Interesting and Uncommon Facts

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  • #926636
    kapusta
    Participant

    Dont pour “over” (like to pour left with your left hand or right with your right hand) thats the way its done by a meis.

    *kapusta*

    #926637
    kapusta
    Participant

    squeak

    Member

    and what do astigmatismatic people have?

    after they get through saying it, probably laryngitis. 😉

    *kapusta*

    #926638
    moish01
    Member

    something to do with eyes? like astigmatism? i think that’s when the shape of the iris (that’d the brown part, no?) is curved or something.

    half made up that answer 😉

    #926639
    PM
    Member

    lens is an irregular shape

    #926640
    aussieboy
    Participant

    astigmatism is when the eyes are not round but they are more like the shape of a football.

    #926641
    noitallmr
    Participant

    aussieboy- but a football is round???

    Or is this something to do with me being English??? 😉

    Btw our football is definitely a lot more fun then yours whatever you say!!! (mod 39- Maskim?)

    #926642
    squeak
    Participant

    kapusta 🙂

    #926643

    A couple of minor corrections

    1)

    Not all states are on the back of a five-dollar-bill.

    The following twenty-six are on the top of the Lincoln memorial:

    First Row –

    Arkansas

    Michigan

    Florida

    Texas

    Iowa

    Wisconsin

    California

    Minnesota

    Oregon

    Kansas

    West Virginia

    Nevada

    Nebraska

    Colorado

    North Dakota

    Second Row –

    Delaware

    Pennsylvania

    New Jersey

    Connecticut

    Massachusetts

    Maryland

    Carolina

    Hampshire

    Virginia

    New York

    Dollar bills are paper, not cloth.

    They are made from cloth-based paper (as opposed to wood pulp).

    You can see red and blue threads imbedded in all bills.

    It used to be a silk-based paper many years ago.

    The paper is very durable compared to regular paper, but it will break down over several washing-machine cycles.

    Counterfeiters would sometimes bleach the ink off of low-denomination bills and then print a higher-denomination on the blank paper.

    Almost all books and seforim printed nowadays use wood-pulp based paper.

    2)

    Objects that are closer require a more convex lens shape for proper focus. As we age, the lens loses flexibility and its controlling muscles weaken, hence the reading-glasses requirement that many people over 40 or 50 develop.

    3) (not a correction)

    #926644
    an open book
    Participant

    nice, kapusta 🙂

    noitallmr: i agree your football is more fun than ours!!

    i can only try: scary looking post! 😉 but thanks

    #926645
    anonymisss
    Participant

    Anyone here ever here of Uveitis?

    ~a~

    #926646
    Jax
    Member

    i can only try: those were really interesting! thanx! 🙂

    #926647
    mepal
    Member

    anonymisss: I did.

    #926648
    anonymisss
    Participant

    mepal, what do you know about it and how do you know about it?

    ~a~

    #926649
    an open book
    Participant

    anonymisss & mepal: & what is it?!

    #926650
    mepal
    Member

    anonymisss, I work in a medical facility so I know all about such things. Why? You know someone that has it? Why dont you just google it and find out all about it? Or, ask your doctor.

    #926651
    anonymisss
    Participant

    I had it a few years ago and just thought of it cuz e/o was talking about eyes. I don’t think I know of anyone else who ever had it, though. How common is it?

    ~a~

    #926652
    moish01
    Member

    hey i just wikipedia-ed it. horrible picture there!

    #926653
    anonymisss
    Participant

    Thanks, moish;)

    Ok, I just checked it out myself and yeah that is gross. I didn’t have it THAT bad, thank god!

    ~a~

    #926654
    moish01
    Member

    scary stuff. it says that 10% of blindness is from that.

    #926655
    anonymisss
    Participant

    Gee, thanx, moish! I know, I was terrified that I was gonna go blind from it. The eye doctor that I went to when I had it, who specializes in uveitis, told me that it’s the second leading cause of blindness in people my age. I was REEEEAAAAALLLLLY scared. He wasn’t being mean by saying that he was trying to make sure that I really take the eyedrops EIGHT get that? EIGHT times a day!!!

    ~a~

    #926656
    mepal
    Member

    anonymisss: its not very common but definitely heard of.

    #926657

    A few minor corrections (part 2)

    1)

    2)

    3)

    Lightning can strike multiple times in the same place. The Empire State Building is typically struck several times in a storm.

    4)

    5)

    6)

    Money Matters:

    7) (not a correction)

    8)

    The (physically) smallest US coin ever made was the silver three-cent piece. A larger nickel three-cent piece was also produced.

    9)

    The lowest-denomination US coin ever produced was the half-cent piece. It was produced until 1857.

    10)

    11)

    The nickel was created in 1866 to replace the half-dime, but they coexisted for several years.

    #926658

    The Manhattan bridge sways several feet to the side when a subway train crossed it. This is due to a design flaw that placed the subway tracks on the outer edges of the bridge, instead of the center.

