The "I never knew that" thread

[Prodigal]

Elephants can't jump because they have no knees.

They also communicate with one another by using a pitch, LOWER than the human ear can hear

[Duke Malcolm]

maybe its that shadows wouldnt exist on the moon, and i believe that we have landed on the moon, maybe or maybe not with humans, but it's really none of my buisness as space travel is out of my world (no pun intended)

psh, the man who can answer any question can't answer the question!

There are shadows on the moon, but the controversy was that those who disputed the landings say there are some shadows going one way and others going another way. After seeing the pictures, it is rather hard to distinuish the direction of the shadows, and not easy to say. The business with the flag is also hard to say, since the flag would stay unfurled like it is if it was unfurled before going onto to moon...

[Craterus]

The longest known record for constipation is 102 days.

The storage capacity of the human brain exceeds 4 terrabytes.

There are 45 miles (72km) of nerves in the human body.

The female praying mantis is such a deadly hunter that she often eats her partner immediately after mating. Sometimes she begins her meal whilst still copulating.

[Gregoshi]

WAS THE MOONLANDING OF APPOLLO II FAKED

i think it was, take a closer look at the pic. the flag armstrong holds is up like a normal flag on earth would do with strong wind...but that cant in space. then why is the flag up. and there was sumthing weird bout their shadows too...though i cant really explain what

TS, there is a rod through the top edge of the flag to hold it out. In a strong wind, a flag on Earth would be waving, notice that the flag on the Moon isn't, it is just straight out from the flag pole.

The shadows on the Moon are darker than on Earth due to the lack of an atmosphere to bounce the sun light around and lighten up the shadows. I believe the lack of an atmosphere also makes the edges of the shadow more distinct than here on Earth. If things look strange in the pictures it is because the Moon is a strange place compared to Earth.

Edit: Nice pictures Viking. You put them up whilst I was composing my post. There is some waving going on in the bottom picture but that would probably have soon subsided due to friction in the flag and pole material. Then it would just hang from the top rod and flag pole.

[Don Corleone]

This whole "no moon landing" is a bunch of hooey. The Discovery channel dedicated a 1 hour program to debunking each and every claim the 'no landing' crowd has ever offered. It really stems from people thinking they know more than they actually do about physics.

My factoid: If you want to hold your breath for extra long, hyperventilate immediately prior to submerging. It's the buildup of carbon dioxide, not the lack of oxygen that forces you to black out.

[Craterus]

We blink about 84 million times per year.

General Custer graduated bottom of his class in 1861.

The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

The most popular car colour in the world is red.

Months that begin on a Sunday always have a Friday 13th.

A can of Spam is opened every four seconds.

[Sartaq]

Duck's quacks don't echo...

That's not true!

A can of Spam is opened every four seconds.

My factoid: If you want to hold your breath for extra long, hyperventilate immediately prior to submerging. It's the buildup of carbon dioxide, not the lack of oxygen that forces you to black out.

I just tried that and it works!

[Don Corleone]

I've never tried this one before, but supposedly, only on the Vernal Equinox, you can balance an egg on end. Don't blame me if it turns out to be BS, I warned you...

Others I DO know about...

-The average voltage of a static discharge (dry air, such as in winter, zapping on a doorknob) is about 4000V, sometimes as high as 6000V. The reason it doesn't cause harm is there is very little stored charge to supply current flow (which is what actually kills you).

-If you want to cool your beer faster, pour salt over the ice in your cooler. It will melt it AND reduce the temperature to about -2C (28F) degrees. In general, 0.3C (32.5F) water cools beer much faster than <0C (<32F) ice, because liquid water has a much lower thermal impedance than solid ice.

-Grey & white hair is caused by a copper defiiciency and (theoretically) is completely reversible.

-Bert & Ernie in Sesame street are named for Bert, the taxi cab driver and Ernie the police officer in "It's a Wonderful Life", Jim Henson's (and my) favorite movie.

-Kennedy's personal's secretary's name last name was Lincoln. Lincoln's personal secretary's last name was.... Kennedy. Kennedy was shot by an assasin in a warehouse who fled to a theater. Lincoln was shot by an assasin in a theater, who fled to a warehouse. Both men had a vice-president named Johnson, and both Johnsons were Southern Democrats.

