Fun facts!

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In every year since 1890, the Oklahoma City metro has had at least 1 tornado touchdown.
 
Jamila said:
Kathleen Hanna has spoken about Smells Like Teen Spirit and she said it comes from her and Tobi Vail, Kurt's girlfriend at the time, finding Teen Spirit deodorant in a store and thinking the name sounded ridiculous. Kurt later said that he thought "teen spirit" meant something revolutionary and anarchist.
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Here is a pleasant telling of the story.
I heard similar, but I heard it was a troll, not a reference to his GF deodorant.

 
Barring extremely catastrophic circumstances, even if humanity dies out entirely, Mount Rushmore will still remain for thousands of years, and most likely will still be recognizable as a sentient-made object by the time the next sentient species takes over.
 
Female Hyenas technically have both a penis and a vagina... of sorts. And, the Mongolian prehistoric beast, Hyaenodon isn't actually an evolutionary ancestor of hyenas at all. The first fact I learned was from The QI Book of Animal Ignorance, and the second fact I learned was from watching Walking With Beasts (AKA. Walking With Prehistoric Monsters for my pals across the pond).
 
Bernard Cornwell, the author of the Sharpe series of novels, was so impressed by Sean Bean's portrayal in the TV series, that he did a small retcon. What I mean is, Richard Sharpe was originally born and raised in London, but that was changed to him being born in a whorehouse (to an unwed mum, either way, I can't remember the circumstance) in London, then raised in Yorkshire.

Dunno if there are any Sharpe fans besides me on here, but there it is.

That reminds me of another obscure, fun fact, 'cos I was talking about whores: Édith Piaf was initially denied a Catholic burial, as she was born in a brothel. I think she eventually had one, though, due to outcry from friends, relatives, and fans. Another tidbit about her, her biological father was likely a Moroccan.
 
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TIL that in the early Superman comics, Superman couldn't use outright magical powers. So he couldn't fly.

Instead he was just really strong and could jump really high.
 
In 1962 in the Mediterranean Sea, the aircraft carrier USS Independence flashed a light signal to a nearby ship. The ship responded saying it was the training ship Amerigo Vespucci of the Italian Navy. The Independence responded saying that it was the most beautiful ship in the world. Then, in 2022, a similar event happened. This time, with the aircraft carrier the USS George H.W. Bush. Upon finding out that the ship again was the Amerigo Vespucci, the George H.W. Bush responded saying that 60 years later, it is still the most beautiful ship in the world.
Here's the Amerigo Vespucci for reference.
Amerigo_vespucci_1976_nyc_aufgetakelt.jpg
 
Saparmurat Niyazov, who was the president of Turkmenistan, replaced the Turkmen word for bread with his mother's name (Gurbansoltan). He also built a golden statue of her.

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Tungsten is the only element whose symbol (W) is based off neither its current common English name, nor its old Latin name (things like gold/Au, silver/Ag, et cetera). It comes from the old German "wolfram" ("wolf's cream," eww) from the second ore it was found in, wolframite. At some point, the name was changed to the first ore it was found in, called tungsten, and that ore is now called "scheelite", I guess there was enough confusion over the name change shit that they just kept the original symbol. More detailed autism
 
Howard Carter, the archaeologist who ultimately discovered King Tut's tomb, had spent five years searching for it in the Valley of the Kings. Egyptologist Lord Carnarvon, who had been funding his efforts, finally grew weary and threatened to cut him off. Carter realized there was one place in the Valley of the Kings they had not yet searched for the tomb: the very spot they had been camping on for five years.

Guess where King Tut's tomb turned out to be? They found it a few days later.
Dr. Sexbot said:
Tungsten is the only element whose symbol (W) is based off neither its current common English name, nor its old Latin name (things like gold/Au, silver/Ag, et cetera). It comes from the old German "wolfram" ("wolf's cream," eww) from the second ore it was found in, wolframite. At some point, the name was changed to the first ore it was found in, called tungsten, and that ore is now called "scheelite", I guess there was enough confusion over the name change shit that they just kept the original symbol. More detailed autism
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I was going to "but ackshually" this because I remember when the synthetic elements that almost don't exist in nature had names like Unnilhexium (106) or Unnilquadium (104), but apparently they went and gave them real names.
 
It's illegal to sleep nude in the state of Minnesota! But only to prevent you from freezing to death if you had to run outside to escape a fire, not for any cool reason.
 
Krystal said:
In 1962 in the Mediterranean Sea, the aircraft carrier USS Independence flashed a light signal to a nearby ship. The ship responded saying it was the training ship Amerigo Vespucci of the Italian Navy. The Independence responded saying that it was the most beautiful ship in the world. Then, in 2022, a similar event happened. This time, with the aircraft carrier the USS George H.W. Bush. Upon finding out that the ship again was the Amerigo Vespucci, the George H.W. Bush responded saying that 60 years later, it is still the most beautiful ship in the world.
Here's the Amerigo Vespucci for reference.
View attachment 6001779
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To be fair it is a remarkably pretty ship. The fact something like this still sails the seas with a crew who know how to handle the riggings brings a tiny spark of joy into my dead heart.
 
Kongō Gumi, a Japanese construction firm, is the world's oldest documented company, founded in 578 AD.
 
Fun Fact

Sports mandingos are not a modern thing.

In slavery days there were literal professional sports slaves, at least in the form of jockeys for slave horse racing.

Might have been boxers, too.

Baguette Child said:
To be fair it is a remarkably pretty ship. The fact something like this still sails the seas with a crew who know how to handle the riggings brings a tiny spark of joy into my dead heart.
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Shuttle and Ships.png
1992, Endeavour is in the background
Four century anniversary voyage of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria
 
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