Aspies For Freedom

I thought i'd post a topic with some of the weirdest facts i've ever heard, some may be a little gross and/or repulsive, hence i will not post pictures or additional information, just to warn the sensitive readers.
So, here i go, and feel free to add!

Did you know that humans sneeze at the speed of sound? We exhale air through our noses at such speed, it's litterally a small sonic boom!

Did you know there's a variety of sealife that spits it's own organs out to eat it's prey? Many have probably heard/seen this on tv, but they also use it to scare off intruders. (pretty effective in my eyes)

*icky fact, readers beware*

Did you know that in the US, during the 70s, a group of scientists successfully transplanted monkey heads? From the projects, much of our current brain knowlege was formed, though the animals did not suffer, it was still seen as the most controversial project ever in the scientific history book.


Did you know that there are jets that can fly backwards? A privateer pilot in russia modded his MiG 29 with special jets, he can fly backwards and turn so much, if he didn't adapt the rest of his plane, he'd pull over 20 G's!

Did you know that a simple spider's web has relatively more strength than tensile steel? Scientists have been researching on how to recreate the substance, they've come quite a ways, but not far enough yet it seems!

Did you know that the US has been working on an anti-tank weapon made from a toy and a frying pan principle...? By mounting a copper container with a lid with 3 feet in diameter on a remote-controlled vehicle, they have successfully blown up a fully-armored sheridan tank to bits! However, the vehicle itself was destroyed during the launch, making millions of dollars in research...useless.


*icky fact*

did you know that every human has about 250,000 insects living on their body? Yeah.. i was kinda shocked, untill i learned they're the reason it's unhealthy to bathe too often: These buggers eat the bacteria on our skin, as well as most residue. Since they have no regular digestive system, they're the cleanest lifeform known to man, and they're invisible too! Score!



Did you know that there's a machinegun smaller than a human's hand, that can still be fired? Someone built a working miniature of a mounted chaincannon, which is about 15 cm (6 inches) long, and can spew about 100 bullets per minute (i hope they're rubber, he'd need a permit if it wasn't!)


Did you know a scientist developed a machine to measure nothing? The energyform is known as null, or null-matter, it's the space that can be found between atoms, and unlike the former named particle, this can most likely be spliced without a big bang.


I'll keep posting these facts as i hear them, all things are possible, and keep an eye out for the weirdness!

Thanks Reyima!  I love weird factoids. :grin:

Did you know there's a kind of bacteria that basically excretes electricity?

Also, I don't know if these count as 'freaky', but they're two of my favorite facts:

Emperor penguins can dive to over 800 feet deep.

The arctic tern migrates 22,000 miles year round, from the artic to the antarctic and back again.



Maybe you can tell ornithology is one of my special interests.   :grin:

The ancient Greeks and the Klamath Native North Americans have almost exactly the same root meaning "to blow."  (pneu- in greek, pniw- in Klamath).  The two languages are totally unrelated, and there is absolutely no possibility of it being borrowed.  

The first person to try and transliterate the Mayan writing system was Diego de Landa, who thought it was alphabetic.  Speaking with a scribe, he took down 27 glyphs that sounded the same as the letters of the spanish alphabet. The script contains 550 signs for whole words, and 150 signs for syllables.  300 glyphs were commonly used.  

People still refused to believe that the Mayan system represented a real language.  It was not until 1950 that Yuri Valentinovich Knorosov proposed that the script was at least partly phonetic, and that it represented the Yucatec Mayan language.  This was soundly rejected until his breakthrough became undeniable.  

This isn't wierd, but it's surprising to most westerners: the Mayans had their own manuscripts.  Today, after 400 years of disuse, the descendants of the Maya are learning and using the script once again.  

St. Cyril did not invent Cyrillic--he invented Glagolitic, a mostly original alphabet possibly inspired by Greek cursive.  Cyrillic is believed to have been invented by St. Kliment, and the earliest material is from two hundred years after that of Glagolitic.  

The big bang would have created exactly equal amounts of matter and anti-matter.  When the two come into contact they annihilate.  The excess of matter is a hotly debated issue; one theory concerns the fact that antimatter decays to its stable form more quickly--which is of lesser mass.

Ahhh.. nice facts! Let's see if i can add some!
]
*icky fact*

Did you know that a rodent like hamsters, mice and rats almost all die of the same disorder at old age? They usually die of a heart- attack! Because of their heart-rate (which is at least a dozen times faster than that of a human!) they tend to have attack fast, in return, if it gets to cold, they'll freeze to death because their heart rate slows down, and blood circulation isn't fast enough.

*another icky fact*

Did you know a human eats an average of 6800 bugs and spiders a year? Yeah... it's the reason some of us don't need midnight-snacks... we eat whilst we sleep.

*third icky fact*

Did you know there's an inventor who died because of his own invention?
Yep, it's proffessor Guillotine. Bet he didn't see that coming!

