Did you know that the common name of the deer mouse comes from the resemblance of the rodent’s coloration to that of a white-tailed deer? Namely, a darker shade on its upper body, accompanied by a milky hue on its underside.
Their presence in one’s human habitat is best avoided, for their urine and feces are inappropriate when it comes to human consumption or inhalation, when fresh.
Doesn’t the IDL take a detour around Alaska (so it is all on the same day)?
Parts of the Aleutians are west of the 180° meridian (which makes them further east), but strictly speaking that isn’t the same as the International Date Line.
That’s true no matter the species.
It does avoid making landfall, yes. It also diverts around Kiribati so that it can all stay on the same side.
From French Polynesia (UTC-10) you can travel north , crossing the IDL into Kiribati’s zone (UTC+13), cross it again to get to Jarvis Island (U.S. territory at UTC-11), cross it again to get back into Kiribati’s zone, then cross it a fourth time to get back into Jarvis’s zone.
Then a little ways north further still you go back another hour to get to Hawaii (UTC-10).
Courtesy of Marv from High School Big Shot:
First you get the money, THEN you get the women!
Dammit! People always get that wrong in noir-ish escapades.
Never do in real life, though, IME.
And that’s a fact.
(Yes, Marv didn’t get the money then “get” Betty! He was wrong! Follow the Pacino code!)
I’m trying (and failing) to find a big enough map on google that shows the northern section of the IDL. My understanding is there are three or four islands at the end of the Aleutian chain that do cross the IDL.
Random Facts Woman, ARISE!
That’s right, I live! And here are more facts for you!
In 1959, 9-year-old Ronald McNair entered his local public library in South Carolina… despite the fact that the library was segregated and young Ronald was… well… black. Ignoring the segregation rules, Ronald attempted to check out a stack of books about science and calculus, and stood his ground, refusing to leave when the librarian said they didn’t “circulate books to Negroes”. Ronald’s mother eventually had to show up when the police were called, and when she promised to pay for the books if they were not returned on time Ronald was finally allowed to leave with them. Turns out this was a good thing; Ronald grew up, got his Ph.D. in physics from MIT, and became one of the first black people to fly in space when he was selected by NASA as a mission specialist. Sadly, Ronald was chosen to fly on the Challenger space shuttle, which exploded 73 seconds after takeoff, killing every one on board. In his honor, however, the public library that once tried to refuse him service has since reopened its doors as the Dr. Ronald E. McNair Life History Center.
If you’ve ever wondered why it seems that movie villains almost all have British accents, there is a reason. Americans, being the uncultured swine we are, view British accents as both signs of high intellect and untrustworthiness; two of the staples of really good villains.
Carrots! Nummy food for your rabbit! Eeehhh, maybe not; turns out that carrots are actually more like candy for rabbits due to their high sugar content and should only be eaten in moderation. Bugs, you LIED TO ME…
Speaking of carrots; Steve Jobs was an avowed “fruitarian”, eating mostly fruit his whole life with occasional nuts and grains. In fact, Jobs often picked one fruit or vegetable and would eat only that for long periods of time, and maintained his lifestyle even after being diagnosed with cancer. When he was chosen to play Jobs in the biopic, Ashton Kutcher decided he’d try the method acting thing and switch to a fruitarian diet. Kutcher then drank so much carrot juice in one day that he started feeling stabbing pains in his abdomen, was rushed to the hospital, and was diagnosed with pancreatitis as a result of drinking so much carrot juice. Ashton, buddy… lay off the juice!
President Zachary Taylor was the subject of multiple conspiracy theories surrounding his death in 1850, with many believing that he’d been killed to make way for Millard Fillmore to replace the entire Cabinet (which he did) or that pro-slavery Southerners had poisoned him. Taylor was finally exhumed in 1991, whereupon medical examiners determined that Taylor died as a result of gastroenteritis, likely caused by the contaminated water supply at the White House. And yet I bet the conspiracy theorists STILL don’t believe them…
You’ve heard of a dominant hand, even a dominant eye… but a dominant nostril? It’s true though; most people do their breathing 75% out of one nostril and only 25% out of the other. I think I’m left nostril dominant myself.
