Stuff you didn't know and probably don't care about

Page 3 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

renz20003

Platinum Member
Mar 14, 2011
2,684
606
136
I learned black people have their own version of the happy birthday song.
 

Charmonium

Diamond Member
May 15, 2015
8,787
2,297
136
The area code for Cape Canaveral is 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-area-code-at-cape-canaveral.htm

As the number of phones in the United States grew throughout the 1990s, phone companies and the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA) had to come up with new area codes to handle them all. In a rare instance of bureaucratic humor, the NANPA announced that the new area code for Brevard County, Florida, the home of Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center, would be 321, as in “3…2…1…Liftoff!"
Brevard County resident Robert Osband appeared before the Florida Public Service Commission to request this fitting and creative area code. Although the area code 321 had already been assigned to a suburb of Chicago, a little lobbying by the Florida PSC got the assignment changed. The Space Coast’s new area code became official on 1 November 1999.
 

Charmonium

Diamond Member
May 15, 2015
8,787
2,297
136
Only about 15% of the Sahara is covered in sand dunes.

Contrary to popular belief, the Sahara Desert of northern Africa does not consist entirely of towering sand dunes. In fact, only about 15 percent of the desert is covered in sand dunes. Instead, most of the desert is full of scrubby vegetation. The Sahara also contains many plateaus of bare rock, along with areas of gravel. The Sahara Desert stretches across parts of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Morocco, Tunisia, and Sudan.
People have lived in the areas surrounding the Sahara for millennia. There is evidence of groups living in Nubia during the Neolithic Era, beginning around 10,000 BC. Throughout recorded history, the area has contained trade routes and it was the center of the slave trade in the fourth and fifth centuries AD.
More about the Sahara Desert:

  • The surface area of the Sahara -- about 3.6 million square miles (9.4 million square km) — is comparable to the land mass of China or the United States.
  • The Nile and Niger Rivers are the only two permanent rivers in the Sahara. Both are fed by rainfall outside the desert’s boundaries.
  • The Sahara Desert usually sees about 8,200 hours of sunshine every year.

http://www.wisegeek.com/is-there-anywhere-in-the-sahara-desert-without-sand.htm
 

HamburgerBoy

Lifer
Apr 12, 2004
27,112
318
126
The most shoplifted food item is . . . Survey says . . .



Cheese. Yes, we are all rodents at heart.



http://www.wisegeek.com/what-food-do-people-most-often-steal-from-grocery-stores.htm

It's probably because people that eat a lot of cheap dairy products are subhuman pigs by definition, impulsive apes bathing in the shit while they veg out on tv all day. If you like Kraft Singles, you are an inferior being. If you are an inferior being, you are also more prone to being a shoplifting piece of shit. These people probably steal other things too, but they ALWAYS go by the dairy isle.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MrDudeMan

Charmonium

Diamond Member
May 15, 2015
8,787
2,297
136
It's probably because people that eat a lot of cheap dairy products are subhuman pigs by definition, impulsive apes bathing in the shit while they veg out on tv all day. If you like Kraft Singles, you are an inferior being. If you are an inferior being, you are also more prone to being a shoplifting piece of shit. These people probably steal other things too, but they ALWAYS go by the dairy isle.
But Kraft Singles don't denote the same level of moral turpitude as squeeze cheese. People who steal squeeze cheese are lower than the butt hairs on Satan's ass.
 

iCyborg

Golden Member
Aug 8, 2008
1,324
51
91
Only about 15% of the Sahara is covered in sand dunes.

The Sahara Desert usually sees about 8,200 hours of sunshine every year.
I wonder how they measure this, as it doesn't sound right: the theoretical max for any given point on Earth is <5000.
Is it perhaps how much time at least some part of Sahara is seeing Sun? This may be plausible, although even that seems like a stretch - 8,200 hours is ~342 full days a year, or 22h 30m per day on average. It's not like Sahara is ten timezones wide...
 

