Leave a random fact!

[tdvance]

George Gershwin at first named the piece that made him world famous, "American Rhapsody". His brother Ira suggested instead of a name that sounds like a "me too" (lots of existing "xxx rhapsody" pieces for various other countries), the rather catchy title of "Rhapsody in Blue".

[sarongsong]

Bats can screech 100 times louder than a rock concert. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24386579/)

[Homo bibiens]

Zambia used to be called Northern Rhodesia.

[sarongsong]

Nearly ToSeeked (http://www.bautforum.com/1271901-post1798.html). :)

[Homo bibiens]

Rhodesia was named after Cecil Rhodes.

[tdvance]

I still own a blue pencil from when I needed it for galley proofs before mathematics journals started accepting (then later, requiring) online submission of LaTeX source.

[Robinson]

The full title of the book Robinson Crusoe is

The Life and strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, where-in all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates. Written by Himself

[Robinson]

Dubai's Jebel Ali port has the largest man-made harbor in the world

[Robinson]

Saskatchewan' is a word originating from Cree language kisiskāciwani-sīpiy, meaning "swift flowing river".

[parallaxicality]

one in nine Zimbabweans is an orphaned child.

[Susannah Dingley]

The composer Edward German was English of Welsh descent.

[Salty]

Mr. Ferris built his, and the first ever, Ferris wheel for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The wheel was built because of and in direct competition with the Eiffel Tower.
The Ferris Wheel was taller than the Statue of Liberty and weighed over 100tons.

[sarongsong]

The word galaxy is derived from Greek and means 'milky circle'.

[Susannah Dingley]

Galactophobia is the fear of milk.

[sarongsong]

FIAT is the acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian Automobile Factory of Turin).

[sarongsong]

Museomics is the sequencing of DNA harvested from museum specimens.

[Susannah Dingley]

Musophobia is the fear of mice.

[Fazor]

The term "Hillbilly" originated in Ireland, along with "Billyboy" used to describe the supporters of the English king. It began being used in Americans to describe immigrants of Northern Irish heritage.

Today it can be used to describe 99% of the people living in my city (yes, including me); though few of us are of Irish heritage.

[parallaxicality]

Substantially more people in the US claim Irish heritage than actually are of Irish heritage.

[sarongsong]

Rh negative blood indicates no protein connections to the Rhesus monkey; Rh positive blood does.

[Susannah Dingley]

People with O-negative blood (http://z8.invisionfree.com/DYK/index.php?showtopic=828) can give blood to anyone without risk of rejection and are therefore known as universal donors.

[tdvance]

In 1937, according to the latest Instrumentalist magazine, the Soviets arrested and shot several saxophone players on the grounds that the saxophone is an instrument of capitalism.

[Robinson]

Carbon Monoxide is a fuel. It was once widely used for domestic lighting, cooking and heating.

[Susannah Dingley]

Carbon monoxide combines with haemoglobin in the blood to form carboxyhaemoglobin, which is stable (unlike oxyhaemoglobin, which can dissociate back to oxygen and haemoglobin) – hence the lethality of CO.

[Robinson]

Carbon monoxide is produced naturally in the human body as part of normal metabolism. The endogenously produced CO may have important physiological roles in the body, such as a neurotransmitter or a blood vessels relaxant. In the neuronal system it has been shown to be involved in learning and memory and odor response, among others.

[Robinson]

The most abundant element on earth is oxygen.

[AndrewJ]

The most abundant element on earth is oxygen.


...followed by silicon, I believe.

[AndrewJ]

The most abundant element on earth is oxygen.

...followed by silicon, I believe.

...followed by aluminum?

[Susannah Dingley]

Dacite (http://z8.invisionfree.com/DYK/index.php?showtopic=811) is a fine-grained volcanic igeneous rock containing mainly quartz and feldspar with small amounts of hornblende.

[sarongsong]

...followed by aluminum?Yup, in the Earth's crust anyways. We still don't know about the mantle and core.

Oxygen is the third most abundant element on the Sun.

[Susannah Dingley]

Helium, the second-most abundant element in the Sun, is named after Helios, the Greek god of the sun and father of Phaëthon (http://z8.invisionfree.com/DYK/index.php?showtopic=845).

[sarongsong]

Catfish accounts for one-third of the USA's $1.4 billion aquaculture industry.

[KaiYeves]

People with AB type blood are known as "universal receivers", because they can receive transfusions from people with types A, B, AB, and O blood.

[Dgennero]

The boundary between the earth's crust and mantle is known as the Mohorovičić discontinuity, or in short: Moho.

[Susannah Dingley]

The Mohorovičić discontinuity is named after Andrija Mohorovičić (http://z8.invisionfree.com/DYK/index.php?showtopic=231), a Croatian seismologist.

[Robinson]

53 years ago, the science textbooks contained many things that were not true.

[sarongsong]

Shakespeare composed 2 plays a year for nearly twenty years.

[Robinson]

In his time, Shakespeare spelled his name three different ways.

[tdvance]

53 years ago, the science textbooks contained many things that were not true.

not sure that's changed much--my science textbook (1980s) had electrons orbiting the nucleus like planets around the sun.

[Robinson]

The biology textbooks contain the most errors. Understandable, though the quantum physics thing really skews things.

It's cool reading old textbooks, one can feel smarter than the author. DNA disease wasn't even in the picture in the 50s.

[LoneTree1941]

The surface area of Mars is about equal to (or a little less than) the dry land area of Earth.

[Tucson_Tim]

Ellen DeGeneres discussing the song If I Had a Hammer:

". . . you find that once you get a hammer you don't hammer as much as you thought you would."

