Useless fun fact-ish type stuff

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Next time you feel like defying gravity, consider a trip to Hawaii — specifically the island of Oahu, which is home to a reverse waterfall. Also known as the Upside Down Waterfall, Waipuhia Falls sprays up Mount Konahuanui and can be seen from Route 61 (the Pali Highway). The striking effect, visible only during the wet season between November and March, is a result of the island’s strong trade winds. They blow in a northeasterly direction, and catch the water before it can reach the bottom, making it look as though the waterfall flows in reverse.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Britain’s celebrated Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson was essentially the living embodiment of the hardscrabble "Four Yorkshiremen" of the classic Monty Python sketch. As a young naval officer, he lost sight in his right eye from gravel strewn by an incoming cannonball. A few years later, he had his right arm amputated — without anesthetic — after being shot in the heat of another battle. Lord Nelson also weathered the debilitating effects of malaria, yellow fever, tuberculosis, scurvy, and dysentery at various points in his life. But the cruelest affliction may well have been the seasickness that plagued him for the duration of his three-plus decades at sea.

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

Maybe not so useless.

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

30 minutes ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said:

Maybe not so useless.

This happens about twice as often as a reported school shooting.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

3 Musketeers candy bars used to have three flavored pieces in each bar: vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. Rising costs and wartime restrictions on sugar led to the phasing out of the vanilla and strawberry flavors during World War II, leaving only the more popular chocolate.

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

The world’s highest bar and rooftop bar, Ozone, is on top of the luxurious Ritz Carlton in Hong Kong. At an altitude of 1574 feet, perched on the 118th floor, the rooftop offers one of the most amazing city views in the world. The Sunday Brunch there is one of the best in Hong Kong. The Ozone also offers a great lounge atmosphere. The Ritz Carlton Hong Kong is also the highest hotel in the world.

 

Pretty sure it means above ground level, not above sea level.

Edited March 26 by Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Owls Can Rotate Their Heads 270 Degrees

Imagine if your eyes were fixed in place and couldn’t move in their sockets. It would be quite difficult and arduous to take in the world around you, because you’d have to constantly move your head around to direct your eyes. This is a problem owls have had to work around. Their large eyes, which are more elongated than ours (making them more adept at night vision), are fixed in place by bony structures called sclerotic rings, making their eyes nearly immobile. 

To compensate for this, owls have evolved the ability to turn their necks incredibly far in either direction. While this famous owl trait doesn’t allow them to turn their heads all the way around, they can rotate them 270 degrees, or three-quarters of a full circle, in either direction, as well as 90 degrees up and down. An owl’s vertebrae and vertebral arteries have become specially adapted to allow for such an extreme range of movement, which in other animal species — including humans — would cause all kinds of physical issues. 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

The War Department existed from August 7, 1789 until September 18, 1947, when it split into the Department of the Army and the Department of the Air Force. The Department of the Army and Department of the Air Force later joined the Department of the Navy under the United States Department of Defense in 1949.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Except for 1 state, New Hampshire, all states and the District of Columbia require adult front-seat occupants to use seat belts. Adult rear-seat passengers also are covered by the laws in 32 states and the District of Columbia. 34 states and the District of Columbia have primary enforcement. Primary enforcement laws allow a police officer to stop and cite a motorist solely for not using a seat belt. In states with secondary enforcement, police can only enforce the law if the motorist has been pulled over for another violation first.
Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

At the very top of the list of the most expensive flowers is the Kadupul flower. This flower is found in Sri Lanka and is so rare and fragile; that it only lasts a few hours. The Kadupul flower blooms once a year and emanates a lovely, calming fragrance. It only blooms at night and withers away before dawn. It is also impossible to pick without damaging it, making this flower literally priceless! It is the flower that simply cannot be bought.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Sean Connery started out as a bodybuilder and a milkman.

