Pre-vaccination, many people died of disease in infancy. Therefore it’s statistically likely that around a quarter of your great-grandparents were dead before the age of five.
A similar example I heard in a class once. The teacher told us this factoid and asked the class to come up with an explanation.
There is a direct correlation between ice cream sales and murder. (The actual cause is the weather. The hotter it gets, the more people buy ice cream, and the more likely people are to lose their tempers. So people who are borderline-homicidal are more likely to snap when it’s super hot out.)
Slightly off-topic about the antidepressants factoid. A friend who has been on antidepressants told me they actually can increase someone’s chances of suicide. She said occasionally the meds will help with the lethargy and lack of motivation, but not help the sadness and feelings of worthlessness. So you’ve got someone who still feels like they’d be better off dead, but now they actually have the energy and motivation to go through with it. She said it didn’t happen to her, but her doctor warned her that it might.
Exactly. It’s actually true that antidepressants seem to have side effect of greater suicide risk, and the prevailing theory of why is exactly what you mention - they’ve begun to work by lifting the lethargy and malaise, but they haven’t yet addressed the feelings of sadness and hopelessness. If you look at the number of depressed people on antidepressants who kill themselves, it *is *higher than the number of depressed people who are not on antidepressants and kill themselves.
I didn’t want to get into correcting it earlier, because this is a light hearted thread, but the poster has it wrong: they’re not comparing depressed people to non-depressed people as he thinks, they’re comparing depressed people on antidepressants to depressed people not on anti-depressants.
When a solar eclipse occurs at night, it produces a momentary green flash.
There actually was a theory that ice cream was somehow a cause of polio because statisticians noticed that increased ice cream sales and polio outbreaks coincided.
-Penguins and ostriches are the only animals that can not fly.
-Coca Cola originally contained heroin.
-It’s possible to lead a cow uphill but not downhill.
-An ostrich’s eye is bigger than it’s head.
-South Dakota is actually further north than North Dakota.
-On the 15th week of the NFL schedule, every team plays a home game.
-The name “Peter” was made up for the book “Peter Pan”.
-Nutmeg is extremely poisonous.
-The San Francisco Cable cars are the only permanent National Monuments.
-Hawaiian math only uses 8 digits.
The emergency services number is the only one you can still call when your mobile runs out of power.
This one is true. I can attest to the fact that my great grandpappy was dead before puberty. But before that? Totally the man.
I will buy that you are more likely to be injured by a dull knife than a sharp one as there are just so many more dull knives out there. Have you seen the condition of most people’s knives? There must be more than 50 crappy dull knives in the world for every sharp one. Hell, almost everyone I know tosses them in a drawer, puts them in a dish washer, and never sharpens them.
This has been the only thing I have laughed out loud at for quite a while.
Well, it is true that there’s never been a solar eclipse at night that didn’t produce a momentary green flash.
Sunrise and Sunset are exactly 12 hours apart on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. Its close but not exactly.
If your parents didn’t have children, there’s a 90% chance you won’t either.
These are great.
Especially the Hawaiian math one. I’m going to try and find someone I can convince of that. Shouldn’t be too hard!
Elephants are aroused by pictures of naked women.
Virtually all chimpanzees can juggle with no training.
Skunks don’t actually smell. The smell comes from a parasite that attaches itself to their skin.
WD-40 is the most effective sun block ever tested.
More people are killed in roller blade related accidents than are killed in house fires.
Combining 8 or more cheeses in the same meal is almost invariably fatal.
Dolphins can be taught to read. We know this because they laugh at the funny parts.
Because of hormonal changes, pre-pubescent males and females are technically different genders than their adult counterparts. Still, it is not widely understood that the human species has four genders.
The squeak you hear when eating fresh cheese curds is from bacteria in the cheese screaming when they come into contact with saliva. Their death is almost instantaneous so the scream is not prolonged.
Horses are the easiest animals to shoot in a barrel.
Being pulled up out of the water is the death fish dream of. Fishermen are their gods.
Beavers resent being associated with female genitalia. Oddly, cats love it.
String theory was conceived of at a physics convention luncheon with string cheese on the menu.
Pens down, everyone.
We have a winner.
I think it was actually that column that brought me to the Straight Dope, from which I found the SDMB (and hence led me to meet the man who is now my husband).
This week’s episode of Mythbusters was a rerun. It was the one where they discovered to everyone’s amazement that elephants apparently really are scared of mice.
Female mountain lions can go into heat if they catch the scent of male humans. Hence the modern understanding of the term “cougar”.
Sharks have a Human Week.
Mark Twain was the great uncle of the Marx brothers and the great great grandfather of Shania Twain. He was also a direct descendant of Jonathan Swift.
It has been scientifically established that 80% of geese are left footed. If left unable to fly on a a featureless plain, a left footed goose will walk in a wide clockwise circle.
Bumble bees have that name because they are in fact very clumsy.
Canadians eat 5 times as much beef jerky per capita than Americans. In contrast, Americans eat 8 times as many pork rinds per capita than Canadians.