netmouse Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 Anyone got any Sheldon-esque facts they wish to share with us? Any urban-myths you wish to disprove? Anything that you might feel we need to know, post it here. I'll start. In the live video clip to John Lennon's "Imagine" song, Mark Chapman (the man who would later go on to shoot John Lennon) can be seen sitting in the front row of the crowd in the clip. The truth is out there, peeps... go find it !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BazingaGirl Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 Now that is just plain creepy. While we're on the subject of John Lennon, he once told the Monkees that they were "funnier than the Marx brothers". This was while the Monkees were doing a tour of England and they happened to be at the same party as the Beatles were at. And while we're on the subject of the Monkees, Mike Nesmith's mother invented Liquid Paper, although I believe it had a different trade name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mousedroppings Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 I have no random knowledge to share, but I've always been afraid to look into anything or anyone associated to the Beatles. A lot of weird crap has happened around that band... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netmouse Posted June 5, 2011 Author Share Posted June 5, 2011 @BazingaGirl: John Lennon also got in trouble for saying The Beatles were bigger than Jesus. Our liquid paper is called "White Out"... Tip-Ex rings a bell as another name for it. To the google-mobile!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BazingaGirl Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 @BazingaGirl: John Lennon also got in trouble for saying The Beatles were bigger than Jesus. Our liquid paper is called "White Out"... Tip-Ex rings a bell as another name for it. To the google-mobile!!! LOL, I used to use Tipp-Ex sheets when I did typing classes at school... (oh, that makes me feel old) Micky Dolenz (of the Monkees) was interviewed once about the success of the Monkees and he had said something along the lines of: People are afraid we'll say we're bigger than the Beatles, which means we're bigger than Jesus, and we shoot Drano! Oh, and the Monkees did play their own instruments from their 3rd album on, just in case anyone was wondering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netmouse Posted June 7, 2011 Author Share Posted June 7, 2011 Ok, going with the music theme atm... In Britain, it is illegal for a band to play instruments in a film clip, IF they did not actually play the instruments on the album. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BazingaGirl Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 Ok, going with the music theme atm... In Britain, it is illegal for a band to play instruments in a film clip, IF they did not actually play the instruments on the album. Wow, gotta feel sorry for all those air-guitarists out there who want some practice! It has been commonly quoted in the past that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible to the naked eye from the moon. However, this rumour started in 1938 before man got to the moon and in fact, the wall is barely discernable from a height (low orbit) of 180 miles, let alone the 237,000 mile distance from the moon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netmouse Posted June 23, 2011 Author Share Posted June 23, 2011 If one is thirsty, the best thing to drink is black tea. Drinking too much water will actually flush the body of essential salts which, in extreme cases, can lead to death. Soft drink will not quench a thirst. The sugar in them actually causes the body to dehydrate more. By the time the body senses that it is thirsty, it is actually already dehydrated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nagarjuna Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Here's one... The heat in all Asian cuisine originally came from black pepper not chili pepper. All species of the genus Capsicum are native the the Americas and therefore chili has no history of use in the old world, culinary or otherwise, that pre-dates the Colombian Exchange. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netmouse Posted June 23, 2011 Author Share Posted June 23, 2011 @Nagarjuna: nice one. Someone told me that the heat from a chili comes from the membrane that holds the seeds together, not the actual seeds themselves?? Also, drinking water to try and cool down the heat of a curry actually makes it hotter. Milk is the best remedy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nagarjuna Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Thanks Netmouse :-) I'll try for 2/2 then eh? Leonard's old friend, lactose intolerance, isn't actually a medical condition as such - its the norm! The vast majority of mammals only produce lactase in infancy to allow for the digestion of mothers' milk. A gene then 'turns off' lactase production leading to an inability to digest lactose. 