-In the US Civil War's largest battle (Gettysburg), the North came from the south and the South came from the North.

-Despite all the hooplah about computer security, even today 75% of all computer passwords are: a) the owner's birthdate b) the owner's anniversery date or c) the word 'password'.

-In a room of 20 or more random people, the odds are better than 2 in 3 at least 2 people will have the same birthdate (I've never figured this one out).

-Speaking of statistics... if you toss a fair coin 100 times, and the incredibly unlikely put statistically possible event occurs that you toss 100 straight heads, and you decide to toss that faircoin a 101st time, the odds of it being heads or tails are still 50/50.

-Cats only meow to communicate to humans. It is a behavior that serves no function among cats in the wild, who communicate with scent.

[Sartaq]

I've never tried this one before, but supposedly, only on the Vernal Equinox, you can balance an egg on end. Don't blame me if it turns out to be BS, I warned you...

uh huh...

-Despite all the hooplah about computer security, even today 75% of all computer passwords are: a) the owner's birthdate b) the owner's anniversery date or c) the word 'password'.

-In a room of 20 or more random people, the odds are better than 2 in 3 at least 2 people will have the same birthdate (I've never figured this one out).

I can believe that.

-If you want to cool your beer faster, pour salt over the ice in your cooler. It will melt it AND reduce the temperature to about -2C (28F) degrees. In general, 0.3C (32.5F) water cools beer much faster than <0C (<32F) ice, because liquid water has a much lower thermal impedance than solid ice.

Saw that on Mythbusters, of which I am also a junkie.
Other fun fact from Mythbusters: High speed bullets are less deadly than a slower speed bullet when shooting someone underwater from above water becuase the high speed bullet is shattered on impact with the water surface.

[The Stranger]

Well, I can sort of explain that. The way the flag was set up:



caused the flag behave like it does under windy conditions here on Earth. However, there is no atmosphere on the Moon to break the flag`s movements, so it continued to wave for long after it was set up:



There`s no problems with the shadows either.

hmm good point...though ill find sumthing to prove you wrong...and i knew there was sumthing funny with the shadows i only forgot what

[Don Corleone]

hmm good point...though ill find sumthing to prove you wrong...and i knew there was sumthing funny with the shadows i only forgot what

I hate to do this, but I'm going to have to cut you off before you begin. Simply visit this webpage. They have listed every 'reason' the hoax believers (HB's) say the moon landing was faked you have ever heard of, and probably more than a few you haven't. In each and every one, the 'theory' is debunked. At the end of the day, it all stems from applying 'common sense' to how things work on Earth and assuming that's how they'll work in an area devoid of atmosphere (no blast crater, footprints being too clear, etc).

I've never seen a single reason posed for disbelieving the moon landing that wasn't more dubious than the landing itself. Is it possible NASA faked the moon landings? Sure. It's also possible that Hugh Hefner will leave the mansion and all the Playmates to me in his will, and my wife will be cool with this. Likelihood? About as likely that the moon landings were faked.

I have a healthy distrust of the government, don't get me wrong, I'm not their apologist. But in this case, there's just too much evidence on one side to take the other remotely seriously. http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html

[Monarch]

hmm good point...though ill find sumthing to prove you wrong...and i knew there was sumthing funny with the shadows i only forgot what

http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/NOT_faked/

Check that link, shows most the moon landing 'it was faked' theories, then some guy scrutinizing them.

Moon landing? I myself want to believe it. I really do it. It's just...forgetting all those pictures and scientific rubbish to scrutinize I like to play in something I know a little more about: history.

These are my reasons why it may have been faked (bearing in mind I do not have a definitive stance):

In the 60's Mr. Yuri Gogarin (sorry for wrong spelling) was the first cosmonaut in space. The Americans, in their 'we must look better at russia at everything' stage obviously are not pleased by this, they lost in the public eye to an enemy. Oh and not forgetting a few years prior to this in the form of Sputnik the Americans had failed in the 'first satellite in space' race. So there is but only one semi-realistic objective to beat the russians to: the moon. So the President of the states goes out and declares by the end of the decade an American will have walked on the moon. Now here's where my theory get's very questionable which I admit (I reiterate I do not have a stance yet on is it was or was not faked). Perhaps it is 69, and oopsy we're not on the moon are we. The Russians could very well be close. Now, if USA lose after declaring they will win so majestically this will be a PR distaster. There's only one thing for it: a hoax.

