Every Day is a Learning Day

[easthammer]

"I along with a handful of regulars do the daily quiz on here. Each day I learn something, true that by the end of the week, I have forgotten half of it! Occasionally you come across things that truly surprise you. Not something you had forgotten it but something truly novel. This week, courtesy Zico, one thing I learned is that a Cubit is based on the measurement from the length of the middle finger to your elbow ( around 18 inches). I just didn't know that. That got me thinking maybe a thread to share just one interesting fact a day might be .... well interesting. Now it is not my suggestion to repost questions and answers from the quiz thread, nor to post pure opinions ( for example the other day I discovered that Tesco Finest Frozen Chips are far Superior to McCain's - now that is just my opinion and as is common practice on here writing FACT after that wouldn't make it one. And certainly don't post your opinion or what you think are facts relating other posters - there is at least 50 other threads where that is done...FACT (see what I mean ;) Ok I'll start off with something I learn't from a crossword this week, and this in the light of me having a 46 year old daughter named Emma. Neither of us knew: Pip Emma is slang for in the afternoon (pm) dating from WW1 signaling protocols. Ok what have you learnt thats new to you?"

[easthammer]

"Over the Week-end ( for reasons I won't bore you with ) I discovered that the ""Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta"" is arguably the smallest state in the world. First formed out of the 11th Century Knights Hospitaller movement. It has no territory but it is considered a sovereign entity under international law. There are approx 13,500 Knights (members with various statuses) The three top people have citizen status and the very top man has sovereign status, it can issue passports, it has diplomats and ""embassies, is recognised by 112 countries and it has observer status at the UN in a similar fashion to that awarded to the Holy See (the Vatican) and Palestine. Its modern-day role is largely focused on providing humanitarian assistance and assisting with international humanitarian relations,"

[Mad Dog]

Mcfarlane missed his by 10 minutes due to a hangover

[Sir Alf]

I suspect Mr Moyes is not a man who adheres to this saying ;-)

[zico]

I think Seth MacFarlane and Mark Wahlberg narrowly missed out on being on the planes that hot the WTC on 9/11.

[Pee Wee]

"The Four Tops, John Lydon and Kim Cattrall were all supposed to be on the Pan-Am flight that exploded over Lockerbie. John Lydon missed it because his wife was late getting ready. Kim Cattrell decided to go shopping instead. Once my wife found these facts out she whenever she's being late or other womanly stereotypes she reminds me she's probably saving my life."

[zico]

"easthammer 5:36 Tue Oct 31 Seems a shame that the HPV vaccine is only available for certain groups rather than the whole population or rather and HPV cure so to speak, as obviously a vaccine wouldn't help if you already have HPV. Wonder if a tonsillectomy lowers the risk?"

[Pee Wee]

"easthammer 3:13 Sat Oct 28 It's known as the Birthday paradox and it's weirder than you suggest. if you picked 75 at random, there is a 99.9% probability that two share the same birthday. Mental"

[easthammer]

"Today's bit of knowledge resulted from watching Rhod Gilbert's ""A Pain the Neck"" SU2C Documentary on Channel 4 The HPV virus in men can lead to cancer and it is often sited in the tonsils A recommended watch for all 40-something men"

[easthammer]

"Zico your sharing a ""birthday"" with West Ham is not as surprising as you may think. I long ago knew that there is a 70% chance that a group of 30 two will share the same birthday. ( Birthdays in classrooms taught me that!) Using the same probability table you can be pretty certain (99.6%) that in a home crowd of 60,000, there will be at least 1,000 people with that birthday. Darlo Debs if you were watching in the morning then it is ACK. EMMA. Something else I just learned."

[zico]

"easthammer 2:34 Sat Oct 28 Re Brazilian names It is still quite confusing to us who don't understand it. Obviously my favourite Brazilian player as a kid was Zico. Born Arthur Antunes Coimbra his nickname originated in Zico's own family from increasingly shortened versions of Arthurzinho (""Little Arthur"") which then became Arthurzico, then Tuzico and, finally, Zico, a version created by his cousin Ermelinda ""Linda"" Rolim. Pele was a interesting one if you look it up. One interesting fact I did find out recently whilst researching a quiz is that West Ham were founded obviously as Thames Ironworks and this was announced by Arnold Hills on 29 June 1895 which ironically is my birthday (not the 1895 bit!) Never knew that but found it a bit freaky."

[Darlo Debs]

Actually it was morning TV on britbox znd I'd popped it on to help me get to.sleep after a nightshift.