[sarongsong]

"Once you have a hammer, you find you don't hammer as much as you think you would. (http://www.slate.com/id/2084985/)"

[Tucson_Tim]

"Once you have a hammer, you find you don't hammer as much as you think you would. (http://www.slate.com/id/2084985/)"

Yeah. Thanks for correcting my quote, which I made from memory.

[Homo bibiens]

I'd rather be a hammer than a nail.

[AndrewJ]

Dreams have a knack of not coming true.

[sarongsong]

King cobras are the lengthiest of venomous snakes (~16').

[Susannah Dingley]

Although they have nictating membranes, snakes (http://z8.invisionfree.com/DYK/index.php?showtopic=45) do not possess movable eyelids and so cannot blink – and thus can be distinguished from legless lizards, which can blink.

[parallaxicality]

slow worms represent lizards' second evolution of the "snake form". Unlike snakes, can blink and have visible ears.

[mahesh]

Although they have nictating membranes, snakes (http://z8.invisionfree.com/DYK/index.php?showtopic=45) do not possess movable eyelids and so cannot blink – and thus can be distinguished from legless lizards, which can blink.

I saw a car today, waiting at lights, that had its blinking light/indicator, on, on the inside, like in an human eye, where our vestigial nictitating membrane is. Weird it was. Weird it is writing about it, now. It's not that important a fact.

I just like the word 'nictitating'. Reminds me of the awe, the fascination, I always felt, for Biology, at school.

[parallaxicality]

I hate the word "crepuscular". There has to be a better word to denote "of or pertaining to twilight."

[Robinson]

Crepusculum is Latin for twilight. In french, twilight is crépuscule. In german, it is Dämmerung.

[LoneTree1941]

As seen from Mars' equator, Phobos is one-third the angular diameter of the full Moon as seen from Earth, but Phobos' apparent size actually varies by up to 45% as it passes overhead, due to its proximity to Mars' surface. It's mean distance is about 3728 miles at and above the equator, so that as it moves across the sky from West to East it is largest when at the zenith.

[Robinson]

I like Phobos.

http://www.bautforum.com/attachments/fun-n-games/10320d1245298856-leave-random-fact-phobos.jpg

[sarongsong]

"Think you used enough enlargement there, Butch?" :lol:

[Susannah Dingley]

Gauss’s law of quadratic reciprocity states that if p and q are odd primes, then (p|q)(q|p) = (−1)(p−1)(q−1)/4, where, for any integer a and odd prime p, (a|p) is the Legendre symbol (http://z8.invisionfree.com/DYK/index.php?showtopic=849).

[LoneTree1941]

The orbital eccentricity of Phobos around Mars is only 0.01 suggesting that it has been in orbit around Mars for a very, very long period of time - sufficiently long to be almost perfectly circular; that even though it's orbit is backwards to most of the larger moons in the solar system. Phobos rises in the West and crosses the Martian sky heading to the East - counter clockwise as seen from above the north pole of the planet....

[Susannah Dingley]

The eccentricity e of an ellipse (http://z8.invisionfree.com/DYK/index.php?showtopic=195) whose Cartesian equation is (x/a)2 + (y/b)2 = 1 (a > b > 0) is given by e2 = 1 − (b⁄a)2.

[tdvance]

As seen from Mars' equator, Phobos is one-third the angular diameter of the full Moon as seen from Earth, but Phobos' apparent size actually varies by up to 45% as it passes overhead, due to its proximity to Mars' surface. It's mean distance is about 3728 miles at and above the equator, so that as it moves across the sky from West to East it is largest when at the zenith.

I wonder if the moon illusion cancels that out....

[LoneTree1941]

I wonder if the moon illusion cancels that out....
When rising at the horizen Phobos would be a full Martian radius more distant from a viewer than when at the zenith.

There would probably be some small cancellation due to the visual comparison of the moon to distant land features and the moon as a stand-alone-body compared to the full arc of the sky.

My own opinion is that the "illusion" would be relatively little compared to the effect of such a great differential in real distance in the case of Mars at the zenith VS at the horizen.

Opinion?

[LoneTree1941]

More on Phobos:

Since it is close to the surface and in an equatorial orbit, it cannot be seen above the horizon from latitudes greater than 70.4°.

[RAF_Blackace]

When you buy a suitcase for air travel, consider this.

The stronger the bag is, the more likely it is to be damaged or destroyed.

An example, a solid aluminium bag, absolutely not possible to damage this bag in transit (you would think).

http://blackaceproduction.com/Images/bag1.jpg

http://blackaceproduction.com/Images/bag2.jpg

As you can see the amount of damage is remarkable to say the least. I particularly like the "Priority" tag and the Bra. Some poor Female Exec is not going to be happy.

When this happens, the contents of the bag (or what is left of it) are collected in a plastic bag, this is what arrives on the carousel at the destination.

I hasten to add, this was the only passengers bag we managed to destroy on that project.

[Homo bibiens]

RAF Blackace is starting to scare me.

[LoneTree1941]

Why Lincoln has an L in it

Lincoln, England was originally a Celtic town named Lindun, but when it was taken over by the Roman conquerors it was duly converted into a Roman town. The name was Romanized by giving it a Latin ending thus changed from Lind -un to –um and converted to the status of a: “Colonia”; a designation applied to all Roman military retirement towns; giving it the fully modified Roman name of "Lindum Colonia".

After the departure of Rome the city was never completely deserted and so the name was always kept in use. Over time the name was shortened on the tongues of the people of the area and pronounced Lind- Coln-, with the Latin endings no longer useful, (-um & -ia) being dropped. It was finally joined into one word and pronounced Lincoln, with the “ l “ finally becoming silent but still being preserved in its English spelling.