 

 

 

Edited April 9 by Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Kurobe, Japan, is the "zipper capital of the world." How did a small rural town in Japan, half a world away, come to reign supreme in the world of zippers? It was through the single-minded visionary purpose of Tadao Yoshida, the founder of Yoshida Kōgyō Kabushikigaisha (Yoshida Manufacturing Shareholding Company), from which YKK is necessarily abbreviated. YKK, the world's largest manufacturer of zippers, produces roughly half the world's supply—some 7 billion a year and is headquartered in Kurobe.
Source: Atlas Obscura

[Alpo]

50 minutes ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

Kurobe, Japan, is the "zipper capital of the world." How did a small rural town in Japan, half a world away, come to reign supreme in the world of zippers? It was through the single-minded visionary purpose of Tadao Yoshida, the founder of Yoshida Kōgyō Kabushikigaisha (Yoshida Manufacturing Shareholding Company), from which YKK is necessarily abbreviated. YKK, the world's largest manufacturer of zippers, produces roughly half the world's supply—some 7 billion a year and is headquartered in Kurobe.
Source: Atlas Obscura

That one's actually nice to know. Not that they make half the world zipper supply. But simply what a YKK zipper is.

 

I see that in advertisements frequently. This pack, this jacket, this whatever the hell it is, has YKK zippers. Like YKK is some super cool strong tactical zipper.

 

And I have idly wondered - not wondered hard enough to actually look it up, but still wondered - what the hell a YKK zipper was.

[Rye Miles #13621]

FYI, 36 black keys on a piano and 52 whites. There ya go!

[Seamus McGillicuddy]

On 4/5/2025 at 5:28 AM, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

Except for 1 state, New Hampshire, all states and the District of Columbia require adult front-seat occupants to use seat belts. Adult rear-seat passengers also are covered by the laws in 32 states and the District of Columbia. 34 states and the District of Columbia have primary enforcement. Primary enforcement laws allow a police officer to stop and cite a motorist solely for not using a seat belt. In states with secondary enforcement, police can only enforce the law if the motorist has been pulled over for another violation first.
Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

Live Free AND Die!

[John Kloehr]

On 3/11/2025 at 4:28 PM, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

The QWERTY keyboard layout was designed by Christopher Latham Sholes. Here is Remington model No 2.  No. 1 had no shift key and was upper case only.

 

 

The first oldest typewriters had the alphabet in order, starting at the top. Good enough for the engineers to type on. But business owners got them for secretaries (and big companies established "typing pools"), and secretaries learned to type fast. The keys got all jammed up.

 

So some engineers did time/motion studies, and did a new layout which had two goals. First, to have most words involve alternating left and right keys so they did not jam against each other, and second to slow down typing by forcing the operator to reach as much as possible and use the slowest fingers when typing most words. This is the QWERTY keyboard layout.

 

With electronic keyboards, mechanical jamming is no longer a concern. The Dvorak keyboard is laid out to make typing as fast as possible. Too late, folks won't change now. I have tried the Dvorak layout and it is faster, but switching back and forth to QWERTY is difficult. Keyboards will likely soon be replaced by voice recognition and typing will become a lost art.

 

Dvorak is the engineer who reversed the older study to improve speed and reduce stretching, there was no engineer named Qwerty.

Edited April 10 by John Kloehr
Otto'isms and Otto misses

[Injun Ryder, SASS #36201L]

44 minutes ago, John Kloehr said:

With electronic keyboards, mechanical jamming is no longer a concern.

 

My daughter types so fast that she consistently overruns the buffer! 

[John Kloehr]

10 minutes ago, Injun Ryder, SASS #36201L said:

 

My daughter types so fast that she consistently overruns the buffer! 

Wow! Must be a software/driver problem though because even at 300 baud (earliest slowest serial ports), with start and stop bits, it should still process 30 characters per second.

[Texas Joker]

Qwerty is the layout of the top row of keys from the left.

