Fun Fact Thread! (previously fun fact for the day, not limited to 1 per day anymore.)

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

11 minutes ago, Hyperspace Industries said:

why does everyone constantly say puns are bad

Puns and sarcasm are signs of intelligence, actually. 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-surprising-benefits-of-sarcasm/#:~:text=“Sarcasm is the lowest form,this particular form of expression.

"our research suggests, there may also be some unexpected benefits from sarcasm: greater creativity. The use of sarcasm, in fact, promotes creativity for those on both the giving and receiving end of sarcastic exchanges. Instead of avoiding sarcasm completely in the office, the research suggests sarcasm, used with care and in moderation, can be effectively used and trigger some creative sparks"

Also:

 

*Importantly, however, Filik found that the sarcasm also triggered greater activity in semantic networks involved in general language processing, and the brain regions involved in humour, compared to the non-sarcastic irony – which she takes to be a sign of its overall complexity. "It's more challenging to work out what the beliefs of the other person were, why they said that, and whether they're trying to either be mean or be funny."

This mental workout may come with some surprising benefits. Working with colleagues at Harvard and Columbia Universities, Li Huang at Insead’s business school in Fontainebleau, France, has shown that both expressing, receiving, or recalling sarcastic comments can help to catalyse creative thinking"

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211110-your-teens-being-sarcastic-its-a-sign-of-intelligence

 

[Nuke]

these scientists must be the kind of people who find mimes amusing. 

[Admiral Fluffy]

⍼

Nobody knows what that means.

[StrandedonEarth]

Stanley Park’s nine’o’clock gun firing in slo-mo. Cool sound…

 

[kerbiloid]

6 hours ago, Nuke said:

these scientists must be the kind of people who find mimes amusing. 

Quote

Despite being technically a dictator, Lord Vetinari does not exercise the despotic rule that characterised some of his predecessors. Vetinari is the archetype of a benevolent dictator, in a chilly, inscrutable way. In The Truth, he permits the emergence of a free press, and has rarely, if ever, been known to have innocent people just dragged off to dungeons without a trial: The notable exception to this rule are mime artists, whom Vetinari despises. Vetinari banned all mime performances from Ankh-Morpork shortly after taking power. Mime artists who violate the ban usually find themselves hanging upside down in Vetinari's scorpion pit while reading a sign saying "Learn the Words".

Mr. Vetinari? Nice 2cu!

8 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Puns and sarcasm are signs of intelligence, actually. 

Thus, trolls are the top of forums evolution.

[CFYL]

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/florida-passenger-lands-plane/index.html

Have this been discussed yet? A passenger with 0 flying experience successfully landed a small Cessna 208 successfully on the runway intact, because the pilot was suffering from a disease that prevented him from piloting the plane. I doubt even experienced KSP players who often fly FAR airplane can't do it that well if given a plane to fly in real life.

Edited May 12, 2022 by AllenLi

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

3 hours ago, AllenLi said:

I doubt even experienced KSP players who often fly FAR airplane can't do it that well if given a plane to fly in real life.

Necessity is the mother of invention! 

(I know people who have flown PC simulation and said that it helped them when they started learning to fly. 

... 

I also have military pilot friends who have never played a PC game and who scoff at and scorn the very idea.) 

My wife and I had a great conversation about this last night - one of her fears of flying is that exact situation... And I'm someone who for whatever reason has never had a problem landing a pixel plane in any simulation or game... So I said I 'got it' and would have done the same thing (or tried to). 

Thing is -  in emergency situations, different people react in different ways.  Some freeze.  Some act. 

Sounds like this guy was one of the latter. 

[kerbiloid]

They should give a chance to Silent Hunter.

[kerbiloid]

If gather all people and line them up along the Earth equator, most of them will _sink.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Not sure this is fun - but it's apparently true, and made it to Scientific American 

I bring you: the Kentucky Meat Shower 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky_meat_shower

(thanks, xkcd) 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

The gross thing - given the speculation - is the guy who tasted the meat 

[kerbiloid]

It was a panspermia event.

Spoiler

The spermwhale missed a little, and got aerobroken instead of aerobraked.

