Historical Facts as the year draws to an end.

This year was the tenth year of me writing this blog. As 2022 draws to an end, I thought some probably true historical facts could be amusing as the next entry will be on January 2^nd 2023. So thanks for reading, have a great new years eve, as well as a safe and great week, and I'll see you all next year!

-From 1912 to 1948, the Olympic Games held competitions in the fine arts and awarded medals.

-Napoleon Bonaparte was attacked by a horde of angry bunnies during a rabbit hunt.

-The owners of the Titanic never claimed the ship was unsinkable, despite what the press said.

-Mary actually existed and she owned a little lamb.

-Nixon was a skilled musician and could play the piano, saxophone, clarinet, accordion, and violin.

-In 1830 ketchup was sold as indigestion medicine.

-Abraham Lincoln is in the wrestling hall of fame and was a licensed bartender.

-No one was burned in Salem for being a witch. Most were jailed and a few were hanged, but no one burned.

-Walt Disney was cremated, not frozen.

-Before the drink Bloody Mary was called such, it was called Red Snapper and before that, A Bucket of Blood.

-In 1917, four years before women in the U.S. could vote, one woman was elected to Congress.

-Machu Picchu was built in 1450. The Tower of London was built in 1078.

-The shortest war in history is the Anglo-Zanzibar War which happened on August 27, 1896 and lasted 38 minutes.

-Tablecloths were originally designed to function as communal napkins to be used by all the dinner guests at once.

-100 million years ago, there were galloping crocodiles in what is now the Sahara Desert.

-Oliver Cromwell banned eating pie, claiming that is was too pagan.

-It is estimated that about 97% of history is lost in time.

-Even mentioning Genghis Khan in the Soviet union was illegal.

-The year 46 BC was 445 days long and included two leap months. Julius Caesar arranged this to make his new Julian calendar sync up.

-The worlds oldest still functioning parliament in the Islandic Althing which was started in 930.

 

Trivia Time

Did you know that the moon has a bishop?

Well, it does. According to Catholic law, newly discovered territory falls under the jurisdiction of the bishop from whence the expedition left. Since the Kennedy Space Center is in the Orlando bishopric, the bishop of Orlando is also the moon bishop.

This makes the Orlando bishopric the biggest one in the Catholic Church, by quite a margin. The moon's surface is after all about 38 million square kilometers (14.6 square miles).

Speaking of space stuff, did you know that the reason why we count down on New Years Eve has it's roots in the space race?

It turns out that before the U.S. put its first man in space, countdowns weren't very common. But with Alan Shepard going to space on May 5^th 1961, America got space fever and since the launch and indeed all launches have a countdown, people started to countdown lots of things.

But why do the space launches have countdowns? They are practical, sure, but it turns out there is a specific reason. You see, the man who headed up the U.S. space program was a man called Wernher von Braun who was a rocket expert. He got his expertise from designing and building V2 rockets for Hitler. Then after the Americans grabbed him under Operation Paperclip he went to work for NASA. Well, von Braun's favorite movie was Girl in the Moon (1929) by Fritz Lang.

Lang is of course better known for his Metropolis (1927) and M (1931), but interestingly his Girl in the Moon, although science fiction, got a surprising amount of the science part correct. So correct that the Nazis tried to suppress it for security reasons. One of the less relevant parts were countdowns before launches, which von Braun liked so much that he wanted them at his real life launches and then their popularity soared.

Another interesting part around the New Years Eve countdown is the dropping ball. You have probably seen footage of Times Square in NYC, right? Ball drops, people count down and then sing Auld Lang Syne.

The ball has nothing to do with space though. It has to do with maritime navigation. Observatories like Greenwich had them to show mariners when it was exactly midday so that they could set their watches and not sail off course. Since observatories usually aren't directly on the coast, but always up high on hills, the ball was easily visible from far away. Today, it's not a common practice, but a dropping sphere was a common symbol for an exact moment back in the day, and this way it's still relevant, if only a little.

Well that's it for me. A small bit of trivia to start the week with, and until next time, have yourself a great week!

How in the World...

Just about everyone runs across a scammer sooner or later in their lives. I myself recently got another phishing mail concerning a game account that I reported to Google. Scams like this are shotgun scams, fire off enough at once and someone might get hit.

Phone scammers are usually more targeted, but in the following story, our wannabe criminal mastermind should have done his research.

Meet our scammer, a 29 year old Jamaican man called Thomas. He called up 94 years old William Webster and told him he had won $15.5 million as well as a brand new Mercedes-Benz. All Webster had to do was pay $50.000 for tax, and the money would be his. There was only one tiny problem, Mr. Webster is the only person ever, who has served as director of both the FBI and the CIA...

Unsurprisingly, Webster smelled a rat and called the feds. Then Thomas, annoyed at not having gotten his 50k called again and threatened Websters wife. Bad idea.

In 2017, Thomas flew to New York unaware that the FBI was waiting, and in the end Thomas got 71 months in prison.

Not all old people are befuddled and easy to scam.

Back in 1995, a Canadian got on the news due to his name; Dick Assman. (pronounced OSS-men). The name is not the whole reason why he got on the news, it was because he wanted a vanity license plate that read ASSMAN, which the authorities refused, as they considered it rude out of context. Not one to give up easily, Dick instead got a huge green decal on the back of his pick-up that says:

    -Saskatchewan-

        ASSMAN

-Land of Living Skies-

The authorities are apparently okay with this, calling it a satisfying resolution, as they have no power over decals. Go Assman!