Charmonium

Diamond Member
May 15, 2015
8,787
2,297
136
I wonder how they measure this, as it doesn't sound right: the theoretical max for any given point on Earth is <5000.
Is it perhaps how much time at least some part of Sahara is seeing Sun? This may be plausible, although even that seems like a stretch - 8,200 hours is ~342 full days a year, or 22h 30m per day on average. It's not like Sahara is ten timezones wide...
It looks like it covers 3 time zones.

time_95.jpg


So 8 hours of sun per day times 3 time 365 = almost 20k hours. But they're probably excluding the overlap. In that case the theoretical maximum would be the average day length plus 1-2 hours in the morning and 1-2 hours in the evening.
 

iCyborg

Golden Member
Aug 8, 2008
1,324
51
91
I think the max is something like 4600 hours for any point. Let's even say it's 4 time zones and that the two points on the opposite sides both get ~4,600 hours. One is 4 hours behind, which would add 4x365 = ~1,500 more hours per year for the whole area, so still well below 8,200. Getting to 8,200 would require ~10 time zones (and we're assuming it never goes cloudy...).
So it's still a question what the heck does the number actually mean... The only meaningful data points would be either max yearly sunshine for some place in Sahara, or the average sunshine across Sahara, but neither can theoretically be close to 8,200hrs, and according to the above, even total time where at least some part of Sahara is seeing sunshine seems off.
 

Charmonium

Diamond Member
May 15, 2015
8,787
2,297
136
I can't get it to work either. I guess it could be a typo. I assume that they get their information from someplace and don't just make it up. But like Snapple cap factoids, if they don't double check their source, they're going to end up looking foolish from time to time.
 

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,348
3,426
126
I can't get it to work either. I guess it could be a typo. I assume that they get their information from someplace and don't just make it up. But like Snapple cap factoids, if they don't double check their source, they're going to end up looking foolish from time to time.

A quick google search shows a wide range of answers: from 3,000 to 8,000 but most are in the 3,500-4,500 range
 

Charmonium

Diamond Member
May 15, 2015
8,787
2,297
136
The Queen of England owns a Micky D's near Windsor Castle.

You want fries with that?

In the United Kingdom, the royal financial portfolio includes a retail park near Windsor Castle, a property that features a McDonald's restaurant. Queen Elizabeth II can even keep an eye on the investment, since the Bath Road Retail Park in Slough is visible from the Queen's quarters in Windsor Castle. The purchase, made by the Crown Estate in 2008, had a price tag of £92 million.
The Crown Estate is a semi-independent public entity that manages a large portfolio worth billions of pounds. It is one of the United Kingdom's largest property owners. However, Crown Estate property is not the private property of the reigning monarch, nor is it administered on her behalf.
McDonald's around the world:

  • McDonald's is the world's largest hamburger fast food chain, with more than 35,000 restaurants in 119 countries.
  • Ray Kroc bought the original burger joint from brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald in 1955. Kroc's first McDonald's restaurant was in Des Plaines, Illinois.
  • Unusual McDonald's locations include a military-only restaurant at Guantanamo Bay, a kosher McDonald's in the middle of Israel's Negev Desert, and a spaceship-shaped restaurant in Roswell, New Mexico.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-kinds-of-property-does-the-queen-of-england-own.htm
 

Charmonium

Diamond Member
May 15, 2015
8,787
2,297
136
The highest court in the land isn't what you thought, well . . .

The look of the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C. sets the tone -- serious business is done here, as reflected in the neoclassical design, with Roman columns guarding the entrance. But up on the fifth floor there is a spot where a Supreme Court justice can shed the iconic robe and slip into some sweats and sneakers. Known as “the highest court in the land,” the top floor of the Supreme Court Building, a National Historic Landmark, houses a small basketball gym.
The basketball court is one of the perks for justices, law clerks and anyone with game who might know somebody who knows somebody. Pick-up games are common at lunchtime, mostly among the many young law hopefuls who clerk at the Supreme Court.
Three points about the SCOTUS gym:

  • The late Justice Byron “Whizzer” White, a college football star at the University of Colorado, shot hoops in the “high court” into his 70's, sometimes going one-on-one with Justice Clarence Thomas.
  • Justice Thomas tore his Achilles tendon during a game in the gym; the injury ended his playing days.
  • A new floor was installed in 1984 and wooden backboards were replaced with Plexiglas in 1997. There aren't any benches, and the court is smaller than regulation size.

http://www.wisegeek.com/do-the-supreme-court-justices-play-any-sports.htm
 

Charmonium

Diamond Member
May 15, 2015
8,787
2,297
136
Penguins can drink sea water

If any wild animal is universally adored, it has to be the penguin. People seem to love their portly, torpedo-shaped bodies, striking black and white plumage, and their unintentionally hilarious waddling when on land. However, the penguin is uniquely designed for a life lived largely at sea. Since a penguin's diet consists primarily of seafood caught while swimming, it is inevitable that the birds will ingest seawater. To handle this, many marine birds have a gland near their eyes that efficiently filters out salt from the bloodstream. The salt is then excreted from the bird's body through the bill, making the bird appear to have a runny nose. Penguins frequently shake their heads to get the salt off their beaks, or they sneeze out the excess.

