# Tell us an interesting random fact you stumbled across (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 13, 2020, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674 "2020-04-13T03:19:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/261 "2020-05-12T15:26:57Z")
The world’s most populated island completely surrounded by fresh water is… Montreal (Canada) - 2,014,221. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/262 "2020-05-12T15:44:32Z")
The name for the otter-like water rodent nutria comes from the Spanish word ‘nutria,’ which means. . . ‘otter.’ The Spanish word for nutria is ‘coypu,’ coming from some South American indigenous language. I’ve yet to find out what the word means in that language, but I suspect it’s something like ‘water rat.’ ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/263 "2020-05-12T15:46:31Z")
Here’s something I learned when working in a metrology lab: When you weigh something on a balance, it does not report the true, “inertial” mass of the object being weighed. It reports a different value, called “conventional mass.” This the case for _all_ balances, even the [very expensive analytical balances made by Mettler](https://www.mt.com/us/en/home/products/Laboratory_Weighing_Solutions/Analytical.html). This doesn’t cause a problem for most applications. One area where it _can_ cause a problem is in the pharmaceutical industry. If a drug requires a precise amount of an ingredient, you need to know if the quantity specified (in mg) is true mass or conventional mass. If the quantified specified is true mass, and you’re using analytical balance, you had better convert the reported value to true mass. It will also cause a problem if the object you’re weighing will be accelerated in a horizontal plane. Your F=ma equation won’t be precise because your m has error. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/264 "2020-05-12T18:25:21Z")
Abraham Lincoln is the only U.S. President to have been granted a patent, for a mechanism to lift boat over obstructions in a river: > **[Abraham Lincoln's patent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln%27s_patent)** > > Abraham Lincoln's patent relates to an invention to buoy and lift boats over shoals and obstructions in a river. Abraham Lincoln conceived the invention when on two occasions the boat on which he traveled got hung up on obstructions. Lincoln's device was composed of large bellows attached to the sides of a boat that were expandable due to air chambers. Filed on March 10, 1849, Lincoln's patent was issued as Patent No. 6,469 later that year, on May 22. His successful patent application led to ... ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/265 "2020-05-12T18:28:05Z")
duplicate ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/266 "2020-05-12T19:05:07Z")
> [@Master Wang-Ka](#): > > I only found out yesterday that the woman Jack Nicholson thought was his sister was in fact his mother, and that his parents were in fact his grandparents. > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Eric Clapton had almost the same familial history. So did singer [Bobby Darin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Darin). ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/267 "2020-05-12T19:11:37Z")
> [@Master\_Wang-Ka](#): > > Another one of his legs is currently in Illinois; during the Spanish-American war, he had to bug out from his bivouac, and members of the 4th Illinois Infantry found one of his wooden legs in his quarters, along with a bunch of money. > > (snip) > > Santa Anna today remains remembered by historians as a brilliant politician who totally achieved his level of incompetence as a general. Nitpick: the leg incident occurred during the Mexican-American War (1846-48). The Spanish-American War occurred in 1898, over two decades after Santa Anna’s death. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/268 "2020-05-12T20:23:29Z")
There is a monument to Benedict Arnold’s boot at the Saratoga Battlefield National Historic Park. Arnold was the hero for the American cause at that battle, but because he turned traitor later on in the war, the monument raisers didn’t want to name him on the plaque. He was shot in the leg at Saratoga, so they honored his wounded boot. > **[Boot Monument](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot_Monument)** > > The Boot Monument is an American Revolutionary War memorial located in Saratoga National Historical Park, New York. It commemorates Major General Benedict Arnold's service at the Battles of Saratoga in the Continental Army, but does not name him. > John Watts de Peyster, a former major general for the New York State Militia during the American Civil War and writer of several military histories about the Battle of Saratoga, erected the monument to commemorate Arnold's contribution to the Continenta... ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/269 "2020-05-12T21:18:25Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Here’s something I learned when working in a metrology lab: > > When you weigh something on a balance, it does not report the true, “inertial” mass of the object being weighed. It reports a different value, called “conventional mass.” This the case for _all_ balances, even the [very expensive analytical balances made by Mettler](https://www.mt.com/us/en/home/products/Laboratory_Weighing_Solutions/Analytical.html). > > This doesn’t cause a problem for most applications. One area where it _can_ cause a problem is in the pharmaceutical industry. If a drug requires a precise amount of an ingredient, you need to know if the quantity specified (in mg) is true mass or conventional mass. If the quantified specified is true mass, and you’re using analytical balance, you had better convert the reported value to true mass. > > It will also cause a problem if the object you’re weighing will be accelerated in a horizontal plane. Your F=ma equation won’t be precise because your m has error. **Response from the pharmaceutical industry:** _Eh?