Also in Canada, a 69 year old woman, Seungae Kim, who owns/runs a convenience store was the subject of an attempted robbery. She was eating a banana as the masked assailant walked in and as he threatened her, she grabbed the nearest thing she could get her hands on, a bunch of bananas, and smacked him in the face. Repeatedly. As he fled the store, she continued to pelt him with more bananas. When the police showed up, she said she was more concerned with protecting her husband than the money in the till.

Finally in Connecticut, USA, a woman was arrested for driving under the influence. No actual drugs or alcohol was found in her car as such, except several bottles of vanilla extract that she had guzzled. The essence of vanilla is suspended in alcohol, and if you drink enough, you get wasted. How she stomached all that strong vanilla, I have no idea, but I suppose she was a sweet person...

That is that, join me again next time and until then, have a safe week!

The scariest stuff

Hello and welcome to another Eccentric Sphere.

Today we talk about the craziest chemical I have ever heard of. It's so weird that it actually fits this blog really well.

It's called Chlorine trifluoride. If you ever see a sign with those two words on it, walk the other way.

Chlorine trifluoride was invented in the 1930's by German scientists who called it N-Stoff, or Substance-N. The Nazis were actually considering using it as a weapon, but ultimately thought it was too scary to use. Wrap your head around that....

Okay, so what's so dramatic about this gunk? Well, it burns what can't burn, while gassing the entire area and corroding what's left. I could copy-paste a lot of chemical jargon here, but the payoff is that this stuff is nuts. Chlorine trifluoride can be safely stored in containers made from steel, copper or nickel but that's about it. The stuff reacts with the metal and forms a surface of fluoride, which makes it safe. If you try to store it in anything else, you are screwed.

What Chlorine trifluoride does is burn. It burns everything, including glass, concrete, asbestos and things that have already burned – like ashes. It explodes in contact with water, even just moist air. It is so combustible that it ignites without an ignition source. The only recorded spill leaked out 900kg of the horror which burned through 30 cm of concrete and 90 cm of gravel underneath.

Once Chlorine trifluoride is on fire, only noble gasses like helium or nitrogen can put it out. Oxygen suppressors like halon or CO2 are useless as N-Stoff merrily keeps burning anyway, it produces that much oxygen on its own. Essentially, it burns better than pure oxygen.

This nasty stuff boils at 11.75 degrees Celsius (53 F) and it burns at a temperature of 2400 C (4352 F). 2400 Celsius is more than it may sound. Lava is about 1300 C, an steel melts at 1370 C. These temperatures combined with its ability to easily burn the nonburnable, means that a Chlorine trifluoride fire can't be contained.

To make matters even worse, (I told you this was bad) when Substance-N burns, it releases large amounts of acidic gas, namely hydrofluoric acid and hydrochloric acid. Both of these acids are extremely dangerous, and when released in gas form, will corrode or kill everything in the area. Everything that's not on fire, that is. It even corrodes gold, platinum and iridium, which are all extremely resistant to corrosion.

So, why does this chemical horror exist? Well, as I mentioned above, the Nazis wanted to use it as a weapon, but couldn't figure out how. Then, after the war, they considered using it as rocket fuel, since it burns so very well, and with no ignition time to speak of. NASA quickly decided that accidents when using rockets are dangerous enough as it is, without adding Chlorine trifluoride to the mix. One rocket scientist was asked what the best thing to use was when Substance-N spills. His answer: “A good pair of running shoes”.

Chlorine trifluoride is however used as a cleaning agent in the semiconductor industry, as well as a cleaning agent in Uranium power plants.

There we go, and that's all for today. Join me again next time and until then, have a great (and safe) week!

Does it exist?

Today we are looking at things and concepts thought to exist that actually don't.

Let's start off nice and easy with a woman called Lillian Virginia Mountweazel. Mountweazel was a fountain designer turned mailbox photographer, who died tragically in an explosion while doing a piece for the Combustibles magazine.

If you've never heard of Miss Mountweazel, it's because she was invented in 1975 for the New Columbia Encyclopedia, as a trap for anyone who just copies and reprints the encyclopedia with another name.

This kind of trap placing is common amongst map makers, who like to invent towns that aren't there.

Educators have argued for years how best to teach children. Some say that one way is best, others argue that it's highly individual. New research shows that while children (and adults) have a preferred way of learning, i.e. visual, spatial, verbal, a combination of several etc, no way is actually better or worse.

A study done tested a bunch of kids and no matter which way they were taught, they learned and retained the information at the same rate. So, the notion that you learn better one way may not exist.

In a similar vein as the children above, it seems that there is no such thing as true multitasking. While some people are better than others at splitting their attention between different projects at the same time, they are just giving each project less attention overall.

There is only so much brain power to go around, and the more you split it up, the worse you do.

In a fascinating twist, listening to music can help you concentrate with reading and writing as long as there are no lyrics. Pure music and language are processed in different parts of the brain, so they don't compete. But add song, and the text you're reading gets harder to process.

Speaking of the brain, photographic memory is also a myth. Some people have better memories than others, but that's it. One of the most famous tests of photographic memory was conducted by a scientist who refused to replicate the test and instead married his test subject, so make of that what you will.

Finally we get to a controversial subject. Gluten free diets.

