This method of naming coins weighed heavily in naming of the Spanish peso and of the Italian lira. A sense of fairness dictates that some coins bear the names of the metals of which they are composed. Thus, our nickel is made of nickel. Location, not Latin, sometimes figures prominently into the naming of sum (oops!), some coins. Our very own dollar, not always in paper form, originally hailed from the silver mines of Bohemia,where Bohemians extracted silver for the coins, and minted them in the town of Joachimsthal.Realizing that the coin they termed the Joachimsthaler,short of lacking in creativity,was rather lengthy,our Bohemian friends lost the head of the name,and kept the tail,with the end result being the thaler.The thaler eventually lost its lisp, and became our dollar. Many countries used their word for crown, for example,crown, sovereign,krone,krun,krone,corona (not the beer),to demonstrate that some crown authority initially granted permission to mint them.Other countries named coins in honor of their heros, such as the Panamanian balboa,after the explorer Balboa,the Venezuelan bolivar,after one of it's national heros,and the Peruvian sol,also not a beer,but the Spanish word for sun,after this ancient Incan object of worship.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 05-10-2004 12:47 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - What does the SPF in sunscreen stand for? SPF stands for "sun protection factor" and it's a measure of how long you can stay exposed to the sun without burning. If you begin to tan or burn after 10 minutes, an SPF of 15 extends your protection 15 times longer. The protection is simply a matter of putting barriers between sunlight and our skin. SPF numbers serve as a subjective guideline that depends on your complexion or skin type, the strength of the sunlight, the type of sunscreen you use (gel, cream, lotion, or oil), and the amount you apply. Keep in mind that researchers use a full ounce of sunscreen for each test application and advise you to apply sunscreen every couple of hours, more frequently if you've been swimming or sweating, if it's windy, if you're at a high altitude or in the tropics. The good doctor emphasizes the use of sunscreen products that block both UVA and UVB rays, cites recommendations from the Skin Cancer Foundation, which advises everyone to use a sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or more, and a reminder from the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) to apply sunscreen generously and often.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 05-11-2004 09:15 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Who invented the Slinky? Like so many other great inventions, the Slinky, a favorite of both kids and physics teachers, was just a grand accident. Richard James, a naval engineer, "discovered" this enduring toy in 1943. Working to help the war effort, James was developing an anti- vibration device for ship instruments when he knocked over some springs and was fascinated by the way the springs appeared to "walk" down the shelves. James showed his invention to his wife, Betty, who provided the name. (Tabloid trivia: Betty eventually came to run the company, after Richard left for Bolivia to join an obscure religious group.) The Jameses took their first batch of 400 Slinkys to Gimbel's department store in Philadelphia during the winter of 1945, right in time for Christmas shopping. They were so desperate to sell the toy, they paid a friend $1 to buy one and start the feeding frenzy. Ninety minutes later, not one Slinky remained. And the rest is Slinky history. Some other little known facts: Slinkys were among the first toys to to travel into space; a stamp commemorating the 1940s features the beloved toy; during the Vietnam War, U.S. soldiers would toss a Slinky into a tree for use as a makeshift radio antenna; and, if stretched end-to-end, the Slinky toys sold since 1945 (about 250 million) would wrap around the world 126 times. How did we learn all this fascinating Slinky trivia? From LUKOL Science Toys category.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 05-13-2004 08:12 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - What does it cost for a ship or boat to use the Panama Canal? Browsing LUKOL categories led me to the Panama branch of the Barwil worldwide shipping agency network. A couple of clicks into the site, we located a Panama Canal toll calculator. Enter the vessel's length, beam, and something called the "PC/UMS Net" and it does the rest. The calculator even itemizes an additional 2,000 dollars of miscellaneous charges including taxes, telexes, and fumigation fees. The highest Canal toll was $141,344.91, charged to a cruise ship called the Crown Princess, and the lowest toll ever paid was 36 cents by Richard Halliburton, who swam the Canal in 1928. Since we're not very sea-savvy, we found ourselves wondering what PC/UMS Net was -- we had a hunch it was a measurement of weight, but it sounded more complicated than roadside truck scales. So we consulted the official bilingual site of the Panama Canal Authority. On the toll assessment page, we learned that the rules of the game had changed back in 1994, in order to comply with a new, worldwide standard for measuring the weight of vessels. This system is referred to as the Panama Canal Universal Measurement System (PC/UMS). Using this system, the weight of a vessel is calculated by applying a mathematical formula to its total volume. Non-cargo ships are assessed based on the vessel's water displacement. Final notes: It's nearly 8,000 miles shorter to traverse the Canal than to go around South America... that's a huge savings in fuel and time. And swimming the Canal is not recommended these days.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 05-18-2004 07:37 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Who owns and controls Greenland? From defending yourself against polar bears to widely accepted credit cards, the LUKOL Greenland Guide has it covered: In 1721, Norwegian priest Hans Egede, under the auspices of the Danish king, went to Greenland to "rechristianize" the Norsemen that had settled there many hundreds of years earlier. The only problem was the Norse were long gone, having long since moved on to greener pastures. In any case, Egede's expedition led to the establishment of a trading post and mission, and marked the beginning of Greenland's time as a Danish colony. Then, in 1953, Denmark's constitution was modified and Greenland became an official part of the country, gaining voting membership in the Danish parliament. In 1979, Greenland was finally awarded "home rule within the Danish Commonwealth," allowing them to elect their own parliament and set up their own local government. And the rest is history  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 05-19-2004 08:03 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - How do they shoot a person from a cannon without injuring them? It took some research, but eventually we discovered, like many things at the circus, not everything is as it seems: Human cannonballs aren't blasted from the cannon with gunpowder. They're propelled by a catapult. The flash, loud noise and smoke are supplied by firecrackers and such. Mind you, being "shot" out of a cannon, flying 100 feet in the air, and attempting to land in a small area isn't exactly a walk in the park. It's not the blast or flight that injures or kills the human cannonball - the landing is the hard part.  |  IP: Logged

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