_ I worked 35 years in the industry, using all manner of balances; did weighing for compounding, weighing for analyses, writing and reviewing of compounding instructions and analytical procedures involving weighing, drug licensing with all its weighing-related issues and negotiations with national (etc) regulatory bodies - and I have never heard of this. j ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/270 "2020-05-12T23:23:02Z")
What does the moon smell like? I bet this isn’t a question many of us ponder, but the Apollo astronauts reported that [it smells like burnt gunpowder](https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2006/30jan_smellofmoondust). No one know why. One theory is that it results from rapid oxidization when moon dust is first exposed to moist air, comparing it to a dry desert that’s been dry for billions of years and is suddenly exposed to oxygen and moisture. It’s intense and distinctive but apparently doesn’t last long. None of the lunar samples brought back to earth have any smell. Another theory is that it’s the result of ions created by millions of years of bombardment by the solar wind. ---
**Author:** ![a6ka97](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c2a13f/32.png) [@a6ka97](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a6ka97)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/271 "2020-05-12T23:51:15Z")
2+2=5 Take a calculator and set it so it reads only whole numbers, no tenths, hundredths, etc… Enter 2.48 (rounds down to 2) + 2.49 (rounds down to 2) and enter equal. Should read 5. 2.48 + 2.49 = 4.97 which rounds up to 5. When Chevy made the Nova in the 70s other GM divisions got a model based on this car. N = Nova sold by Chevrolet O = Omega sold by Oldsmobile V = Ventura sold by Pontiac A = Apollo sold by Buick ---
**Author:** ![a6ka97](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c2a13f/32.png) [@a6ka97](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a6ka97)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/272 "2020-05-13T00:57:14Z")
2+2=5 Take a calculator and set it so it reads only whole numbers, no tenths, hundredths, etc… Enter 2.48 (rounds down to 2) + 2.49 (rounds down to 2) and enter equal. Should read 5. 2.48 + 2.49 = 4.97 which rounds up to 5. When Chevy made the Nova in the 70s other GM divisions got a model based on this car. N = Nova sold by Chevrolet O = Omega sold by Oldsmobile V = Ventura sold by Pontiac A = Apollo sold by Buick ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/273 "2020-05-13T01:18:25Z")
> [@a6ka97](#): > > . . . When Chevy made the Nova in the 70s other GM divisions got a model based on this car. > > N = Nova sold by Chevrolet > O = Omega sold by Oldsmobile > V = Ventura sold by Pontiac > A = Apollo sold by Buick And all four were assembled at the same GMAC assembly plant, on the same assembly line. One of those plants was located in Van Nuys CA. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/274 "2020-05-13T01:40:00Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > And all four were assembled at the same GMAC assembly plant, on the same assembly line. One of those plants was located in Van Nuys CA. I once owned a Chevy Nova. No, not the Chevy Nova you’re talking about…a NUMMI Chevy Nova. They partnered with Toyota and produced what was essentially a Chevrolet Corolla. It was an excellent car. Speaking of Chevy, remember the Vega? It was bad partly because the workers who built it wished it to be so. “…labor relations at the Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant that built the Vega were notoriously awful. Originally a Chevrolet plant, Lordstown was turned over to the General Motors Assembly Division during 1971, and the number of employees was cut even as line speed was maintained. Morale among Lordstown UAW workers sank, and some resorted to sabotaging cars on the line or simply doing lousy work.” > **[The Car That Nearly Destroyed GM](https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a6424/how-the-chevy-vega-almost-destroyed-gm/)** > > The Chevrolet Vega turns 40 this year, and it's a car worth remembering­for all the wrong reasons. Lordstown is the plant Trump wanted to bring back, right? ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/275 "2020-05-13T02:32:44Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > Morale among Lordstown UAW workers sank, and some resorted to sabotaging cars on the line or simply doing lousy work." Sabotage is throwing a shoe into the mechanism of an assembly line. A sabot, a French wooden shoe like a Dutch clog. The original American car industry equivalent term was “monkey wrenching”. For the bonus: Savate, traditional French street fighting style, is the same word as sabot. Bonus bonus: The stiletto shoe was the traditional weapon of the French prostitute, but they used a knife fighting style rather than a kick-boxing style. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/276 "2020-05-13T04:33:27Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > **Response from the pharmaceutical industry:** _Eh?_ > > I worked 35 years in the industry, using all manner of balances; did weighing for compounding, weighing for analyses, writing and reviewing of compounding instructions and analytical procedures involving weighing, drug licensing with all its weighing-related issues and negotiations with national (etc) regulatory bodies - and I have never heard of this. > > j I’m not saying what you did was right or wrong. But there’s an important distinction between conventional mass and real mass when mg count. You must do your homework. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/277 "2020-05-13T12:17:25Z")