Super Bowl I aired in January 1967, but the footage was believed to be lost forever because neither network that aired it thought to record it. Luckily for football history, a man named Martin Haupt recorded the footage in secret and only told his ex-wife about it eight years later when he was diagnosed with cancer, suggesting that she sell the tapes to pay for college for their children. His ex however threw the tapes in her attic, and they sat there for decades until Haupt’s son got a phone call from a friend where the friend mentioned he’d read in Sports Illustrated that the NFL was offering $1 million to anyone who might have footage of that first game. Remembering the tapes he’d seen in the attic he’d played in as a kid, Haupt’s son contacted the NFL to see if they could collect on the prize. Shockingly, the NFL turned him down, but offered $30,000 for the tapes, which he declined; the NFL then told him if he sold the tapes to anyone else they’d sue, as the content of the tapes legally belonged to them. The NFL did piece together a version of the first Super Bowl to air ahead of the 50th one, but never mentioned Haupt’s side of the story. Haupt told the story instead to the New York Times.
During WWII, everyday products like toilet paper were strictly rationed for soldiers. American soldiers got 22 sheets of TP per day… soldiers from the UK got a mere THREE. Lord, their poor butts…
Ever wondered how long it takes to get the perfect dunk in milk for an Oreo? Well, according to researchers, you should dunk an Oreo for only four seconds, otherwise it becomes a soggy mess. Personally I prefer to completely submerge mine and hold it under until the bubbles stop… it’s the only way to be sure I truly killed it.
Agatha Christie is known for her thrilling mysteries, but most people don’t really know that she was involved in quite the mystery of her own in real life. In 1926, Christie kissed her daughter goodbye and headed to her car, carrying a small case with her. She left a note for her secretary saying she wouldn’t be returning that night but didn’t indicate any plans for long-term travel. Two days later newspapers began reporting on Christie’s mysterious disappearance, and the flames were only fanned higher when her car was found abandoned. After another two days, the search was called off after her brother-in-law said she’d left him a note saying she was going to a spa for rest and treatment, but the police weren’t convinced and expanded their search, even going so far as to gather her latest manuscript and search it for clues as well as bringing along one of her dogs in the hopes it would track down her scent. It wasn’t until nine days after her disappearance that Christie was found at a Yorkshire spa, having checked in under the name of her husband’s then-mistress. Christie claimed amnesia, saying she didn’t remember how she’d gotten to the spa nor why she’d checked in under an assumed name, and never spoke of the incident again, devoting only one page to it in her memoirs. Of course, any Whovian knows the real reason behind her disappearance; it was the giant wasps!
For a few hours in 1849, the United States technically had no President. Back then, Presidents were inaugurated on March 4th, not January 20th as they are now, and in 1849 March 4th fell on a Sunday. Zachary Taylor (oh, we’re back to him again, are we?) refused to take the oath of office on a Sunday because he was highly religious, but his predecessor, James Polk, had already officially left office, so until Monday morning technically the U.S. had no leader.
Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster isn’t actually named “Cookie” for his first name. On an episode of the show, it’s revealed that before he became obsessed with cookies, his real name was Sid. Yeah… I prefer “Cookie” for this one.
The largest flying creature to ever live was a member of the group of flying reptiles called “pterosaurs” and was named Quetzalcoatlus after the mythical being of Aztec lore. It’s believed the creature was the size of a giraffe and probably used its long legs to pole-vault itself into the air.
The glass frog has translucent skin, meaning you can not only see its internal organs, bones, and muscles, but you can even see its heart beating and food being digested. Pass on that last one, thanks…
Pencils are yellow because when pencil production began in the 19th century, the best graphite came from China. Wanting to convey that their pencils had the best graphite possible, American pencil manufacturers made the pencil color yellow, which in China signifies royalty and respect.
Well, it turns out our previous president is not the only conniving, philandering man to make it into the White House (pretty sure that’s most of them)… nor is he the first to somehow spin a horrific scandal to his benefit. In 1873, Grover Cleveland met a woman named Maria Halpin and insisted on taking her on a date. Once the date was over, Cleveland escorted Halpin back to her room and allegedly raped her. Halpin then threw him out, but six weeks later learned she was pregnant with his baby. Believing the scandal would derail his chances of entering politics, Cleveland arranged to have the baby taken from Halpin and forced her into a lunatic asylum. In 1881 Cleveland became the mayor of Buffalo, then governor of New York a year later. In 1884, he secured the Democratic nomination for the presidency, at which point the media revealed the story of Halpin and his illegitimate son. To avoid bad press, Cleveland’s team spun a story where Halpin had slept with several married men and as the only single man among them, Cleveland bravely decided to say he was the child’s father despite not being sure of the paternity, making it seem like he was doing a good deed rather than being a rotten excuse for a human being. Sadly the public swallowed the story, and Cleveland was elected president in 1885 and 1893. No one tell the former president about this… I’m sort of afraid he’ll try to top it!
