Trivia Thread!

Olorgando said:

Yes, Pluto's degradation in 2006 was controversial even among the professional astronomers.
What they do agree on is that the total mass of the objects in the Asteroid Belt is far too small to have been able to form a single planet, especially in the relative proximity of Jupiter.

The mnemonic for the (formerly) nine Planets in German runs as follows:

Mein Vater Erklärte Mir Jeden Sonntag Unsere Neun Planeten (E being for "Erde", and it would also fit nicely for Earth ... 😁 )

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I got as far as My Father...and I recognized Sunday and Nine planets...had to Google translate the other words.
Ya got nothing for the Asteroids in there!

Erestor Arcamen said:

That’s happened with a few Japanese soldiers

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Yes. The concept also spawned some of the incredible "American Ninja" kung-fu type flicks.
(I'm still trying to figure out what was 'incredible' about them but hey...they're good mindless fare along with Godzilla and Sharknado.)

Deimos said:

I got as far as My Father...and I recognized Sunday and Nine planets...had to Google translate the other words.
Ya got nothing for the Asteroids in there!

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Right! The mnemonic was specifically for planets (being much closer to the topic than a jelly sandwich ), and the asteroids definitely ain't, not even Ceres, with a diameter of about 939 km or 584 miles. Pluto's diameter is about 2,377 km or 1,477 miles, that of Pluto's main moon Charon 606 km or 377 miles.
And while on the topic of moons, two of these, Jupiter's Ganymede and Saturn's Titan (largest and second-largest satellite in the solar system), are actually larger in diameter than the certified planet Mercury (but have a smaller mass), and never mind Pluto.

Olorgando said:

Right! The mnemonic was specifically for planets (being much closer to the topic than a jelly sandwich ), and the asteroids definitely ain't, not even Ceres, with a diameter of about 939 km or 584 miles. Pluto's diameter is about 2,377 km or 1,477 miles, that of Pluto's main moon Charon 606 km or 377 miles.
And while on the topic of moons, two of these, Jupiter's Ganymede and Saturn's Titan (largest and second-largest satellite in the solar system), are actually larger in diameter than the certified planet Mercury (but have a smaller mass), and never mind Pluto.

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oooookaaaay... my mnemonic was actually for the Solar System, because you do [sometimes] have to take into account the Asteroid Belt.
One of those thangs just might get bumped out of orbit and crash into earth.... It happened once, could happen again. 😉
(And where I first saw the mnemonic was a Heinlein novel...just can't remember which one, except that it was one of his Juvenile novels.)
But I do not need a mnemonic to remember the order.... I learned the order when I was 10, just from reading [planetary] astronomy books.

Deimos said:

oooookaaaay... my mnemonic was actually for the Solar System, because you do [sometimes] have to take into account the Asteroid Belt.

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Yeeeeehes ... but then you're missing the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud, sources of comets. They can cause a lot of excitement, just think of Shoemaker–Levy 9 and its fireworks display on Jupiter in July 1994 ...

Olorgando said:

Yeeeeehes ... but then you're missing the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud, source of comets. They can cause a lot of excitement, just think of Shoemaker–Levy 9 and its fireworks display on Jupiter in July 1994 ...

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And then, way out beyond the Solar System lies a myriad of exoplanets that a mnemonic just can't cover...

Olorgando said:

Yeeeeehes ... but then you're missing the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud, source of comets. They can cause a lot of excitement, just think of Shoemaker–Levy 9 and its fireworks display on Jupiter in July 1994 ...

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"Source of SOME comets".... Comets with a period shorter than 200 years originate in the Kuiper Belt; longer period comets come from the Oort Cloud.
I refuse to consider planets or "planet like objects" that have periods greater than Pluto. (Run away! Run away!🥶)
One must draw the line somewhere. Sedna ( a dwarf planet in the Kupier Belt) has a period of 12000+ years.😬

🍀Yavanna Kementári🍀 said:

And then, way out beyond the Solar System lies a myriad of exoplanets that a mnemonic just can't cover...

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And yes, If I don't go there (Kuiper Belt or Oort cloud, or beyond) I don't need a mnemonic 😁

Deimos said:

"Source of SOME comets".... Comets with a period shorter than 200 years originate in the Kuiper Belt; longer period comets come from the Oort Cloud.

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Edited "source" to "sources" in my post (I sometimes manage to miss last letters of words - I type with four fingers on the real keyboard, three of the right hand and one on the left, and with the mouse pointer like just now when using the on-screen keyboard 😬 )

The pain you feel from a sunburn is your skin cells effectively killing themselves before they mutate into cancer.

The sex of an American alligator is determined by the temperature at which the egg is incubated. Incubation at 34C or above produces mostly males; incubation at 30C or below produces mostly females. (It does not specifically say, but I guess 30-34C is a coin toss.)

Erestor Arcamen said:

The pain you feel from a sunburn is your skin cells effectively killing themselves before they mutate into cancer.

