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Sheldon Facts


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Back on the subject of Neptune...

Due to Pluto's elliptical orbit, there are long periods where Neptune is actually further away from the sun than Pluto. So, back when Pluto was still "officially a planet" - it's designation as 9th furthest from the sun was often inaccurate.

And while i'm on planets...

In antiquity, astronomers believed the "Morning Star" and the "Evening Star" were two distinct celestial bodies - in fact, not only are they the same celestial body - they were actually looking at Venus - a planet, not a star.

Thanks for clearing that one up for me! I knew the evening star was Venus, but was confused about the morning star and hadn't realised I was looking at the same thing :)

And how very cool that Neptune is celebrating a birthday! I love stuff to do with the solar system; used to get very excited when we did projects on it at primary school.

And I think poor Pluto should be a real, proper planet. :D

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On the subject of side mirrors...

Sheldon freaks out at the lack of a passenger side mirror in Penny's car (I seem to remember when he asked where it was she replied "in a parking lot in West Hollywood"). In the UK its not actually a legal requirement for cars to have a passenger side mirror - my first car was such a cheap pile of crap the manufacturer (Austin) saved money by only having a driver side mirror.

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The world's second most popular drink was born in a collision between the United States and Spain.

It happened during the Spanish-American War at the turn of the century when Teddy Roosevelt, the Rough Riders, and Americans in large numbers arrived in Cuba. One afternoon, a group of off-duty soldiers from the U.S. Signal Corps were gathered in a bar in Old Havana. Fausto Rodriguez, a young messenger, later recalled that Captain Russell came in and ordered Bacardi (Gold) rum and Coca-Cola on ice with a wedge of lime. The captain drank the concoction with such pleasure that it sparked the interest of the soldiers around him. They had the bartender prepare a round of the captain's drink for them. The Bacardi rum and Coke was an instant hit. As it does to this day, the drink united the crowd in a spirit of fun and good fellowship.

When they ordered another round, one soldier suggested that they toast "¡Por Cuba Libre!"

in celebration of the newly freed Cuba. The captain raised his glass and sang out the battle cry that had inspired Cuba's victorious soldiers in the War of Independence.

Sometimes I drink my Cuba Libre virginalized, but Penny then makes it whorish

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Um, the Cuba Libre fact is a nice story but that's all it is. Coca Cola wasn't available in Cuba at the time the event occurred. From memory, the first shipment of coke arrived in cuba 1-2 years after the supposed date of the story.

The story was popularized by Bacardi's marketing department as it added a bit of romance and history to the cocktail their blue ribband spirit is most commonly used in.

ps. I didn't just google that BTW - I just have a passing interest in cocktails and their origin, allied to a freakish memory for trivia ;-)

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Seagulls cannot burp.

Dogs see in black and white. Put a dog in front of a set of white stairs that have a visible pattern on them and watch it freak out cause it can't judge the distance properly.

We had this problem with our dog when we repainted our house white. We had to paint the raised pattern on the stairs light grey so the dog could see them when she wanted to go outside.

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Dogs don't see in just black and white - they have dichromatic vision, seeing the world in shades of red and blue. Their visual spectrum is closer to red/green colorblindness in humans than it is to true black/white monochromatism.

The gull fact sounds pretty spurious too!

ps. my dog goes nuts whenever I drive past green spaces when he's in the car - pretty weird considering he can't perceive the colour green :-)

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The highest peak in Nevada is not the highest point of elevation in Nevada.

The summit of Boundary Peak is, in reality, the highest point of elevation in the state of Nevada - but as its topographic prominence is less than 300m, it is classified a mere sub-peak of Montgomery Peak (which is in California). Due to this quirky topographical prominence issue - the highest classified peak in Nevada is the lower Wheeler Peak.


Would Sheldon need a hypo-allergenic Thundercat, though??

I only just saw this and it tickled me something rotten - propz!

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Dogs don't see in just black and white - they have dichromatic vision, seeing the world in shades of red and blue. Their visual spectrum is closer to red/green colorblindness in humans than it is to true black/white monochromatism.

Wow, you are a bit Sheldon aren't you?

Anyway

The Darwin's bark spider web is 10x stronger than Kevlar and 25x stronger than steel. It also is water resistant and can not be contaminated with bacteria

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Don't know if this law still exists today...

In Malta, the government do not allow a married couple to divorce.

The couple can split up and see other people, but can only remarry once the other original spouse has died.

Ty to my GF for this one.

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Don't know if this law still exists today...

In Malta, the government do not allow a married couple to divorce.

The couple can split up and see other people, but can only remarry once the other original spouse has died.

Ty to my GF for this one.

I've always found it amazing that Malta has a higher population than Iceland despite Iceland, geographically, being thousands of times larger. From memory I think Malta has a population of around 418,000 people on an island of a mere 312 square km! (the European microstates are a great source of random trivia!)

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Ricotta - not a true cheese ;-)

It's a pseudo-cheese made from the whey left over after the curds are separated to make the proper cheese. The casein and most of the fat is coagulated to make big rich rounds of hard cheese from the guts of the milk - the whey is re-processed to harvest the remaining albumin and globulin and rounds ricotta of are made from the leavings.

Traditionally the farmer would mature and sell the hard cheese from his milk and use the ricotta to feed his family and workers. Its actually pretty good for you - quite low-fat but full of natural whey proteins - Ricotta - nature's protein shake!

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