The most common name given to baby boys in Israel is… Muhammad (your spelling may vary). > **[What were Israel's most popular baby names of 2018?](https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/what-are-israels-most-popular-baby-names-597144)** > > Muhammad remains the most common name in Israel overall, the report said. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/278 "2020-05-13T12:35:47Z")
[**During Iceland’s disastrous economic collapse, the only bank to remain solvent and, in fact, continue to tun in the Black was the Audur Capital, which was completely founded and run by women.**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Uk8OIzF44U) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/279 "2020-05-13T12:36:45Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Sabotage is throwing a shoe into the mechanism of an assembly line. A sabot, a French wooden shoe like a Dutch clog. The original American car industry equivalent term was “monkey wrenching”. “A popular but false account of the origin of the term’s present meaning is the story that poor workers in France, who wore wooden shoes called sabots, used to throw them into the machines to disrupt production.[1] This origin story is told in the 1991 movie Star Trek VI. This account is not supported by the etymology.[1]” > **[Sabotage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabotage)** > > Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization, destabilization, division, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a saboteur. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identities because of the consequences of their actions and to avoid invoking legal and organizational requirements for addressing sabotage. > > The English word derives from the French word saboter, meaning to "bu... (The source Wikipedia quotes) [sabotage | Etymology of sabotage by etymonline](https://www.etymonline.com/word/sabotage) A middle school teacher of mine told our that there was once an invading army coming into some town and the citizens decided to put on their wooden shoes and head over to the cobblestone street. Just milling around created so much noise that the army could hear it from far away and decided they were outnumbered…and left. I’ve never found a cite for it on line, however. And in the vein of fooling an enemy goes, how about the Ghost Army? Hitler’s reconnaissance mistook inflatable tanks for the real thing, but also the allies also had trucks blasting soundtracks that could be heard 15 miles away. “The Ghost Army’s sonic illusions, in this case, were so convincing that they fooled Axis Sally, the radio propagandist, into reporting that an entire Allied division was preparing for battle in a spot that actually contained, at the time, no troops at all.” 😃 > **[Ghost Army: The Inflatable Tanks That Fooled Hitler](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/05/ghost-army-the-inflatable-tanks-that-fooled-hitler/276137/)** > > The Allies saved thousands of lives by embracing the artistry of war. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/280 "2020-05-13T14:02:47Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > I’m not saying what you did was right or wrong. But there’s an important distinction between conventional mass and real mass when mg count. You must do your homework. There may be an important distinction there, but I’m not sure who it’s important to. In 35 years in pharma, nobody I knew ever had to do their homework on this one. The most precise balances we used (which, if I remember correctly, were readable to 10 **micrograms** - extremely specialised) were very temperature sensitive, because at that level temperature affects the _buoyancy_ of the alu foil weighboats. Maybe that’s what you’re talking about. But nobody ever mentioned the distinction between conventional mass and real mass - and that was when **micrograms** counted. For milligrams _condensation_ is an issue - take reference standards out of the fridge an hour before you weigh samples of them. So my point is: > [@](#): > > One area where it can cause a problem is in the pharmaceutical industry. If a drug requires a precise amount of an ingredient, you need to know if the quantity specified (in mg) is true mass or conventional mass. If the quantified specified is true mass, and you’re using analytical balance, you had better convert the reported value to true mass. Not as far as I know, and I was there for a long time, and this is right in my specialist area. Nor do I see why anyone would care (practically speaking) if there is such a distinction, so long as convention dictates that you stick to one or the other. j [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=15)