[parallaxicality]

Phobos was the first astronomical object to be observed from the surface of another planet.

[Susannah Dingley]

Efik (http://z8.invisionfree.com/DYK/index.php?showtopic=54), a language spoken in the Cross River area of southern Nigeria, belongs to the Benue-Congo group of the Niger-Congo family.

[LoneTree1941]

Our own Milky Way Galaxy, is a "barred" galaxy resembling this one (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3447/3195427056_cc419cece9_o.jpg)

(A barred galaxy has a bar-shaped structure in its middle.)

.

[sarongsong]

Zebras are ~5 times stronger than horses. (http://zorse.com/)

[LoneTree1941]

The stellar magnitude system using larger numbers for dimmer objects has been used since the day of the Greek Astronomer Hipparchus in the second century B.C.

[tdvance]

I could have been camping with my telescope at Cherry Springs Star Party now, but the weather in Coudersport, PA didn't cooperate.

[parallaxicality]

The official Chinese government numbers for the deaths at Tienanmen Square in 1989 differ from those given by the Red Cross by a factor of 10.

[LoneTree1941]

At the equator the Solstice is when the sun is at its lowest and occurrs twice a year.

[LoneTree1941]

The term Solstice appears to be from Latin words: The first part, “Sol” means the sun, the second part “-stice” from the Latin verb stistō (stitēre) means to cause to stand (still)
.

[LoneTree1941]

On the summer solstice the sun rises furthest to the left on the horizon and sets furthest to the right.
.

[LoneTree1941]

The June solstice hovers directly over the Tropic of Cancer, just about 1° South of Key West, Florida.
.

[LoneTree1941]

North of the Tropic of Cancer, between the equinoxes, daylight hours become longer up to the Arctic Circle where at latitude 66° 33′ 39″ the sun doesn’t set at all from June 8 until July 4.
.

[LoneTree1941]

North of the Tropic of Cancer, between the equinoxes, daylight hours become longer up to the Arctic Circle where at latitude 66° 33′ 39″ the sun doesn’t set at all from June 8 until July 4.


South of the Tropic of Cancer the opposite would be the case until the equator is reached where all days are exactly 12 hours in length..

[LoneTree1941]

Day length, or length of day, or length of daytime, refers to the time each day from the moment the upper limb of the sun's disk appears above the horizon during sunrise to the moment when the upper limb disappears below the horizon during sunset.
.

[LoneTree1941]

During a few days around the equinoxes—about March 19-22 and September 21-24—both poles experience 24 hours of daytime, due mainly to atmospheric refraction.
.

[LoneTree1941]

During a few days around the equinoxes—about March 19-22 and September 21-24—both poles experience 24 hours of daytime, due mainly to atmospheric refraction.

At the poles there is only one sunrise and one sunset in the course of a year. This occurs around the time of the equinoxes.
.

[LoneTree1941]

Pagans called the Midsummer moon the "Honey Moon" for the mead made from fermented honey that was part of wedding ceremonies performed at the Summer Solstice.
.

[LoneTree1941]

Perhaps the most enduring modern tradition with ties with earliest observed Summer Solstice were the Druids' celebration of the day as the "wedding of Heaven and Earth", resulting in the present day belief of a "lucky" wedding in June.
.

[LoneTree1941]

In Ancient Rome the festival of Vestalia lasted from JUN-7 to JUN-15. It was held in honor of the Roman Goddess of the hearth, Vesta. Married women were able to enter the shrine of Vesta during the festival. At other times of the year, only the vestal virgins were permitted inside.
.

[LoneTree1941]

The Summer Solstice occurs at 1:46 AM/EDT on this date
.

[sarongsong]

...not in the Southern Hemisphere.

[Susannah Dingley]

The organic compound 3-oxoolean-18-en-28-oic acid is more commonly called moronic acid (http://z8.invisionfree.com/DYK/index.php?showtopic=370).

[parallaxicality]

"moronic" means "dull"; "acid", in its original form, means "sharp". Thus, "moronic acid" is an oxymoron.

[parallaxicality]

Oxymoron literally means "sharp/dull"

[parallaxicality]

"Oxygen" comes from the Greek for "acid forming".

[tdvance]

"a" usually means an indefinite "one" :)

[Robinson]

If you go outside and mark the sunrise and sunset today, next year the sunset and sunrise will be in the same place.

Unless you are north of the arctic circle, in which case there will be no sunset or sunrise. Or if you are south of the equator, in which case it will be the winter solstice, but marking will still work. Unless you are south of the antarctic circle, in which case you are probably dead right now.

It being the dead of winter there, and dark all the time. And cold. I heard it is cold there.

[LoneTree1941]

It's a long way off from now(3 months), but on the day of the Autumnal equinox (and again on the Vernal equinox), if you are driving on a straight road going due West, at sunset you will see the sun dive straight into the road ahead. It is a dramatic thing to observe, and not least because of the well known affect of how large the sun's disc appears as compared to the road's profile.
.

[Robinson]

Staring into the sun while driving may result in injuries.

[sarongsong]

Beach tennis originated in Brazil. (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/health/fitness/20080603-9999-1c03getoutm.html)

[Robinson]

Beach volleyball is very popular in Switzerland. Even though Switzerland doesn't have a single beach.

[LoneTree1941]

Staring into the sun while driving may result in injuries.

Certainly an appropriate warning Robinson; the sun at the horizen is being seen through an oblique and extended layer of the atmosphere, making it very safe to look at. I've paused to look at literally hundreds of sunsets. That's one of the reasons people enjoy looking at them.