While it is medically proven that some people have celiac disease and can't eat gluten without getting sick, tests indicate that being intolerant to gluten without having celiac disease is not possible. In-depth tests have been done with groups being fed diets containing high, medium and no amounts of gluten. The subjects did not know when they were eating which diet, and when interviewed they reported feeling ill at any stage of the test, even when eating the gluten free food.

It would seem the multibillion dollar gluten free market is more interested in keeping people buying their products than telling the truth... Go figure, right? In any case, eat what you want, it's no business of mine.

That's that. Until next time, have a great week, and keep on existing!

Did you know?

Here we are, Monday morning and it is time for more Eccentric Spheres.

Today we look at fun facts from around the world, mostly because it's been a long time since I did that.

So, sit back and enjoy.

Did you know that the simple strawberry is in the same family as roses? And that it's not actually a berry at all? In fact, the strawberry is a so called aggregate accessory fruit. The watermelon on the other hand is a berry, as are tomatoes and bananas.

That the Kennedy family has money is hardly a surprise, but did you know that JFK's upbringing was so privileged that he didn't know about the Great Depression until he read about it in college, even though he grew up in it?

Most of you are probably familiar with a small Mexican cartoon mouse called Speedy Gonzales. What you may not be familiar with is that Cartoon Network banned him for being racially insensitive until the League of United Latin American Citizens insisted they bring him back, since they considered the mouse a cultural icon.

Fred Flintstone and the other characters live in the town of Bedrock. There is a Bedrock in Colorado, and they get so many letters addressed to the Hanna-Barbera figures they had to make a separate stamp that says “Return to sender – Fictitious Cartoon Character."

Originally, Superman couldn't fly. Thus the 'Able to leap tall building is a single bound'. Later on, the animators thought it looked stupid and petitioned to let him fly instead.

When WWII ended, the Russians partied so hard Moscow ran out of vodka.

Back in the day, Adriana Ferrarese del Bene was a very popular singer, but Mozart despised her for her habit of lowering her head on low notes and raising it on the high ones. So he wrote a song with multiple quick alternating highs and lows, just to ”see her head bob like a chicken.”

When We Are The World was being recorded, Stevie Wonder informed arriving singers that if they didn't get the song on the first try, he and Ray Charles would be driving everyone home.

The reason why Bic has a hole in their pen caps is to eliminate the risk of suffocation if the cap is accidentally inhaled.

Apparently, spiders have a taste in music. An experiment at Miami University showed that when rap and techno was played, the spider moved their webs as far away as possible, but they moved closer when Bach was played. I feel the same way...

There we go, ten things you might not have known. Until next week, take it easy!

Rumors & Scandals

History is full of famous people, and famous people attract rumors.

Along with rumors comes scandal and mystery. Today we'll look at some of these and try to dismiss some of these unfounded rumors and replace them with facts.

Jane Austen, celebrated author of Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, Mansfield Park and others, died in 1817 at only 41 years of age. Some people have speculated that she died from cancer, others say that she was murdered, but the most logical explanation is accidental arsenic poisoning. In her letters, she often complained of rheumatism, which was commonly treated with Fowler's Solution, which contained large amounts of arsenic. The Jane Austen Society claims to have tested a lock of her hair and found traces of the poison. We'll never know for sure, but considering how even mercury was used as a medicine, it's not far fetched at all to believe she poisoned herself by accident.

The year is 1963. John F. Kennedy is in Berlin, giving a speech. He utters the line “Ich bin ein Berliner.” People think the President called himself a doughnut, right?

Wrong.

People never thought that. Not only is context important, and they certainly knew what he meant, but the delicious deep fried treat known as a Berliner isn't called that in Berlin. In Berlin, Brandenburg, Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony it is called Pfannkuche, or pancake. What we know as a pancake is in turn called Eierkuche, or egg-cake. Go figure, but in any case, no one thought Kennedy was calling himself a deep fried, jam-filled doughnut.

Players of trivia games and pub-quizzes have probably been asked the question: Who discovered Australia? And the answer is invariably: Captain James Cook.

Yeah, that's not true either. Cook mapped out and explored Australia more than anyone else had up to that point, but the continent was well known at that time. It's not know for certain, but the likeliest candidate for discovering Australia is the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon.

Walt Disney wasn't frozen after his death, he was cremated. Says so on his death certificate.

Julius Caesar wasn't born through a caesarian. His mother lived a long life, and that was not possible after a c-section in those days. The name comes from Lex Caesarea, and states that the baby's life must be saved if the mother is dead or dying.

Catherine the Great, also know as Catherine II of Russia, did not die from having sex with a horse. This is a malicious rumor spread by her enemies, possibly her own son (they didn't get along). She was found dead on her bathroom floor, probably from a stroke, and there were no horses anywhere to be found. Anyone who gets to legitimately call themselves “the Great” will have jealous enemies, and that's how these rumor start.

Finally, Queen Victoria. One of the few people in history who have an age named after them. Contrary to popular belief, she was not a prude, she just knew what to do in public and what to do in private. Her marriage to Prince Albert was indeed passionate, after all they had nine children. She owned a rather large collection of artful nudes, some of which she gave to Albert on his birthday to loosen him up a bit. Her diaries were essentially censored to preserve the image of the prim and proper queen. That's not a prude...

Amusing extra: During WWI, the German Kaiser said, “If grandmother was alive, she never would have allowed this.” He was referring to the war, and since the King of England, the Russian Tzar and the Kaiser were all cousins and grandchildren to Victoria, I'm sure she would have had some stern words for the rowdy grandkids.

That's it for today, folks. I'll see you next time, and until then, have a great week!