    The “Flatbush Avenue Extension” portion of Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn is so named because it was created by extending the avenue from its former terminus at Fulton St. to the newly built Manhattan Bridge in 1909 (happy anniversary!)

    #926659
    shavua
    Member

    icot: nice one

    #926660

    1) The neighborhood of Canarsie in Brooklyn was once its own town. It was incorporated into Brooklyn in the late 19th century. It’s named for the Canarsie Indian Tribe.

    2) Many people think Monsey, NY is named for the Muncie Indian Tribe. The name was actually invented by rich real-estate developers who took the word “money” and put a dollar-sign in the middle: MON$EY

    3) If you believed “2)”, I’ve got a bridge to sell you (“1”, however, is true).

    #926661
    kapusta
    Participant

    I think ICOT found a new thread… 🙂

    *kapusta*

    #926662

    kapusta-

    Logic puzzles, trivia, science and history are all among my faves.

    Thanks to the day off I get the chance to share my ..er.. wisdom(???) with others.

    #926663
    kapusta
    Participant

    should we just call it facts? jk, I never said I didnt like them, they’re actually interesting. 🙂

    *kapusta*

    #926664
    oomis
    Participant

    Lightning can strike multiple times in the same place. The Empire State Building is typically struck several times in a storm.

    Well of course that makes sense. If it struck something in the first place, that something must have had a point of conductivity to the lightning. It usually strikes the most accesible place (normally the highest point), hence the Empire State Building is frequently struck.

    #926665
    anon for this
    Participant

    ICOT, here’s a question involving trivia & American history: there was a particular Supreme Court nominee under consideration. When observers commented that there was nothing spectacular about him, and that in fact he seemed rather average, the rejoinder given was, “average people deserve to be represented on the Supreme Court too”.

    Who was this nominee? I’m asking because I can’t remember who the nominee was.

    #926667
    Jax
    Member

    sorry mod for the long post here that i posted! if you get a chance, please read it! it’s really interesting & great! thank you!

    It has been submitted before

    #926668
    Jax
    Member

    mod: thank you for letting me know!

    #926669
    anonymisss
    Participant

    Wow! Do mods memorize every post that gets submitted?

    ~a~

    That question was submitted by rabbiofberlin in July of last year

    🙂

    #926670

    anon for this-

    I had never heard that quote, but fortunately I have the world’s most knowledgeable (if not authoritative)history teacher at my beck and call.

    I wasn’t disappointed, as Prof. Google pointed out that the nominee was G. Harrold Carswell, and the president was Nixon.

    “Carswell also suffered a reputation as a legal lightweight. His opponents noted that a dismal 58 percent of Carswell’s judicial decisions had been overruled by higher courts. In a vote of no confidence, the Ripon Society, a Republican group, rated Carswell’s performance as a federal judge well below the average level of competence.”(Answers website)

    #926671
    chaverim
    Member

    icot: what keywords did you use to search for it?

    #926672

    chaverim-

    I tried about three or four word combinations until this one had a hit:

    “average people deserve” + represented + Supreme Court

    Although the quote pretty much matched what “anon for this” posted, since it was only one hit further research was needed.

    A further Google search using the president and justice the initial hit brought up uncovered enough info and from several different sources that I was convinced it was correct.

    The quote from the “answers” website was from the second search.

    With Google in general different permutations of a phrase or substitute meanings of words in a phrase (and patience and perseverance) are often needed to find what you’re looking for.

    #926673
    anon for this
    Participant

    Thanks ICOT.

    #926674

    anon for this-

    You’re quite welcome.

    According to Wikipedia (which is where I should’ve looked first, once I has Carswell’s name):

    In defense against charges that [Supreme Court nominee] Carswell was “mediocre”, U.S. Senator Roman Hruska (Republican, Nebraska) stated, “Even if he is mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren’t they, and a little chance?” That remark is believed to have backfired and damaged Carswell’s cause.

    #926675

    The saddest president:

    His oldest child, a son also named Franklin, lived only a few days. He never even saw his firstborn, because the child was born, died, and was buried while Franklin was in Washington, away from his wife.

    His second son only lived four years.

    After Franklin had been elected, but before he assumed office, a train the Pierce family was traveling on derailed and their car rolled down a hill. Benjamin Pierce, twelve years old, was the only fatality of the accident.

    He was a soldier who was killed in action during World War One.

    #926676
    Jax
    Member

    I can only try: thanx those facts are really interesting!

    #926677

    The Unluckiest City:

    The bombing of Hiroshima came about when Japan refused the American ultimatum of unconditional surrender.

    -The original target was the city of Kokura, not Nagasaki.

    -The original attack date was August 11, two days later than the actual date of the attack. The additional two days might have given the Japanese government more time to consider surrendering, thereby avoiding a second atomic bombing.

