Post a random fact people probably don't know! (And even if they did, they wouldn't care.)

[ping]

A bunch of genes (or their acronyms) have been renamed because Microsoft Excel would auto-correct their original names into dates, wasting a lot of time for the researchers. For example, DEC1 is now named DELEC1, SEPT1 -> SEPTIN1, and MARCH1 -> MARCHF1.

There's also a gene that can potentially cause cancer that's named Zbtb7 - because Nintendo was very unhappy that the POK erythroid myeloid ontogenic gene had been abbreviated to "Pokemon" and threatened to sue the cancer researchers who came up with that name.

Edited December 31, 2021 by pong

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If the Øresund strait freezes over and a Swede walks to Denmark over the ice, any Dane has the legal right to hit that Swede with a stick.

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You can say with unusual precision that the Dalmatian language, spoken along the eastern Adriatic coast, died on June 10, 1898, alongside Tuone Udaina. His parents used it when they wanted to speak in private, but Udaina picked up the language that way without them knowing, which eventually made him the last living person to speak the language.

In recent discourse, the two known variants of Dalmatian (Ragusan and Vegliote) are sometimes seen as sufficiently distinct to classify them as separate languages, in which case Udaina would've been the last speaker of the Vegliote language.

Edited January 7, 2022 by pong

[NinjaMonkey]

England was a republic between 1649 and 1660, when the monarchy was restored.

[Benice]

In english, Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo is a grammatically correct sentence.

[Sidereal Wraith]

One day I maybe sober for more then a couple of hours.

[Benice]

Fidel Castro survived over an estimated 638 assassination attempts, many of them from a violent wing of the CIA intent on killing him.

[Benice]

Canada's population density is 4 people per square kilometer and 10 per mile. Monaco's is 26,337 people per square kilometer and 68k per sq. mile.

The lowest population density in the world is Mongolia at a resoectable 1.9 people per square km.

[ping]

The 1883 eruption of Krakatau/Krakatoa, a volcano located in the strait between Sunda and Java, is presumed to be the loudest sound ever heard by humans. It was still audible at a distance of 4800 km, which is almost 1/8 of the circumference of the earth.

[Benice]

Because Canadians apologize so often, the Apology Act was passed by the government in 2009 and is applicable in some, but not all provinces. This act stated that apologizing in court was not an admission of guilt, fault or liability, but instead an expression of "sympathy or regret".

A similar is applicable to a good chunk of American states as well, but it's not as funny because they have different cultural stereotypes.

[indigoasis]

I have obtained a rather interesting book from my local Five Below. It's called "The Book of Useless Information" from Noel Botham and The Useless Information Society (even though there are other books out there with that same title, but I digress). As such, I now have a wealth of knowledge at my fingertips to share. I don't know if they're actually true or have been debunked since 2006, but I don't really care to fact check it. I'll share stuff from this book from time to time, starting with this:

Tom Hanks is distantly related to the USA's 16th President, Abe Lincoln.

[RonaldLarry78]

Did you know that 45% of the world's population can reach up to their nose with their tongue?

[indigoasis]

I actually knew about this fact from my theatre class in high school since we watched the movie in class, but the movie Clue had three different endings, each of which were random depending on what movie theater you went to at the time. So one theater would have Ending A, another would have Ending B, and another would have Ending C.

[Benice]

The name name 'Tony' can be spelt as 'Ptoughneigh".

Worse than that is fish, which can technically be spelt Ghoti. (Laugh, women, nation).

[Benice]

Skyrim has a total of six different editions.

[Benice]

Pakistan's Nanga Parbet mountain is the fastest-growing mountain in the world, growing at an astonishing 7mm per year.

[ping]

One of the stranger regional greeting phrases in Germany is the Hamburger Greeting: "Hummel Hummel" answered by "Mors Mors", which was originated by children bullying a water carrier.

Johann Wilhelm Bentz was nicknamed "Hans Hummel" - Hans just being a common shortening of his first name, while it's not quite clear where the "Hummel" comes from (but it's not from the normal meaning of the word, bumblebee). In any case, children would often tease the man by calling him by his nickname, and the grumpy Bentz, unable to threaten them away because of his heavy load, would shout back "Mors Mors", or "Arse Arse", to be interpreted as "Kiss my arse".

That said, it's not actually used as an everyday greeting, and using it while visiting Hamburg would be more akin to singing La Vie En Rose in Paris. Historically, soldiers from Hamburg would use it to recognize one another during WW1, but today it's really just used as a call-and-response at large events in Hamburg, like concerts or football matches.

[𝐍𝐲𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐥]

According to the website Know Your Meme, the word uwu was first spotted in an anime fanfiction back in November 2005. The author of the piece used it in the author's note at the beginning of chapter six while apologizing for taking so long to upload the fanfiction.

 

UWU

[Benice]

Ernest Hemingway's brother, Leicester, created a micronation by the name of New Atlantis. He dragged a 8 x 30 foot/2 x 10 meter raft out to the ocean about ten kilometers off of Jamaica's coast. On July 4, 1964, he declared it a republic and wrote a constitution that borrowed heavily from the USA's. Hemingway also magnaninmously gave half of his raft to the United States.

Reaching a peak population of 6 and receiving official recognition from the US's president Johnson, Hemingway had high hopes for his micronation as a democratic paradise and aquatic research station, though he ended up simply building an aquarium in Jamaica. Unfortunately, a storm washed New Atlantis away a few years after its founding, and its remnants were scavenged by fishermen.

[Benice]

The Pen-Tail Treeshrew is a tiny rodent inhabiting Malaysia; its body extends to a mere 12-13 cm. In spite of its tiny size, the shrews consume the fermented bertam palm nectar, drinking the equivalent of 10-12 glasses of 3.8% wine every day, but do not get intoxicated-In fact, they have a higher alcohol resistance than humans do.

[Benice]

With approximately 200 million copies sold, Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Citites is the top selling novel in history followed by The Hobbit at about 140 million. On the series side, Harry Potter is well in he lead with approximately 500 million copies sold.

(It is worth noting that some heavy hitters like The Count of Monte-Cristo, Don Quixote and The Lord of the Rings (As a series) are absent from the lists due to a lack of evidence as to how many copies were sold.

As for other fun facts on thie list, both the Fifty Shades of Grey and Twilight series have sold more copies than The Chronicles of Narnia. Help.

Edited March 16, 2022 by Benice

[indigoasis]

In the King James translation of the Bible, in Psalm 46, the 46th word is shake, and the the 46th to last word is spear. When it was being written in 1610, Shakespeare would have been 46.

[Benice]

The 1931 English bible proclaimed as one of the ten commandments that Thou Shalt Commit Adultery.

This anecdote is well-known, but apparently the accidental omission of "not" was relatively common at the time, and this one case simply happened to become famous.

Edited March 20, 2022 by Benice

[Benice]

The Olmec civilization was the first known major civilization in Central America (CA 2500-400 BC), having a period of large growth around 1500 BC =. The word Olmec means "Rubber people", as their civilization was the first to make rubber out of the sap of rubber trees. They also created the Mesoamerican ballgame using these rubber balls, had the figure 0, and potentially invented the calendar system the Mayans would later use.

[ping]

Attila the Hun likely died to a nosebleed after celebrating his marriage with what turned out to be his last wife.