[bruuuno]

I’ve not learnt anything because I know everything . Yfcs

[easthammer]

"Thanks to PeeWee's post I have today learned about the complexity. Of Portuguese and Brazilian naming conventions, which cause them to have such long official names. It is very complicated as the following cut-and-paste indicates: ""Ok, so here's the ""standard"" naming convention for children of heterosexual couples: Everybody has a given name (also called ""baptism name""), a matrilineal family name and a patrilineal family name, in that order. Each of these can be either a single word or a composition of words : your patrilineal name could have three words, for instance, and your given name could be a composition of two names. When having a child, both parents pass on their patrilineal names only, so, for example, let's say your name is [Jo?£o Pedro] [Gomes] [de Souza], where J. P. is your given name, G. is your matrilineal name and de S. is your patrilineal name, and you intend to have a baby with [Maria] [dos Santos] [Costa e Silva], where, similarly, M. is her given name, dos S. is matrilineal and C. e S. is patrilineal. Your son, whom you decide to name Jos?©, will then take both of your patrilineal names, starting with the mother's, so he shall be called Jos?© Costa e Silva de Souza. The reason Brazillian names can get so big is that, following this scheme, everyone will have at least three names, but if one of your family names is composed of multiple words it can only get bigger. Still, it's very rare for people to have more than five names total. Of course, that's only a tradition, not a rule, so parents will often change the order of the names to sound better, or leave out some of the names to avoid making it too long"" Even so not totally clear how Lucas Tolentino Coelho de Lima, becomes Lucas Paqueta Think Paqueta is the name of the island where he was born"

[Bondholder]

The New Stadium is an anagram of West Ham United

[Pee Wee]

"Cristiano Ronaldo Was named after Ronald Reagan as his dad was a huge fan, no of his politics but his acting."

[zebthecat]

"You'll love it Nurse. In a similar vein are the books of John Lewis-Stempel. They are mostly about simple thinks such as oak trees, ponds and farming but are wonderful."

[easthammer]

"Darlo Debs wrote... ""Not an amazing fact but just yesterday.I.was watching an old Miss Marple that had two.of its main characters called Pip and Emma to.pay a nod to.that bit of slang"" Must have been Afternoon TV. :) ."

[ray winstone]

"Alfs 1:39 Fri Oct 27, that is a great doc, how anyone can eat Octopus after watching that is beyond me, plus the fact, it tastes like shite."

[Far Cough]

"Due to their intelligence, octopuses are listed in some countries as experimental animals on which surgery may not be performed without anesthesia, a protection usually extended only to vertebrates."

[Nurse Ratched]

Zeb - my son loved Other Minds. He gave me his copy but I haven't read it yet.

[zebthecat]

"Alfs 1:39 Fri Oct 27 I have but my interest was piqued by reading a book review of Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith. It is fascinating and there were loads amazing tidbits. Octupuses can recognise individual humans and, in some cases, take an avtive dislike. In one lab an animal had taken against a particular worker and squirted him every time he came into range. In an aquarium the staff could not figure out why the lights kept going out overnight and, after installing some cctv, they found out that an octopus was switching them off presumably to have a better sleep. The main thrust was the we diverged from them in body plan so long ago that they as close to a totally alien intelligence we will ever find on this planet. The bit that tickled me the most was an octopus that had a well decorated den with shells and bits of coloured plastic (which is sad in a way) and had also put in a perspex skylight to fill a hole in the rock roof."

[zebthecat]

"Alfs 1:39 Fri Oct 27 I have but my interest was piqued by reading a book review of Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith. It is fascinating and there were loads amazing tidbits. Octupuses can recognise individual humans and, in some cases, take an avtive dislike. In one lab an animal had taken against a particular worker and squirted him every time he came into range. In an aquarium the staff could not figure out why the lights kept going out overnight and, after installing some cctv, they found out that an octopus was switching them off presumably to have a better sleep. The main thrust was the we diverged from them in body plan so long ago that they as close to a totally alien intelligence we will ever find on this planet. The bit that tickled me the most was an octopus that had a well decorated den with shells and bits of coloured plastic (which is sad in a way) and had also put in a perspex skylight to fill a hole in the rock roof."

[Darlo Debs]

Easthammer Not an amazing fact but just yesterday.I.was watching an old Miss Marple that had two.of its main characters called Pip and Emma to.pay a nod to.that bit of slang .

[zico]

"You have talked me into doing another strange facts quiz!! I come across loads of stuff I never knew doing these quizzes. Three of my favourites are - In 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in a car with the number plate A 111 118. World War One started as a result of this act. Four years later, World War One ended with an Armistice on the 11-11-18! Circa 1864, Edwin Booth saved the life of a stranger who fell between a train and its platform in Jersey City. The stranger was Abraham Lincoln's son, Robert. A year later, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington. Edwin was John Wilkes Booth's elder brother! In 1895 there were only two cars in the entire state of Ohio; however, they managed to crash into each other."

[chim chim cha boo]

"I didn't actually see this, my ex missus, a fantastic swimmer saw it and came out of the water as wired as fuck but she was snorkelling on holiday with me when she came across a big stone in the water and was looking at it when it turned into an octopus, moved to another, very different stone, assumed its shape and colour and disappeared, shape-shifting into the exact colour and shape of the new stone. She was buzzing about it for a week (and obviously delighting in the fact that I hadn't seen it, the moo). She said it was like something out of a science fiction film. Neither of us ever ate octopus ever again."