    The weather forecast was for nearly a week of overcast and cloud cover starting on the tenth, so the date was moved forward to the ninth.

    With fuel running low, they headed for their secondary target of Nagasaki.

    Their first pass over Nagasaki was unsuccessful, also due to cloud cover.

    Due to low fuel, they decided to make just one more pass, and if it was unsuccessful they would head back to their base with the undeployed bomb.

    Why do clocks run clockwise?

    The definitive answer has been lost in the mists of time, but one theory is that clocks mimic sundials.

    Sundials were used since ancient times in the northern hemisphere, where their shadows move in a clockwise direction.

    #926678

    Family Matters:

    Robert had a close call when he was young. He was standing on a train platform, pinned against the side of a train by the crush of a crowd, when the train began to move. He lost his balance and started to fall towards the gap between the train and the platform. His life was quite possibly saved when a bystander, actor Edwin Booth, grabbed ahold of him and pulled him to safety.

    Although Abraham Lincoln had four sons, three grandchildren (two boys, one girl), and two great-grandchildren (one boy, one girl) he has no living progeny.

    The names of the two brothers who invented the first flying contraption to carry a man?

    (Hint – not Wilbur and Orville Wright.)

    It was Frenchmen Joseph Michael and Jacques Etienne Montgolfier.

    The Wrights built the first successful heavier-than-air flying machine to carry a man, more than a hundred years later.

    #926679
    A600KiloBear
    Participant

    BS”D

    WD-40, which is very familiar to anyone who has ever eaten fried food in a yeshiva or seminary dining room, stands for Water Displacement Formula #40. It took the manufacturer 40 tries to come up with the right formula, and then they distributed it via the US Army in soldiers’ rifle packs during the Vietnam War. When the servicemen came back, they used it around the house, on sports equipment etc and then somewhere along the line a Vietnam War vet who was sentenced to community service and forced to cook in a yeshiva kitchen after he vandalized a shul used it to fry latkes on Chanukah.

    Someone in said yeshiva’s hanhala tasted the latkes and decided they were perfect to make sure bochurim would not concentrate on gashmius and WD-40 became the standard cooking oil used (and reused) in yeshiva and sem kitchens.

    And one part of this story is true and the other one is not….. :))))!

    #926680
    anon for this
    Participant

    Jerry Brown, former governor of California, is considering running for the position in 2010. Most articles about Brown refer to him as “Governor Moonbeam”, a term coined decades ago by a syndicated columnist (who later regretted the term). Who is this columnist? Which communications magnate did this columnist later call an “alien” & why?

    #926682
    A600KiloBear
    Participant

    BS”D

    The magnate is probably Rupert Murdoch, because of his status as a non-US citizen and his not being a member of the leftist pseudointelligentsia to which this columnist belongs.

    #926683
    chaverim
    Member

    A6KB: Mr. Murdoch became a U.S. citizen a long time ago. (Mainly since non-citizens are restricted from owning broadcasting stations in the U.S.)

    #926684
    A600KiloBear
    Participant

    BS”D

    Google is my friend :). I am correct regarding the magnate in question, but I would be cheating if I now revealed the name of the columnist (more like a calumnist) after having googled and finding out that he did call Moonbeam a moonbeam (and regretted it) as well as having called Murdoch an alien.

    #926685
    anon for this
    Participant

    Here’s why the syndicated columnist in question called Murdoch an alien: He was writing for one of two major newspapers in his hometown when his paper was purchased by Murdoch. He disagreed with Murdoch over how his column was handled & quit, but his old paper continued running his byline with the notation that the columnist “was on vacation”. This continued until the his first column appeared in the rival newspaper, titled, “In alien’s tongue, ‘I quit’ is ‘vacation'”. In the column he explained that he’d quit his old newspaper, and was now writing for its rival, but Murdoch apparently thought that the words, “I quit” meant “I’m on vacation”. That was the last day Murdoch’s new acquisition ran his byline.

    By the way, Itzik, I doubt you are very familiar with this columnist’s work, because he was hardly a member of the “leftist intelligentsia”.

    #926686
    A600KiloBear
    Participant

    BS”D

    No, the columnist was not a member of any intelligentsia (just a loudmouth of the kind that gets attention on both sides of the spectrum; if he were Jewish we’d call him a boor ve’am ha’aretz) – but a calumnist he indeed is/was.

    I did not know who he was when I mistakenly called him a member of the intelligentsia :).

    #926687

    anon for this-

    A600KiloBear-

    Once you brought up Murdoch, I thought the columnist was Jack Newfield.

    Once I saw that it was Mike Royko, it made sense.

    Royko was only syndicated in NY for a relatively short time, but I enjoyed his column for years in an out-of-town paper.

    He was fearless in poking fun at the Chicago establishment.

    He had a self deprecating sense of humor, and his columns were written for everyman.

    His columns covered pretty much any topic, usually based on current news and with a humorous and sometimes pointed perspective.

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