So, I'm kinda going off of the New Word of the day thread Mil1ion just started, but I'm a glutton for knowledge, and I know everyone here has something else to offer (and probably feels the same way). I have to work today and no one else is in, therefore, phone calls are out, meetings are out and FTE is in!! I've learned so many interesting things about everything (like the South Pole thread a few days ago), that I thought it deserved a thread of it's own.

I'll start...kind of like a did you know thing...

Did you know that the Earth is 8 light minutes away from the sun? Anything at all that happens to the Sun (though not anticipated for billions of years) the light and gravitational effect would take 8 minutes to get here.

The Sun's radius is about 450,000 miles. If it were to become a Black Hole, it would compress to a radius of just under 2 miles, and a teaspoonful of such compressed mass, would weigh about as much as Mount Everest. For something the size of Earth to become a Black Hole, it's radius would need to be in the area of 1/2 inch.

I'm incredibly bored here today folks, flex your brains and fill someone in on some new knowledge about absolutely anything...science, history, obscure sports knowledge, trivia, etc. (I just came up with the above while "working" and reading a book on physics)

 

Did you know that a mirage you see on the road on sunny days is actually the sky that you're seeing? Since the road gets hotter than the air above it, the light coming from the sky refracts and bends as it goes down toward the road, bending up to the eye. But, since our brain assumes that anything we see is in a straight path away, we assume the light comes from the road, so that's where we "see" the sky.

 

Did you know that looking at me through a rear view mirror can make me look larger than Life ?


I changed the last word, Cause Michelle didn't like what I put there first.

ok seriously.


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Traffic lights were in use before there were motorcars

Traffic lights were used before the advent of the motorcar. In 1868, a lantern with red and green signals was used at a London intersection to control the flow of horse buggies and pedestrians.

When motorcars were introduced to the US in the late 1890s, Police Officer William Potts used railroad signals for street traffic, adding the amber light. His electric traffic lights were installed in 1920 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. They were manually controlled. The first automatic traffic light was invented later in 1920 by Garrett Morgan and first used in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

 

Ok,along the same lines as what Mil1ion said,,Did you know that when people first started driving cars,there was a law that stated they had to get out of their car and look both ways when they came to an intersection.There was another law that said if you came up on a horse on the road in front of you,you were not supposed to blow your horn.They were afraid you would startle the horse and possibly injure the rider.Hmmm,wish we still had that law!

 

Ok here's my contribution to "higher education" - subject: history

Paul Revere Never Finished His Ride

We all know about Paul Revere's Ride, right? We all know about how Paul Revere rode from Lexington to Concord to warn the Americans that the British were coming. We all know about how he rode through the streets yelling, "The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming!"

We all know about it; yet it isn't true.
The truth is that Paul Revere never finished that ride that come to be named after him. Paul Revere was stopped by a British patrol on his way to Concord. He never made it!
In fact, he was riding with two other men, only one of whom succeeded in warning the Americans in Concord that the British were coming.
William Dawes also rode with Paul Revere that night. He, too, was stopped by a British patrol. He managed to escape, as did Dr. Samuel Prescott, the third rider.
Revere, meanwhile, didn't escape until much later, and without his horse. He walked back to Lexington and made it there in time to witness part of the battle on Lexington Green.
Dawes, meanwhile, got lost in the dark and never made it to Concord.
Only Dr. Samuel Prescott reached Concord, where he delivered the warning, "The British are Coming!" And when the British came to Concord, the Americans were ready.

 

Paul Revere didn't say the British are coming? Next your going to tell me that Columbus wasn't the first person to know the world was round

 

I just watched a show on the discovery channel where they were claiming that the Vikings were the first to discover the new world,Ok,I guess I can buy that.But how did they get their ships out of Minnisota?

 

K.T. Who "discovered" America depends on who you talk to. Of course there is Columbus, but I've also heard the Viking theory, as well as the Bering Land Bridge theory which predates the Vikings.

I guess it's a lot like the Evolution vs Creation arguement...(but we won't get into that debate here!)

 

Hey Wes,clue me in on the bridge theory,or is it a religious thing?I have never heard of that one.

 

king- im not the smartest guy here- but i think that bridge theory meant either that the land connected most of the continents before errosion / something whiped away the land in between them, or maybe they just flooded over.

another thing ive heard was possible that the ice made a bridge people went from continent to continent from, which later opened up to become oceans.

but... i keep reading more and more theories of evolution that are being disproved, i dont know what to believe anymore

 

Supposedly, the Bering Land Bridge was not really a bridge, but a glacier from the last ice age. Also, the original inhabitants of North and South America crossed this "land bridge" from Asia and Siberia to Alaska, and eventually, the rest of North and South America. And as we all know, Indians and Mayans were here long before the Vikings and Columbus.

Ah, built, you beat me to it.

 

Yeah I had heard about the plate theory also,and Im wondering if the bridge theory was across the app. islands by alaska.I just never heard of that one before.Personally,I think it was discovered by Thomas Edison,I mean come on,he discovered everything else!That guy was brilliant!

 

I believe that theory about the bridge.

It is well known in Canada that Chinese people and Native Canadian's share the same type of hair,facial features.

 

I think bigrigfixer is right about the glacier part of it. They say that that's how the original Native Americans got here to begin with, as well as many of the animal species that are found today.

Beer: Color is not an indicator of alcohol strength or potency in a beer. In general, it indicates flavor intensity, which results from the amount and type of malted barley used.

Also, it is not necessarily good to brew beer cold, as flavors make their way out best at room temp.

Finally, early New England tavern owners werer required by law to know and report the origin, destination and business purpose of every guest.

 

And just where does the Kennewick man fall into this?