[Injun Ryder, SASS #36201L]

3 hours ago, John Kloehr said:

Wow! Must be a software/driver problem though because even at 300 baud (earliest slowest serial ports), with start and stop bits, it should still process 30 characters per second.

 

Nope. She has been doing that for over 20 years on numerous different configurations!

[Chicken Rustler, SASS #26680]

16 hours ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

FYI, 36 black keys on a piano and 52 whites. There ya go!

If you play only the black keys, it's the same as playing the pentatonic box on guitar.

[Rye Miles #13621]

When you chew only your bottom jaw moves. Try it! 😂

[Cactus Jack Calder]

1 hour ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

When you chew only your bottom jaw moves. Try it! 😂

This is why puppeteers are taught to move only their thumb when making talking motions with a puppet. Who wags their whole head up and down when talking? 
 

CJ

[Blackwater 53393]

23 hours ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

When you chew only your bottom jaw moves. Try it! 😂

Add to that, when you talk only your lower jaw moves.

 

Both statements are only correct if the lower jaw is unsupported. Try chewing or talking with your chin resting on something!

 

 

Edited April 11 by Blackwater 53393

[Rye Miles #13621]

There’s a 108 double stitches on a baseball, they colored red so the batter can see it coming in better. 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

From wikipedia

 

The first police car in the world was an electrically powered wagon, operated by the Akron Police Department in 1899. The $2,400 vehicle was equipped with electric lights, gongs, and a stretcher, and could reach 16 mph (26 km/h) and travel 30 mi (48 km) before its battery needed to be recharged. The car's first assignment was to pick up a drunken man at the junction of Main and Exchange streets.[1][2] Since the 1920s, the New York City Police Department has used vehicles for patrol duties, referred to as "Radio Motor Patrol" vehicles.[3]

[Rye Miles #13621]

13 minutes ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

From wikipedia

 

The first police car in the world was an electrically powered wagon, operated by the Akron Police Department in 1899. The $2,400 vehicle was equipped with electric lights, gongs, and a stretcher, and could reach 16 mph (26 km/h) and travel 30 mi (48 km) before its battery needed to be recharged. The car's first assignment was to pick up a drunken man at the junction of Main and Exchange streets.[1][2] Since the 1920s, the New York City Police Department has used vehicles for patrol duties, referred to as "Radio Motor Patrol" vehicles.[3]

$2400 was a ton of money in 1899! k

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

In 1775 a physician revived an inert chicken, it layed an egg a few days later.

 

First step toward defibrillation.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

A single spaghetti noodle is a spaghetto.

 

is a single macaroni noodle a macarono?

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Two doctors invented the chainsaw in 1780 to make the removal of pelvic bone easier and less time-consuming during childbirth. It was powered by a hand crank and looked like a modern-day kitchen knife with little teeth on a chain that wound in an oval. The chainsaw was soon used for other bone-cutting operations and amputations in the surgical room. It then evolved into a woodworking tool when people noticed how quickly and easily it was to get through, well, anything. It became larger and more powerful and eventually grew to be the monster we know today.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

On 4/9/2025 at 1:29 PM, Seamus McGillicuddy said:

Live Free AND Die!

I rode in and drove almost every known type of vehicle for about 70 years without having any seat belts.....except on the race track.  where I also wore helmets, fire-proof clothing and had roll bars, shatter-proof window glass, side crash bars,  fire extinguishers, etc..... 

 

I was never seriously injured nor killed without the protection of seat belts, air bags, padded everything, tinted glass, side door safety bars.

 

I finally gave up about about 12 years ago when it became a nuisance explaining to every "do-gooder" in a fifty mile radius why I didn't think that the equipment was necessary.

 

BTW, I added seat belts to my 1954 Dodge in about 1957.  They weren't required then and 99% of the cars didn't have them.  I bought them from a catalog because I simply wanted to be different.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Penguins have square eyes.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Goats have square pupils.

8 minutes ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

Penguins have square eyes.