[Susannah Dingley]

The Sun (http://z8.invisionfree.com/DYK/index.php?showtopic=12) constantly emits a stream of charged particles called the solar wind, which interacts with the gas molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere to produce spectacular auroras.

[Eric Vaxxine]

The background light inside a rainbow is always brighter/lighter than
the background light outside of the rainbow.

[Robinson]

Staring at a sunrise is more dangerous than staring at a sunset.

[Eric Vaxxine]

Being awake to witness a sunrise is more unlikely
than being awake to witness a sunset.

[sarongsong]

Movie title "Some Like It Hot" references a style of music.

[Robinson]

Currently no mainstream theory can explain the extreme coronal temperatures of our sun.

[AndrewJ]

Marine mammals (like the one in the avatar above) returned to the sea about 50 million years ago. A short marine culture might explain why homo sapiens lost their body hair.

[parallaxicality]

and why human babies are the only primates with baby fat

[LoneTree1941]

Marine mammals (like the one in the avatar above) returned to the sea about 50 million years ago. A short marine culture might explain why homo sapiens lost their body hair.

Interesting questions Andrew: Would the need to keep cool by hairlessness promoting the evaporation of sweat when early humans left the forests for the savannah possibly explain that; or was it because we had an “aquatic interlude” (the AAT theory) in our development?

HERE'S AN INTERESTING (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dylan.morgan/elainemorgan/Naked%20Darwinist.pdf) article delving into this question.
One excerpt from page 29: "Humans are in various aspects so different from other animals - including other primates - that according to Darwinian theory, we could only have evolved when our earliest hominid ancestors occupied a specific niche, quite diferent from that of the other contemporary primates."

[Susannah Dingley]

When a salmon (http://z8.invisionfree.com/DYK/index.php?showtopic=144) hatches from its egg, it is an alevin, feeding off the nutrients in its yolk sac. It develops into a fry, when it wanders free from the gravel bed on which it was born. Then it becomes a parr, with the appearance of markings. When it becomes a smolt, it is ready to leave its freshwater environment for the sea. It becomes a grilse after spending its first winter at sea. The adult salmon will eventually make its way back to fresh water to mate.

[Salty]

The box specie of jellyfish is the most poisonous known animal on earth.

[Robinson]

I have appeared in the thread BAUT banned/suspended posters log . Sadly, I missed my chance to log in and find out what it actually means to be "given 3 days off".

[Tucson_Tim]

∫ d(cabin)/cabin = loge cabin

[sarongsong]

...I missed my chance..."If at first you don't succeed..." :whistle: (http://www.bautforum.com/1473625-post520.html)
_________

When a Hawaiian woman wears a flower over her left ear, it means that she is not available.

[Homo bibiens]

∫ d(cabin)/cabin = loge cabin

This indefinite integral with a rather unusual choice of independent variable does not have a constant of integration on the right hand side.

[Robinson]

"If at first you don't succeed..."

April Fools Day is April 1st.

[Homo bibiens]

Robinson has 2,693 posts.

[Robinson]

Not anymore.

[Homo bibiens]

Robinson still has 2,693 posts, plus a few more.

[Robinson]

Robinson has over 1,300,000 posts. If you count all forums.

[Homo bibiens]

Homo bibiens has over 7,952,871,104,834,267 posts, if you count all posts that he has made in the past, will make in the future, and could possibly make in the future.

[Robinson]

I have to work out of town right now.

[Homo bibiens]

THE BATTERY ON MY COMPUTER IS LOW. (http://www.bautforum.com)

[Tucson_Tim]

this indefinite integral with a rather unusual choice of independent variable does not have a constant of integration on the right hand side.

Oh all right. ∫ d(cabin)/cabin = loge cabin + C

[tdvance]

I now know what Sulfuric Acid tastes like. (moral: wash hands after handling leaky truck battery and before having lunch)

[parallaxicality]

In its pure form, sulphuric acid is yellowish and oily.

[Homo bibiens]

I don't know what sulfuric acid tastes like.

[sarongsong]

Hawaiian rose apples taste like roses smell.

[Salty]

Homo bibiens could never post over seven drillion times, much less 7,952,871,104,834,267 in his lifetime nor in all our life times.
7drillion, 952trillion,871billion,104million,834thousand,267. I counted it.

[Homo bibiens]

Homo bibiens could never post over seven drillion times, much less 7,952,871,104,834,267 in his lifetime nor in all our life times.
7drillion, 952trillion,871billion,104million,834thousand,267. I counted it.

You have to count each possible post that I could make. Is the set of all posts that I might make in the future really so limited?

Now for my random fact:

Only a small fraction of the posts that I could possibly make in the future, will actually be made.

[Salty]

I think that an infinite amount of alternate universes remains either a theory or a mathematical model.

[Homo bibiens]

I think that an infinite amount of alternate universes remains either a theory or a mathematical model.

OK, but surely we can say things like, there are 52! possible ways to arrange the cards in a deck, even if we don't actually arrange them all?

There are 52! ways to arrange the 52 cards in a deck.

[Robinson]

I have returned.

[Homo bibiens]

Robinson is back!

[Robinson]

And I am soooo friggin tired. Spent all day repairing/replacing a floor.

[Homo bibiens]

If you are going to replace a floor, you don't need to repair it first :)

[sarongsong]

:lol: ---Robinson is floored!
__________________

Joshua trees produce seed-bearing fruits.

[Homo bibiens]

The floor keeps me from falling.

[Robinson]

Ġ (minuscule: ġ) is a letter of the Latin alphabet, formed from G with the addition of a dot above the letter. The dot is sometimes placed within the capital, rather than above.

[Homo bibiens]

So do all caps work with this letter Ġ?

