useless facts - Page 149

Ostfriese · 01-05-23, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Platapus

No one ever claimed that useless facts were pleasant.

That's both a statement and a useless fact

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Aktungbby · 01-05-23, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

The world’s most dangerous tree is called the manchineel.
This is native to the tropical southern North American and northern South America. Every part of the tree contains toxins that can cause blisters and skin breakouts on human skin just from touch.

Hardly useless facts to the Spanish Conquistadors in early 1500's Florida and the American Southeast. Dubbed "la manzanita de muerte" in Ponce de Leon's journals; Florida's fierce Calusa tribesmen used the tree's deadly sap, including a poisoned arrowhead that killed Ponce de Leon, to poison water sources in advance of the smallpox-infecting Euopean invaders which accounted for many Indian fatalities well into the 18th century's as touted by Sir Jeffery Amherst advocating infected blankets to eradicate Indians during his tenure as Governor of North America...IE: "biological warfare" meets "chemical warfare 101"...

??!!

Jimbuna · 01-05-23, 02:25 PM

Nicotine is poisonous to insects.

Platapus · 01-05-23, 04:38 PM

Good news ladies

On average, men have longer tongues than women at 8.4cm

Aktungbby · 01-05-23, 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Platypußy

Good news ladies

...an' they still can't get no satisfaction!

Aktungbby · 01-05-23, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Nicotine is poisonous to insects.

Ostfriese · 01-06-23, 01:45 AM

The human tongue is a muscle - the only muscle in the entire human body that's just connected to something else at a single point.
All other muscles have at least two connections to the rest of the body.

Jimbuna · 01-06-23, 06:40 AM

A plant that consumes rats can be found in the Philippines.

Platapus · 01-06-23, 03:57 PM

In US Clubs, only 8% of strippers are men, compared to 92% women.

Jimbuna · 01-07-23, 06:31 AM

The smell of freshly cut grass is noted to be the grass screaming in distress.
This smell is a chemical that grass uses to call other critters to come and rescue them. The chemical compounds that the plant releases can also be used to poison an enemy and alert surrounding plants.

Aktungbby · 01-07-23, 12:06 PM

In today's paper: the US state department says it has adopted Turkey's preferred spelling of the country's name: Republic of TURKIYE. So I'd guess in our bilateral communications with our ally Erdogan who keeps the Russian warships from transiting Bosphorus, even as he shelters oligarchs superyachts, we're now 'talkin' Turkiye'...

NATO and the United Nations had already switched last year.

Ostfriese · 01-07-23, 02:14 PM

The ancient Romans only knew honey as a sweetener (which was even back then an expensive commodity). For a long time, especially during the imperal time (starting in the first century BC) they also used something they called defrutum.

This was produced by pouring wine into bowls made from lead, then putting it into the sun. After a while only a syrup (or even white crystals) were left which tasted sweet and where used to sweeten wine (Roman wine was much more acidic than modern wines and contained less alcohol).

Unfortunately, defrutum was not just sugar. The heat and bacteria oxidised the alcohol (ethanol) first to acetaldehyde (ethanal) and then to vinegar (acidic acid), which reacts with lead to lead(II)acetate, a white, crystalline substance which has a sweet taste. High amounts of lead can even today be found in skeletal remains of ancient Romans.

Sources from the Roman time suggest that there was an unusually high rate of infertility among the higher classes - infertility is one of the consequences of lead poisoning.

Lead acetate was used to sweeten wine for centuries and the practice only ended halfway through the 19th century when the toxicity of lead compounds became fully understood.

Jimbuna · 01-07-23, 03:30 PM

Baby kangaroos are born the size of an inch.

Aktungbby · 01-07-23, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ostfriese

Sources from the Roman time suggest that there was an unusually high rate of infertility among the higher classes - infertility is one of the consequences of lead poisoning.

So much for the defrutum of my lecherous vino-ways!

Nuthins' worse than a case of E.D. at at a 'toga party'...!?

Platapus · 01-08-23, 06:50 AM

Tuvan throat singers can produce as many as four pitches simultaneously. The result is a singer that can effectively sing two or more notes at once – literally harmonizing with himself or her self.