Tasty but Terrible

Christmas time is almost upon us, and while traditions vary around the world and from family to family, one thing remains as a common thread: food.

Fear not, I'm not about to share X-mas recipes, nor am I about to spoil Christmas. However, this is Eccentric Spheres and I'm going to take a dive into odd and scary food facts, and you're all coming with me...

It's a common fact that vegetables are healthy, right? Sure, but they might just kill you.

In 2015, an elderly German couple made a tasty stew from zucchinis that they had received as a gift from a friend. They both complained that the stew was unusually bitter, but the man ate the whole plate anyway. They both succumbed to cucurbitacin poisoning, that hospitalized them both, and ultimately killed him.

Spinach, cucumbers and peas have all been responsible for spreading E. coli, botulism and salmonella in recent years, but these are unusual cases, stemming from improper handling and storing, so no need to worry. Potatoes are another matter entirely, however.

The potato plant is a relative to Deadly Nightshade and is terribly toxic, that's why no one ever eats anything but the actual potatoes themselves. Fun Fact: tomatoes are also a part of this family so, do not eat any part except the fruit.

Anyway, in 2013, a Russian professor went down to the basement to fetch something. When he failed to return, his wife went down to see where he was. Then their son and the professor's mother went down, and they all died. A sack of rotten potatoes had created an atmosphere so toxic that it incapacitated and killed them all.

Then we have the case of the British fork lift operator who challenged his brother-in-law to a chili eating contest. He won the contest, but paid dearly as he later complained of acute discomfort and itching. He was found dead the following morning from a heart attack, even though he was in perfect health and had no pre-existing heart condition. Apparently he has ingested so much capsaicin from the challenge that he developed an allergic reaction, which did him in. Everything in moderation, kids.

Now, if these gruesome tales have soured your disposition towards vegetables, to the point of panic, you may be suffering from Lachanophobia, or fear of vegetables.

Other relevant phobias are:

Oenophobia – fear of wine

Deipnophobia – fear of dining and dinner conversations

Mageirocophobia – fear of cooking

Xocolatophobia – fear of chocolate

Ichtyophobia – fear of fish and fish related things

Arachibutyrophobia – fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth

and finally:

Cibophobia – fear of food.

Now Cibophobes can't survive without eating and it's rare even within the small number of people who suffer from this that it's a blanket fear. Usually it's about being unable to eat a specific combination of foods or food cooked by someone else. It varies, but is usually treated promptly and with great care, since the sufferer can in worst case scenario, starve to death.

Well, with that out of the way, it only remains to wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday or which ever festivity you may choose to celebrate or not. In any case, until next time, have a great week and watch what you eat.

Bad Medicine

A month or so ago, my wife and I saw an interview with two young mothers in Finland (my country) who likes to not only drink Colloidal Silver Water themselves, but also give it to their babies. The reason being that silver kills most bacteria on contact, so ergo, it's good for you.

But, many topical treatments have a label that says “Not for internal use”. This is a pretty useful warning, since no one would eat Icy-Hot or some other muscle relaxing gel, right? Anyway, at best silver water does nothing for you and at worst it will give you Argyria and kill you. On top of that, silver water is ridiculously expensive. Researchers have found no benefits from drinking silver beyond the placebo effect, so please, don't do it.

It got me thinking about other weird things people have taken for medicinal purposes, and that's what today's topic is all about. Bad medicine.

In the early 1900's Radium water was all the rage in certain circles. No one seems really sure why anyone thought Radium was good for you, but like Colloidal Silver water, “it's good for what ails you.”

Eben Byers, a wealthy industrialist from Pittsburgh started drinking Radium when his doctor suggested it, and by 1930, he had several holes in his skull, multiple cancers and most of his jaw had fallen off. Very healthy...

During the first half of the 20^th century, doctors used to prescribe one of the most powerful painkillers in history for pretty much anything you could possibly complain about. The painkiller? Heroin of course! In no time flat, there were desperate addicts everywhere, clamoring for another dose from their doctor, which is why it's illegal to own today.

This brings us nicely to Mrs Winslow's Soothing Syrup. Popular around the late 1800's and early 1900's as a cure-all for babies and small children. Teething pain, diarrhea and trouble sleeping? Soothing Syrup time!

Of course, the syrup was pure morphine dissolved in alcohol. No wonder it worked, that would take the edge off anything, but sadly it led to death from overdose and lots of drug-addicted babies. Be careful what you feed you kids.

In the 70's a new wonderful drug was discovered and prescribed for depression, autism and incredibly, substance abuse. The drug is called MDMA, or more commonly Ecstasy, (or Molly).

Considering that the name Ecstasy is precisely what the taker feels, it makes sort of sense that you would give it to someone who is depressed, but a person with substance abuse issues? Yeah that stopped by the early 80's. Interestingly, today it's being looked at as a PTSD treatment drug. Time will tell, I suppose.

Between roughly 1920 and 1950, women were told to smoke if they wanted to loose weight. Doctors appeared in commercials, telling the ladies to reach for a cigarette instead of that candy when they felt like a treat. Sure, tobacco is a mild appetite suppressor, but it's not much of a diet drug. Then after 1950, instead of smoking, women were urged to drop those extra pounds by taking Methamphetamine instead. Much better!

Finally I want to mention ear candles. The idea is that you put one end of a hollow candle in you ear, and light the other end. This would create negative pressure, drawing out the ear wax. Except it doesn't work, and you are very likely to get an earful of hot candle wax instead. Oh yes, want to guess when this was invented? 1996. Stupidity is truly timeless.

That's all for now, so until next time, have a great week and stay away from dodgy medicine!

What a weird job.

With everything that's going on in the world, it's sometimes easy to get a bit depressed. But I find it curiously comforting that the world has always been weird and screwed up. Maybe it's a sense of permanency or the fact that things aren't getting worse. Some things get better, others worse, but overall the world keeps turning, the same as it ever was.

Today we're going to take a look at some of the really odd things people have done to themselves and to others throughout the years.

We begin with Micah Grimes, a coach for The Covenant School's girls basketball team. He was fired from his position because he led his team to a 100-0 victory in 2009. Being a private Christian school, the board found the victory to be “not Christlike”, and demanded an apology from Grimes. He however refused to apologize for doing his job well, and was let go.

A woman, I don't know where or exactly when, was fired for typing all her emails in BOLD LETTERS, and in red. She sued for wrongful termination and won.

A woman how was fired and didn't win her wrongful termination suit was Melissa Nelson. She was a dental assistant with ten years experience, and apparently really good at her job. The kicker? Her boss found her too sexy to resist and his wife urged him to fire Nelson. She was amongst other things accused of wearing clothes that were too enticing, even though she always wore regulation scrubs to work. Weirdos...

Speaking of weirdos and jobs, sometimes it's the job itself that is weird. Like the Shanghai Commission for the Management of Language Use. No, they are not the thought police, their job is to eradicate so called Chinglish. China has had problems with very incorrectly translated signs from Chinese to English. Examples include “Cash Recycling Machines” (ATM's), “Anus Hospital” (proctologist) and “Fatso size” (Big portions).

Another interesting job, if you can get it is to be a Yeoman Warder of the Tower of London. They are all ex-military officers and their jobs are to guard and guide people around the Tower. The absolutely coolest Yeoman job has to be the Ravenmaster. He is responsibility is to care for the six ravens who must always be in residence at the Tower.

Besides Ravenmaster, the UK also has has the Office of The Swan Warden and the Office of The Swan Marker. Their job in a nutshell is to mark, oversee and give medical aid to the swans of Great Britain. The swan is endangered and most countries have offices that look after them. In the UK all swans are the property of the Queen, so we know it's serious business.

Finally, in the US, you can work for The Mutilated Currency Division. It's a part of the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Their job is to replace damaged bills as long as you send in more than half of the note in question. The exception to this is if it's obvious that the rest of the bill is destroyed. They do this at no cost to you, but it's worth pointing out that they only handle paper money. Damaged coins are sent to the US Mint.

That's it folks. Until next time, have a wonderful, normal week!

Just the facts

Hello, and welcome to the never ending fountain of knowledge that is Eccentric Spheres.

Today we once again dip our toes into the vast ocean of general knowledge and trivia, enjoy!

- After four years of eating Cap’n Crunch with Crunchberries, a woman sued the distributor of Cap’n Crunch because she discovered that she was eating brightly-colored cereal balls and that “Crunchberries” aren’t a real fruit like she had thought.

- A 32,000 year old extinct Arctic flower was resurrected using seeds found by an Ice Age squirrel.

- Unlike James Bond, real MI6 agents don’t need a license to kill because everything they do outside the UK is already illegal. The UK spy agency makes Bond-like gadgets for operatives but, as one said after retiring; they “frequently fail to work upon arrival at our destination”.

- A young stripper named Shelly Bauman lost her leg in a freak confetti cannon accident. She sued and used the money from the settlement to open Seattle’s first gay bar, which she named “Shelly’s Leg.”

- On June 28, 2009, Stephen Hawking held a party open to all, complete with hors d’oeuvres and iced champagne, but only publicized the party after it was over so that only time-travelers would know to attend; as expected, nobody showed up to the party.

- George Washington feared the growing influence of political parties in the US. He thought that it would lead to “the alternate domination” of each party, taking revenge on each other in the form of reactionary political policies and that it would eventually cause the North and South to split.

- During a speech to senators intended to convince them that the dust bowl epidemic was a real issue, a massive dust cloud enveloped Washington DC, blackening the windows of the hearing and caking the room with dust. The Soil Conservation Act was passed later that year.

- The ancient Greeks didn’t wear pants because they found them “ridiculous”. The Romans didn’t wear them because it was seen as uncivilized and only Barbarians wore pants.

- In 1976 a Soviet pilot defected to Japan with one of their most advanced jet, a MiG-25P. They returned it after learning all its secrets with a $40k bill asking for the shipping fare and repair for the damage it caused to the runway.

- Webcams were invented because some computer scientists were too lazy to get up to check if their coffee was done.

That's that. Until next time, have an awesome week, and stay away from confetti cannons!

Wow, really?

It's Monday yet again and here we are. Time for some Eccentric Spheres, this time concerning some interesting trivia facts.

We'll start off with something nice. In Rome you can find the famous Fontana di Trevi, or Trevi Fountain, if you prefer. Like many fountains around the world, it's popular to throw coins in the water, but it's special with the Trevi. For starters, you should throw three coins, not just one. Now, I have no idea if it'll grant you luck if you do, but I do know needy people get food. You see, about a million euros are thrown in the fountain yearly, and the money is used to fund a supermarket for people in need. So keep tossing those coins.

Next up is the New Zealand town of Brightwater. Back in 1911, they had five electric street lights that were powered with hydroelectricity and controlled by chicken. No that's not a typo. Some Clever Person had rigged it so that when the sun went down and the birds went into their coop to sleep, their weight triggered a pressure switch and that turned on their lights.

How many times do you try again before you give up? Two times? Five? Well, the city of Dallas, Texas has tried one man 82 times in court and lost every time. The man, Robert Groden sells books and magazines about the JFK assassination and the city has tried and tried again to get him to stop. With attempts from tickets to fines to jail time, Dallas keeps loosing. One would think they'd just call it quits, but I guess quitters never die. Read the whole story here:

http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/dallas-has-now-lost-82-cases-against-robert-groden-someone-call-guinness-8680799

Did you know that in 1913, Hitler, Freud, Tito, Stalin, and Trotsky all lived within 2.5 square kilometers of each other in Vienna, Austria? Happening place...

Finally we're going to talk about ants. Ants are a constant source of fascination for scientists, and one aspect is their skill at finding their way back home again. A theory was proposed that they counted their steps and this was confirmed when some scientists managed to attach stilts to some ants and set them loose. The stilted ants overshot their nests by about 50%, since they took longer steps, something their brains couldn't process. Imagine attaching teeny tiny stilts to ants? I hate sowing buttons because it's so fiddly, but ant-stilts? Forget it.

That's today's serving, so until next time, have a great week, and stay away from ants, OK?

Did you know?

Winter has struck and seized the land in it's icy grasp. Since I'm not the type to enjoy winter sports, I thought I'd enjoy some interesting facts instead. And since it's Monday I can share them with you. Enjoy!

The most expensive comic book ever sold is Action Comics Issue 1. This is the first appearance of Superman and it was sold at an eye watering 3.2 million dollars. The first appearance of Spiderman only went for 1.1 millions and Batman's premier clocks in at $1,075,000. Super prices for superheroes.

Speaking of money, the richest drug king on record was Pablo Escobar, who at the height of his power had an estimated net worth of $30 billion. He controlled 80% of the global cocaine trade and had to spend thousands of dollars a month on rubber bands to sort his money. He also lost hundreds of thousands to mold, moisture and rodents, due to his inability to properly store his mountain of cash.

Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev went up to the MIR station a Soviet citizen but came down a Russian. The Soviet union disappeared during the 313 days he was up in space.

In the UK, the British Film Board or BBFC has to rate movies before they can be released. If you make a movie you have to pay the BBFC to rate it or you can never release it. A man called Charles Lyne kickstarted a movie in protest of the BBFC's censorship powers. He raised £5,963 and sent in a ten hour film of paint drying on a wall. The kicker? The BBFC had to sit through every grueling hour of it.

Famous actor James “Jimmy” Stewart (1908-1997) was not only a Hollywood star but also a USAF reserve Brigadier General. He had a whole lot of stars.

Australia has a great many dangerous animals. Sharks, spiders, snakes, venomous octopuses etc. but the most dangerous animals in Australia are as follows: horses, cows, dogs, kangaroos, and bees.

One of the reasons the Beatles stopped touring was that the enormous crowds screamed louder than the loudspeakers. No one could actually hear them play.

Stress uses the same part of the brain as memory, which is why people with stress perform worse. Which leads to more stress.

The athletic brands Adidas and Puma were founded by two brothers who had a falling out and became competitors.

Birmingham, UK has more canals than Venice, but I doubt they are as romantic...

That's it for me and my odd facts for this time. Until next we meet, have a fun and interesting week!

Wow, really?

Hello friends and welcome to Eccentric Spheres for a lesson in weird facts!

Yes, it's once again time to take a look at some of the odd and amazing things and people that populate the spinning ball of rock and molten iron we call Earth.

As usual, the facts are borrowed from Kickassfacts.com.

1. During the early 20th century, there was some interest in mock dueling with pistols loaded with wax bullets. The sport first gained popularity in France, and heavy canvas clothing was worn to protect the body, a metal helmet with a thick glass plate protected the head and face, and the pistols were often equipped with guards on the front of the trigger guard that extended outwards to protect the shooter’s hand. For a brief time it was popular, and was featured during the 1908 Summer Olympics.

2. W.V Meadows of West Point, Georgia, was shot in the eye at the battle of Vicksburg on July 1, 1863 during the American Civil War. He survived and fifty eight years later, he unexpectedly coughed the bullet out of his mouth on July 21, 1932.

3. A sharp knife does less damage to the cell walls of an onion, releasing less propanethial S-oxide, the irritant that causes you to cry.

4. Obsidian blades are so sharp (3 nm thick) that, on a cellular level, obsidian knives will cut between cells rather than tear the cells as steel knives would do, these blades were used to make blades in the Stone Age and they are now being used in modern surgery because it is sharper than metal.

5. In the late 1950s, psychologist Milton Rokeach conducted an experiment called The Three Christs of Ypsilanti. Three schizophrenics who claimed themselves to be Jesus were brought together have their reactions documented. In the end, each came to the conclusion that the other two must have mental issues.

6. In the 1960’s, US army did an experiment, where two people without nuclear training had to design a nuke with only access to public available documents and they succeeded.

7. No one knows who invented the fire hydrant, because its patent was destroyed in a fire.

8. Disney World is the largest consumer of fireworks in the United States. The park also launches the fireworks with compressed air instead of gunpowder to reduce fumes and gain better height and timing.

9. Two scientists proved time dilation by each flying around the world (east and west) carrying 4 synchronized atomic clocks. Upon landing, they compared them to atomic clocks they’d left on the ground and found that their clocks were no longer in sync.

