Trivia Thread!

[Ent]

I have been fortunate enough to get a chance to look at these little water-bears under the microscope and it is really wild to see them actually in action doing living organism stuff.

Cool... color me Ent-vious. One fun fact I failed to note is they reproduce asexually...not sure at this point how rare that is in their class of critter... much research yet to do. (Though I don't think I've any interest in interstellar travel at the end of the day, so I'm not sure why.)

 

[Ent]

our lab does sample testing and tests for tardigrades amongst many others.

What is done if tardigrades are found?
Are the little beasties eliminated somehow?
Is their source sought out, and what is done with the source? (of course, there are many source possibilities here, so the 'what is done' may well differ.)

 

[Muskrat]

Morphine is an antidote for snake venom…and snake venom can be used as an antidote for morphine overdoses.

 

[Eljorahir]

Cosmos by Carl Sagan is littered with great trivia tidbits:

In 1666, at the age of twenty-three, [Isaac] Newton was an undergraduate at Cambridge University when an outbreak of plague forced him to spend a year in idleness in the isolated village of Woolsthorpe, where he had been born. He occupied himself by inventing the differential and integral calculus, making fundamental discoveries on the nature of light and laying the foundation for the theory of universal gravitation. The only other year like it in the history of physics was Einstein’s “Miracle Year” of 1905. When asked how he accomplished his astonishing discoveries, Newton replied unhelpfully, “By thinking upon them.”

 

[Deimos]

Cosmos by Carl Sagan is littered with great trivia tidbits:

In 1666, at the age of twenty-three, [Isaac] Newton was an undergraduate at Cambridge University when an outbreak of plague forced him to spend a year in idleness .... He occupied himself by inventing the differential and integral calculus, making fundamental discoveries on the nature of light and laying the foundation for the theory of universal gravitation. ..... When asked how he accomplished his astonishing discoveries, Newton replied unhelpfully, “By thinking upon them.”

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Actually many people would find his answer astonishing, who themselves (and they are no small minority) are unaccustomed to thinking.

 

[Muskrat]

In a party of 30 people, it is quite likely that two of them share the same burthday.

 

[Olorgando]

In a party of 30 people, it is quite likely that two of them share the same burthday.

I recall that the probability of two having the same birthday is over 50% with only 23 people.

 

[Deimos]

I recall that the probability of two having the same birthday is over 50% with only 23 people.

I'm friends with a family of 9 and one dog.
The dog and I share a birthday.

 

[Olorgando]

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day, 12 February 1809.

 

[Deimos]

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day, 12 February 1809.

So was Bertha Toffelmeir. And Irving Schwartz.

 

[Olorgando]

So was Bertha Toffelmeir. And Irving Schwartz.

No Toffelmeir mentioned in Wikipedia. An Irving Schwartz, yes, a Canadian businessman and philanthropist, but born 120 years and change too late, so wrong birthday. And they can't be friends of yours if they were born 1809 ...
... there was a hare grazing on the lawn just below our balcony a short while ago when I went out for a smoke. Refused to give his birthday ...

 

[Deimos]

No Toffelmeir mentioned in Wikipedia. An Irving Schwartz, yes, a Canadian businessman and philanthropist, but born 120 years and change too late, so wrong birthday. And they can't be friends of yours if they were born 1809 ...
... there was a hare grazing on the lawn just below our balcony a short while ago when I went out for a smoke. Refused to give his birthday ...

1) You can't possibly know of all the Bertha Toffelmeirs born in 1809
2) No doubt it was a different Irving Schwartz, one who obviously was born in 1809
3) I didn't say they (Bertha and Irving) were friends of mine (altho' they could have been friends with each other)... it was the 2023 family of 9 plus the dog that are my friends.

 

[Ellessor]

And they can't be friends of yours if they were born 1809

Maybe Deimos has a trifle that Sauron fancies...

 

[Olorgando]

1) You can't possibly know of all the Bertha Toffelmeirs born in 1809
2) No doubt it was a different Irving Schwartz, one who obviously was born in 1809

I don't know any Toffelmeirs from any century - and neither does Wikipedia, as I mentioned above.
You must have access to some very dusty archives *cough cough*.

Maybe Deimos has a trifle that Sauron fancies...

Nope, we've all read about its destruction roughly 6,000 years ago.

 

[Deimos]

I don't know any Toffelmeirs from any century - and neither does Wikipedia, as I mentioned above.
You must have access to some very dusty archives *cough cough*.

Nope, we've all read about its destruction roughly 6,000 years ago.

Surely you do not believe that Wikipedia is a repository of 100% of all facts and/or knowledge.
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

 

[Olorgando]

Surely you do not believe that Wikipedia is a repository of 100% of all facts and/or knowledge.

'Course not. There is no such thing. But Bertha and Irving (not the Canadian) seem to have been below the encyclopedic radar.

“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

That dinky playwright's knowledge would make him fail junior high school nowadays. 😈

 

[Deimos]

'Course not. There is no such thing. But Bertha and Irving (not the Canadian) seem to have been below the encyclopedic radar.

That dinky playwright's knowledge would make him fail junior high school nowadays. 😈

OK... I guess I've taken this maybe as far as I should., so....
I hope, I really truly hope that you knew/know.......I was being facetious.
Everything about [the fictitious] Bertha and Irving was all in fun.

And as for the extent of Will's knowledge (coupled with his wisdom) I'll cast my lot with him any time; he being preferable to any 21st C. college grad.

 

[Muskrat]

Hungry and angry are the only two modern English words that end in -gry. The only word in English that I can think of using all the vowels and y in alphabetical order is abstemiously , he said facetiously.

 

[Deimos]

Hungry and angry are the only two modern English words that end in -gry. The only word in English that I can think of using all the vowels and y in alphabetical order is abstemiously , he said facetiously.

HAHA.... I see what you did there 😄😉

 

[LaurelinBearsFruit]

What is done if tardigrades are found?
Are the little beasties eliminated somehow?
Is their source sought out, and what is done with the source? (of course, there are many source possibilities here, so the 'what is done' may well differ.)

Well actually the presence of tardigrades within a specific range is a marker for good quality water treatment. You don't want too many, but you also don't want none. The same goes for many of the other microorganisms we test for. At the end of the treatment process (after the point at which we test for these little guys) we put all the wastewater through UV treatment to sterilize all the critters so they don't act as pathogens any longer once returned to the river.