# 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:** 179
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3569 "2022-02-01T23:08:05Z")
_“Also, taller people generally have less vital organ density in their torsos than shorter people making it slightly less likely a bullet will hit one.”_ Tall people may less likely to be injured fatally, if they are hit. But, being a bigger target, they are more likely to be shot _ **anywhere** _. If the vital organs are the same size as in shorter people, those organs will still be hit at the same rate - but the taller people will be hit more over their entire body. So taller people may die more often because of complications caused by initially non-fatal injuries (gangrene, infections, etc), since they may get more of those than short people. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3570 "2022-02-02T21:38:57Z")
The country names Myanmar and Burma are basically just different transliterations of the same Burmese word. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3571 "2022-02-03T01:17:32Z")
Myanmar is one of three countries that use feet, pounds, gallons, degrees Fahrenheit etc. instead of metric. The other two are Liberia and the United States. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3572 "2022-02-03T04:19:58Z")
I’m not sure what is meant by this. As I recently mentioned in another thread, many of these are used in Canada as well depending on what is being measured. I’m pretty sure feet, inches and pounds are used for measuring humans outside of those 3 countries as well. And in all my American schooling, we exclusively used metric in all science and math classes. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3573 "2022-02-03T04:21:43Z")
The key is including temperature in Fahrenheit. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3574 "2022-02-03T04:26:47Z")
Many Canadians set their thermostats at home to Fahrenheit. And also used it for body temperature. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3575 "2022-02-03T17:29:13Z")
My experience of Canada is that it’s more not-metric than metric, but only just. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3576 "2022-02-03T18:50:59Z")
What is the official measurement system in Canada? Metric? English? Some sort of hybrid? English everywhere but Quebec? ---
**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:** [February 3, 2022, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3577 "2022-02-03T18:58:22Z")
John Lennon? > The book’s more sensational claims have already been digested by the New York Post and other newspapers: the singer, we’re told, masturbated constantly and was sexually obsessed with Barbara Walters, briefly became a born-again Christian who swore by The 700 Club, obsessed over his weight to the point of bulimia, and physically abused the same wife and child he would later purr about on his final album, Double Fantasy. [Book source](https://chicagoreader.com/music/the-dakota-diaries/) ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3578 "2022-02-03T19:16:31Z")
[Barbara Walters in college](https://i.redd.it/koyetux5iht71.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3579 "2022-02-03T23:52:46Z")
Does every country have an official stated declaration on what form of measurement they use? My point was that it varies so much by context that I’m not sure your original statement can be accurate. ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3580 "2022-02-04T00:42:59Z")
Darn it, I was about to invent the “anti-gravity” device. But my material samples kept blowing up. > [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > Many Canadians set their thermostats at home to Fahrenheit. And also used it for body temperature. Although USAnians get a lot of flack for not using the SI, I actually like Fahrenheit for measuring weather temperature. It nicely spans the expected temperatures outside, lowest about 0 in Winter, highest about 100 in summer. And I believe I heard that people can distinguish the difference between a degree Fahrenheit, making 1 degree C too crude. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3581 "2022-02-04T15:08:31Z")
The skin is the largest organ in the body. Also arguable the most important. It is actually the skin, not the white blood cells, that is the body’s first line of defense against harmful pathogens. Think about it 🙂 . ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3582 "2022-02-04T15:11:36Z")
@Limmin Yeah, I’ve noticed that too. The degrees Fahrenheit are more finely distributed, and therefore more accurate. Also, for degrees Celsius zero is freezing and one hundred is boiling. _Who cares!_ For me a hundred degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature when it is too hot outside. That is the important distinction to me, at least. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3583 "2022-02-04T15:19:41Z")
I may or may not have known this: it’s from the bygone days of traditional phones. You can tap your number with the prongs: 232 = tap-tap, tap-tap-tap, tap-tap, etc. for the seven-digit number. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3584 "2022-02-04T15:22:53Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > You can tap your number with the prongs: 232 = tap-tap, tap-tap-tap, tap-tap, etc. for the seven-digit number. I occasionally did that at random as a bored teen. Never had the guts to wait for anyone to pick up. ---
**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:** [February 4, 2022, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3585 "2022-02-04T16:16:03Z")
When I was a student you would occasionally see a rented house (rented to students) with a phone which had a lock on the dial - the idea being that you could take incoming calls (ie, no cost) but you couldn’t dial out. Someone I knew became quite adept at calling out by “dialing” numbers on the prongs. j ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3586 "2022-02-04T16:21:05Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > I occasionally did that at random as a bored teen. Never had the guts to wait for anyone to pick up. _“Hello? I’m an old man who just got out of the bathtub to answer this wrong number. I’m naked, I’m soaking wet, and I’m about to fall and break my hip!”_ That seriously was my parents’ reasoning of why we should dial carefully and never get a wrong number. There were other ways to “dial” an old-time phone; making the right tones for each number was one of those. There were a few illegal moves that were handy at pay phones (see _Steal This Book_ by Abbie Hoffman). Yes, we used those all the time back in “the sixties” ('66 to '72)… (We need a thread “What skills do you have that are totally useless now?”) ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3587 "2022-02-04T16:27:09Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > You can tap your number with the prongs: This isn’t (wasn’t) just a bug either, it’s how dial phones worked to begin with. When you let go of the dial, it would just open and close the connection a number of times based on how far you turned the dial. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3588 "2022-02-04T17:20:28Z")
Sorry to interrupt your discussion on old phones. (BTW I used to do that myself (click the telephone, i.e.)—but could never do it fast enough. Ah, well.) But tomorrow (February 5th as I write this) is the exact middle of the season. Didn’t read that. I discovered it myself. When I took the start of the season in North America (solstices or equinoxes), added the numbers of year, and divided by two, I invariably got a 5th. February 5th, May 5th, August 5th, or November 5th. (You will note that this also corresponds _approximately_ to the cross-quarter days of Candlemas, May Day, Lammas Day and Hallowe’en respectively.) It also is no accident, weather people where I live say it’s when we turn the corner on the season. So in North America at least, we should be getting warmer. Isn’t that great 🙂 ? Yeah, I figured this out about twenty years ago now. I also came up with a Sine wave approximation of the high/low temperature for each day. The temperatures are governed by the Sine wave, more or less. Assuming 365 days for the year (we don’t have to be exact here 😉 ), and that the highest and lowest temperature are as above, you just insert the values into the graphing equation for the Sine wave. And Voilà. You got it. An approximation at least. Isn’t that wonderful 🙂 !? (EDIT: And now please continue your important discussion about rotary telephones 😉 🙂 .) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=178) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=180)