(Above line was the original post - next line is an edit.)

No, it looks like all the characters came from a special character set.

[Robinson]

The scientific name for Swordfish is Xiphias gladius. The first word means "sword" in Greek, the second word means "sword" in Latin. They wanted you to know the fish has a sword.

[parallaxicality]

The scientific name for the lynx is Lynx lynx. They wanted you to know it's a lynx.

[Robinson]

Wrong thread!!!

The Canadian lynx is called Lynx canadensis, the Bobcat is known as Lynx rufus.

[sarongsong]

...the Bobcat is known as Lynx rufus.Sandra Day O'Connor called hers "Bob". :)
Lynx - felis lynx
Scientific Name: Lynx belong to the family Felis. Classification for the four species are as follows:
Canadian Lynx as Lynx canadensis (Northern North America & Canada)
Spanish Lynx or Spotted Lynx as Lynx pardinus (Southern Eurasia)
Bobcat (aka Bay Lynx and Wildcat) as Lynx rufus (Small Lynx of North America & Canada)
Eurasian Lynx as Lynx lynx (Northern Eurasia)...
tigerhomes.org (http://www.tigerhomes.org/animal/curriculums/lynx-pc.cfm)

[Salty]

In constellations, Orion the hunter is followed by his two hunting hounds Canis Major and the puppy Canis Minor.

[parallaxicality]

The Star, one of the first tabloids, actually made a false connection between the murder of Mary Ann Nicholls and two completely unrelated murders, thus making Jack the Ripper a serial killer before he actually became one.

[tdvance]

The hunting hounds are Canes Venetici, who are dogging the big bear

[Salty]

I think we're both right, about Orion's hounds.

[Homo bibiens]

The scientific name for the lynx is Lynx lynx. They wanted you to know it's a lynx.

The scientific name for the anhinga is Anhinga anhinga.

[LoneTree1941]

Human eyes are so sensitive that on a clear night when there is no moon, a person sitting on a mountain peak can see a match struck 50 miles away.

[Homo bibiens]

Where I am, you'd be lucky to see a match struck across the street :(

[LoneTree1941]

The average person ingests about a ton of food and drink in a year.

[Tucson_Tim]

Human eyes are so sensitive that on a clear night when there is no moon, a person sitting on a mountain peak can see a match struck 50 miles away.

OK, I have to call for proof of this one. Even with 10-power binocs, the match would appear to be 5 miles away. Just doesn't seem possible. Now, maybe the retina can detect the photons from that match but I can't see how it would register in the brain. Not sayin' it ain't so, but I need proof. Got a link?

[Homo bibiens]

OK, I have to call for proof of this one. Even with 10-power binocs, the match would appear to be 5 miles away. Just doesn't seem possible. Now, maybe the retina can detect the photons from that match but I can't see how it would register in the brain. Not sayin' it ain't so, but I need proof. Got a link?

Maybe it takes a special kind of match.

http://www.instructables.com/files/deriv/FGH/XP69/F4GTQUQF/FGHXP69F4GTQUQF.MEDIUM.jpg

[Tucson_Tim]

Maybe it takes a special kind of match.


Looks like my science project in junior high.

[Homo bibiens]

Looks like my science project in junior high.

Anything you would like to share? :)

Random fact:

A new Hawaiian island is forming under the ocean floor, south of the Big Island.

[tdvance]

OK, I have to call for proof of this one. Even with 10-power binocs, the match would appear to be 5 miles away. Just doesn't seem possible. Now, maybe the retina can detect the photons from that match but I can't see how it would register in the brain. Not sayin' it ain't so, but I need proof. Got a link?

It could probably be computed.

I can't find the brightness of a match flame, but perhaps we can assume intensity on the order of 1 candela, or on the order of 1 lux per square meter at a distance of 1 meter. At 50 miles, this is 80k meters, which must be squared, so it is on the order of 10^-10 lux per square meter.

For Sirius, the output is about 10^-5 lux per square square meter at a distance of 8 light years. So the apparent brightness of the match is 10^-5 x as much as that of magnitude -1.5 Sirius.

The magnitude system is set up so a 5 magnitude difference corresponds to 100x in apparent brightness. Thus, the match will appear as bright
as a magnitude 8.5 star.

The faintest object I've ever heard of being seen with the naked eye is M81, magnitude 6.8, from atop Mauna Loa with an oxygen canister.

It sounds like we are off by a factor of about 6.

But, that is within an order of magnitude.

Thus, I declare it "plausible".

[Robinson]

At the threshold of vision the dark adapted observer can see a flash if it contains on average 90
photons at the cornea or 9 at the retina. This is equivalent to a candle at 30 miles on a clear night.
http://www.electro-optical.com/whitepapers/candela.htm

A match flares match flares much brighter than a candle flame. The problem is finding a 50 mile range that isn't well over the horizon.

[Tucson_Tim]

Todd, I expect you have the red-stained lips of a Mentat. Good job there!

[Homo bibiens]

http://www.electro-optical.com/whitepapers/candela.htm

A match flares match flares much brighter than a candle flame. The problem is finding a 50 mile range that isn't well over the horizon.

You could have one end of the range of the on the top of a tall mountain. The problem is, if that's where the match is, it may be difficult to get a flame, and if that's where the observer is, that person might be suffering from hypoxia :)

[Robinson]

We need a nerd here. How high do you have to be to have a 50 mile line of sight?

[chrissy]

Having appendicitis hurts like mad, but getting it removed is damn painful too...still hurts now..:(

[tdvance]

We need a nerd here. How high do you have to be to have a 50 mile line of sight?

sea level--if the match is up in the sky somewhere.