'Lactase persistence' occurs due to a mutation in the gene that normally turns off lactase production. This mutation propagated throughout humans living in dairy-consuming northern cultures to the extent that most people in Europe are congenitally lactose tolerant into adulthood. That said, the majority of human beings alive on the planet today do not have this mutated gene and cease production of lactase after infancy like all other mammals do. Lactose intolerance is actually more common in humans than lactase persistence. So, in fact - Leonard is the 'normal one', its the rest of them who are freaks ;-) 'polish' is the only verb in the English language than becomes a proper noun when capitalised. (not 100% sure if this is still true - can anyone cite another example?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BazingaGirl Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 If that is the case with lactose intolerance, why aren't more people suffering like Leonard with their intestines blowing up like balloons? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nagarjuna Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 If that is the case with lactose intolerance, why aren't more people suffering like Leonard with their intestines blowing up like balloons? From the little I've read on the subject (its not even close to my academic background I'm afraid) the mechanism isn't fully understood yet, but lactose intolerance has been strongly linked to a non coding variation to the MCM6 gene. When the gene is 'turned off', lactase production can do anything from cease completely to decreasing only marginally - hence a spectrum of symptoms - anything from slight case of the windy-pops after a coffee to full-on stomach cramps and bloating. Roughly 12% of Europeans in the USA are lactose intolerant to some degree (whereas native Americans with no history of domesticating cattle are almost exclusively lactose intolerant) - there must be an awful lot of people who either suffer mildly and don't really notice or a lot of people who do suffer but don't correctly associate the symptoms with the actual cause - putting it down to acid reflux or just gas. Interestingly (I may be playing fast and loose with the word interesting here - so be warned!), I have one friend who used to be pretty bad - he'd suffer in real pain after eating any dairy. He really loved cheese though and used to take lactase in pill form when he wanted to eat dairy. Then one day he ate some cheese, realised he was out of lactase pills and had no ill effects. It appears after years of taking lactase almost daily his body started producing lactase again all by itself. As I said, we've only begun to understand whats going on here. My friend's case reminds me of a paper I read recently about the Japanese's ability to digest Nori (seaweed used in sushi) - it was proven that certain intestinal fauna 'borrow' genes from a particular ocean going bacteria ingested when eating sushi. These intestinal bacteria with their 'super-powers' newly borrowed from other bacteria allow the host to digest the otherwise indigestible nori. This mechanism could well be at play in cases where lactose intolerance appears to disappear - perhaps intestinal fauna too can acquire the ability to digest lactose without the body having to produce lactase itself? This would also explain why, in traditionally non-dairy eating countries where dairy consumption is on the rise (Japan for example) - lactase persistence in the general population is on the rise far faster than simple reproductive propagation of the recessive trait that results from mutation of the MCM6 gene could possibly explain. It would seem that if a nation eats more dairy, they become more tolerant - and they become tolerant far faster than simple propagation of the mutation by reproduction can explain. As Sheldon would say... FASCINATING! :-) Sorry - I think I went wildly off topic there! I'll try and answer more succinctly... In short - the majority of lactose intolerant people live in non-dairy consuming cultures like China and constitute the majority of the human population alive today. The majority of lactase persistent people live in the Western World where symptoms of the lactose intolerant minority are pooprly understood in the general population and are therefore more often mis-attributed to other causes. The balance is however shifting and in 50 years or so lactase persistence might predominate worldwide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netmouse Posted June 24, 2011 Author Share Posted June 24, 2011 Science fact: You will not fly like Elliot in the film ET if you ride your bike off your porch. I know this because, when I was 9 years old, I tried it. I can still remember lying on the ground in a crumpled heap underneath the remains of my bike and my brother running inside yelling "Mum, mum.... Nick's dead !! Nick's dead!!" lolz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netmouse Posted June 25, 2011 Author Share Posted June 25, 2011 Boiling water freezes faster than water at room temperature. So, if you need ice cubes in a hurry, use boiling water to fill the ice tray. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BazingaGirl Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 Boiling water freezes faster than water at room temperature. So, if you need ice cubes in a hurry, use boiling water to fill the ice tray. I did physical chemistry at university, but I really don't know why this is the case. Can anyone explain this phenomenon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netmouse Posted June 26, 2011 Author Share Posted June 26, 2011 The ice theory... http://everything2.com/title/Hot+water+freezes+faster+than+cold+water Believe it or not, but there is also a wiki on ice cubes... pfff lolz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BazingaGirl Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Thank you! As Sheldon would say, "fascinating." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netmouse Posted June 28, 2011 Author Share Posted June 28, 2011 Chris Martin (lead singer of Coldplay) is the great great grandson of the man who "invented" the practice of daylight savings time. Martin's gg grandfather was concerned about how much time people spent sleeping during the summer months when the weather was so nice. I love Homer Simpson's comment about daylight savings, blaming it on the "stupid farmers" lolz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penny Lane Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 i tend to assume that everyone else would already know whatever it is i have to say heh... but here goes: it was Bob Dylan who first introduced the Beatles to marijuana. When they first met, in a hotel, he suggested they have a smoke together. They admitted they had never smoked a joint before and Dylan was like 'so what was the deal with your song, when you say I get high, I get high, I get high!'? (they actually say 'I can't hide') Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nagarjuna Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 Here's one... The characteristic sound of a whip crack is a sonic boom caused by the popper (tip) accelerating through the sound barrier. i tend to assume that everyone else would already know whatever it is i have to say heh... but here goes: it was Bob Dylan who first introduced the Beatles to marijuana. When they first met, in a hotel, he suggested they have a smoke together. They admitted they had never smoked a joint before and Dylan was like 'so what was the deal with your song, when you say I get high, I get high, I get high!'? (they actually say 'I can't hide') While I do appreciate all the Beatles related trivia - has Sheldon actually ever expressed any interest in popular music? As far as I can remember, his interest in music only stretches to a spot of Tibetan throat singing and the occasional bout of Theremin practice :-) ps. I used to live about 100 yards from the Greenbank Rd. end of Penny Lane for a couple of years. The chip shop (presumably where the "fours of fish" in the song came from) wasn't really somewhere you'd want to sample the fish - if you wanted to survive the experience that is ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netmouse Posted June 29, 2011 Author Share Posted June 29, 2011 A shark needs to keep moving, otherwise it will die. To allow it to sleep, half of its brain shuts down at a time and sleeps, whilst the other half tells the body to keep moving. Horses use a similar method which allows them to sleep standing up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nagarjuna Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 A shark needs to keep moving, otherwise it will die. Sorry to be a 'know all', but that's not strictly true - though there is a kernel of truth to it. Sharks do need to keep water moving over their gills to stay alive - they do not however have to keep moving to achieve that. They'll often simply use ocean currents to do the work for them - essentially letting water move over their gills rather than actively engaging in locomotion. They'll sit motionless in mid-water, aligned with the current so a steady flow of oxygenated water passes through their gill slits whilst they conserve energy. Some species can also pulse their gill slits to move water across the gills in the same way non-cartilaginous fish do. WHY DO I NOW THESE THINGS? WHY IS MY BRAIN FULL OF USELESS TRIVIA!!!!! ARRRRRRGGGH!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TracerTong Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 The word "curry" is an anglicised version of the Tamil word kari, meaning 'sauce,' which is usually understood to mean vegetables/meat cooked with spices with or without a gravy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netmouse Posted June 30, 2011 Author Share Posted June 30, 2011 @Nagarjuna: damn, and here I was thinking sharks used their kryptonian skin cells to breath !! lolz. After watching the season one pilot last night, I have found something Sheldon does that has bothered me. Whilst Penny goes for a shower, Sheldon goes to the fridge to get himself and Leonard a drink. When he opens the fridge, he does so by slotting his fingers into the side of the fridge door and opening it that way as opposed to using the handle. Over a period of years, this method of opening the fridge results in oil build up from your fingers on the door seal. The seal dries out and cracks. This results in the fridge losing its "coldness" and running less efficiently. I know, I have a $300 bill from having to get the seals replaced ! The common culprit is small children who cannot reach the handle, so in turn, grasp the side of the door to open it. The lesson to be learnt... USE THE HANDLE, THAT'S WHAT IT'S FOR !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now