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 |  One hundred facts that are interesting but ultimately useless. |
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presenting: A Catalogue of Useless Facts - introduction - Whether I'm at work or out with friends, I have a reputation as the person who knows things. Not useful things, mind you; not once has it been profitable to know the reason why dogs have wet noses, or the meaning of the linguistic term "glottal stop", or the difference between a bug and an insect. If anything, all the aimless wandering on Wikipedia keeps me from finishing my other writing projects. But there is a purpose to this eclectic mishmash of trivia, and it ties into my own major philosophy: stuff is interesting. The world is often rough and depressing, but if I can find one neat little factoid, everything seems a little less meaningless. And this brings us to the point of this blog. Lately, it feels like my various newsfeeds are full to bursting with anger and bickering. As a generally positive person, I wanted to counteract this in some way -- only I'm not so adept with inspirational quotes or pithy wisdom. What I can offer, though, are useless facts. Over the past few months, instead of filing these accidental info-bits in some dusty corner of my brain, I've been taking notes. Before long, I had enough for a solid month of trivia. I collected a few more and thought instead I'd do a "Factoid Friday" every week for a year. But I'm a curious person by nature, and can't help but stumble on new things. Maybe I'm eating lunch one day, I suddenly wonder where ketchup comes from, and bam! I learn something new! So here come the facts. They may be short, or they may be long. They may cover language, biology, history, mythology, or any number of other subjects. Many of you may know some of these, and some of you may know many of these. But hopefully, at least once between now and the time my collection runs dry, you'll be inspired to say, "Huh! That's actually kind of interesting!" -BD Mitchell Blog is currently on hiatus. Blog Info ▼ Categories ▼
Comments, corrections, and suggestions are welcome at all times! |
The Blackest Black - physics / technology - The title of "blackest substance made by humans" is disputed. The main contender is formed of manufactured nanoparticles called "dark chamaleon dimers". Discovered in 2015, the substance absorbs nearly 99% of all visible light, as well as a partial range of infrared light. The previous title-holder is "vantablack", which is made from arrays of carbon nanotubes. While vantablack can potentially trap more light than chamaleon dimers (up to 99.965%), its effectiveness changes depending on the angle at which it is viewed. Both materials could be potentially used to minimize light interference in telescopes and infrared cameras, increase efficiency of concentrated solar power, and mask heat signatures as thermal camouflage. #020 |
| "Camouflage" - etymology - "Camouflage" is a borrowed French word based on the verb "camoufler" ("to disguise"), which is in turn derives from the Italian word "camuffare" ("to muffle the head", contraction of "capo muffare"). #019 |
| Coconut Crabs - biology - The coconut crab (Birgus latro) is the largest known land-dwelling crustacean and arthropod, reaching weights of up to four kilograms (~9 lbs., roughly as much as an adult housecat) and legspans of about a meter (~3.3 feet). Coconut crabs are a variety of hermit crab, though they only rely on scavenged shells until their own exoskeleton matures and hardens. Also, unlike other hermit crab species, adult coconut crabs are incapable of living underwater, as their land-adapted gills are susceptible to drowning. As its name suggests, a major food source for a coconut crab is coconuts. Though the crab prefers fallen coconuts, it is perfectly capable of climbing palm trees to harvest them fresh. If a coconut remains unbroken after a fall, the crab can still crack shells by using one of the strongest proportional grips in nature. #018 |
"Hello" & "Goodbye" - etymology - The word "hello" is thought to derive from an Old Saxon/High German word "halon" ("to fetch" or "to hail"), which itself may come from the Old French word "holà" (roughly "whoa there"). The widespread use of "hello" to answer a telephone is occasionally attributed to the device's inventor, Alexander Graham Bell; a popular story recounts how one of the first ever phonecalls was made to the inventor's girlfriend, Margaret Hello. However, since Graham Bell was engaged to a Mabel Hubbard at the time, this is little more than a myth. The actual association of telephones and hello is credited to Thomas Edison. "Goodbye" is simply a contraction of a variation on the phrase "God be with you". #017 |
Pangrams - linguistics - A "pangram" is a sentence that contains every letter of an alphabet at least once. The most common English example ("the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog") is often used to preview fonts. Though it does use all twenty-six English letters, some letters appear more than once. Some other example pangrams: "Bright vixens jump; dozy fowl quack." (29 letters) "How quickly daft jumping zebras vex." (30 letters) "The five boxing wizards jump quickly." (31 letters) A "perfect pangram" contains every letter of the alphabet, with each letter only appearing one time. Because of a limited number of available vowels, these perfect pangrams often rely on abbreviations, extremely rare words, or loan words. A frequent English example is: "Mr Jock, TV quiz PhD, bags few lynx." A "pangrammatic window" is a pangram that occurs unintentionally within a pre-existing block of writing. The shortest known pangrammatic window appears in an internet review for the 1999 film "Magnolia": "[...] in the production of certain "types" of subjectivity: for example, aging kid quiz show whiz Donnie Smith [...]" (36 letters) #016 |
Bird-Brained - biology - Birds of the family Corvidae (crows, ravens, magpies, and others) are considered the most intelligent non-human animals. Their documented capabilities and behaviors include: crafting and using simple tools, remembering events in a linear sequence, solving puzzles, expressing grief and other complex emotions, and recognizing themselves in mirrors. #015 |
Ye Olde Article - linguistics - The article "ye" (as in "Ye Olde Something Something Shoppe") is actually pronounced the same as "the". In Early Modern English, the digraph "th" was represented with a single letter called a "thorn". Due to an absence of the thorn on imported European printing presses and the similarity of the thorn to the letter "y", "the" was often represented as "ye", with the proper pronunciation implied in context. The thorn eventually became obsolete in English and "th" became the standard replacement, but "Ye Olde" remains as a pseudo-Old English trope. Any resemblance of the article "ye" (of "Ye Olde") to the pronoun "ye" (an archaic plural form of "you") is coincidental. #014 |
Sun Dogs - natural phenomena / physics - A parhelion, or "sun dog", is a natural phenomenon that appears as a spot or patch of light -- usually in pairs -- flanking either side of the sun. A type of ice halo, parhelia are caused by sunlight refracting through atmospheric ice crystals. The hexagonal crystals act as prisms, and only light refracted at specific angles is delivered to the human eye, hence the sun dogs' predictable positions. A similar effect that occurs with moonlight is called a parselene, or "moondog". #013 |
"Golf" - etymology - The word "golf" is popularly said to be an acronym of the phrase, "Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden". This is actually a relatively modern backronym (an acronym created for a word that already exists). The actual origin of "golf" is uncertain, with primary theories being the Dutch word "colf" ("club" or "mallet") or the Scots word "gowfe" ("to strike" or "to cuff"). #012 |
The Un-Littlest Birds - biology - The heaviest living bird is the ostrich (Struthio camelus), which can exceed one-hundred-fifty kilograms (~330 lbs., or seventy-five thousand bee hummingbirds). The heaviest living bird capable of flight is either the great bustard or the kori bustard (Otis tarda and Ardeotis kori respectively). The males of both species can weigh up to twenty kilograms (~44 lbs., about as much as an adult border collie). The largest living bird by wingspan is the wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) which can reach a tip-to-tip width of three-and-a-half meters across (~11.5 ft., about as wide as two Mini Coopers). #011 |
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Initial posting ran from January 1 to April 10, 2017.
And as the sunsets, we bid adieu to Mitch the Elder 
Thank you for such a fun read.
Cool! I saw one once and wondered what on earth is was!!