The "Did You Know" thread

[CGI_Ram]

We might have a thread buried somewhere on this topic, but I couldn't find it quickly... So let's start a new one!

Did you know the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia reduced global temperatures... Where the following year, 1816, was called the Year Without a Summer?

Average global temperatures decreased about 0.4–0.7 °C (0.7–1.3 °F), enough to cause significant agricultural problems around the globe.

On 4 June 1816, frosts were reported in Connecticut, and by the following day, most of New England was gripped by the cold front. On 6 June 1816, snow fell in Albany, New York, and Dennysville, Maine.

Such conditions occurred for at least three months and ruined most agricultural crops in North America. Canada experienced extreme cold during that summer. Snow 30 cm (12 in) deep accumulated near Quebec City from 6 to 10 June 1816.

This was a massive volcanic event. To read more;

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1815_eruption_of_Mount_Tambora

 

[Mister Sin]

Did you know that many people think that the maximum number of years a president can serve is 8....well, it's actually 10. A president can only be elected twice, but can up to 2 years previous to that in a relief roll ( if they were the VP or next in line to take over after something happened to prevent the president from doing the job)

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

 

[Prime Time]

Did you know that the length from your wrist to your elbow is the same as the length of your foot.

 

[DaveFan'51]

Did you know the Rams stand a 50-50 chance of winning all their games in 2015!?!

 

[Greg Stone]

Did you know that the first large inoculation campaign in America, for small pox, took place at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-8 at the behest of George Washington? This involved cutting the skin and inserting pox material. Vaccines, which were more effective, were invented in the 1790's.

 

[bluecoconuts]

Did you know that Saturn's Moon, Titan has an atmosphere thick enough, and gravity low enough, that with a pair of homemade wings strapped to our arms humans could fly with little effort?

Its also the only other confirmed world with liquid, and it goes through a similar cycle as Earths water cycle.

 

[Greg Stone]

Did you know that the length from your wrist to your elbow is the same as the length of your foot.

Not true. I just measured to confirm but I already knew because my father and I are both 6' 4". I wear a 14 and my father, whose arms are two inches longer than mine wears an 11. I measured our arms after playing a round with his golf clubs.

 

[CGI_Ram]

Did you know that Saturn's Moon, Titan has an atmosphere thick enough, and gravity low enough, that with a pair of homemade wings strapped to our arms humans could fly with little effort?

Its also the only other confirmed world with liquid, and it goes through a similar cycle as Earths water cycle.

This is a really fascinating moon. In 2005 the Cassini Huygens probe landed on the surface taking this photo on it's way to the surface.

That's an insane!!

http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2005/01/Huygens_view_of_Titan

 

[Memento]

Did you know that the American and Australian troops who were stationed in New Guinea during World War Two were warned to stay away from a flightless bird called a cassowary because of its capability of attacking and killing human beings?

 

[Dodgersrf]

Not true. I just measured to confirm but I already knew because my father and I are both 6' 4". I wear a 14 and my father, whose arms are two inches longer than mine wears an 11. I measured our arms after playing a round with his golf clubs.

Your wearing the wrong size shoes Greg.

 

[PA Ram]

Did you know that you could fit 5 billion of our suns into the star UY Scuti?

Makes you feel kinda...small.

http://ryanbenhase.com/7-must-see-wonders-of-the-milky-way-galaxy/

 

[bluecoconuts]

Keeping with the space theme (I got a million of these)

Did you know, that you could fit every planet in our solar system between Earth and the moon? So when media go around talking about how some celestial body is passing by the moon or something, its further away than you think.

 

[Memento]

(Keeping with the animal theme.)

Did you know that the now-extinct Haast's eagle was the only bird that has ever been an apex predator and that it regularly hunted twelve-foot-tall moa and occasionally grown human beings?

 

[CGI_Ram]

(Keeping with the animal theme.)

Did you know that the now-extinct Haast's eagle was the only bird that has ever been an apex predator and that it regularly hunted twelve-foot-tall moa and occasionally grown human beings?

What's an apex predator?

 

[Memento]

What's an apex predator?

Apex predators are the top predators in a food chain, the ones that are only threatened by humans and not other animals in the natural ecosystem. Like an orca would be an apex predator in the Arctic/Antarctic regions, a tiger would be an apex predator in a jungle (or Siberia), an alligator is an apex predator in the Floridian swamps, a full-grown great white shark is an apex predator in the oceans, etc.

 

[beej]

Did you know that robert duvall starred as boo Radley in "to kill a mockingbird"

 

[beej]

Did you know that Jesse james' dad was a baptist missonary, who left the family to start a church for the 49ers in the gold rush? He died soon after leaving his boys to be raised by his widow. I wonder how things might have been different if he had stayed home.

 

[brokeu91]

Did you know that a theory of evolution was around long before Charles Darwin was ever born. Charles Darwin was just the first person to discover a hypothesis that was shown to be verified

Did you know that Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born on the same day

Also did you know that before Darwin published On the Origin of Species a different biologist, Alfred Wallace, independently came to the same conclusion. Darwin gets all the credit but Wallace also discovered the theory on his own

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Russel_Wallace

 

[brokeu91]

Did you know that Issac Newton invented calculus just to prove his theory's about forces and gravity correct

Did you also know that Issac Newton did most of his research in just a few years, dedicating the rest of his life to finding the Philosophers Stone and running the Royal Mint (it's amazing to think what he could have done if he actually did scientific research his whole life)

 

[PA Ram]

Did you know that Issac Newton invented calculus just to prove his theory's about forces and gravity correct

Did you also know that Issac Newton did most of his research in just a few years, dedicating the rest of his life to finding the Philosophers Stone and running the Royal Mint (it's amazing to think what he could have done if he actually did scientific research his whole life)

Speaking of Isaac Newton, and in the "Do Not Try This At Home" category:

Did you know that Isaac Newton, while studying optics stuck a needle between his eyelid and eyeball and measured the depth of his eyeball this way, as well as tested the effect on his vision?

. Sir Isaac Newton

Newton actually took the old schoolyard chant 'stick a needle in your eye' seriously. He was studying optics, but there was a problem. Some people saw strange colored spots in front of their eyes. Some people saw certain colors. Were colors influenced by the eye? Newton decided to find out by sticking a needle between his eyelid and eye, and digging around the backside of his eyeball like a pig routing for truffles. He then documented the 'light and dark colored spots' appeared when he moved 'ye bodkin' but that they disappeared when he kept it still. Well done, Isaac.

http://io9.com/5769654/10-scientists-who-experimented-on-themselves

THAT'S dedication.