Strange Facts that go against the grain completely

Temptamperu

A person who studies reptiles and amphibians is called a "herpetologist"

DERP

Dr Expired

face1990 wrote: »

Do you have any sources to back up your claims though?
Things like the orbit of the moon being elliptical are quite well documented, (the moon having been extensively studied for the last few thousand years or so).

Most people use 'google' as their source. You don't need me to attach external links because they just become tit for tat.
Do your own reshearch.

Dr Expired

Your not wrong there.

face1990

Dr Expired wrote: »

Most people use 'google' as their source. You don't need me to attach external links because they just become tit for tat.
Do your own reshearch.

I'll take that as a no :rolleyes:

kylith

al28283 wrote: »

Are you saying that all these shades of pink look the same if you are a man?
Because I don't think that is true

AIUI it's that women are, in general, more likely to be exposed to names of shades of colours, and are more likely to describe shades - purple is purple but it's may be more accurate to describe a top as mauve or aubergine. If you show a man a shade and tell him what it is he can recognise it as well as any woman, so it's not that men are actually incapable of seeing shades.

Maybe it dates back to our hunter gatherer ancestors. Because women would have been more likely to gather berries they'd have to be more aware of the shade since eating the wrong berries could make you very ill.

summerskin

Dr Expired wrote: »

JohnnyChimpo wrote: »

It's not older than the Earth. The commonly-held understanding is that it was formed from an impact of some kind with the Earth about 4.5 bn years ago.
It has an elliptical orbit.
It is "synchronised" to show one side because the Earth's gravity has slowed the Moon's rotation over millions of years to precisely this speed. It's called "tidal locking" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking
The size-thing is pretty much coincidental, although due to the elliptical orbits of both the Moon around the Earth, and the Earth around the Sun, their apparent size can change, causing either annular or total eclipses.


So yeah, you're talking shíte.

Don't believe everything you read on wikipedia son. Next you'll be telling me that men were able to pass through the Van Allen belt in 1969.

They were able, only fools believe the conspiracy theories.(which of course, had they been true the Russians would have revelled in revealing it)

ROFLcopter

The sun is a dying star and in 1 billion years, gravity at it's core will get so "heavy" that it will rip a hole in space causing it to shrink from 1,390,000 km in diameter to 3km in 30 seconds, then no time will exist in the black hole created.

That's fúcked up! Does that mean we would be immortal if we travelled into the
black hole? Do you stop ageing etc.....?

Aodan83

The surface of the Sun burns at around 5000 degrees, but the space around it, to a range of about a million kilometres, is heated to up to 2 million degrees.
Link

Adamas

RichieC wrote: »

monkeys arses look funny.

Jees....you're right....take a look here

Ghandee

38.4% of all 'facts' are completely made up on the spot.

Temptamperu

The man with the largest recorded penis (13.5 inches) lives at home with his mom and hasnt been laid in 12 years.

Finneen

69% of Boards users type loose when they mean lose
82% type it's when they mean its
and 76% type their when they mean they're

phill106

Temptamperu wrote: »

The man with the largest recorded penis (13.5 inches) lives at home with his mom and hasnt been laid in 12 years.

I'm having a dry spell i tell you!

Capt'n Midnight

al28283 wrote: »

Are you saying that all these shades of pink look the same if you are a man?
Because I don't think that is true

http://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/

Thank you so much for all the help on the color survey. Over five million colors were named across 222,500 user sessions.

If you have ideas and want to analyze these results further, I’ve posted the raw data as an SQLite dump here (84 MB .tar.gz file). It’s been anonymized, with IPs, URLs, and emails removed.

44leto

Ghandee wrote: »

38.4% of all 'facts' are completely made up on the spot.

The same can be said for statistics.

Capt'n Midnight

Dr Expired wrote: »

Pretty much everything about the Earths Moon.
Where did it come from ? Theia
Its carbon dated to be older than the Earth. The half life of Carbon 14 is 5730 years so only good for dates till about 60,000 years ago. Also moon has no atmosphere, so no nitrogen so no carbon 14

Why does it have a perfectly circular orbit around the Earth ? The only thing in our solar system that does. If this were true then there would be no lunar component in tides, not neep or spring tides. Also Triton is far more circular.

Why is it synronised with Earth in such a way as only to show only one side of the moon ? This is so strange that it can not by acident.not it's not by accident, short version. Longer version gravitational interactions have locked one face towards up , it's a momentum thing. Many moons are like this. The planet Mercury is locked to the Sun in a similar way.

