Factoids - useless but interesting snippets

[Zombie]

“ “Many years ago, Norris Church, the sixth (and last) wife of the novelist Norman Mailer, wrote me from their Provincetown home to complain about my misuse of the word “factoid.”

She pointed out that her husband had coined the word in his 1973 book about Marilyn Monroe, “Marilyn,” and that it meant not “an odd little fact,” but “facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority.””

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/23/opinion/just-factoids-please/

Well tough titty, Norris - or should I say Barbara? (her husband Norman Mailer told her she should change her name from Barbara Jean Davis - Factoid #1 ) - because no-one controls language (despite pitiful efforts by the Académie Française - Factoid #2 )

Anyway, that’s all by the by - here’s the factoid I wanted to post (#3 ), as officially written on the State of Virginia roadside historical marker / commemorative plaque. So it must be true!

 

[Daddydavek]

The ultimate gotcha!

[Zombie]

Collective nouns

a gaggle of Highland cattle isn’t a herd

…or a gaggle  

it’s a “fold”

 

 

and the baby ones make lovely cosy slippers    

[BigBen]

A colony of rats is called a mischief, and any one who has kept pet rats can tell you why.

[Bill W]

And baby porcupines are called porcupettes - although I don't think they'd make very good pets - too many owies. 

[Zombie]

In medieval England, blacksmiths forged swords by heating, hammering and then dunking (tempering) the sword in ginger-haired virgin boys’ urine. Yeah, blondes or brunettes just didn’t work…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02cxcvx

(hope the video plays in your region - explains everything)

[Zombie]

 

In 1941, during WWII, the British govt was busy doing very important work on things like…

new ice cream regulations 

designing a new 3 pin electrical plug and socket (which we still use today, 80 years later!) 

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisro/1941/25/pdfs/nisro_19410025_en.pdf

https://electrifyingwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2020/08/Microsoft-Word-Haslett-2-Script.pdf

 

Edited February 18, 2022 by Zombie

[ReaderPaul]

On 1/30/2022 at 6:45 PM, Zombie said:

In medieval England, blacksmiths forged swords by heating, hammering and then dunking (tempering) the sword in ginger-haired virgin boys’ urine. Yeah, blondes or brunettes just didn’t work…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02cxcvx

(hope the video plays in your region - explains everything)

How could they tell if the boys were virgins?

[Bill W]

2 hours ago, ReaderPaul said:

How could they tell if the boys were virgins?

They probably hadn't reached puberty yet. 

[Zombie]

12 hours ago, ReaderPaul said:

How could they tell if the boys were virgins?

there’s a kinda similar and equally bizarre practice in China that continues even now involving young boys’ urine and eggs  except ginger hair is not required…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_boy_egg

Edit to add

guess that’s another factoid 

Edited February 20, 2022 by Zombie

[Zombie]

 

very disappointed to learn that the Vikings didn’t wear horned helmets

Apparently it would have hindered their pillaging…  

 

[Page Scrawler]

Venus rotates so slowly that a day is equal to 242 days on Earth. Compared to this, Venus takes 224 Earth days to make one orbit around the Sun. This means that a day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus.

[Drew Espinosa]

Many know the capital of Thailand as Bangkok, but it's official name in Thai is Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, which in turn is just the shortened form of its ceremonial name:

Quote

Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit

This translates into:

Quote

City of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Vishvakarman at Indra's behest

citation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangkok#Name

Edited March 2, 2022 by Drew Espinosa

[Zombie]

Tardigrades

cute little critters - who knew?  

 

[Zombie]

Tea

…is so important to the British that during WWII, 80 years ago in 1942, the UK government bought up the entire world supply of exportable tea

[Page Scrawler]

5,000 years ago, Ancient Egyptians would treat infected wounds by applying a poultice of moldy bread. Nobody knew why, until 1927, when Alexander Fleming made the association between moldy bread and Penicillium, the type of mold from which modern penicillin is derived.

[Zombie]

The Bayeux Tapestry 

#1 it’s not a tapestry*

#2 it wasn’t made in Bayeux  The 230 foot long “storyboard” of the famous Battle of Hastings in 1066 is not mentioned in any historical records until 400 years after it was made (shortly after the battle) when it is listed in a 1476 inventory of Bayeux Cathedral in France, but it was probably made in Canterbury, England, by Anglo-Saxon women who were renowned for the quality of their work

#3 the comet shown in one of  the panels is in fact Halley’s Comet, a periodic comet predicted by Edmund Halley (using Newton’s laws of gravity) to return in 1758, which it did. Sadly, he never saw it (he died in 1742) but he did get the honour of the most famous comet in history being named after him

*it’s an embroidery

Edited March 23, 2022 by Zombie

[Zombie]

US state sports

California 
surfing - duh

Hawaii
surfing - ditto

Maryland
Jousting - Whaaat?!?! 

 

Oh, wait…

yeah, on second thoughts it totally makes sense….  

 

Edited March 26, 2022 by Zombie

[Page Scrawler]

In 2012, the Russian town of Verkhoyansk was attacked by a "super pack" of wolves. The predators numbered over 400.

[Ron]

4 hours ago, Page Scrawler said:

In 2012, the Russian town of Verkhoyansk was attacked by a "super pack" of wolves. The predators numbered over 400.

Ding-ding-ding, we have a winner! 

[Zombie]

According to Realtor.com, around a third of homebuyers said they would buy a haunted house if it had a lower price, a bigger kitchen, or was located in a better neighbourhood

this looks just the ticket… 

[Zombie]

Health and safety

Travellers on Britain’s early steam railways could purchase a nifty travel guide.

This provided nervous passengers with helpful and reassuring advice  

Like where to sit in relation to the steam locomotive in order to minimise the risk of death 💀 

“get as far from the engine as possible—should an explosion take place, you may happily get off with just the loss of an arm or a leg”*  

* Francis Coghlan - The Iron Road, 1838

Edited May 12, 2022 by Zombie

[Zombie]

News flash!

According to a recent survey…

nearly a third of people aged between 25 and 34

think Salman Rushdie is a fish dish

[Bill W]

2 hours ago, Zombie said:

News flash!

According to a recent survey…

nearly a third of people aged between 25 and 34

think Salman Rushdie is a fish dish

So much for the younger generation to be considered smarter...  😜 

[Page Scrawler]

On March 5th, 2022, a legendary stone in Japan, called the Sessho-seki, cracked apart. The stone reputedly contained the spirit of Tamamo-no-mae, a monstrous fox-woman with nine tails. Social media platforms joked that the stone's fracture is an omen of calamity.