My next theory is more looking at today. We have not had a moon landing since what, like the 70's?! Why the hell not. This isnt a been there done that job, todays research techniques have to be better than 30 years ago, think of the things we could learn. So Russia, So NASA send a team to space now, show you can do it. Because interesting point, there hasnt been a moon landing since the cold war.

Anyway, If anything I believe the landings did take place. But the questions I proposed in this thread I do think are at least sorta relevant.

For now, until any other better hoax claims are brought to light. I will go for innocent until proven guilty and leave NASA alone.

------------------------------------------------

Back to on topic material. Hmm lets see.

Bill Gates has more wealth than the bottom 45 percent of American households combined.

[Don Corleone]

Sovereign,
You're not offering proof, or even a theory about the moon landing being faked. You're offering a possible motive in the event that it could be proven or theorized that it WAS faked. Fair enough, and I agree with your reasoning. But motive alone doesn't offer any sort of proof.

Hillary Clinton had a hell of a lot of motive to go Lorena Bobbit on Bill Clinton. But that's hardly 'proof' that our 42nd president in fact has a surgically reattached willy.

As for the 'why don't we still go there' question, one simple answer. $$$$. It costs a lot of money to go the moon, and as far as I know, there's almost no return on the investment. Scientists would love to go back and make some more experiments. But until there's a compelling reason to put that kind of cash into it, there's no reason to do so. Somebody who DOES have a reason to do so, namely to prove that they too can do it, is in the process of doing it now and should land around 2008: China.

Trust me, find some uranium or oil reserves up there and you'll see just how plausible it is.

[Geoffrey S]

Apparently, in Medieval times during jousts the crowd sang Queen's We Will Rock You. And cute princesses looked like sexy punks.

Or isn't A Knights Tale based on facts?

[Sasaki Kojiro]

I've never tried this one before, but supposedly, only on the Vernal Equinox, you can balance an egg on end. Don't blame me if it turns out to be BS, I warned you...

ooh ooh I know this one. You can balance an egg on it's end at any time, but only if you believe you can. If you don't believe you can it affects your control over your fingers slightly and you won't be able to. Nifty.

I tested it out on my sister, told her it was impossible and she couldn't do it, told her it actually and showed her I could do it, and then she was able to.

Duck's quacks don't echo...

http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/duckecho.htm

-Kennedy's personal's secretary's name last name was Lincoln. Lincoln's personal secretary's last name was.... Kennedy. Kennedy was shot by an assasin in a warehouse who fled to a theater. Lincoln was shot by an assasin in a theater, who fled to a warehouse. Both men had a vice-president named Johnson, and both Johnsons were Southern Democrats.

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/linckenn.htm

[Axeknight]

Well, I can sort of explain that. The way the flag was set up:



caused the flag behave like it does under windy conditions here on Earth. However, there is no atmosphere on the Moon to break the flag`s movements, so it continued to wave for long after it was set up:



There`s no problems with the shadows either.

Here's something I actually do know; there was a problem in unfurling the rod you see at the top which held the flag out. Thus the 'flapping' look. Apparently NASA were so impressed by the way the 'flapping flag' looked, they've designed them to deploy like that ever since.

[InsaneApache]

My factoid: If you want to hold your breath for extra long, hyperventilate immediately prior to submerging. It's the buildup of carbon dioxide, not the lack of oxygen that forces you to black out.

This is potentially very, very dangerous as the human brain needs a certain amount of CO2 in order that the lungs work automatically. If you hyperventilate you will flush out all the CO2 which could lead to you not breathing. This is a fact. So don't do it guys.

[Don Corleone]

This is potentially very, very dangerous as the human brain needs a certain amount of CO2 in order that the lungs work automatically. If you hyperventilate you will flush out all the CO2 which could lead to you not breathing. This is a fact. So don't do it guys.

This I did not know, but is a very good point. Sorry for offering potentially dangerous experiments to try.