[chrissy]

We need a nerd here. How high do you have to be to have a 50 mile line of sight?

Maybe using a very large screen on a different mountain (50 miles away) and a film of a match being struck......you could see it...;)

[Homo bibiens]

We need a nerd here. How high do you have to be to have a 50 mile line of sight?

Assuming one end is exactly on the surface, and the world is round, I'm getting a number that is a bit less than a third of a mile. So I guess my earlier concerns would not be real issues.

[Robinson]

A 380 meter antenna has a 50 mile line of sight.

[Homo bibiens]

A 380 meter antenna has a 50 mile line of sight.

I'm getting closer to 500 meters, but it is possible I've done something wrong, or possible there are different underlying assumptions (maybe the 380 meter figure has 50 mile line of sight to something slightly above the surface).

[LoneTree1941]

OK, I have to call for proof of this one. Even with 10-power binocs, the match would appear to be 5 miles away. Just doesn't seem possible. Now, maybe the retina can detect the photons from that match but I can't see how it would register in the brain. Not sayin' it ain't so, but I need proof. Got a link?
No internet link; fact came from a book titled 2201 Fascinating Facts by David Louis published in 1977.

Consider the elevation high enough where the atmosphere is thinned, and the match is struck and flares up on a 50 mile distant mountain which one could assume was at a similar elevation and without obstructions, and with the match lighter and the distant observer synchronized. I do now find this impossible to accept.

For perspective, I know of a very straight highway with some offsets but a clear line of sight where I can see a yellow blinking caution light 20 miles distant in broad daylight.

edit: need I say, although the information wasn't provided, that we should also assume this would seem to have been done at night?

[AndrewJ]

Boris Becker once served five consecutive aces in one game (had been at 0-40 on serve to Kafelnikov).

[Robinson]

I'm getting closer to 500 meters...

I used a line of sight calculator. Looking at a different one
http://www.qsl.net/kd4sai/distance.html

I now get 340 meters for a 50 mile line of sight. Your mileage may vary.

[Robinson]

Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett both died on the same day.

:cry:

[Homo bibiens]

Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett both died on the same day.

:cry:

Both were big in the 1970s.

[LoneTree1941]

I used a line of sight calculator. Looking at a different one
http://www.qsl.net/kd4sai/distance.html

I now get 340 meters for a 50 mile line of sight. Your mileage may vary. Are you taking into account that your calculator is based on a perfect sphere; and wouldn't a valley system between two mountains make that sort of calculation irrelevant? Take into account my 20 mile view of that yellow blinker light; clearly visible in broad daylight. I would also comment that I doubt very much that it would be visible to the unaided eye if that blinker light remained on continuously rather than blinking. That is a similar phenomenon to a match flashing-up as it is lit and then momentarily registers on the retina and through the optic nerve to the brain as an event.

HERE (http://wiki.medpedia.com/Eye) it says: "A rod can register a single photon of light. This means that a human with perfect vision can see a lit match several miles away on a clear night." These conditions, except for it calling for a clear night, don't seem to be as beneficiently extreme as what we have been theoretically dealing with in the referenced 2201 Fascinating facts item, which definitely described some optimized conditions: A mountain elevation, atmospheric thinning, and a flash rather than a continuous moderated flame.

[Robinson]

All good points.

I'm pretty sure, after checking several calculators, that a modest tower, or mountain, will let you see 50 miles with out a problem. They include the curvature of the earth when calculating.

In complete darkness, with dark adjusted eyes, I think they might be right, you probably could see a flash. Not a candle however.

[parallaxicality]

Quncy Jones hated "Billie Jean" and only agreed to include it on the "Thriller" album after a heated argument with Michael Jackson.

[sarongsong]

The Caribbean has no tide.

[Homo bibiens]

It's a long way from Easter Island to any other point of land.

[LoneTree1941]

It's a long way from Easter Island to any other point of land.

Rats arrived with the first human settlers on Hawaii.

[LoneTree1941]

Scientists discovered remains of a complete flute made from a griffon vulture bone in a German cave once populated by some of the first modern humans to settle in Europe after leaving Africa more than 35,000 years ago.

The finds suggest that our oldest ancestors in Europe had a well-established musical tradition.

Ancient flutes more than 35,000 years old - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/archeology/5625802/Ancient-flutes-more-than-35000-years-old.html)
.

[Homo bibiens]

No incumbent president of the Islamic Republic of Iran has ever lost election to a second term.

(Assuming the reported results of the recent election are not overturned.)

[Robinson]

I get a small amount of amusement by making people translate stuff, in order to get the joke.

[Homo bibiens]

I am not even trying to translate the pseudo-writing in Robinson's signature.

[Robinson]

Thanks to PhantomAlert, my GPS now alerts me to speed traps, and traffic cameras. It does not however, alert me when I am breaking the law.

[Homo bibiens]

I would like to know how to get such a GPS!

[Robinson]

I would wager that if you typed phantomalert (http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q=PhantomAlert&btnG=Google+Search) into a search engine, you could figure it out.

[Robinson]

I worry about mentioning some things, for the fear it could look like spam. I have no connection with phantomalert, other than giving them money, in order to avoid giving money to a policeman.

[Robinson]

Robinson Crusoe was one of the first Western novels to be translated into Arabic.

[sarongsong]

I get a small amount of amusement by making people translate stuff, in order to get the joke.Yes, we've noticed! :lol:

[Susannah Dingley]

Cinnabar is the mineral form of mercury(II) sulphide (HgS). But the Cinnabar (http://z8.invisionfree.com/DYK/index.php?showtopic=850) moth (Tyria jacobaeae) is a lepidopterous insect whose yellow & black striped larvae, being immune to the toxins contained in the leaves of ragworts, consume these leaves and concentrate the toxins in their bodies to render themselves unpalatable to potential predators.