Why is it the perfect distance from the Earth for sun eclipse ? Any nearer or any further and it would'nt be possible.the moon is drifting away from the earth, it's just coincidence that we are around to see it. Any earlier and eclipses would be longer

.

LordSutch

Mars bars don't melt when you deep-fry them (in boiling fat)

44leto

LordSutch wrote: »

Mars bars don't melt when you deep-fry them (in boiling fat)

LOL

Ehhh only if you batter them and the batter even makes them more unhealthy so win win.

KKkitty

44leto wrote: »

LordSutch wrote: »

Mars bars don't melt when you deep-fry them (in boiling fat)

LOL

Ehhh only if you batter them and the batter even makes them more unhealthy so win win.

Seems disgusting but in a good way

Temptamperu

Temptamperu wrote: »

The man with the largest recorded penis (13.5 inches) lives at home with his mom and hasnt been laid in 12 years.

And about as useful as trying to park a bus in a car park!

Lanaier

face1990 wrote: »

In Chinese, blue and green are shades of the same colour.....

Nope.
Two completely different words, unless you are talking about some kind of perception thingy in Chinese culture....which would be an even bigger nope.

jay-me

Finneen wrote: »

69% of Boards users type loose when they mean lose
82% type it's when they mean its
and 76% type their when they mean they're

Don't forget about the 42% who say then when they mean than.

tfitzgerald

Finneen wrote: »

69% of Boards users type loose when they mean lose
76% type it's when they mean its
and 82% type their when they mean they're

The problem with quotes and facts on the Internet is that you can't always be sure of their authenticity" - Abraham Lincoln

thee glitz

face1990 wrote: »

Also, your perception of shades and colours is mostly down to what language you speak. In Chinese, blue and green are shades of the same colour and in Middle English, 'gold' was a shade of red.

True, well the perception part is anyway. The Himba people only describe 5 colours eg. "serandu" for red, orange or pink and use "zoozu" to mean any dark colour.

Adamas

Ghandee wrote: »

38.4% of all 'facts' are completely made up on the spot.

Very interesting. I wonder then if we apply that rule to what you just said, and applied the 38.4% figure to it, then what is the probability that your statement is one of the 38% that is right, or the 62% that is not? Then, if the next person who does the same, and the next, will the original 38% of 38% of 38% etc, finally mean that the only remaining 'fact' remaining is that we are all basicaly talking ***** here....:D. I'm sure someone with OCD will work out a statistical table for us...any takers?

GLaDOS

KKkitty wrote: »

Seems disgusting but in a good way

Battered mars bars are glorious, fact.

Finneen

jay-me wrote: »

Don't forget about the 42% who say then when they mean than.

Also, 77% type gray when they mean grey.

Cú Giobach

jay-me wrote: »

Don't forget about the 42% who say then when they mean than.

It is annoying when they say then rather than than then then and than though they to them seem grand, can get confusing.

al28283

Cú Giobach wrote: »

It is annoying when they say then rather than than then then and than though they to them seem grand, can get confusing.

I would have mentioned the people who say "would of"

Ghandee

Medical fact: If a woman drinks two glasses of wine a day it increases the chance of a stroke.

If you let her finish the bottle she'll probably suck it as well!

KKkitty

ScienceNerd wrote: »

KKkitty wrote: »

Seems disgusting but in a good way

Battered mars bars are glorious, fact.

Would they not be full of fat??

derekc1010

A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue!

Finneen

Some plants can live on oxygen when carbon dioxide is unavailable.

ash23

KKkitty wrote: »

Would they not be full of fat??

The batter seals in the chocolate so the chocolate just melts. Similar to an ice cream fritter.

They're full of fat because it's a mars bar, in batter, deep fried so calorific but it's not full of oil....... it's tasty tasty fat.

KKkitty

ash23 wrote: »

KKkitty wrote: »

Would they not be full of fat??

The batter seals in the chocolate so the chocolate just melts. Similar to an ice cream fritter.

They're full of fat because it's a mars bar, in batter, deep fried so calorific but it's not full of oil....... it's tasty tasty fat.

I can't imagine I'd be able to eat much of one but I'd give it a try.

Capt'n Midnight

If you only eat rabbits then you will starve to death.

RachaelVO

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

If you only eat rabbits then you will starve to death.

That's a good one!

Is that not what they called trackers disease?

Apparently there is bog all nutritional value in a rabbit and trackers who only ate rabbits just died suddenly...

elefant

Standard Toaster wrote: »

A Toblerone can only be bought in airport duty frees.