Did you know that despite common belief, Holland isn't a branch-off of germany?  Many people believe that germany was there first, but this is not the case, before either country existed, only the reaches of north holland(not the province) and germany where properly inhabited by large cultural tribes and later small kingdoms, the two peoples segregated, one became the ancient Frieslanders(who in turn became the Dutch) and the others the Germans.

Hmmm...my first guinea pig died of something that looked to me like a heart attack; the other one, on the day before he died, started wheezing so loudly I though I was hearing the neighbor's leaf blower; later he seemed to go into a kind of semi-coma.  Poor sweet little things...they lived long lives & didn't suffer too long, fortunately.  Neither was allowed to get chilled, either; it just was their time.

Yikes, how does anyone come up with an estimate of that?!  I'd heard something like this before but assumed it was an urban legend.  Anyway, it doesn't stop ME from wanting to snack, darn it all... :mad:  

:lol:

One more for the night...

*icky fact*

Did you know there's at least one case of an anaconda swallowing a hippo? No one is sure whether or not it was a full-grown, but it weighed several hundred kilos already, they found the snake regurgitating it's meal.

I would imagine the Q-T wave prolongation caused by high plasma levels of a local anaesthetic (I.E coke) would stop your heart FAR before your colon rotted.

What will do that to you, is opiates, damn constipation, I haven't taken a shit in weeks (well we are talking gross facts here :razz: ), but then again, I have been in more or less a coma for one, and haven't eaten much due to my anxiety.

I do hope it won't be one of those ones with sharp edges :oops:


Wierd facts? there are a family of bacteria, seperate from both the Eukaryotes and Prokaryotes, the Archaea, mostly living in extreme environments, such as superheated jets of toxic sulfurous gases at the bottom of marine trenches, the Archaea, have genetic characteristics of both sets of life.

There is also a small snail type organism, also living in the hadopelagic/marine trench depth zone, that actually metabolises iron containing compounds, and produces a shell composed of metallic Fe.

Lot of wierd things down there, someone needs to send Bush, Blair and their associated vermin down there.

Someone once strapped an expanded polystyrene foam cup to a deep sea probe, and it came back crushed to a TINY size, I can scarecly imagine what would happen to G.W.Bush's head.......

The last one's pretty obvious, leeches use a strong natural sedative to numb the nerves around the area it leeches, the largest leech found was over 87centimetres long, and was attached to an elephant, both the leech and elephant died within weeks after this was recorded though.
Anywho: Did you know that the druids didn't build stonehenge? It's 2000 years older than they are, and was most likely constructed by the ancient Brits!

Like the language stuff.

On the micro-orgs on the body (sure they're insects and not protazoans) we also have little mites (crustaceans) in the roots of our eyelashes.   It really disturbs me (my biology book had a picture), and I'd like to remove them health or not, but I'm nto aware there's a way.

I'm sure I have some weird stuff to share but can't think of much right now.

Oh, did you know that English is the most commonly spoken language in the world?
Second most common native language, but there are a lot of people who learn it and use it for transactions.

According to the Guiness book of world records, the language known to have the most irregular verbs is English (numbering in the high hundereds).  The spoken langage to have the least is Esperanto, with zero, and the natural language with the least is Turkish, with only the verb "to be" irregular.

Also from Guiness: the average person has the capacity to learn and maintain approximately 20 languages at once, but almost nobody makes use of this ability.  The record was somewhere in the 20s, a British linguist.

The "Y" used in middle English signs, (such as "Ye old x") actually represented the letter þorn, today "th."  Y was also commonly used in printing, since the first types were imported from a continental Europe that generally did not use the "þ" sound.

Druids were a class of Celtic society, and comprised the priests, philosophers, bards, and lawyers.  

The Celts once ranged over nearly all of Europe; the earliest identifiably celtic center is Hallstatt, in Austria.  

The Celts were an extremely powerful warrior culture; Julius Caesar himself often commented favorably on their military prowess, and even admitted that, had the celts been better organized, the Romans would have been defeated.  

In the case of the Celtiberians (guess where they lived) he was especially impressed by their boats, which were swift, and very maneuverable.  Remains of what are thought to be celtiberian boats have been found as far afield as New England.

And the Celtiberians were right next to the anscestors of the Basques, who supposedly fished in Grand Banks.

Always thought it'd be interesting if the Euskara speakers were the first sustained contact with the Americas rather than the Latin Speakers, especially if they came around Hiawatha's time.

My Scottish Grandmother used to say: "May you be in Heaven a half hour before the devil know's you're dead."  
Advice to live by!
Alison

Middle English used the Latin Alphabet with a few borrowed characters, such as Thorn and the one that made the "w" sound.

The Y (Used in MidE more or less as in modern English) was used as a substitute for thorn when unavailable.

Though I read that in a history of the English language somewhere.  I'm always amazed how much topical histories can get messed up (no joke).

Did you know that Satanists do not actually worship Satan, or do not revere him as a literal being?

So next time someone tells you they are a Satanist, do not throw a hissy fit.

Just a reminder for one of the forum users. :grin: