The good old days

Here we are in 2019, and it's time to get Eccentric!

Have you ever heard someone say stuff like “Oh, I was born in the wrong century”, or “I wish I could go back in time and live a simpler life”?

The next time someone says stuff like that, you can pull out some neat facts about how bad things were back in the “good old days”. And I do mean old...

Let's start with the good old tradition of having a beer with a friend. Back in Mesopotamia, sometimes around 1500BC, in the region that is roughly in Kurdish Iraq, people didn't get a drink of their own. Instead you got a straw of your own, and everyone drank from the same urn at once. Imagine going to the bar today, ordering a nice beer and instead of being served a drink you get a straw and the bartender points you to the table that's drinking out of the barrel you like. Yeah, I'll take my own glass, thanks.

This communal drink sharing did stop eventually and everyone got their own containers to drink from.

A common fear in people today is being contaminated or poisoned with toxins and harmful substances. It may surprise you that this is something that has basically always happened. It's a well known fact that the Romans were often exposed to lethal lead poisoning from their amphoras and water lines, but lets go back further.

250.000 years ago, the Neanderthals suffered very hard winters and autumns, and evidence left in their preserved teeth show that they ingested high levels of lead. Exposure from both contaminated water and fires would have made them extremely ill, with no way of understanding why, as they sought shelter in caves that amplified the lead poisoning.

Imagine you are a scientist. You've studied hard, worked hard and now you spend your days analyzing 700 year old poop. Not exactly glorious work, but we now know thanks to them that people in Lubeck, Germany had bad parasite problems. Improperly cooked fresh water fish is rife with worms and evidence gathered from medieval outhouses show that they had worms in spades. Interestingly, this research also shows that society shifted towards a more meat based diet around 1300, probably due to a rising demand for leather goods.

A lot has been written about how bad sugar is for your teeth, which is true. But did you know snacks like potato chips (crisps) are worse? Sugar is easily dissolved in water or saliva and washed down, but the starchy snacks tend to stick to the teeth and feed the bacteria that causes cavities.

This phenomena is known to have been a problem as far back as 15.000 years ago, when early settlers managed to cultivate domesticated wheat and barley. Grinding down these early grains together with nuts, legumes and made into porridges and flatbreads caused the same dental problems as modern chips. This has been proved again from teeth, these ones found in Morocco, but back then they didn't have dentists with modern pain killers to fix teeth far nastier than those found today.

Four good reasons to be happy to be alive today in 2019.

That's that, join me again next time, and until then, have a great week!

Truth or Fiction

Okay, what do the following things have in common:

French Kissing

French Toast

French Tip Manicure

French Horn

French Braid

French Fries

If you answered; none of them are French, then congratulations! Yeah, you can also add to that list the beret and the croissant. None of these things really have anything to do with France, except for popularity there and the ongoing concept that things are classy if they come from France.

That's what today is all about. Misconceptions.

The croissant is Austrian, the tip manicure was created by Max Factor in Hollywood and French Kissing seems to be connected to Alexander the Great. Let's crack on.

It seems that for the longest time, people assumed that Machiavelli's great work The Prince was satire. This explanation came up to counter the accusations that it was a thoroughly immoral book. I've read it several times and I promise you, it's neither funny or immoral. It's much worse: The Prince is practical and utterly pragmatic. Even cynical if you wish, but it's not funny, I promise

You may have heard about how when a Pharaoh died, they slaughtered his servants and buried them in the same tomb, so that they could keep serving their god-king in eternity. Seemingly, this actually happened, but not always and mostly just in the earlier dynasties. I guess a civilization that spanned over 3000 years has to change a little from time to time.

One of the standard go-to's when people describe how brutal and cruel the Spartans were, is the fact that they killed all deformed babies. And it's true, they did. But so did everyone else. For millennia, pretty much every culture ever, used to quietly get rid of babies that would grow up as nothing but a burden, because life was much harder back then. It seems monstrous to us, (and it is) but that's how it was.

Finally let me ask this: who expected the Spanish Inquisition?

If you answered: no one, then you have been watching too much Monty Python. In fact they gave everyone 60 days notice so that they could get their affairs in order. Further more, they asked every accused person for a list of their enemies. If their accuser was on said list they usually let them go and arrested the accuser instead. Beyond that they were a terrible, awful organization. But fact is fact.

Another fact is that we're done for this time, and until next we meet, you should have a good week!

Keep Calm and,

We've all had days that didn't go as they should have. Everyone has been annoyed or troubled by someone in their lives; bosses, acquaintances, neighbors etc.

Sometimes we all want to just scream in frustration but we stay calm, and like the poster says, carry on.

The following people didn't exactly do that.

Take Reginald Peterson from Jacksonville, Florida. He ordered a sandwich from Subway, and discovered to his horror that they forgot to add the sauce he ordered, so he called the police. Then he called 911 again to complain that it took too long for them to arrive. To fix his sauce problem.

It's not just “normal” people who call 911 to complain. In 2008, Joe McCain, younger brother of Senator John McCain called 911 to complain about the heavy traffic in his area. The dispatcher understandably lectured him about why we call 911, where upon Joe said F—K You, and hung up. The dispatcher left him a voice mail explaining that he could be charged for doing what he did, so of course he called back to complain about the message.

If calling the police on someone isn't enough, you can always sue them in court. Or at lest try to. An inmate in the Colorado Correctional Facility sued the NFL for $88 billion because his team didn't make the playoffs. Hint: he didn't get the money.

Todd Kirkpatrick figured it would be a good idea to rob a bank. Then the police showed up and Todd ended up somewhat shot. He then decided to file a lawsuit from prison against the city for $6.3 million because the other cops failed to stop their colleague from shooting him in the first place.

One day Allen Heckard got fed up with being told he looked just like Michael Jordan. So he sued the famous basketball player for looking too much like him. He also blamed Nike for aiding in causing him harm. He demanded $52 million.

In Canterbury, a local man called 999 (the UK version of 911) to report a strange light above his house. The dispatcher said they would look into it, but he called back two minutes later and said, “You won't believe it, it's the moon...”

Michigan police officer Edward Sanchez decided to keep some weed for himself during a drug raid. Then that night, he and his wife baked and ate some weed brownies. They must have been pretty strong, because that evening Edward called 911 to report that he was dead. Well he wasn't, but his career was. He was fired soon after.

Jane Mulcahy, a devout Catholic sued her own divorce lawyers for failing to make it clear to her that she was in fact getting a divorce.

When Anton Purisima got bitten by a dog, he sued not only the city on New York, but also the city transit service, Au Bon Pair store, and many more. The kicker? He demanded 2 Undecillion dollars in damages. That's not a made up number either, it's 340 trillion trillion trillions. In other words considerably more money than actually exists in the world.

There are many more stories like this. The woman who called the police because her husband refused to eat dinner, or he woman who called because her boyfriend refused to propose to her. We have the man who sued the Guinness book of world records for getting the record breaking number of lawsuits he filed, wrong. How about the guy who sued Fosters for not being brewed in Australia? It goes on and on, and I think the lesson here is this: take a deep breath and think twice before acting.

Anyway, until next time, have a wonderful, calm, police free week, and don't sue anyone else frivously.

Hot facts

Today, as I sit here in the July heat with my brain quietly melting, I want to bring you more fascinating facts.

1. When Winston Churchill visited the U.S. during the prohibition, his doctor gave him a prescription for alcohol. The quantity is indefinite, it said.
2. Prehistory officially became history in 2600 BC with the invention of the library.
3. The wingspan of a Boeing 747 is longer than the Wright brothers' first flight.
4. Biting your nails is essentially good for your immune system.
5. The Romans would occasionally use condemned criminals in stage plays, this way the character could die for real.
6. The most credentialed person in history, Michael Nicholson, has 22 masters degrees, 3 specialist degrees and one doctoral degree.
7. A finger with nerve damage doesn't wrinkle in water.
8. Unless you can prove that you are an illusionist, it is illegal to own a rabbit in Queensland, Australia.
9. Police in ancient Egypt had not only trained police dogs, but also trained police baboons.
10. A group of giraffes is called a tower.

That's all I can muster up for this time. Until we meet again, have a warm and wonderful week!

Random Facts

It's a new week, so let's get those brains humming with some interesting and completely random facts.

1. The word “Anarchy” stands for “Without Rulers” instead of “Without Rules.”
2. 15 of the 25 largest hotels in the world are on the Las Vegas Strip.
3. The fake snow in Wizard of Oz was made of pure asbestos.
4. The phrase “Proprietary Eponym” is used to describe when a brand name becomes the commonly used term. Some examples: Coke=Soda | Kleenex=Tissue | Xerox=Copy | Rollerblades=In-Line Skates | Frisbee=Flying Disc.
5. Rust in old buildings can result in lack of oxygen, which can be dangerous to urban explorers. There have been cases where people have died and rescuers who attempted to save them have died too.
6. Exposure to platinum can turn snails into their evolutionary decedents the slug.
7. In Japan, you are equally likely to die from being struck by lightning as you are from being shot by a gun.
8. ‘Embiggen’ and ‘cromulent’, two words invented on The Simpsons have since been used in academic journals and added to the dictionary.
9. One liter of Motor oil can contaminate one million liters of water. It’s important to understand that when you dispose oil in sink, it affects a million liters of recyclable water.
10. XXX on cartoon jugs of alcohol originally denoted three times distilled, resulting in almost pure alcohol content.
11. In order to prevent everything from being named after mathematician Leonhard Euler, discoveries are sometimes named after the first person after Euler to have discovered them.
12. Norilsk is a city in Russia where the pollution is so severe that mining the topsoil is now economically feasible because it contains so many heavy metals.
13. Operation Vegetarian was a 1942 plan by the British military to drop linseed cakes infected with anthrax on German fields where they would be eaten by cows and thus infect the civilian population that ate them. The test site in Scotland remained uninhabitable until the 1990’s.
14. During her 67-year reign, Queen Victoria survived at least 7 assassination attempts. One attempt was by an 18-year-old hunchbacked dwarf, who was later caught when police rounded up every hunchback and dwarf in London.
15. A deaf British prisoner of war named Edwin Rose missed the liberation of his camp because he fell asleep on the toilet and slept through the battle. He woke to find everyone else gone, so he shaved, put on his best clothes and walked out to freedom.
16. The U.S. military has a 26-page manual for baking brownies.
17. When the Norse Vikings sailed for America in the 11th century, they fully expected (and hoped) to find a race of monsters to fight. Instead, they found the indigenous peoples. Disappointed at finding no real monsters, the Norse (known for being tall) called them Skræling, or pygmies.
18. In the Victorian Era, doctors prescribed beards to help keep men healthy.
19. At its peak in 2008. U.S. incarcerated 1 in 100 adults, exceeding the average incarceration rate in the Soviet Union during the Gulag system.
20. In 2011, a woman in Sweden found her wedding ring on a carrot growing in her backyard, 16 years after misplacing it.

There you go, tewnty interesting facts to start off the week. All facts are taken from Kickassfacts.com, so like last time, if you disagree with a fact, take it up with them.

Until next time, have an interesting week!

Funny Facts

Today we'll be looking at some interesting and perhaps surprising facts. As far as I know, these are all true, but I can't be bothered to link the sources. You'll have to trust me and the internet or just do your own research. Enjoy!

• The loudest animal on earth is also the largest. The blue whale has been recorded at 188 decibels.
• Dracula author Bram Stoker was a conspiracy theorist. He believed that Queen Elizabeth had died suddenly and to keep Henry VIII from knowing she was replaced by the only person they could find - a boy.
• The worlds longest accurate shot on record – 230 yards – was made by an armless man.
• The oldest concept of a zombie apocalypse is from Mesopotamia. The Epic of Gilgamesh, in fact. It's about 4000 years old.
• When Lord Byron went to college, he was ordered to get rid of his dog since they were against college rules. However there was no rule against pet bears, so he got one.
• The Catholic Church views superstition as a sin...
• The Fi in WiFi doesn't really mean anything. The creator just liked that it rhymed with HiFi.
• Mark Twain not only invented the self adhesive scrapbook, he also invented the bra strap.
• Etorphine is a drug similar to heroin and morphine, except it's so strong 1/100^th of a gram can knock out a grown elephant. This is in fact the only use for it, since it's impossible for humans to use without overdosing yourself.
• The (most likely) fastest man made object was a 2 ton manhole cover that was sent flying during an underground nuclear detonation test. It traveled in to the sky at 41miles per second. That's 237539 kilometers per hour! It was never recovered.

That's all for this time. I hope you have an interesting week!