Fun Facts

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Mongrel
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Mongrel » Wed Jan 03, 2018 3:41 pm

10% of all the traffic on the internet is protected by a wall of lava lamps

Not, in fact, a joke.

EDIT: The article is a bit wonky on it's explanations. This video has more accurate details:



(the link description is still accurate though. 10% of all the traffic on the internet is protected (indirectly) by a wall of lava lamps)
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zaratustra
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby zaratustra » Wed Jan 03, 2018 8:03 pm

Friday wrote:So it tnrus out taht hmunas can raed wrdos jsut fnie, eevn if you jbmlue all the lterets auonrd, as lnog as the frsit and lsat ltteer are in tiehr croecrt palecs.


not eeilrtny aaurtcce, as it gtes mroe dlucffiit ddinpeeg on the slbnicrmag.

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Mongrel
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Mongrel » Wed Jan 03, 2018 8:42 pm

I honestly can't figure out that last word.

:B
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Caithness
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Caithness » Wed Jan 03, 2018 8:51 pm

It's the gerund form of slbcrmae.

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Woah Dangsaurus
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby IGNORE ME » Thu Jan 04, 2018 4:12 am

scrambling

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beatbandito
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby beatbandito » Thu Jan 04, 2018 7:39 am

While doing completely innocent research into just how creepy the implied romance of a manga I'm reading is, I learned this is the first google result for "age of consent japan".

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Thad
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Thad » Thu Jan 04, 2018 10:33 am

Mongrel wrote:10% of all the traffic on the internet is protected by a wall of lava lamps

Not, in fact, a joke.

EDIT: The article is a bit wonky on it's explanations. This video has more accurate details:



(the link description is still accurate though. 10% of all the traffic on the internet is protected (indirectly) by a wall of lava lamps)


My wife (who's got a strong math background but not much in the way of CS) once asked me how computers can produce random numbers. It's a very good question, and the short answer is that they can't; they can produce numbers that look random, and that's good enough for most use-cases, but there are security risks when these pseudo-random numbers turn out not to be as random as they seem.

And that to generate truly random numbers, you need to use some kind of analog source, like, yes, a lava lamp.

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François
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby François » Thu Jan 04, 2018 1:00 pm

Random.org uses atmospheric noise as a seed; when it started out, it was literally from a $10 radio tuned to static.

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beatbandito
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby beatbandito » Mon Jan 15, 2018 12:55 pm

TIL: During WWII Illinois (and other states) conserved metal by making license plates out of compressed soybean. Goats had a tendency to bite these plates right off the trucks, which seems to be (at least the most direct contribution to) why we have the image of goats chewing on tin cans today.
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Mongrel » Fri Jan 19, 2018 11:08 pm

The belief that eating carrots improves night vision is a myth put forward by the British in World War II to mislead the enemy about their improved radar capabilities, when German bomber losses rose dramatically later in the Battle of Britain.

British Intelligence didn’t want the Germans to find out about the superior new technology helping protect the nation, so they created a rumor to afford a somewhat plausible-sounding explanation for the sudden increase in bombers being shot down. News stories began appearing in the British press about extraordinary personnel manning the defenses, including Flight Lieutenant John Cunningham, an RAF pilot dubbed “Cat’s Eyes” on the basis of his exceptional night vision that allowed him to spot his prey in the dark. Cunningham’s abilities were chalked up to his love of carrots. Further stories claimed RAF pilots were being fed goodly amounts of this root vegetable to foster similar abilities in them.
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Mongrel
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Mongrel » Wed Feb 14, 2018 2:41 am



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Thad
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Thad » Sun Feb 25, 2018 12:18 am

The script for Track of the Moon Beast (as seen on MST3K) was written by Bill Finger and Charles Sinclair.

Yes, that Bill Finger.

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Mongrel
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Mongrel » Sat Mar 10, 2018 4:00 pm

When they designed the South African flag, the people in charge of it had naturally decided they needed to get Nelson Mandela's approval of it before it could become official. Under a lot of time pressure, they faxed the design over along with instructions for how to colour it in, since the faxes were, of course, black and white.
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Mongrel » Wed Mar 28, 2018 3:59 am

Image
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Friday
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Friday » Wed Mar 28, 2018 9:59 am

re: tiffany problem

There's a lot of shit like this. When they were making Gladiator (with Crowe) they wanted to include a scene where all the Gladiators (Crowe included, probably) go out before a fight and endorse local products, like modern athletes do. But of course, modern audiences wouldn't accept that that was a thing that actually happened all the time, so they cut it.

On Tv Tropes, it's called "Aluminum Christmas Trees". Things that existed in real life history but people won't believe in because it's too gaudy or weird.
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Thad
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Thad » Wed Mar 28, 2018 10:19 am

Mongrel wrote:Image


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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Mongrel » Wed Mar 28, 2018 3:13 pm

I liked the comment that there were clearly two sets of time travellers: One set who kept saving the inventor of the Saxophone, and another bunch of idiots who kept trying to kill the wrong Adolph.

Also, it turns out that isn't even a complete list of his near death/painful experiences. In addition to the above, he also suffered the following as a young child:
- At the age of three, he swallowed a pin,
- Burnt himself seriously in a gunpowder explosion,
- Fell onto a hot cast iron frying pan, burning his side,
- Survived poisoning and suffocation in his own bedroom where varnished items were kept during the night

His mother once said that "he's a child condemned to misfortune; he won't live." His neighbors called him "little Sax, the ghost".
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Mongrel
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Mongrel » Thu Apr 05, 2018 3:32 pm

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beatbandito
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby beatbandito » Fri Apr 13, 2018 6:37 pm

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Friday
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Friday » Fri Apr 13, 2018 7:09 pm

like how Mikey was super gay or at least bi as fuck but no it was just the close bond two men share when one is the old master and the other is the young nubile apprentice

you know, the bond with their penises
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