# 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:** 313
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2023, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6251 "2023-03-17T01:08:14Z")
There were several spin offs of this famous drawing. I remember the one for California. ---
**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:** [March 17, 2023, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6252 "2023-03-17T01:18:21Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Speaking of words most laypeople use interchangeably but actually mean different things – “direct flight” does **not** mean the same thing as “nonstop flight”. You’re too late, I explained this to everyone three days ago: > [@Words one can get confused](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-one-can-get-confused/971772/288): > > The difference between a “direct” flight and a “nonstop” flight: ---
**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:** [March 17, 2023, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6253 "2023-03-17T08:10:32Z")
Joe Biden was born at roughly the halfway point between his Presidency and Lincoln’s Presidency. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2023, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6254 "2023-03-17T17:55:45Z")
The bird with 4 sexes (effectively) [https://www.nature.com/articles/539482a](https://www.nature.com/articles/539482a) ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2023, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6255 "2023-03-17T19:27:53Z")
This is so cool. Thanks. ---
**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:** [March 17, 2023, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6256 "2023-03-17T19:39:13Z")
The Chicago Cubs haven’t won a World Series in seven years. This is the second longest drought in team history. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6257 "2023-03-18T19:51:48Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Worse, cultured pearls are made by slicing open an oyster’s gonads and inserting an irritant into them and hoping that the oyster survives the trauma. Okay, I really didn’t need to know that one. 🤮 > [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > [Her version of it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoHDrzw-RPg) is fantastic IMO. Thanks for that! What a voice. > [@zimaane](#): > > Maybe some of you know this already, but I learned recently that the Addams Family TV/movie/video game franchise started as cartoons in the New Yorker magazine in the 1930s, drawn by Charles Addams. Check out his cartoons in general. I love the art, but the humor is great too. > [@Zyada](#): > > The bird with 4 sexes (effectively) Love stuff like this, thanks! > [@hajario](#): > > The Chicago Cubs haven’t won a World Series in seven years. This is the second longest drought in team history. Does any particular number strike you as a possible estimate for their return? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![2\_More\_Bits](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2_more_bits/32/4148_2.png) [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6258 "2023-03-18T20:54:37Z")
“…only a mere 150 of the 1,300 Charles Addams cartoons feature the Addams Family.” According to [this](https://www.lambiek.net/artists/a/addams_charles.htm). ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6259 "2023-03-18T21:13:38Z")
It mentions some that were unpublished until a book released in 2010. So I likely haven’t seen every one in reprints. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6260 "2023-03-18T21:42:38Z")
I don’t know if this is too long to be a fact, but it’s too good not to share. Karl Pearson formalized the p value in statistics, giving a mathematical test to tell if results are biased. He needed a source of thousands of random numbers. Back in the 19th century the Monte Carlo newspaper printed the previous day’s roulette wheel results so he compiled them to run his tests on. Red and black came up equally. But runs of redness and blackness didn’t correspond to his numbers; they were wildly off. Pearson made a fuss and called for the casinos to be shut down. The wheels were fine. Turned out that the reporters who provided the numbers were too lazy to sit through all those spins. They made the results up. They knew enough to even out red and black but not to smooth out RRRBRRRBBBBBRBRBRBRB and such like. Pearson found a different source. ---
**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:** [March 21, 2023, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6261 "2023-03-21T10:33:20Z")
Today I learned that (sadly) Greenland has a [high suicide rate](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2009/10/why-do-so-many-greenlanders-kill-themselves.html). ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6262 "2023-03-21T14:32:57Z")
IIRC Iceland, Norway, and Sweden are quite high as well. Wonder if those countries have anything in common aside from blond hair. ---
**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:** [March 21, 2023, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6263 "2023-03-21T14:35:40Z")
Probably the lack of sunlight in winter. There are no large populations at an extreme southerly latitude to compare suicide rates there in summer. ---
**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:** [March 21, 2023, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6264 "2023-03-21T14:46:30Z")
In the Southern Hemisphere, it’s called Winter in July and August. Now that the nit has been picked, I agree with the suspicion that the root cause is long Winter nights. Do most of the suicides correspond to that time? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6265 "2023-03-21T14:56:50Z")
The extended period of darkness might worsen other tendencies toward depression so that the suicides don’t necessarily align with long night. I would expect something interesting to be revealed in the dates of suicides though. It might be worse in the springtime as the rest of the population resumes a more active life and those depressed begin to despair as they don’t improve under the conditions. ---
**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:** [March 21, 2023, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6266 "2023-03-21T14:59:14Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > IIRC Iceland, Norway, and Sweden are quite high as well. Wonder if those countries have anything in common aside from blond hair. Greenland is almost 90% Inuit. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6267 "2023-03-21T15:02:24Z")
Ok, good, now we’ve eliminated blond hair as the cause. ---
**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:** [March 21, 2023, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6268 "2023-03-21T15:11:46Z")
That makes me wonder if the Inuit had a high suicide rate in antiquity. ---
**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:** [March 21, 2023, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6269 "2023-03-21T16:20:48Z")
North American indigenes in general have high suicide rates. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/6270 "2023-03-21T16:22:52Z")
And higher in the extreme north. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=312) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=314)