Share an interesting random fact

[Warped_Ghost]

sorry double post. I had to agree to the new terms. I think it screwed it up.

 

[Dfskelleton]

The famous horror author Edgar Allan Poe died on October 3rd, 1849. He was found lying in the streets in a delirious state, wearing clothes that didn't belong to him and shouting the name "Reynolds".
The medical records for Poe's death cannot be found, so his cause of death is uncertain. Chances are it had something to do with his alchoholic nature, but it's still weird.

 

[4RM3D]

Just to make life easier I'll link the wiki page = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem

I apologise if i explained poorly, I'm just an interested ignoramus.

I first learnt about this at the royal institution Christmas lectures in the nineties. Some damn good stuff on them.

I understand what went wrong, now that I have read the wiki page. As stated:

"The birthday problem asks whether any of the people in a given group has a birthday matching any of the others ? not one in particular."

Now it makes sense.

 

[VoidWanderer]

No one knows Albert Einstein's last words because his nurse did not speak German.

 

[kiwi_poo]

that's light, he means colors as in paint and stuff

...I'll stop nitpicking now

Nitpicking? Nah, bring on the challenge!

I still have to disagree. If you throw all colors together and get black, it is because the colors are tainted. This is pretty common because it is difficult to mix all pure colors and get a pure color as result.

There is an experiment which prove the above. Take a wooden disk (circle) and divide it into slices. Paint every slice a different color. Now attach the disk onto a spinning object (like a car wheel). When the disk is rotating, which color do you see?

Spoiler

White

Your move.

that's because it's the light reflecting off of the the surface.

okay, that's a pretty feeble excuse. All I know is that my school taught me that in light, when you mix all colors you get white, and in painting when you mix all colors you get black.

 

[The Mufffin Bear]

The Movie Titanic cost more to make then the actual Titanic

 

[kiwi_poo]

ooh, forgot this one!
on the Escapist, there is approx. a 98% chance that you will see an my little pony-related avatar on any given forum page

 

[Piorn]

If you breed a Tiger and a Lion, you get a Liger, if the father is a lion; or a Tiglon, if the father is a tiger.
They don't count as a new species because they're sterile.

 

[GirDraconis]

There is nearly a billion miles of DNA in a single human body!

There's WAAAAY more than that. The average human has enough DNA to reach out to Pluto and come back... SEVEN TIMES over. I believe each human cell has about one meter of DNA in length. So yeah, it's incredible.

 

[thespyisdead]

Loony Toons were aimed at the adult demographic for a reason: they were usually presented to an audience in a theater prior to a feature presentation

 

[CrazyJew]

The stories for Mirror's Edge, Heavenly Sword and the entire Overlord series was written by a woman named Rhianna Pratchett, who is Terry Pratchett's daughter.

Yes, that [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett] Terry Pratchett.

Nerdgasm.



Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman based the "Tapes morphing into "Best of Queen" after a fortnight in the car" theory on the fact that on long trips when you hop into a store on the highway in hopes of finding something decent to listen to the only decent thing is a Best of Queen record.

 

[GirDraconis]

They don't count as a new species because they're sterile.

Yep. They lack two of the seven "requirements" of biotic beings.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

If you breed a Tiger and a Lion, you get a Liger, if the father is a lion; or a Tiglon, if the father is a tiger.
They don't count as a new species because they're sterile.

you mean these ligers?
"In 1943, a fifteen-year-old hybrid between a lion and an 'Island' tiger was successfully mated with a lion at the Munich Hellabrunn Zoo. The female cub, though of delicate health, was raised to adulthood."

 

[Tallim]

It is still legal to Kill a Scotsman within the city walls of York with a Bow and Arrow!

Ah classic

It's also still illegal to eat mince pies on Christmas Day in England. That law doesn't exist in Wales or Scotland, I don't know about N.Ireland however.

Women aren't allowed to eat chocolate on public transport :/


The law in England allowing pregnant women to relieve themselves anywhere has actually been struck off of the statute books now/
-------------------------------------

Off of laws now. Got sidetracked:

Eskimos use refrigerators to stop their food from freezing.

9 out of every 10 living things on the planet is in the ocean.

Porcupines float.

Hitler was NOT a vegetarian - I see a lot of people still think he was.

If you walk by George Orwell's house in London your image gets captured by 33 surveillance cameras.

 

[a ginger491]

Sea cucumbers will eviscerate themselves as a last ditch effort of self defense. Their organs grow back in about one to five weeks

 

[a ginger491]

The fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis can take over an insect's brain, and kill the insect when it's in a favorable spot to spread the fungus's spores.
'Tis essentially a zombie plant.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/pictures/110303-zombie-ants-fungus-new-species-fungi-bugs-science-brazil/

Oh yeah! I remember seeing that on Planet Earth. It reminds me of xenomorphs.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

For there to be a 100% chance two people share the same birthday there must be 366 people.
A 99% chance is reached by 57 people and a 50% chance by just 23.

Okay, I get the 100% statistic and agree it makes perfect sense (except for the February 29th babies, then it's 367). I'm not getting the other two. 365 x 0.99 = 361.35. My brain says you'd need 362 (rounding up) people. Same for the 50% statistic. How do these last two statistics work?

when you take statistics, you will understand, i haven't done it in a while but it is actually true, funny thing was, my class of 49 people was the odd one out, no two people had the same birthday so we completely debunked that one and our teacher was quite displeased he couldn't play this common trick on us.

 

[TastySurvivor]

69% of posters on this thread were naked at the time of writing.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

Nuclear waste storage is very secure and pretty much unbreakable by natural causes. The waste however is VERY long lasting, having a halflife that spans thousands and thousands of years. The task we are trying to perform now? What to write on the signs.

You see even if society dies, or changes drastically we need to make it VERY clear, this huge concrete bunker is NEVER TO BE OPENED EVER EVER EVER or the environment nearby will be screwed, and so will you. But what to put, language can change, and skulls might make people assume its a tomb. People are not sure what to put that can span a thousand years.

Spoiler

This is their best attempt. Meant to last long term. However humans are curious asses and so i imagine no sign could truly make people not want to open it.