# 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:** 268
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2022, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5350 "2022-10-16T22:56:52Z")
Of the first 299 covers of Sports Illustrated, only nine featured basketball. By contrast, twelve featured dogs and nine birds. (I don’t have any further details on the animal covers.) This data is from _Over Time_, a Frank Deford memoir. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5351 "2022-10-17T01:29:35Z")
Iditarod? Hunting? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5352 "2022-10-17T01:43:22Z")
And of course duck hunting dogs. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5353 "2022-10-17T01:48:30Z")
Probaby women’s swimwear. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5354 "2022-10-17T05:47:47Z")
[[Wolverine - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolverine)] (_Gulo gulo gulo_), the Eurasian wolverine. ---
**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:** [October 17, 2022, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5355 "2022-10-17T18:11:19Z")
That’s a TIL for me. I had no idea there were wolverines in Scandinavia. I love that _gulo_ is Latin for glutton. j ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5356 "2022-10-17T18:22:04Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > I love that _gulo_ is Latin for glutton. In German, the wolverine is a “Vielfraß”, literally “Eat-Much”. ---
**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:** [October 17, 2022, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5357 "2022-10-17T18:25:28Z")
That’s going to join Eichelhäher in my short vocabulary of German animal names based on eating habits. j ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5358 "2022-10-17T18:26:06Z")
😂 I remember the Eichelhäher. ---
**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:** [October 17, 2022, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5359 "2022-10-17T18:34:28Z")
Yeah, this thread. (If anyone is the slightest bit interested, post 1284 et seq, with a slight return at post 1299.) j ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5360 "2022-10-17T20:33:05Z")
I learned that, if you were hanging out on the surface of Mars, the moon Phobos would always rise in the west and spend about five to six hours crossing the sky before setting in the east, doing this about 3 times a day. It is almost unique, but not quite. If you could ride one of the doldrum bands of Jupiter in a dirigible, at an appropriate latitude, there is a small moon that would exhibit similar behavior, albeit not nearly as rapidly. And, of course, if you were on Pluto, the moon Charon would be an excellent navigation tool, as it would always be in the same spot in the sky. Which got me to wondering about Neptune’s little moon Nereid. Most of the time, it would behave normally, as a normal moon should. But (assuming you could establish a fixed location on Neptune where you could see it – like some kind of unimaginably tall tower to the cloud tops) I was trying to discern whether it would appear to rise in the west and set in east when about once an Earth-year, it passes close to Neptune, traveling very fast. I wish my math skills were better. ---
**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:** [October 17, 2022, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5361 "2022-10-17T20:47:31Z")
And in Spanish the beast is called **[glotón](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulo_gulo)**, which also means glutton. The description on Wikipedia is hilarious: > Es un carnívoro fornido con muy mal genio y musculoso. He is a stocky carnivore with a very bad temper and a muscular build. Sounds like the tundra’s answer to the Tasmanian Devil. ---
**Author:** ![Drsunflower1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drsunflower1/32/12711_2.png) [@Drsunflower1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drsunflower1)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5362 "2022-10-17T20:54:42Z")
The Dutch call it a veelvraat. Which means Vielfraß. Literally. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5363 "2022-10-17T22:15:09Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > That’s a TIL for me. I had no idea there were wolverines in Scandinavia. I’d heard of the wolverine, but for a long time, I thought it was a creature of North American myth, like the polecat or snow snake or sasquatch. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5364 "2022-10-17T22:30:05Z")
The pole cat is European. The only ones over here are dirty, no-good, conniving bushwhackers! ---
**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:** [October 17, 2022, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5365 "2022-10-17T23:55:37Z")
Hugh Jackman [thought a wolverine was a kind of wolf](https://www.cbr.com/hugh-jackman-didnt-know-what-a-wolverine-was-and-never-read-x-men/). ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2022, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5366 "2022-10-17T23:59:46Z")
TIL that the PAR in PAR lamps, which I have been using at home and on stage for decades, stands for Parabolic Aluminized Reflector. I had always assumed it was just an abbreviation for parabolic. > **[Parabolic aluminized reflector](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabolic_aluminized_reflector)** > > A parabolic aluminized reflector lamp (PAR lamp or simply PAR) is a type of electric lamp that is widely used in commercial, residential, and transportation illumination. It produces a highly directional beam. Usage includes theatrical lighting, locomotive headlamps, aircraft landing lights, and residential and commercial recessed lights ("cans" in the United States). > Many PAR lamps are of the sealed beam variety, with a parabolic reflector, one or more filaments, and a glass or plastic lens s... ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5367 "2022-10-18T08:06:47Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > And in Spanish the beast is called **[glotón](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulo_gulo)**, which also means glutton. Likewise in Hebrew (“_Gargran_”). ---
**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:** [October 18, 2022, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5368 "2022-10-18T09:33:07Z")
Canada - 88 percent of the roads in Saskarchewan are unpaved, compared to 60 percent of Canada overall. The length of Saskatchewan’s unpaved roads is more than the lengths of Ontario’s and Quebec’s paved roads combined (much larger provinces). ---
**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:** [October 18, 2022, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/5369 "2022-10-18T12:45:24Z")
More than a billion dollars will be spent this yesr on Halloween costumes…for pets. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=267) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=269)