# 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:** 187
**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:** [February 14, 2022, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3729 "2022-02-14T15:08:49Z")
Gauge blocks are metal (or sometimes ceramic) blocks that are used as dimensional standards. They are very flat, smooth, and precise. They’ve been around for over a hundred years. Gauge blocks can be stacked so that their dimensions add. This is called [wringing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauge_block#Wringing). When wrung properly, the blocks will stick to each other. Here’s the interesting fact: no one knows precisely _ **why** _ the blocks stick together when they’re wrung. We know it’s not due to Van der Waals forces, since the blocks are not close enough together for this force to operate. We also know that air pressure can’t fully account for it, since blocks can be wrung together in a vacuum. Our best guess is that it has something to do with the surface tension of the thin film of oil between the blocks, and/or “molecular attraction,” whatever that means. Here’s a photo from a 1907 toolmaking book of 36 gauge blocks wrung together and held horizontally: [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Gauge_block_adhesion.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Gauge_block_adhesion.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3730 "2022-02-14T20:49:34Z")
> [@digs](#): > > This is a fact you recently stumbled across? I’d say almost everyone knows this… Brazil is 48% of the population of South America. Sure, but how many people know there’ s a substantial ethnically Japanese population in Brazil? > **[Japanese Brazilians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Brazilians)** > > Japanese Brazilians (Japanese: 日系ブラジル人, Hepburn: Nikkei Burajiru-jin, Portuguese: Nipo-brasileiros, \[ˌnipobɾaziˈlejɾus\]) are Brazilian citizens who are nationals or naturals of Japanese ancestry or Japanese immigrants living in Brazil or Japanese people of Brazilian ancestry. > The first group of Japanese immigrants arrived in Brazil in 1908. Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside Japan. Since the 1980s, a return migration has emerged of Japanese Brazilians to Japan. More rece... ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3731 "2022-02-14T22:53:22Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Sure, but how many people know there’ s a substantial ethnically Japanese population in Brazil? I knew about the one in Peru. Always wondered how Spanish speakers pronounced el Presidente Fujimori. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3732 "2022-02-14T23:39:02Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > substantial ethnically Japanese population in Brazil? I knew. South America has a different ethnic makeup than North America, but it’s not strange at all. All crowded societies had people who emigrated (or were sold/contracted) to the New World to try their luck. It wasn’t just the U.S. and Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3733 "2022-02-15T00:09:10Z")
Speaking of particular ethnic groups in far-flung places, I just saw a documentary about the large (mostly German) Jewish community in Shanghai during the 1930s and 40s. The doc pointed out that getting out of Germany during the Third Reich wasn’t the problem for Jews, but rather finding a country that would accept them. In the whole world, there was only one place you could move to without a visa or passport. Thanks to some byzantine treaties from the 19th Century, Japanese occupied Shanghai was an “open city” meaning if a Jew fleeing from Hitler could afford a ticket on the Trans Siberian Railroad or a ship, they could just show up and the small established community of Iraqi and Russian Jews in Shanghai would help them find homes and jobs. When WWII broke out in 1939 it made sea travel impossible and travel through the Soviet Union ended with Hitler’s invasion in 1941. Japan’s war with the US later that year cut off the community completely. About 16,000 Jewish expats in Shanghai were eventually confined to a ghetto by the Japanese until the war ended. Although many died of disease and famine during the war, the Jewish community fared no worse than their Chinese neighbors. When immigration to the US, Israel, and elsewhere opened up after the war, the Jewish community in Shanghai all but evaporated. ---
**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 15, 2022, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3734 "2022-02-15T04:11:28Z")
Highest butter consumption per capita: [Cyprus](https://www.statista.com/statistics/535849/consumption-of-butter-per-capita-worldwide-country/#:~:text=Cyprus%20had%20the%20highest%20per,per%20capita%20in%20that%20year.) Highest sugar consumption per capita: [Cuba](https://www.helgilibrary.com/indicators/sugar-consumption-per-capita/#:~:text=Based%20on%20a%20comparison%20of,of%20Korea%20with%203.19%20kg.) Highest chocolate consumption per capita: [Switzerland](https://www.statista.com/statistics/819288/worldwide-chocolate-consumption-by-country/#:~:text=Switzerland%20was%20the%20leading%20country,get%20enough%20of%20the%20candy.) ---
**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 15, 2022, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3735 "2022-02-15T05:19:33Z")
> [@carnut](#): > > I knew. South America has a different ethnic makeup than North America, but it’s not strange at all. All crowded societies had people who emigrated (or were sold/contracted) to the New World to try their luck. It wasn’t just the U.S. and Canada. And it seems like Brazil got all sorts. I’ve had many Brazilian (college) students, and they’ve looked/acted/sounded _so_ different from each other… even the two that unbeknownst to each other came from villages 20 km from each other. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3736 "2022-02-15T05:37:25Z")
