The word “America” does not come from Amerigo Vespucci, but is likely an amalgamation of
the Mayan word “Amerristiquiqque” for “land where the wind blows constantly”, which is the name of a mountain range in Nicaragua, and the Spanish word “Rica” for rich, like in “Costa Rica” (Rich Coast) as Spanish sailors would ask Carib Amerindians where their gold came from.The smallpox blankets event happened before germ theory existed. The plan was based on miasma theory.
Stephen Jay Gould, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard, testified in defense of evolution at a trial in Arkansas then was on the same plane as Bill Clinton during Clinton’s interregnum between governorships. Clinton said he “would have vetoed that bill”, meaning the bill mandating equal time for creationism.
The correct spelling of pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
When a drug company in the 80s scaled up production they accidentally created seed crystals that spread around the entire Earth’s atmosphere that prevented other companies from manufacturing a generic drug without it attaching to the seeds and converting to the patented drug.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearing_polymorph#Paroxetine_hydrochloride
Ok, that’s absolutely bonkers
And it’s merely a hypothesis, there is no proof. Also we can assume that chemical plants are aware and have taken precautions, but it still happens. Back in the day it was speculated that chemists caried microcrystals around in their beards. This problem has been around for a while. One of the coolest hypothesis has been put forward by Rupert Sheldrake. He thinks that there is something in nature akin to memory. A force of nature as you will.
The first iteration of the baptist church was a militaristic commie org. That took over a small town.
I don’t exist. I had a meeting and voted. It was unanimous.
We just had a follow up meeting here and decided the previous findings were incorrect and that you do exist. I don’t know if this is a relief to you or not.
I undiagnosed myself. I’m okay. This is fine.
Marx did actually consider human nature
What follows is a guide on how to hurt your hand. No not do it. Do not “do it just a little bit”. I actually strained my hand when I first discoverd this and honestly dont want anyone hurt because of my comment:
dont do this
If you wrap your fingers around your thumb (like a closed fist with your thumb on the inside and pull the thumb down you can hurt your hand.
The origin of the name ‘Amerigo’ Vespucci is ‘Emmerich’ in German. So the namesake of a contintent is a very demure provincial city close to the German/Dutch border.
If you catch a frog in between your hands and quickly flip it around, you can get the frog into a kind of paralyzed state called ‘tonic immobility’.
Here is a photo from Wikipedia:
OK, well, many years ago I was very interested in this phenomenon and decided to look into the literature.
I found a paper from 1928 titled “On The Mechanism of Tonic Immobility in Vertebrates” written by Hudson Hoagland (PDF link).
In this paper, the author describes contraptions he used to analyze the small movement (or lack of movement) in animals while in this state. They look kind of like torture devices:
OK, but, that’s still not it… The obscure fact is found in the first footnote of that paper, on page #2:
Apparently this or a similar effect can be observed in humans too?! In this paper, the author himself claims to have done this and that it works! I tried to locate more recent resources describing this phenomenon in humans but I could not find them… Is this actually possible? If so, why is this not better documented? Or, maybe it is better documented but understood as a different type of reflex today? Not sure.
You can also do this with rabbits.
Excellent fact, and bonus points because the fact is only recorded in a footnote of a writeup about an already moderately obscure fact.
Like you’d see crazy evangelical pactors do to people on tv?
Ha, maybe! I don’t remember if I ever saw a 180 flip. This is the closest I could find from a quick search: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZpIglVnYuY
If you have a video with the 180 degree flip I would really like to see it. This context seems like a plausible place to see such a move in modern days. I would imagine that in some martial arts this effect would be well known.
I don’t think anyone was bent over at 90° in the video?
Regardless, that video is incredible; sending it to my ex-Evangelical partner immediately.