10. “Fire Fighting” and “kite flying” were featured at the 1900 Olympics in Paris. 

That's it for me, so until next time, have an interesting week!

Fascinating Facts

Today is all about fact. Movie facts, in fact.

As usual when I do these lists, all facts are taken form kickassfacts.com so if you want more, head over there.

Here we go:

Mark Hamill was 63 years old while filming Star War: The Force Awakens, the same age as Sir Alec Guiness was while filming his scenes as Ben Kenobi in the original Star Wars film in 1977.

V for Vendetta (2005) – The domino scene, where V tips over black and red dominoes to form a giant letter V, involved 22,000 dominoes. It took 4 professional domino assemblers 200 hours to set it up.

Halloween (1978) – Due to its shoestring budget, the prop department had to use the cheapest $2 mask that they could find in the costume store: a Star Trek William Shatner mask. They later spray-painted the face white, teased out the hair, and reshaped the eye holes. Shatner admitted that for years he had no idea his likeness was used for this film. It was only during an interview that someone mentioned his mask was being used. He has since stated that he is honored by this gesture.

Jurassic Park (1993) – When the T-Rex comes through the glass roof of the Explorer in the first attack, the glass was not meant to break, producing the noticeably genuine screams from the children.

Alien (1979) – Ridley Scott found a practical solution to lighting the aliens’ egg chamber by borrowing blue laser lighting from The Who, who were rehearsing their stage show in the soundstage next door.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) – Charlie Sheen stayed awake for 48 hours to achieve a suitably wasted look for his cameo as a drugged-up felon.

Jurassic Park (1993) – Hurricane Iniki ravaged the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i, where the movie was shot, but Richard Attenborough managed to sleep through it. When questioned how by Steven Spielberg, Dickie replied: “Dear boy, I survived the blitz!”

Raiders of the Lost Ark: The filmmakers discovered to their chagrin that the snakes used for the Well of Souls sequence weren’t afraid of fire at all. In fact, they would always try to get closer to the fire to warm themselves. At one point director Spielberg was caught on camera picking up a snake and telling it, face to face, “In the script, you’re supposed to hate fire. Why do you like fire? You’re ruining my movie.”

Predator: Jesse Ventura was delighted to find out from the wardrobe department that his arms were 1″ bigger than Arnold Schwarzenegger’s. He suggested to Schwarzenegger that they measure arms, with the winner getting a bottle of champagne. Ventura lost because Schwarzenegger had told the wardrobe department to tell Ventura that his arms were bigger.

During the filming of ‘Cabin Fever,’ Rider Strong decided to explore the forest alone after a shoot, still in his gruesome makeup. He came across a group of schoolgirls on a field trip, who were horrified, but then recognized him from ‘Boy Meets World,’ and he had to escape from the fangirls.

That's it for this time. A small reminder to all gamers out there, the Steam summer sale is supposed to start on the 23^rd, so get ready for that, but until we meet again, have a great week!

Did you know?

Hello and welcome to another installment of Eccentric Spheres! Installment number 177, in fact.

Speaking of facts, here are some interesting ones to help you along in the new year (how, I have no idea):

In 2007, a 75 year old woman named Mona Shaw destroyed a Comcast office with a hammer because she was outraged at their continually poor service. Police arrested her and fined her $345. I assume the local PD was also using Comcast...

The Manchineel tree is so poisonous that you get a violent rash if you stand under it when it rains. Smoke from burning Manchineel trees can cause you to go temporarily blind. Don't even think of eating the fruit, unless you happen to be a garrobo (striped iguana). They are the only ones who seem to really like the Manchineel tree.

When WWI ended with the Treaty of Versailles, Marshal Ferdinand Foch said, “This is not peace, it's a 20 year armistice”. WWII started 20 years and 65 days later.

If you think modern soccer riots are out of control, consider this: in 532 AD 30.000 charioteering fans died when a riot broke out between fans in Byzantium.

Scientists have created a sort of quantum gas that can reach temperatures colder than absolute zero (-459.67 degrees Fahrenheit, -273.15 degrees Celsius). At this point the gas becomes similar to dark energy.

Walter Summerford was struck by lightning three times when he was alive. After dying, his gravestone was also struck by lightning. Someone doesn't like him...

The Lone Star tick can give you a lifetime allergy to red meat by injecting a sugar found in said meat. Your immune system then creates antibodies against the sugar, which makes you allergic to eating red meat.

Bugs Bunny accidentally created a new insult when he called Elmer Fudd a nimrod. In the Bible, Nimrod is a mighty hunter, and Bugs was just being sarcastic, but no one got the reference, and still today calling someone a nimrod is to call him stupid.

The reason children can wolf down as much sugar as they can lay their sticky little fingers on and adults can't is down to your bones. As an adult your bones have stopped growing. It's as simple as that.

And with that simple fact, I'm signing off for this time. Until we see each other again, have an interesting week!

Truth is stranger than fiction

There's currently a storm here today, and I think the winds have blown away most of my brain, so this week's post will be trivial. Or to be more precise, about trivia.

All facts are taken from www.kickassfacts.com so if you disagree with something, take it up with them.

The following facts are in random order, and are just stuff I find amusing and interesting.

Here we go:

1. A snipers bullet can travel so far that the earth's rotation moves the target.
   
   
2. Haiti's and Lichtenstein's flags were originally identical, by mistake. No one knew until they both competed in the 1936 Olympics.
   