[LoneTree1941]

Up until the age of 6 or 7 months a child can breathe and swallow at the same time. An adult cannot do this. (try it)

[tdvance]

Cinna-Bar is the piano bar on Carnival Glory--decked out in red, red, and ... red. Ok, the piano isn't red, but about everything else is.

[Robinson]

I have watched the Carnival Glory sail many times.

At 952 feet long, and 13 stories high, it is friggin HUGE!

[tdvance]

FYI: Cin-A-Bar photo:

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1087124779040556309eALKjQ

[Homo bibiens]

Persia became Iran in 1935.

[sarongsong]

Alfred Hitchcock was never awarded an Oscar.

[parallaxicality]

Technically, that isn't true. He was awarded a "Lifetime Achievement Award", but considered it a token and, rather than give a speech, simply walked onstage, took the award, said, "Thank you very much," and left.

[LoneTree1941]

What is so different about the 8th of July this year?
At five minutes and six seconds after 4 AM
on the 8th of July this year, the time and date
will be 04:05:06 07/08/09.
This will never happen again, so be sure to wake up early for it.

[Homo bibiens]

What is so different about the 8th of July this year?
At five minutes and six seconds after 4 AM
on the 8th of July this year, the time and date
will be 04:05:06 07/08/09.
This will never happen again, so be sure to wake up early for it.

This will happen every 100 years.

[sarongsong]

Technically, that isn't true. He was awarded a "Lifetime Achievement Award", but considered it a token and, rather than give a speech, simply walked onstage, took the award, said, "Thank you very much," and left.A "Lifetime Achievement Award" is not an Oscar.

[Homo bibiens]

Peter O'Toole has been nominated for eight Oscars, but never won.

[sarongsong]

Technically, that isn't true. He was awarded a "Lifetime Achievement Award", but considered it a token and, rather than give a speech, simply walked onstage, took the award, said, "Thank you very much," and left.The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award is not an Oscar.

[Robinson]

This thread will reach the cut off point before the "last to post wins" thread.

[Homo bibiens]

I do not know what the cut off point is.

[Robinson]

This makes my random fact hard to verify.

[Homo bibiens]

Robinson is very crafty.

[LoneTree1941]

This will happen every 100 years.
Thanks! That will teach me not to cut and paste...

[Homo bibiens]

There is a Bloomington in Indiana, and also in Illinois.

[hhEb09'1]

What is so different about the 8th of July this year?
At five minutes and six seconds after 4 AM
on the 8th of July this year, the time and date
will be 04:05:06 07/08/09.
This will never happen again, so be sure to wake up early for it.

This will happen every 100 years.And not only that, but one month later, on August 7th, IF you order the time fields from smallest to largest. Me, I like to go from largest to smallest, in which case, in August, I'll be looking for 09/08/07 06:05:04.03, and I won't have to get up so early.

[Homo bibiens]

And not only that, but one month later, on August 7th, IF you order the time fields from smallest to largest. Me, I like to go from largest to smallest, in which case, in August, I'll be looking for 09/08/07 06:05:04.03, and I won't have to get up so early.

So let's see then. In the 21st century, we should have:

05:06:07 08/09/00
04:05:06 07/08/09
03:04:05 06/07/08
02:03:04 05/06/07
01:02:03 04/05/06
00:01:02 03/04/05

Furthermore, each of these can be interpreted as mm/dd/yy, or as dd/mm/yy.

[parallaxicality]

A "Lifetime Achievement Award" is not an Oscar.

It is Oscar-shaped and awarded at an Oscars ceremony.

[Homo bibiens]

How about if we call it a Wilde?

Random fact:

Katharine Hepburn won her first oscar in 1933, and then didn't win another until 1967.

[parallaxicality]

No wait, they're right. The Thalberg award in't Oscar-shaped. Still, my point holds. A Lifetime Achievement Oscar is an Oscar.

[Homo bibiens]

Some people look a lot better on low-definition television than high-definition.

[parallaxicality]

People on death row are regularly monitored to ensure they don't kill themselves.

[Homo bibiens]

If that volcano in the Canary Islands falls into the ocean, it will be a bad day in North America.

[sarongsong]

It is Oscar-shaped...Reference?

[parallaxicality]

I already conceded. The Thalberg award is not Oscar-shaped. But a Lifetime Achievement award is.

If that volcano in the Canary Islands falls into the ocean, it will be a bad day in North America.

It will not the volcano itself that will doom North America, but the Cumbre Vieja mountain range; a giant slab of rock dangling from the edge of the volcano like a loose tooth. When an eruption sends it crashing into the sea, it will displace enough water to create a wave big enough to swallow the east coast of the US.

[Homo bibiens]

Tsunamis can ruin your whole day.

[tdvance]

Some people look a lot better on low-definition television than high-definition.

Dan Rather had to change his makeup when Hi-Def came along.

[sarongsong]

...my point holds. A Lifetime Achievement Oscar is an Oscar.I'm playing the Missouri card; show me:

Your search - "lifetime achievement oscar" site:http://www.oscar.com/ - did not match any documents. (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=opera&rls=en&hs=cOg&ei=3s1HSuXgNYiOMa3foKwC&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=%22lifetime+achievement+oscar%22+site%3Ahttp%3A//www.oscar.com/&spell=1)

[Robinson]

Uh oh.

[Homo bibiens]

Robinson's post does not contain a fact.

[Robinson]

Homo bibiens banned for not being random.