In general, however, penguins don't drink seawater to hydrate themselves. They usually drink from fresh water sources such as pools and snowmelt, or they eat fresh snow, in order to get an adequate amount of water. Penguins in captivity are usually kept in fresh water, and this doesn't seem to bother them. In fact, they seem to prefer fresh water when given the choice of where to swim.

More about the popular penguin:

  • In the summer, penguins eat about 2 pounds (.9 kg) of food each day. In the winter, they will consume about a third of that amount.
  • Unlike other birds, when penguins molt (lose their feathers), they lose them all at once, instead of gradually. The birds cannot swim or fish during this time, so they prepare by eating extra food to stock up on fat while they're grounded.
  • The penguin's black and white plumage provides excellent camouflage from any angle. When seen from above, their black backs blend in with the water, while their white bellies match the white sky when seen from below.
http://www.wisegeek.com/can-a-penguin-drink-salt-water.htm
 

Charmonium

Diamond Member
May 15, 2015
8,787
2,297
136
You're part caveman and it could affect your health (Yeah, smells like click bait but actually pretty interesting)

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/neandertal-dna-may-raise-risk-some-modern-human-diseases

Finding Neandertal ancestors in the human family tree was shocking enough when researchers announced it in 2010. Now the implications for modern-day people carrying surviving Neandertal DNA may prove just as stunning.

Today, Europeans and Asians carry, on average, between 1.5 percent and 4 percent Neandertal DNA. A flurry of new studies suggests that the genetic hand-me-downs may once have helped human newcomers adjust to their new homes. But these genetic bits and pieces may no longer be helpful, and may even raise the risk of depression, heart disease, some skin conditions, allergies and other maladies.

“There was, and still is, a lingering cost of having this admixture,” says John Capra, an evolutionary geneticist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
 

Svnla

Lifer
Nov 10, 2003
17,999
1,396
126
I do not know much about religious and don't care much to learn. Can't stand the extremists that use religious for their bad deeds/behaviors.
 

Nashemon

Senior member
Jun 14, 2012
889
86
91
It's probably because people that eat a lot of cheap dairy products are subhuman pigs by definition, impulsive apes bathing in the shit while they veg out on tv all day. If you like Kraft Singles, you are an inferior being. If you are an inferior being, you are also more prone to being a shoplifting piece of shit. These people probably steal other things too, but they ALWAYS go by the dairy isle.
Makes sense now why you're not known as CheeseburgerBoy. :p
 

gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,736
447
126
Did you know the most popular color for washers and dryers is... plain white? It's so popular that for some brands every shell gets painted white automatically on the line. The other colors are done on another line after this step, and are often sourced from the rejected white painted ones. So if you have a color other than white, chances are good that something was wrong with the initial white coat and was just painted over with color to save it.
 

ManyBeers

Platinum Member
Aug 30, 2004
2,519
1
81
that the US is about 15,278,854,359,859,200 sq.inches in area. and each sq. inch has app. 14.7 pounds of air pressure upon it. So the weight of the air above the us is app.
224,599,159,089,930,240 lbs. or 112,299,579,544,965.12 tons....I think
 
  • Like
Reactions: shortylickens

DrPizza

Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
Mar 5, 2001
49,606
166
111
www.slatebrookfarm.com
that the US is about 15,278,854,359,859,200 sq.inches in area. and each sq. inch has app. 14.7 pounds of air pressure upon it. So the weight of the air above the us is app.
224,599,159,089,930,240 lbs. or 112,299,579,544,965.12 tons....I think

Is that the continental US? Or all 50 states? Or all 50 states, plus DC and territories? And since you've reported it to the nearest 100 square inches, can we assume that the margin of error is within 2 or 3 square feet?
 

ManyBeers

Platinum Member
Aug 30, 2004
2,519
1
81
Is that the continental US? Or all 50 states? Or all 50 states, plus DC and territories? And since you've reported it to the nearest 100 square inches, can we assume that the margin of error is within 2 or 3 square feet?
Total area all 50 states. I guess that includes water. Probably pretty close yeah!