When filmmakers were adapting the stage production of Grease for the movies, they decided to tweak some of the lyrics, most notably in “Look At Me, I’m Sandra Dee”. The original song included a reference to teen heartthrob Sal Mineo, who had been stabbed to death in 1976. Not wanting to disrespect Mineo’s memory, they changed the line to “Elvis! Elvis! Let me be! Keep that pelvis far from me!” Unfortunately for the filmmakers, production scheduled the shoot for that scene on August 16th, 1977… the day Elvis died. The movie’s director said the whole crew knew about Elvis’s death while filming the scene and found the entire situation to be very chilling as a result.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word “publicly” is the most commonly misspelled word, as it violated a major spelling rule; for words ending in “ic”, you most often add “ally” to the end, however for this word you only add “ly”. No, I don’t know why, so don’t ask.
The first “animal” to be launched into space was actually the fruit fly in 1947. They were chosen as the first animal in space because their genetic code has a lot of similarities with human genetic code, so scientists would be able to get a clearer picture of the effect of space travel on humans. Since the fruit flies survived and showed no signs of mutations, the road was paved to allow eventual human trips to space.
There are more than 900 feral dogs living within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, believed to be the descendants of pets who had to be left behind when families were forced to evacuate the area in 1986 during the nuclear disaster. Guards at Chernobyl care for the dogs, and the animals often accompany the guards on their duties throughout the day. Visitors to Chernobyl are warned not to pet the animals however owing to the fear of radioactive particles in their fur.
And lastly, Selena Quintanilla Perez, the singer tragically killed in 1995 by one of her own employees, was delivered by none other than now-Senator Ron Paul, who worked as an OB-GYN in the 1960s and 1970s in Texas. When the Quintanilla family revealed the connection, Paul’s office said that while he didn’t remember the exact situation, Paul having delivered quite a few babies around that time, they did believe it was plausible.
Random Facts Woman will be returning to her crypt now. Until next time!!!
So it was the Freemasons!
A plot device she would never stoop to in one of her stories.
The Salad Days, we call those.
Fake news! Lazy journalism!
Might be because most “-ic” words have an “-ical” form that the “-ically” form comes from. Even though many of the “-ical” words have passed into disuse, I don’t think there has ever been a word “publical”.
“Publical” sounds like it would describe something relating to taverns or bars, since an old British term for a bartender or innkeeper is “publican,” i.e., the person who owns and runs the pub(lic house).
Sadly, these days it’s becoming more like a Jersey Shore or generic southern accent to much of the world (see European views of British tourists). Not one suggesting rational thinking or mature behavior. Still good for villains, though. 
My wife keeps asking if my family thinks she’s a villain because of her accent. I keep saying no, it’s because of the cat stroking, monocle, and evil laughter.
Don’t get too excited about the 22 sheets. Just like in the c-ration and first generation MREs (not familiar with the fancy new MREs so they might be different) the paper came in a little packet and each sheet was tiny and just single ply. So they were slightly better than using leaves.
Related fact: Wheatley in Portal 2 was cast with a British accent for this reason. Then they gave him a West country accent because to Brits, that’s the “stupid” accent. (He’s voiced by Stephen Merchant!)
As a Brit, generally the “stupid” accents are the ones from all the other regions apart from the one in which you are from.
But not the ones from which you are in, you say?
I have just learned that large spiders keep small frogs as …pets? Guard frogs? Au pairs?
So awkward when the spider dad runs off with the frog au pair. On so many levels.
Who is familiar with the meme “None Pizza Left Beef”.
It was a troll pizza order that went like this…
The guy responsible for that meme was a writer on Nickelodeon sitcoms who went onto co-create Young Sheldon. Mind is reeling.
Oh man, so that wasn’t some stoner’s actual order?