[parallaxicality]

I'm playing the Missouri card; show me:

Your search - "lifetime achievement oscar" site:http://www.oscar.com/ - did not match any documents. (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=opera&rls=en&hs=cOg&ei=3s1HSuXgNYiOMa3foKwC&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=%22lifetime+achievement+oscar%22+site%3Ahttp%3A//www.oscar.com/&spell=1)

Here's Lawrence Olivier's (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT_iEkp3Kxc)

Here's Sidney Poitier ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnjTANhBu3k)

And Alec Guinness ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVhxDR4lg8o)

You may be confusing it with the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsII4nNc7GQ), which is star-shaped.

[Homo bibiens]

It is widely believed that birds and dinosaurs are related.

[LoneTree1941]

There is a Bloomington in Indiana, and also in Illinois.
There are also Bloomingtons in California, Idaho, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Texas, and Utah; as well as an active "Ghost Town" named Bloomington in Iowa, a "former town" of Bloomington in Missouri, and finally a Bloomington Springs in Tennessee.

[tdvance]

I live a half-hour's drive from California.

It's kind of like Indiana being a town in Pennsylvania, Miami University is in Ohio, but University of Miami is in Coral Gables, Fl.

[Homo bibiens]

Then there is this place (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine,_Texas).

[sarongsong]

...A Lifetime Achievement Oscar is an Oscar...Here's Lawrence Olivier's...Sidney Poitier...And Alec Guinness...The Honorary Award is not called a lifetime achievement award by the Academy (http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/about/awards/honorary.html). :)

[LoneTree1941]

I live a half-hour's drive from California.

It's kind of like Indiana being a town in Pennsylvania, Miami University is in Ohio, but University of Miami is in Coral Gables, Fl.

And that there is an Indiana University of Pennsylvania - IUP - which has nothing to do with Indiana University of Indiana which is associated with Purdue Univerisity of Indiana and which collectively operate campuses under the banner of IUPUI

Indiana University of Pennsylvania is in Indiana, Pennsylvania and It is the largest university in the Pennsylvania State System...

[sarongsong]

The city of Beijing is larger than the state of Connecticut.

[Homo bibiens]

The city of Beijing is larger than the state of Connecticut.

I found that difficult to believe, but I looked it up, and it is true. Parts of the Beijing municipality are pretty rural, though.

For a number of years after the opening of the new international airport, Pudong, Hongqiao airport in Shanghai, which was now almost entirely domestic, continued to have large letters across the terminal building which read "Shanghai International Airport."

[Robinson]

The city of Beijing is larger than the state of Connecticut.

So is the New York metropolitan area. Which also has a million more people than Beijing.

[Homo bibiens]

On a bad pollution day, it can be hard to see from one side of Tienanmen Square to the other.

[sarongsong]

So is the New York metropolitan area......which needs three states to define. :)

[Robinson]

Beijing, 6,487 sq mi. Population 17,430,000

NYMA, 6,720 sq. mi. Population 18,815,988

[Homo bibiens]

Beijing has a new airport terminal.

[sarongsong]

In a gerontocracy, the oldest hold the most power.

[Susannah Dingley]

In terms of surface area, the Great Bear Lake (http://z8.invisionfree.com/DYK/index.php?showtopic=833) is the largest lake situated wholly within Canada.

[sarongsong]

We are now living in the Holocene Epoch of the Cenozoic Era. (http://msnbc.com/news/wld/graphics/earths_timeline_dw.htm)

[iquestor]

All Polar Bears are Left Handed.

[Robinson]

This thread has had 71,166 views. That is the highest number of views for a currently active fun n games thread.

[LoneTree1941]

On gaseous planets like Jupiter the body's shape, for purposes of size, is defined by the radius at which the atmospheric is 1-bar or roughly earth's surface pressure.

[Eric Vaxxine]

The marsanomalyresearch.com site is being blocked......

[Tucson_Tim]

Reading the posts in this thread reminds me of the animated flick Fantastic Planet - the droning voice of the headset used by the Draags that transmits knowledge directly into the brain of the user.

[Robinson]

The Draags (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PJXaW0qrTQ) are an alien race which is humanoid in shape but a hundred times larger than humans, with blue skin, fan-like earlobes and huge, protruding red eyes.

[parallaxicality]

We are now living in the Holocene Epoch of the Cenozoic Era. (http://msnbc.com/news/wld/graphics/earths_timeline_dw.htm)

Though a number of thinkers, such as Jeffrey Sachs, claim that since the Industrial Revolution we have been living in the Anthropocene.

[Robinson]

Cominella alertae is a species of predatory deepwater sea snail.

[tdvance]

The windows of Monk's Cafe, on Seinfeld, don't match inside versus outside.

[LoneTree1941]

All Mercurian craters are named after famous writers, artists, including architects. Craters larger than 250km in diameter are called basins.

[Robinson]

The character known as "Hatta" in Through the Looking-Glass, who also appears in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, is popularly referred to as "The Mad Hatter," but is never called by this name in Carroll's book - although the Cheshire Cat does warn Alice that he is mad.

[Robinson]

"Play it again, Sam" never is actually said in the movie Casablanca.

[LoneTree1941]

Homo Heidelbergensis, an extinct species of the genus Homo, and which may be the direct ancestor of Homo neanderthalensis in Europe, had a large brain-case with a typical cranial volume of 1100-1400 cm³ — overlapping the 1350 cm³ average of modern humans

[parallaxicality]

All Mercurian craters are named after famous writers, artists, including architects. Craters larger than 250km in diameter are called basins.

Officially, all basins on Mercury are named after the word "hot" in various languages, but to date only one has been officially named, the Caloris Basin.