Useless Facts

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by Lewdog, Apr 20, 2014.

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  1. Oscar Leigh

    Oscar Leigh Contributor Contributor

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    Sydney water is treated with just a little bit of flouride. It helps with dental maintenance. Does America do that?
     
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2016
  2. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    Flouride, yes, probably the same thing.
     
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  3. Mumble Bee

    Mumble Bee Keep writing. Contributor

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    Small difference. One cleans your teeth, the other CONTROLS YOUR MIND, MAN!

    WAKE UP PEOPLE, BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!!!

    Also, the tinfoil in stores is diluted to the point where you can't even make your own hat for protection! If anyone's interested in a DIY for an effective tinfoil hat, send me a message.
     
  4. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    How are we defining "vegetable" for this?

    ETA: I'm thinking of cattails, dandelion, fiddleheads, etc. - I'm pretty sure they're all native, and we eat the vegetative portions of them (like, not the seeds or the fruits)...
     
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  5. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    I'm still puzzling over how a plant native to North America got Jerusalem in its name...

    Also, isn't maize North American? Wikipedia says Mexico, which qualifies.
     
  6. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    Oh, if we add Central American into the mix I think we'd add lots more vegetables. Again, though, may depend on how you're defining vegetables. Tomatoes are a fruit, botanically. Maize - is it a grain, because we're eating the seeds?
     
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  7. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    It's also not an artichoke...
     
  8. Oscar Leigh

    Oscar Leigh Contributor Contributor

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    The Wikipedia article for the artichoke reveals the jerusalem connection.
     
  9. ahmed_crow

    ahmed_crow New Member

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    In Classical Arabic, the lion has more than 300 names.
     
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  10. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    Oh, and I'm supposed to read now???? :)
     
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  11. Sapphire at Dawn

    Sapphire at Dawn Member

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    It was on QI. That's all I know.

    http://qi.com/infocloud/jerusalem
     
  12. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    Uh, yeah? You're on a writing forum. Reading and writing is, like, our only job. Oo
     
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  13. Komposten

    Komposten Insanitary pile of rotten fruit Contributor

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    As you said, this is a writing forum. Why would we waste time with reading? ;)
     
  14. OurJud

    OurJud Contributor Contributor

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    There's a species of giant centipede that lives in caves, whose poisonousness bite results in such excruciating pain victims have been known to plunge their hands into boiling water to mask it.
     
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  15. I.A. By the Barn

    I.A. By the Barn A very lost time traveller Contributor

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    Snails can sleep for three years without eating
     
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  16. Miller0700

    Miller0700 Contributor Contributor

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    That's a weird title for a disaster movie.

    --------------
    A moment last 90 seconds.
     
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  17. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    Don't think of it as reading. Think of it as research. ;)
     
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  18. Komposten

    Komposten Insanitary pile of rotten fruit Contributor

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    Is this a research forum? :p
     
  19. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    Nope, but research is usually a part of writing. ;)
     
  20. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    Somehow I read this as "plunge their heads into boiling water" and I thought, whoah...

    Keanu-style "whoah".
     
  21. Sal Boxford

    Sal Boxford Senior Member

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    Warning: This useless fact is about spiders and features large pictures of spiders behind spolier buttons...

    This slow-moving, spindly, almost transparent and generally rubbish looking spider:
    [​IMG]

    Hunts this big-ass, scuttling terrfying monster:
    [​IMG]

    And for that reason, Phlocus are honoured guests in my house. There are dozens of them. They sit there, quiet and unobtrsuive and once in a while they kill some critter I do not want to see suddenly scurrying across the carpet. Truly God's Best Spider.
     
  22. Oscar Leigh

    Oscar Leigh Contributor Contributor

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    Well, it's got such big legs that it body really isn't all it's size.
    Apparently it uses smarts to catch those spiders though. Manipulating them by mimicking prey movements on the web, and using webbing to trap prey without risking it fragile legs. Pretty cool. I super like this post for bringing up cool biology.
     
  23. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    Thanks for those pics, they'll help me with a description (of an insectoid alien) in my WIP
     
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  24. Sal Boxford

    Sal Boxford Senior Member

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    A biologist friend of mine told me about this when I was explaining to him how 'cellar spiders' are the only kind I'm not afraid of (not that I bore people or anything). I thought he was having me on... then I rather inhumanely fed a small house spider to a Pholcus. Never seen anything move so fast in my life. Knocked the house spider to the floor and bundled it up in a couple of seconds, then winched it up to its web and spent the next few days eating it.

    It's the difference in the way they move that amazes me as much as anything. Tegenaria moves like it's in the SAS. Pholcus ambles about like it's stoned: somehow wins.
     
    Last edited: Jul 31, 2016
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  25. Miller0700

    Miller0700 Contributor Contributor

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    There's a type of star called a magnetar. It's typically about 10 miles in diameter and has such a strong magnetic pull that it can suck the iron out of your blood from 50 million miles away.
     
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