Yeah, I’m still looking. This is the closest I found so far
That reminds me of a “game” kids would (try) to play when I was young at school. The kids would say to do just that “bend over, take a deep breath” and the other one would try to lift them up really quickly. I never saw it work. I guess you were supposed to pass out. Idk
Some of these ‘games’ do trigger real physiological mechanisms. A well-documented example is the Valsalva maneuver, where forcefully exhaling against a closed mouth and nose affects heart rate and blood pressure.
In some games, this maneuver (or similar) is combined with a second action that normally increases blood flow demand to the brain. The mismatch between reduced blood pressure and sudden demand can cause dizziness or brief loss of consciousness due to insufficient oxygen reaching the brain.
Actually, there is a similar effect sometimes seen during heavy deadlifts, suddenly releasing can sometimes make people pass out. There are many “deadlift passing out” videos online.
So, those ‘games’ can work. I have known of kids breaking their teeth after face-planting against the floor while playing those games. Not a very smart thing to do.
Yup did that as a kid. Totally passed out. Later found out it’s kind of dangerous.
Ancient Egypt was ancient before it ended. The time when Cleopatra ruled is about as close to today as it was to the first pyramids.
One of my favorite facts is that while the first pyramids were being built, there were still Mammoth roaming some northern European regions (never checked whether this is true or not but I’ve heard it so many times that I want to believe it is true)
It’s actually even wilder than that.
The earliest know pyramids date back to around 2600BCE, and Cleopatra reigned around 50-30BCE, so her reign is closer to the modern day than to the first pyramids by about 600 years. One of the earliest surviving pyramids, Djoser, was built by Imhotep (with help, I assume) during a period called the Third Egyptian Dynasty meaning, as it’s name suggests, the unified Kingdom of Egypt was already well-established by the time it was built. The First Dynasty started about 3100BCE so even ignoring the proto-Dynasty period of Egypt, that’s pretty humbling: if you drew a timeline with the founding of Ancient Egypt on the left and the founding of OnlyFans to the right, Cleopatra would be three-fifths of the way along it.
Cleopatra had a kid with Julius Caesar lmao. When you think of it like that it makes more sense.
Not that obscure, but most orange cats are male since the orange gene is tied to the x-chromosom, so male cats only need one copy to appear orange. Female cats have to have the orange gene on both x-chromosom to be fully orange.
And usually only female cats can be calico/tortoise since the orange gene is co-dominant, so if they only have one copy of the orange gene both the orange and black will be visible.
A seemingly male calico/tortoise cat is usually intersex and sterile.
Not obscure but apparently a lot of people aren’t aware that sheep don’t have top teeth in front.
TIL. I’ve looked gift horses in the mouth but never gift sheep /s
A large amount of visual inspections on the inside of nuclear reactors is done literally with a camera duct taped to either a really really long pole assembled in sections or a rope. Operators “swim” the cameras to various locations and camera handling is basically an occupation in that field. You also need camera shots for any work being done on the inside of the flooded reactor with, again, really really long poles that end up acting more like pool noodles at such a length. It is silly and difficult work. Also you basically are wearing a trash bag sitting above a hot tub while doing this work. So it is a wild experience.
There is a dust layer in the ice at the South Pole about 2km under the surface that interferes with about 5000 photomultiplier tubes spread out over a cubic kilometer in the ice that are watching for light created from high energy muons moving faster than the speed of light in the ice that were in turn the result of the very rare chance of a high energy neutrino interacting with the nucleus of a single atom in the ice.
Just want to make sure I am understanding this correctly: Faster than the speed of light, within the medium, right? So the neutrinos are a bit like Cherenkov radiation. But not actually faster than the speed of light, since if that was happening, my world view was just revised rather abruptly :)
You’re correct! It is Cherenkov Radiation; specifically from the muon (or electron or tau) that is a result of the neutrino interacting with the nucleus of an atom because Cherenkov Radiation happens with charged particles.
Thank you for confirming :)
I thought dust was human skin cells? What is this dust layer
There’s, uh, lots of different kinds of dust.
Also that one is mostly a myth.
mineral aerosols.
here is a recent paper trying to figure out the composition from ice core samples for a given age range and location