   
3. The Mongols tried to invade japan twice in seven years, and both times a typhoon stopped them
   
   
4. The sun and moon appear to be of same size because of an astonishing coincidence. The moon is 400 times smaller but 400 times closer, which makes the eclipses possible. 
    
5. Actress Anne Hathaway’s husband Adam Shulman has an uncanny resemblance to William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare had a wife called Anne Hathaway. 
    
6. A blurry photo of a man stealing a wallet in a store ran on the bottom of the front page of the December 14, 2007, edition of Idaho’s Lewiston Tribune. Above it was an unrelated photo of a man painting a business. Readers noticed both men were wearing the same clothes and could be the same man and he was, leading to his arrest. 
    
7. On the Christmas Eve 1994, two cars collided near Flitcham, England. The drivers were twin sisters who were delivering presents to each other. Their names were Lorraine and Lavinia Christmas. 
    
8. The oldest recorded British joke dates back to the 10th Century A.D. It is “What hangs at a man’s thigh and wants to poke the hole that it’s often poked before? Answer: A key.” 
    
9. The word ‘fuck’ was first used in 1568, but was most commonly used between 1700-1720. It disappeared from the English language for 150 years in the 1800s-1900s, but is now once again climbing in popularity. 
    
10. The terms “left” and “right” politics appeared during the French Revolution of 1789 when members of the National Assembly divided into supporters of the king to the president’s right and supporters of the revolution to his left. 
     
11. For 200 years tomatoes were considered poisonous in Europe. In reality, their acidity was dissolving poisonous metals like lead from plates. 
     
12. A Japanese anime named Sazae-san is more than 46 years old and has been airing since 1969 with a total of 2330 episodes. It is one of the biggest ratings grabber on Japanese TV following simple plot lines.
    
    
13. The Mayflower voyage ended in Plymouth instead of its intended Virginia Colony destination because the Pilgrims ran out of beer. 
     
14. In 1962, LIFE magazine published an article about Lauri Rapala and his fishing lures. The cover featured recently deceased Marilyn Monroe and it became the magazine’s best-selling issue. Consequently, Rapala received millions of orders and is today the leading lure manufacturer in the world. 
     
15. In the wake of WWII, the combination of inexpensive geothermal power and high prices for imported fruit led to Iceland using the warmth from lava to grow banana trees. 
     
16. “Bellydance” was not a dance of seduction, and wasn’t done by harem girls for the sultan. It is a community folk dance with a rich and long history done by both men and women during family celebrations and gatherings. The two piece costume was invented by early Hollywood, and adopted by Egyptian dancers in nightclubs to cater to Western tourists. The term “bellydance” was invented at the 1893 World’s Fair by Sol Bloom because it sounded salacious, would attract scandalized Victorian patrons, and sell a lot of tickets. 
     
17. Diamonds can in fact be shattered with a hammer. There is a difference between how strong something is and how hard it is. Diamonds are one of the hardest minerals (certainly the hardest gemstone), but their toughness is only middle of the road. The toughest gemstone is nephrite jade and that toughness is part of what makes it such a good carving material. 
     
18. The amount of times you need to push down per minute during CPR is the beat of Staying Alive or Another one Bites the Dust. 
     
19. The USSR was to first to launch a satellite into orbit, launch a man into space, launch a woman into space, the first spacewalk, put the first manmade object on the moon, made the first soft landing on the moon, the first landing on another planet, had several probes transmitting from Venus, had the first space station and the first long duration space station. For a country that supposedly lost the space race those are a lot of firsts. 
     
20. During the Civil War, upon being told General Grant was a drunkard who enjoyed Whiskey, President Lincoln said “I wish some of you would tell me the brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals.”

That's all for today, I hope you enjoyed it. Until next time, have an interesting week!

Truth is stranger than (science) fiction

Greetings boys and girls, another week is upon us, and I figured it wouldn't hurt to cram a bit more knowledge into our skulls while it's still 2013. Not that it means anything that it's 2013, it's really just a convenient excuse to share these wonderful facts with you.

For example, did you know that the University of Oxford was established earlier than The Aztec Empire? It's true, but it seems so incredibly unlikely, right?

And speaking of the olden times, consider that more time has passed between when the Egyptians started working on The Great Pyramids of Giza and the birth of Julius Caesar, than old Julius and us.

It's easy to forget how much happened in the relatively short period of time known as the 20th century, but Anne Frank and Martin Luther King Jr were born in the same year, yet we still tend to view them as belonging to completely different eras, even thought they were contemporaries.

Let's jump off planet for a moment and look at Venus, the planet closest to Earth in size. The pressure on the surface is 93 times higher than on earth, which would crush you in seconds. That's equivalent of one kilometer under the sea.

But the really weird fact is that Venus rotates on its axis only once every 243 Earth days but orbits the sun once every 224.65 Earth days. This means that on Venus, a day is longer than a year! Talk about having a looong day at work.

And finally, do you know your star sign? I bet you do, we all do. But whether you believe in astrology or not, your star sign is not your star sign at all!

You see, the Earth kind of wobbles a bit, which means that in the ca. 2000 years since the Babylonians invented the zodiac, we've shifted around enough to bump our star signs one step forward. So if you thought your sign is Virgo, you are actually a Libra. In other words, you don't know your sign at all...

That's all I wrote. It's a short post I know, but I've had a long day today, though not not Venusian long.

Take it easy, and have a great week!