Random factoids you can't help but remember

[West Leas Oros 2]

There is a town in Russia called Norilsk, in which you are not allowed to leave and you basically have no rights other than to work for the mining company that owns the town. All citizens in Norilsk work for that one company.

I owe my soul to the company store.

[Kowani]

Our ideas of what dinosaurs look like are completely plausible but also entirely unprovable. Skin, muscle, all the things that don’t fossilize, they could be entirely different from the popular conception, and we’d have no way to know.

[New Legland]

NASA almost put Big Bird on the Challenger before they thought of the Teacher in Space Project.

[The Andromeda Archipelago]

Napoleon wasn't actually short. He was short compared to other noblemen, but he was actually of average height for a Frenchman of his time.

[Dazchan]

Napoleon wasn't actually short. He was short compared to other noblemen, but he was actually of average height for a Frenchman of his time.

Yep, a French foot was a different measurement to an English foot, leading to the misconception. When measured in English feet, Napoleon was pretty average.

[Valrifell]

Napoleon wasn't actually short. He was short compared to other noblemen, but he was actually of average height for a Frenchman of his time.

Yep, a French foot was a different measurement to an English foot, leading to the misconception. When measured in English feet, Napoleon was pretty average.

I know the following isn't correct but I choose to believe this is why the meter was invented.

[Big Jim P]

Our ideas of what dinosaurs look like are completely plausible but also entirely unprovable. Skin, muscle, all the things that don’t fossilize, they could be entirely different from the popular conception, and we’d have no way to know.

Skin does fossilize.

[Valrifell]

Our ideas of what dinosaurs look like are completely plausible but also entirely unprovable. Skin, muscle, all the things that don’t fossilize, they could be entirely different from the popular conception, and we’d have no way to know.

Skin does fossilize.

Very uncommonly does soft tissue fossilize. We might have dino skin but paleoartists don't bother with fat or feathers most of the time.

[Neanderthaland]

Skin does fossilize.

Very uncommonly does soft tissue fossilize. We might have dino skin but paleoartists don't bother with fat or feathers most of the time.

Still, the "we have no idea" thing is tiresome. We have an increasingly good idea, and while there are still big gaps in our knowledge, our ideas aren't "entirely unprovable."

We now know, for instance, that Tyrannosaurs had lips. We did a very detailed analysis of the capillary structures on their skulls, and determined they were feeding a lot of blood into nearby tissue, which means lips. And just to make sure, we ran a blind test against modern species using the same criteria, and were able to determine 100% if they had lips. So it's not a guess. They really did.

[Fartsniffage]

Very uncommonly does soft tissue fossilize. We might have dino skin but paleoartists don't bother with fat or feathers most of the time.

Still, the "we have no idea" thing is tiresome. We have an increasingly good idea, and while there are still big gaps in our knowledge, our ideas aren't "entirely unprovable."

We now know, for instance, that Tyrannosaurs had lips. We did a very detailed analysis of the capillary structures on their skulls, and determined they were feeding a lot of blood into nearby tissue, which means lips. And just to make sure, we ran a blind test against modern species using the same criteria, and were able to determine 100% if they had lips. So it's not a guess. They really did.

So t-rexs could whistle? That's fucking awesome.

[Neanderthaland]

While we're on the subject of dinosaurs. We were able to find fossilized pigment cells in the feathers of a small number of dinosaurs. We compared these to modern birds, and also to octopi (whose pigment cells change shape to change color), and were able to determine by the shape of these cells what colors they would produce. Which means we now know something about these animals we never thought we'd be able to know: what color they are.

[Sycar]

The soda Fanta was invented in Nazi Germany during WWII when Germans wanted Coca Cola, but couldn't get any. Fanta was eventually discovered by Allied soldiers when they invaded Germany, and they liked it so much that they sent some back home, and the rest is history.
The Germans loved Coca Cola so much that in the Northern Africa campaigns, they would take Coke from captured Allied FOBs, tie the bottles to the wings of fighter planes, and carry the bottles on their missions to keep the soda cold in the desert heat.

[Dangine]

Nintendo did not start off as a video game company but instead started out as a company that made Hanafuda playing cards.

[Bear Stearns]

It's not really a factoid but uncommon to think about: The Holy Roman Empire and the United States of America briefly existed contemporaneously.

In the same vein, Anne Frank, Martin Luther King, and Yasser Arafat were all born in the same year.

There were still American Civil War veterans alive when Sputnik went up.

[The Blaatschapen]

Still, the "we have no idea" thing is tiresome. We have an increasingly good idea, and while there are still big gaps in our knowledge, our ideas aren't "entirely unprovable."

We now know, for instance, that Tyrannosaurs had lips. We did a very detailed analysis of the capillary structures on their skulls, and determined they were feeding a lot of blood into nearby tissue, which means lips. And just to make sure, we ran a blind test against modern species using the same criteria, and were able to determine 100% if they had lips. So it's not a guess. They really did.

So t-rexs could whistle? That's fucking awesome.

They could cat call too.

I now blame dinosaurs for inventing this behavior.

[The Blaatschapen]

In the same vein, Anne Frank, Martin Luther King, and Yasser Arafat were all born in the same year.

There were still American Civil War veterans alive when Sputnik went up.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-two-of ... ill-alive/

[Tinhampton]

The first episode of Ackley Bridge was supposed to have a bomb scare, but that was chucked in the rubbish bin after the terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena.

[Bear Stearns]

Did you guys know that in 1987, Huey Lewis & the News released Fore!, their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is "Hip to be Square", a song so catchy, most people probably don't listen to the lyrics. But they should! Because it's not just about the pleasures of conformity, and the importance of trends, it's also a personal statement about the band itself!

[Comradeistan]

The Tsar Bomba could cause it's own miniature nuclear winter.

[Coccygia]

The mantis shrimp has 18 different color receptors in its eyes (humans have 3, most mammals 2, and other vertebrates 4).

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

The mantis shrimp has 18 different color receptors in its eyes (humans have 3, most mammals 2, and other vertebrates 4).

Sexnocular. Dirty dirty science.

[The Black Forrest]

In the same vein, Anne Frank, Martin Luther King, and Yasser Arafat were all born in the same year.

There were still American Civil War veterans alive when Sputnik went up.

Wellll? One. The last union guy died in 56 and the last confederate died in 59.

[Highever]

There was that time cabbies in Chicago went to war and shot each other in the streets.

[The World Capitalist Confederation]

A synonym for being irritable (Choleric) has the same root as Cholera, the Blue Plague.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

Michael Lotito took two years to eat an entire plane (a Cessna 150) and therefore holds or held a Guinness record for world’s strangest diet. He was handed a plaque for it, which he promptly ate too.