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But do ALL sunburned cells mutate to cancer?
Because I've had sunburns, and not just any sunburn; but the-Arizona-low-desert-middle-of-summer-115F- temperature sunburns.
I've had a few precancerous lesions removed from near my temples, but if what you reported is true, I should have had skin cancer all over my arms and legs and back... and I haven't, even after living here 40 years and spending long hours every week at the pool (lap-swimming, not lying on the deck soaking up rays).

Deimos said:

But do ALL sunburned cells mutate to cancer?
Because I've had sunburns, and not just any sunburn; but the-Arizona-low-desert-middle-of-summer-115F- temperature sunburns.
I've had a few precancerous lesions removed from near my temples, but if what you reported is true, I should have had skin cancer all over my arms and legs and back... and I haven't, even after living here 40 years and spending long hours every week at the pool (lap-swimming, not lying on the deck soaking up rays).

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No, because your body tries to protect you from that outcome.
If your DNA get's damaged by UV light, it has an built-in repair mechanism (nucleotide excision repair). If the UV(B) dose is too high for the repair mechanism to work, there are other ways to protect yourself. An inflammatory response happens, which causes the skin to redden, hurt and itch (NSAID like aspirin or ibuprofen help with the pain). This is what you see when you have a sunburn. Your cells also undergo apoptosis, as Erastor mentioned, which is why the skin can peel off when you have a sunburn.
Sunburns are not the cause of skin-cancer. The DNA damage that's caused by UV(B) light that cumulates over time is. But since a sunburn is a sign of heavy DNA damage, it is an indicator for this. Cumulative UV(B) damage induces mutations that break the system the body uses to protect yourself from cancer. This leads to uncontrolled cell proliferation, leading to cancer. Unprotected exposure to dangerous doses of UV(B) light (and sunburns as a sign of this) increase the risk to get skin-cancer the longer the exposure over a lifetime.

The fact that you've had pre-cancerous lesions removed show that some of your cells already did get damaged too much over time resulting in, most likely, an actinic keratosis.
It's very good that you seem to get a checkup and that the pre-cancerous areas have been found and removed! That is very important, especially in sun prone regions. That and using sun screen (UV A and B!).

Some trivia:

An umbilical cord and the pulp of a tooth consist of the same type of tissue (gelatinous connective tissue).
In an adult this type of tissue exists ONLY in the pulp!

Lósendir Elsurion said:

No, because your body tries to protect you from that outcome.
If your DNA get's damaged by UV light, it has an built-in repair mechanism (nucleotide excision repair). If the UV(B) dose is too high for the repair mechanism to work, there are other ways to protect yourself. An inflammatory response happens, which causes the skin to redden, hurt and itch (NSAID like aspirin or ibuprofen help with the pain). This is what you see when you have a sunburn. Your cells also undergo apoptosis, as Erastor mentioned, which is why the skin can peel off when you have a sunburn.
Sunburns are not the cause of skin-cancer. The DNA damage that's caused by UV(B) light that cumulates over time is. But since a sunburn is a sign of heavy DNA damage, it is an indicator for this. Cumulative UV(B) damage induces mutations that break the system the body uses to protect yourself from cancer. This leads to uncontrolled cell proliferation, leading to cancer. Unprotected exposure to dangerous doses of UV(B) light (and sunburns as a sign of this) increase the risk to get skin-cancer the longer the exposure over a lifetime.

The fact that you've had pre-cancerous lesions removed show that some of your cells already did get damaged too much over time resulting in, most likely, an actinic keratosis.
It's very good that you seem to get a checkup and that the pre-cancerous areas have been found and removed! That is very important, especially in sun prone regions. That and using sun screen (UV A and B!).

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'Zactly what I had... yep, been getting checked every year since 2006...doc has found a few little spots of A-K, <3mm, since then (2006 was big patches 😱) and freezes them off, and I watch for them too. I try to swim in the evening when the sun is low, or setting, and going behind trees and/or and buildings.
A lot exposure occurred in my 20s when I was scuba diving in Hawaii over a 3 year period. I was underwater for the dive, maybe down around 35-45 feet, but the dive site was often about 1/4 mile out (400m) and the only way to get there and back was to swim on the surface (you never want to use any of your air before you reach the dive site.)

In the past to test for pregnancy urine of women was injected into specific frogs. In case of a pregnancy the hormones in the urine caused ovulation in the frogs. Even before this method was used, they injected urine into mice or rabbits and dissect them a few days later. The test was positive if enlargement of ovaries and follicular maturation could be observed!

It's a bad idea to keep dry ice in your freezer. Because it is so much colder than the freezer, it may cause the freezer to shut down. Dry ice will also turn to gas more quickly.

The longest place name in the word, at 85 letters, is “Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu,” New Zealand. Locals just call it Taumata Hill.

Say that three times fast.

that three times fast.

Erestor Arcamen said:

The longest place name in the word, at 85 letters, is “Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu,” New Zealand. Locals just call it Taumata Hill.

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A random dude somewhat succesfully pronounced that.