There should be some petunias nearby.

 

[SunlitZelkova]

Fun fact: Texas Instruments, widely known as a maker of calculators, also make the following weapons-

1. The AGM-88 HARM anti-radiation missile

2. The Paveway series of laser guided bombs. They also produced the world’s first laser guided bomb, the BOLT-117

3. The AGM-154 JSOW glide bomb

4. The FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank guided missile

They also make a variety of forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensors.

[DDE]

1 minute ago, SunlitZelkova said:

Fun fact: Texas Instruments, widely known as a maker of calculators, also make the following weapons-

1. The AGM-88 HARM anti-radiation missile

2. The Paveway series of laser guided bombs. They also produced the world’s first laser guided bomb, the BOLT-117

3. The AGM-154 JSOW glide bomb

4. The FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank guided missile

They also make a variety of forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensors.

Products of the Tambov gunpowder plant:

And then people wonder why the RG-42 grenades looks like a tin can...

[kerbiloid]

1 hour ago, DDE said:

And then people wonder why the RG-42 grenades looks like a tin can...

Spoiler

 

Roly-poly + jack-in-the-box.

Edited May 13, 2022 by kerbiloid

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

7 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

It was a panspermia event.

  Reveal hidden contents

The spermwhale missed a little, and got aerobroken instead of aerobraked.

There should be some petunias nearby.

 

Ok 

That is so... You... No. 

No. 

No. No. No. 

That is so wrong 

 

Too much on point Douglas Adams referencing too early. 

Stahp it. 

[Hyperspace Industries]

8 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

It was a panspermia event.

  Hide contents

The spermwhale missed a little, and got aerobroken instead of aerobraked.

There should be some petunias nearby.

 

“nine days later, on March 12, 1876, red "corpuscles" with a "vegetable" appearance fell over London.”

The missiles were fired at them in orbit, they may have retained some of their velocity, they broke up fast, the petunias were teleported higher and into a slower orbit.

Edited May 13, 2022 by Hyperspace Industries

[DDE]

Minmus: is ostensibly made from ice cream

Pan:

[Autochrome]

4 hours ago, DDE said:

Minmus: is ostensibly made from ice cream

Pan:

"Fun Fact: Pan is shaped like a flat pan."

Edited May 17, 2022 by Autochrome

[kerbiloid]

Frozen ravioli?

[steve9728]

Read some kind joke in Chinese social media saids the author, a trainee surgeon himself, was observing a particular operation on one occasion and had already started stitching when he entered the door. He was happily thinking that it was good that the operation was almost over without seeing much blood, when he saw the attending surgeon pick up a handful of internal organs and dump them into the abdominal cavity. He almost lost his footing and asked, "Don't you have to sort out the intestines and stuff before putting them in? The attending doctor glanced at him out of the corner of his eye as he held the remaining viscera in his hand: "No, they will return to their place. The human body is amazing, isn't it?

Damn is it true? hahaha

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

2 hours ago, steve9728 said:

Read some kind joke in Chinese social media saids the author, a trainee surgeon himself, was observing a particular operation on one occasion and had already started stitching when he entered the door. He was happily thinking that it was good that the operation was almost over without seeing much blood, when he saw the attending surgeon pick up a handful of internal organs and dump them into the abdominal cavity. He almost lost his footing and asked, "Don't you have to sort out the intestines and stuff before putting them in? The attending doctor glanced at him out of the corner of his eye as he held the remaining viscera in his hand: "No, they will return to their place. The human body is amazing, isn't it?

Damn is it true? hahaha

Note to self: No surgeries in China.

[kerbiloid]

The doctor is doing that every time, and yet nobody came back to complain.

[Nazalassa]

Fun fact:

No cat has eight tails.

One cat has one tail more than no cat.

Therefore, a cat has 8+1=9 (nine) tails.

QED

[benzman]

7 hours ago, Nazalassa said:

Fun fact:

No cat has eight tails.

One cat has one tail more than no cat.

Therefore, a cat has 8+1=9 (nine) tails.

QED

Semantics can be problematic at times.