Japan has special visas for people of Japanese decent from South America, so you can see highly educated people working on assembly lines and such because the pay is better than back home. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3737 "2022-02-15T13:02:57Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Speaking of particular ethnic groups in far-flung places, I just saw a documentary about the large (mostly German) Jewish community in Shanghai during the 1930s and 40s. I saw an exhibit in a museum several years ago about other, much older communities of Jews in China. There have been several apparently. What I saw might have been about the Kaifeng Jews > [@](#): > > Most scholars believe that a [Jewish community](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews) has existed in Kaifeng since the [Northern Song Dynasty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Song_Dynasty) (960–1127), though some scholars date their arrival to the [Tang Dynasty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_dynasty) (618–907) or earlier.[[3]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaifeng_Jews#cite_note-3) Kaifeng, which was then the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, was a cosmopolitan city on a branch of the [Silk Road](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road). It is surmised that a small community of [Mizrahi Jews](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizrahi_Jews), who were most likely from [Persia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persia) (see [Persian Jews](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Jews)) or [India](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India) (see [History of the Jews in India](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_India)) or Jewish refugees who probably fled the [Crusades](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades), arrived by a land or a sea route, settled in the city, and built a [synagogue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synagogue) in 1163.[[4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaifeng_Jews#cite_note-4) > **[Kaifeng Jews](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaifeng_Jews)** > > The Kaifeng Jews (Chinese: 開封猶太人; pinyin: Kāifēng Yóutàirén; Hebrew: יהדות קאיפנג Yahădūt Qāʾyfeng) are members of a small community of descendants of Chinese Jews in Kaifeng, in the Henan province of China. In the early centuries of their settlement, they may have numbered around 2,500 people. Despite their isolation from the rest of the Jewish diaspora, their ancestors managed to practice Jewish traditions and customs for several centuries. > The distinctive customary life of the Kaifeng commu... > **[History of the Jews in China](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_China)** > > Jews and Judaism in China are predominantly composed of Sephardi Jews and their descendants. Other Jewish ethnic divisions are also represented, including Ashkenazi Jews, Mizrahi Jews and a number of converts. > The Jewish Chinese community manifests a wide range of Jewish cultural traditions and it also encompasses the full spectrum of Jewish religious observance. Though a small minority, Chinese Jews have had an open presence in the country since the arrival of the first Jewish immigrants duri... ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3738 "2022-02-15T13:51:20Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > I have worked with European Spanish and Portuguese people in the same office for many years and that’s what they told me. They can however READ each other’s languages very well. The consequence is that because Spanish is fonetically very clear and Portuguese is a mess of almost slavic sounding sh’s and ommited vovels the Portuguese speakers understand the Spaniards much better than the other way around. Or, as the Portuguese put it, Spaniards are dumb. 😉 Then there are many accents in Portuguese, as in many a language spoken by few people (same in Danish or Dutch/Flamish, for example: drives some interpreters of those languages nuts): Some Portuguese I just understand like it was Spanish, sometimes I don’t understand sh\*t. Brazilian Portuguese is supposed to be more difficult for us, or so I am told. > [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > Wait, what? The mutual intelligibility of Romanian and Portuguese is a LOT lower than Portuguese and Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, Portuguese and Catalan. Probably much lower than Portuguese and French. This is absolutely correct. > [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > In German, apparently this is **ß** This is correct too: the way to pronounce this letter in German is “Ess-Zett” (S-Z), but it is by convention a double “s”. > [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Always wondered how Spanish speakers pronounced el Presidente Fujimori. Fu-Khee-'Mo-Ree (a short “ee”). ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3739 "2022-02-15T14:01:35Z")
When Heinlein has a character saying something was done “Jo block perfect” he’s comparing it to a gauge block (which are also known as “Jo blocks”) ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3740 "2022-02-15T14:36:07Z")