[InsaneApache]

Hey np mate, it's just that as a former lifeguard it was something they hammered into us in training. BTW it's nice to see you back Don

[Monarch]

Sovereign,
You're not offering proof, or even a theory about the moon landing being faked. You're offering a possible motive in the event that it could be proven or theorized that it WAS faked. Fair enough, and I agree with your reasoning. But motive alone doesn't offer any sort of proof.

Hillary Clinton had a hell of a lot of motive to go Lorena Bobbit on Bill Clinton. But that's hardly 'proof' that our 42nd president in fact has a surgically reattached willy.

As for the 'why don't we still go there' question, one simple answer. $$$$. It costs a lot of money to go the moon, and as far as I know, there's almost no return on the investment. Scientists would love to go back and make some more experiments. But until there's a compelling reason to put that kind of cash into it, there's no reason to do so. Somebody who DOES have a reason to do so, namely to prove that they too can do it, is in the process of doing it now and should land around 2008: China.

Trust me, find some uranium or oil reserves up there and you'll see just how plausible it is.

Yup, I did say my 'theories' where dodgy and I am leaning towards to pro 'we landed for sure' side of things. Just speculation ^_^

[Ironside]

Almost every human got mites living in thier hair follicles.

[Ludens]

The Turkey is a decendant of the T-rex.

Er... I am quite sure all birds descended from a small dinosaur species in the Jurasic era. So, while they are related, the turkey did not descend from T-Rex.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

In biology we actually learned about this yesterday and the answer is egg...

I wasn't paying enough attention, but it had something to do with RNA...Lol

[Ianofsmeg16]

In biology we actually learned about this yesterday and the answer is egg...

I wasn't paying enough attention, but it had something to do with RNA...Lol

Check the first page of the thread...i already answered that one

[Alexanderofmacedon]

Oh, okay!

[ArcticSonata]

After four moves in a chess game there are more possible moves than grains of sand on earth.

The world longest penis was 18 in. long, and every time he would go errect he would pass out, because of all the blood that was transfered to penis and away from the rest of the body.

[InsaneApache]

Hellfire I told you to never to divulge my 'secret'

[Soulforged]

Did you know by change when the public debt of Argentina begun?
Well it begun when Mr. Rivadavia (1821-1824, now impressed in the papers of two pesos and with the largest aveneau in all Argentina) taking adventage of the speculative England bubble and even told the english that La Pampa (refering to the whole region known as La Pampa) was covered on gold , the first negociator was a minister called José Manuel García, then Rivadavia as minister and De la Cruz. The other part (the english merchants) were a man called Robertson, and another man called Felix Castro (wich wasn't really english but did business with english). The debt was originally of 1 million pounds, but 150000 of those pounds were discounted for the risk of borrowing money to a latinamerican country. Another 150000 was the bribe received by the the argentinian negotiators and the Baring brothers owners of the bank wich borrowed the money. Also Rivadavia discounted the expenditures from the loan, and paid a year of interest to the Barings: another 130000 puonds. The comision was reduced to 25000 pounds and another 400000 pounds stayed on England as a payment to english merchants radicated in Buenos Aires. Corruption has no limits, and Rivadavia did all this under the excuse of city improvement, wich was never done at all.

It's more, an interesting information for those britons out there: the warrant of the debt has always been the land of La Pampa, so if you've any monetary problems you can take the land out of us, even if it's now unconstitutional, but things work that way in the South sadly.

[Ianofsmeg16]

did you know that the Isle of Man used to control all of Galloway?
We were once the Kings of Ynys Manau and Galwyddel, but we were overrun by Gaels and Vikings.

And did you know that the Isle of Man has the longest running parliament in the world, set up in the mid 930's and even though the island has changed hands from Norway, Scotland, Its own kingdom, the Kingdom of the Isles and England, it is still running today as Tynwald

[Soulforged]

WAS THE MOONLANDING OF APPOLLO II FAKED

i think it was, take a closer look at the pic. the flag armstrong holds is up like a normal flag on earth would do with strong wind...but that cant in space. then why is the flag up. and there was sumthing weird bout their shadows too...though i cant really explain what

It sounds sort of conspiracy teory but here's one more strange fact:

In this picture you can't see the starts at all, it's all black, when in fact you should be able to see them.