Fun facts!

[kadoink]

The turritopsis dohrnii, a jellyfish originating from the Pacific, is believed to be biologically immortal.

So is Abe Vigoda. He didn't die, he's just hiding from the cameras and the crooked bankers!

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

The RL-10 is a cryogenic rocket engine that was planned out in the 50s and is in use to this day.
It uses liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen as fuel, which leads to a very clear flame that produces almost no light. Paired with its cryogenically cooled engine bell, that means that while the engine is running, icicles form around the edges.
So, you have a flame hot enough to melt almost anything within seconds and right next to it, you have icicles growing while the engine is running at full throttle.

In this video, you can watch them form during an engine test:

 

[Mister Qwerty]

 

[PL 001]

The FBI had a dossier on Gary Gygax, the creator of D&D. Points of "concern" being Gygax collected firearms and was a member of the libertarian party.

 

[kadoink]

That fat bitch! How dare he be a libertarian!

 

[Fortress Fortress]

Also known as the alimentary canal in medispeak.

 

[Coldgrip]

Or that they actually puke from a separate stomach they use specifically for gathering nectar, which they bring back to the hive, where it is passed to the bees who turn it into honey, who pass it from one bee to another until all the water is removed and it becomes honey.

Because of the lack of water, it can't spoil which is why unspoiled honey was found in the tombs of the pharaohs.

So when you think about it, honey is just the end result of bees snowballing each other.

 

[Mister Qwerty]

 

[DrJonesHat]

George Orwell's iconic novel 1984 was named that because he just flipped around the last two digits of the year he wrote it (1948). He wasn't intending to state categorically that the book took place in 1984, as no one really knew what year it was because of the constant revision of the historical record to make the government look infallible. Interestingly, due to illness, the novel wasn't published until 1949, and Orwell briefly considered changing the name to 1994, but decided 1984 was good enough and left it that way.

A short-lived Saturday night sitcom from 1987 that aired on the then fledgling Fox Network titled "Second Chance" about a man who dies in the then future year of 2011 and is sent back to 1987 to redo his life actually predicted Colonel Khadfi, dictator of Libya, would die in 2011.

In the 1950s, when everyone expected a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, the US actually had a guide written up for running things after a nuclear exchange. One of the guidelines demanded that the government use military force to keep the survivors from having sex out of wedlock. So yeah, people were really uptight in the 50s.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

In the 1950s, when everyone expected a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, the US actually had a guide written up for running things after a nuclear exchange. One of the guidelines demanded that the government use military force to keep the survivors from having sex out of wedlock. So yeah, people were really uptight in the 50s.

After a nuclear exchange, I feel it's vastly more likely that members of the military will use force to have sex out of wedlock, if you know what I mean.

 

[Positron]

The first piece of music inspired by a painting was reputed to be Sposalizio by Franz Liszt (the unsung progressive in Romanticism), part of his cycle Années de pèlerinage II- Italie. The painting that inspired this piano piece was Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin.

Listz wrote it in 1839, 35 years before Moussorgsky's famous Pictures at an Exhibition. And we have to wait until the 20th century before more (indeed a huge number of) compositions about paintings emerge.

 

[The Cunting Death]

Napoleon Dynamite is such a polarizing film that the tech people at Netflix actually ran into a problem with it.

They came up with a term called "The Napoleon Dynamite Problem", where it proved difficult to create an algorithm able to predict whether or not a viewer would like certain "quirky" films like it, (ex Lost in Translation, I Heart Huckabees)

It got to the point that Netflix is willing to give the person who solves that algorithm $1,000,000.

Still hasn't been solved ever since Netflix made that statement 11 years ago.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

The temperature of water is its flavour.

 

[PL 001]

In the original Star Trek series, in the episode "The Trouble With Tribbles" there is a scene where Shatner opens a storage door only to be buried up to his neck in the little things.

The crew, just like the cast, didn't like Shatner, so they took the opportunity to keep chucking Tribbles at his head when he gets buried. Even when it should have long ceased, they still keep throwing the props at his head while Kirk is supposed to be talking. You can see Shatner break character and give the off camera crew a very dirty look in the episode.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

In the originall Star Trek series, in the episode"The Trouble With Tribbles" there is a scene where Shatner opens a storage door only to be buried up to his neck in the little things.

The crew, just like the cast, didn't like Shatner, so they took the opportunity to keep chucking Tribbles at his head when he gets buried. Even when it should have long ceased, they still keep throwing the props at his head while Kirk is supposed to be talking. You can see Shatner break character and give the off camera crew a very dirty look in the episode.

Scene in question:

 

[Count groudon]

Initially, pink was considered to be a masculine color while black was to be considered a feminine color. Historians even claimed that in the ancient Norse culture, where everyone was very fond of wearing bright colors, pink was known to be a very popular color with men.

 

[Chencognito]

The cute/funny animals on gift cards are stuffed and posed to ensure quality.

 

[Clockwork_PurBle]

The longest-lived horse on record is a horse named Billy (Old Billy) who lived to be 62 years old; his age was verified. Billy's head was taxidermied and is kept on display at the Manchester Museum.

62 in human years is around 165 in horse years. The average life span of a horse is 25 years. It isn't rare to find one living to 30, though.

 

[The Cunting Death]

Highest grossing movie by a black man prior to Black Panther was the original Scary Movie.

 

[Clockwork_PurBle]

We all know the derogatory term "ass", i.e. "You're an ass", comes from another name for the donkey.

Donkeys are called "asses" or "jackasses" because of their Latin name, Equus Asinas.