Not true. They can be bought in one other place on earth, that being 2 for 1 in Ballybrit during the Galway Races!

mikemac1

Three card trick, ah you've seen it at point-to-points and other places

Everyone knows it's crooked.
And Johnny who wins is their friend

But it's a scam even if it was not crooked

Three cards, three to one
But if you win you only double your money

So it's a stupid bet anyway. Even if the bossman was straight up and honest you are still going to lose

amacachi

mikemac1 wrote: »

Three card trick, ah you've seen it at point-to-points and other places

Everyone knows it's crooked.
And Johnny who wins is their friend

But it's a scam even if it was not crooked

Three cards, three to one
But if you win you only double your money

So it's a stupid bet anyway. Even if the bossman was straight up and honest you are still going to lose

Well not really. If something is massively obvious then doubling one's money is value.

44leto

amacachi wrote: »

Well not really. If something is massively obvious then doubling one's money is value.

But mathematically the house would always win.

The thing about casinos or bookies is they don't gamble, for any given day they know nearly exactly what profit they will extract from any days takings.

44leto

44leto wrote: »

But mathematically the house would always win.

The thing about casinos or bookies is they don't gamble, for any given day they know nearly exactly what profit they will extract from any days takings.

All bookies gamble, it's called "laying off the bets", they'll frequently place large bets with each other on obscure horses in little known races to ensure that they have enough money to pay their clients if the favourite wins.

The big boys probably have enough money held back to cover themselves, but the small guys don't.

44leto

Deleted User wrote: »

All bookies gamble, it's called "laying off the bets", they'll frequently place large bets with each other on obscure horses in little known races to ensure that they have enough money to pay their clients if the favourite wins.

The big boys probably have enough money held back to cover themselves, but the small guys don't.

But if you take the volume of takings over the year or any period of time their profit will be the same. In Vegas if the profit is to big the casino will find itself in trouble with the gaming commission because it will be assumed they are cheating their clients.

gaf1983

Santiago, Chile, is further east than Washington DC, USA.

amacachi

44leto wrote: »

But mathematically the house would always win.

The thing about casinos or bookies is they don't gamble, for any given day they know nearly exactly what profit they will extract from any days takings.

Only if there's actually an even chance of each. If it was a straight, easy, non-random game then picking the right card out of 3 and being given 50/50 odds is good value.

Put it like this, in each football match there's 3 outcomes. If I gave you a chance to double your money by saying Barcelona would win each match they play then at the end of the season you'd be up money.
If the game you're talking about were fair it's pretty easy to keep up and pick the right card with a better than 50/50 probability.

44leto

gaf1983 wrote: »

Santiago, Chile, is further east than Washington DC, USA.

Further south as well.

New York and Madrid are on the same meridian. But so is Ireland new Foundland and Siberia, so thank you Gulf stream.

Choudary

It is a little known fact that Bollywood darling Aamir Khan's wife Reena and ShahRukh's wife Gauri share the same birthday, October 8th!

Quite amazing fact I think. Does anyone else have thoughts on this matter?

Regards,

Choudary Chintapalli

44leto

amacachi wrote: »

Only if there's actually an even chance of each. If it was a straight, easy, non-random game then picking the right card out of 3 and being given 50/50 odds is good value.

Put it like this, in each football match there's 3 outcomes. If I gave you a chance to double your money by saying Barcelona would win each match they play then at the end of the season you'd be up money.
If the game you're talking about were fair it's pretty easy to keep up and pick the right card with a better than 50/50 probability.

But when you stretch it out to say a 1000 bets you will lose 2 thirds of the time. So the house still wins 16% which is not a bad bet.

Choudary

Choudary wrote: »

It is a little known fact that Bollywood darling Aamir Khan's wife Reena and ShahRukh's wife Gauri share the same birthday, October 8th!

Quite amazing fact I think. Does anyone else have thoughts on this matter?

Regards,

Choudary Chintapalli

And even more astounding fact (also quite strange I think)

Dilip Kumar has won the most awards as the Best Actor with 8 awards spanning over 3 decades, but Sholay won only one award even after its mega success at the box office!

Best Regards,

Choudary Chintapalli

amacachi

44leto wrote: »

But when you stretch it out to say a 1000 bets you will lose 2 thirds of the time. So the house still wins 16% which is not a bad bet.

Only if there's the same chance of each possibility happening!
If you put a quid on Barcelona to win each of their last 1000 matches at evens you'd have more than 1000 now.