Hertz, the car rental company seems to misplace cars from time to time. They often report these cars as stolen by the last customer known to have had them. In an average year, they report about 8,000 cars stolen by customers. Many, or maybe most, of these cars have just not been properly logged in as returned by their system. [-=Linky=-](https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/331629-hertz-reveals-how-many-people-it-accuses-of-car-theft-each-year) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3741 "2022-02-15T14:50:59Z")
^And the information is coming out because Hertz is in Bankruptcy Court. They provided the information to the court, a reporter (?) asked the info be made public, Hertz disagreed but the court is releasing the information. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/1RzIW9-M3Io/maxresdefault.jpg "Hertz Ordered to Turn Over Data on Reported Car Thefts") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RzIW9-M3Io) ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3742 "2022-02-15T15:06:31Z")
> [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](#): > > Many, or maybe most, of these cars have just not been properly logged in as returned by their system. I can believe this. I turned in a Hertz rental car on schedule last week, and the email receipt I received yesterday showed that I had turned it in two days late. Their process has you just park the car and walk away, without ever witnessing their inspection or being handed a hardcopy receipt. I guess this is supposed to speed up your departure, but I really did not feel good about having to trust them to get that right, and it turns out my feeling was spot-on. ---
**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 15, 2022, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3743 "2022-02-15T15:11:52Z")
If the Japanese-Brazilians meet any [Confederate-Brazilians,](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederados) there might be an awkward conversation on [the “Late Unpleasantries.”](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.localdvm.com/news/veterans-voices/okinawa-a-local-marine-leads-his-men-in-the-final-firefight/amp/) ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3744 "2022-02-15T23:48:24Z")
> [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](#): > > Hertz, the car rental company seems to misplace cars from time to time. They often report these cars as stolen by the last customer known to have had them. In an average year, they report about 8,000 cars stolen by customers. Many, or maybe most, of these cars have just not been properly logged in as returned by their system. I had this happen with a different company, U-Haul. The van I rented was sitting in their lot. The guy had said he’d check it in after he finished checking in another vehicle. I won’t walk away from an unchecked vehicle again. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3745 "2022-02-15T23:52:46Z")
[People have gotten arrested or even put in jail](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-09/hertz-ordered-to-reveal-data-related-to-falsely-arrested-renters?sref=P6Q0mxvj) when Hertz lost track of its cars. ---
**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 16, 2022, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3746 "2022-02-16T00:18:12Z")
> In a double rainbow, a second arc is seen outside the primary arc, and has the order of its colours reversed, with red on the inner side of the arc. This is caused by the light being reflected twice on the inside of the droplet before leaving it. [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow) But what I’d really like to see is a moonbow. > **[How to See the Spectacular Moonbow at Cumberland Falls State Resort Park in...](https://www.roadtripsandcoffee.com/cumberland-falls-moonbow-kentucky/)** > > The Cumberland Falls Moonbow is a spectacular lunar rainbow at this Kentucky state park. Here is how to see it yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3747 "2022-02-16T00:43:30Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > [People have gotten arrested or even put in jail](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-09/hertz-ordered-to-reveal-data-related-to-falsely-arrested-renters?sref=P6Q0mxvj) when Hertz lost track of its cars. People were put in jail (out of over 700 prosecuted) when the Fujitsu software the UK PO used was read to mean the postmasters stole money: > **[The innocent have paid a high price for the Post Office scandal. The guilty...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/15/post-office-scandal-workers-computer-system)** > > It was the word of hundreds of Post Office workers against a faulty computer system. Guess who was believed? says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde > At least 33 victims of the scandal are now dead; at least four reportedly took their own lives. But … they had done nothing wrong. _They had done nothing wrong._ The blame in fact lay with Horizon, a faulty computer system designed by Fujitsu and imposed on their branches by Post Office management. ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/3748 "2022-02-16T05:53:02Z")
The idea that blue eyes are recessive is not correct. Eye color is in fact determined by a number of different alleles located on more than one location on chromosomes. A lot of information has been discovered in the last decades to back this statement. As a biology teacher, I had to change what my high school biology teacher taught (many) years ago. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=186) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=188)