01-05-23, 02:25 PM	#2223
Jimbuna Chief of the Boat Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: 250 metres below the surface Posts: 181,375 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 13	Nicotine is poisonous to insects. __________________ Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. Oh my God, not again!! GWX3.0 Download Page - Donation/instant access to GWX (Help SubSim)

01-05-23, 04:38 PM	#2224
Platapus Fleet Admiral Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 18,985 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 0	Good news ladies On average, men have longer tongues than women at 8.4cm __________________ abusus non tollit usum - A right should NOT be withheld from people on the basis that some tend to abuse that right.

01-06-23, 06:40 AM	#2228
Jimbuna Chief of the Boat Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: 250 metres below the surface Posts: 181,375 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 13	A plant that consumes rats can be found in the Philippines. __________________ Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. Oh my God, not again!! GWX3.0 Download Page - Donation/instant access to GWX (Help SubSim)

01-06-23, 03:57 PM	#2229
Platapus Fleet Admiral Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 18,985 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 0	In US Clubs, only 8% of strippers are men, compared to 92% women. __________________ abusus non tollit usum - A right should NOT be withheld from people on the basis that some tend to abuse that right.

01-07-23, 06:31 AM	#2230
Jimbuna Chief of the Boat Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: 250 metres below the surface Posts: 181,375 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 13	The smell of freshly cut grass is noted to be the grass screaming in distress. This smell is a chemical that grass uses to call other critters to come and rescue them. The chemical compounds that the plant releases can also be used to poison an enemy and alert surrounding plants. __________________ Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. Oh my God, not again!! GWX3.0 Download Page - Donation/instant access to GWX (Help SubSim)

01-06-23, 01:45 AM	#2227
Ostfriese Ace of the Deep Join Date: May 2004 Location: Northern Germany Posts: 1,178 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	The human tongue is a muscle - the only muscle in the entire human body that's just connected to something else at a single point. All other muscles have at least two connections to the rest of the body.

01-07-23, 12:06 PM	#2231
Aktungbby Gefallen Engel U-666 Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: On a tilted, overheated, overpopulated spinning mudball on Collision course with Andromeda Galaxy Posts: 27,970 Downloads: 22 Uploads: 0	REMEMBER to cross that 'T' and dot that new 'i' BBY! In today's paper: the US state department says it has adopted Turkey's preferred spelling of the country's name: Republic of TURKIYE. So I'd guess in our bilateral communications with our ally Erdogan who keeps the Russian warships from transiting Bosphorus, even as he shelters oligarchs superyachts, we're now 'talkin' Turkiye'... NATO and the United Nations had already switched last year. __________________ "Only two things are infinite; The Universe and human squirrelyness; and I'm not too sure about the Universe"

01-07-23, 02:14 PM	#2232
Ostfriese Ace of the Deep Join Date: May 2004 Location: Northern Germany Posts: 1,178 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	The ancient Romans only knew honey as a sweetener (which was even back then an expensive commodity). For a long time, especially during the imperal time (starting in the first century BC) they also used something they called defrutum. This was produced by pouring wine into bowls made from lead, then putting it into the sun. After a while only a syrup (or even white crystals) were left which tasted sweet and where used to sweeten wine (Roman wine was much more acidic than modern wines and contained less alcohol). Unfortunately, defrutum was not just sugar. The heat and bacteria oxidised the alcohol (ethanol) first to acetaldehyde (ethanal) and then to vinegar (acidic acid), which reacts with lead to lead(II)acetate, a white, crystalline substance which has a sweet taste. High amounts of lead can even today be found in skeletal remains of ancient Romans. Sources from the Roman time suggest that there was an unusually high rate of infertility among the higher classes - infertility is one of the consequences of lead poisoning. Lead acetate was used to sweeten wine for centuries and the practice only ended halfway through the 19th century when the toxicity of lead compounds became fully understood. Last edited by Ostfriese; 01-08-23 at 01:55 AM. Reason: removed some typos

01-07-23, 03:30 PM	#2233
Jimbuna Chief of the Boat Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: 250 metres below the surface Posts: 181,375 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 13	Baby kangaroos are born the size of an inch. __________________ Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. Oh my God, not again!! GWX3.0 Download Page - Donation/instant access to GWX (Help SubSim)

01-08-23, 06:50 AM	#2235
Platapus Fleet Admiral Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 18,985 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 0	Tuvan throat singers can produce as many as four pitches simultaneously. The result is a singer that can effectively sing two or more notes at once – literally harmonizing with himself or her self. __________________ abusus non tollit usum - A right should NOT be withheld from people on the basis that some tend to abuse that right.