Tell me a little-known fact.

Post a random fact that few people seem to know about.

Ok, I'll start.

The European Parliament has made more binding decisions with regard to its member states than were made by the USSR Supreme Soviet with regard to the former Soviet republics.

Crab sticks do not actually contain any crab. From 1993, manufacturers have been legally obliged to label them 'Crab Flavoured Sticks'

Per capita cheese consumption correlates with the number of people who died  by becoming tangled in their bedsheets. (correlation =  94.71%)

for more: http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations (full disclosure: i am not that tyler)

Crab sticks do not actually contain any crab. From 1993, manufacturers have been legally obliged to label them 'Crab Flavoured Sticks'

The Titanic had over 1,000 miles of pleasurable and uneventful sailing before it hit the iceberg.

Crab sticks do not actually contain any crab. From 1993, manufacturers have been legally obliged to label them 'Crab Flavoured Sticks'

The Titanic had over 1,000 miles of pleasurable and uneventful sailing before it hit the iceberg.

the fourth funnel at the back of the Titanic didn't actually do anything.  the boat designer just thought it'd look more epic if it had four funnels. 

Not every foreigner in Korea lives in Seoul and has access to English speaking staff at banks, the post office, phone shops, immigration etc.

Not every foreigner in Korea lives in Seoul and has access to English speaking staff at banks, the post office, phone shops, immigration etc.

Post office and immigration in Seoul are also hit-or-miss.

Banks and phone shops advertise which branches have service, but not 100% true once you get there!

Gangwon province is actually split between the two Koreas.

Southern gangwon in SK, northern gangwon in NK.

SK has a governor for northern gangwon province, but the role is largely ceremonial

Trump Derangement Syndrome is a real psychiatric disorder...! Imagine that!

Trump Derangement Syndrome is a real psychiatric disorder...! Imagine that!

the thread is about little known facts

you can lead a horse to water, but can't make  it drink.  but, you can lead a pony to water and then just push it in the water or something.  same thing really.  fact.

Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation estimates that more than 90% of American films made before 1929 are lost, and the Library of Congress estimates that 75% of all silent films are lost forever.
Most lost films are from the silent film and early talkie era, from about 1894 to 1930, and of American sound films made from 1927 to 1950, perhaps half have been lost.

I read that on Wikipedia while back and for some reason it surprised me, 90% of silent films lost. :o
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_film

It's physiologically impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
But, apparently, it *is* possible to lick your own elbow.

Oh, also, put all five fingertips on the table. Fold your middle finger in. Now try raise each fingertip (individually) off the table without moving your hand or the folded middle finger. It's impossible to raise the ring finger because it shares the same tendon with your middle finger.

These pointless facts brought to you by my first year kinesiology class.

It's physiologically impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
But, apparently, it *is* possible to lick your own elbow.

Oh, also, put all five fingertips on the table. Fold your middle finger in. Now try raise each fingertip (individually) off the table without moving your hand or the folded middle finger. It's impossible to raise the ring finger because it shares the same tendon with your middle finger.

These pointless facts brought to you by my first year kinesiology class.

But why can I raise my middle finger when my ring finger is folded in?

It's physiologically impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
But, apparently, it *is* possible to lick your own elbow.

Oh, also, put all five fingertips on the table. Fold your middle finger in. Now try raise each fingertip (individually) off the table without moving your hand or the folded middle finger. It's impossible to raise the ring finger because it shares the same tendon with your middle finger.

These pointless facts brought to you by my first year kinesiology class.

That was a fun 5 seconds.

My fact: In some parts of France miscarried babies used to be buried under the kitchen floor.

This pointless fact brought to you by briefly specializing in death-studies during my master's.

Oh, also, put all five fingertips on the table. Fold your middle finger in. Now try raise each fingertip (individually) off the table without moving your hand or the folded middle finger. It's impossible to raise the ring finger because it shares the same tendon with your middle finger.

But why can I raise my middle finger when my ring finger is folded in?

This has more to do with nerves than tendons.
The ring finger uses the same nerve as the middle finger (radial nerve), which makes independent movement very difficult. On the other hand (pun) the middle finger also gets signals from the nerves that direct the index finger (the ulnar nerve), which allows it more independent movement.

Apparently, some musicians can train a greater degree of independence for their ring finger, which suggests that some degree of dependence/independence may also be attributed to signal processing in the brain.

Magnetic resonance imaging reveals that the nucleus accumbens, the part of the brain that is activated in people in love, is the same part that lights up in cocaine users and gamblers when they act out their addiction.

Basically!

https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-17845/why-falling-in-love-makes-people-crazy.html

The human male ejaculate is fitted for warfare, anticipating that there will be combat to fertilize an egg.  It's made of three types of sperm.  The older sperm wedges itself in the cervical crypts that lead to the womb working as blockers.  The younger sperm rams against foreign sperm rubbing a toxin on them to kill them.  Only 1 % of the male ejaculate actually has the role of fertilizing the egg.   Our bodies are actually designed to anticipate and combat against multiple sexual encounters.

I used enough scientific words that this shouldn't lead to a violation in terms of service, but if it does please just delete and don't punish me.  I thought it was fascinating enough to share (and do a thesis on!).

50  years after WWII, U.S. gov't files were finally open and covered by the mainstream press for a few days, before people prompting ignored/forgot about it:

THE REASON WHY America bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki was NOT to end the war but to get their post-war plan: The Japanese had ONE condition for surrender: keep their emperor. But documents showed the US planners worried their post-war industrial plan for Japan as a manufacturer of products for America could be hampered by an emperor who might be hard to control - a democracy was needed. THEREFORE America rejected that one condition and demanded unconditional surrender, then bombed the cities, killing so many women, children and elderly people under the fake excuse that.it was necessary to stop the bloodshed of battle and end the war.

THEREFORE America rejected that one condition and demanded unconditional surrender, then bombed the cities, killing so many women, children and elderly people under the fake excuse that.it was necessary to stop the bloodshed of battle and end the war.

I always believed that until I found out that in fact Japan had already made attempts to surrender before the bomb was dropped.


Fact:

Saturn has a continual perfect hexagon at its north pole (a pattern nowhere found in natural weather) - and scientists cannot explain it.