# 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:** 371
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2023, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7411 "2023-08-30T21:12:43Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > I don’t think that would really work, you need to know when the signal was emited and when the reflexion reaches you to extract the most information, but you (the bat, actually) does not know when the other bat shouts. If you’re a bat, you can hear another bat shout, and then the echo of that shout, so you do know the interval. I don’t know if that helps them at all. You don’t know how far away the other bat is, for one thing. ---
**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:** [August 30, 2023, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7412 "2023-08-30T21:17:22Z")
Exactly, that is how I understnd it too. And besides: nobody knows what it is [to be a bat](https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Nagel_Bat.pdf)! (I would love to, but alas…) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2023, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7413 "2023-08-30T21:20:23Z")
How do bats re-open their ears quickly enough to hear echos from very near things? It doesn’t take sound very long to travel, say, a meter. And they must be able to detect very near things, because they have to get their mouth to intersect with that bug they’re chasing. But that reminds me of a fun fact about woodpeckers. Banging your head against a tree like that would give most animals a concussion, or at least cumulative damage like CTE. So how do woodpeckers avoid this? Well, they already have that long tongue, anyway, to slurp up insects from deep in those holes they peck… So while they’re hammering, they wrap their tongue around their brain for extra padding. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7414 "2023-08-31T06:23:26Z")
Nice posts from @Pardel-Lux and @Chronos. I thought the latter was bullshitting about woodpeckers, but it appears to be a well-regarded theory. This article from about a year ago says they’re still not sure. [https://www.science.org/content/article/contrary-popular-belief-woodpeckers-don-t-protect-their-brains-when-headbanging-trees](https://www.science.org/content/article/contrary-popular-belief-woodpeckers-don-t-protect-their-brains-when-headbanging-trees) ---
**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:** [August 31, 2023, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7415 "2023-08-31T07:56:18Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > So how do woodpeckers avoid this? Well, they already have that long tongue, anyway, to slurp up insects from deep in those holes they peck… So while they’re hammering, they wrap their tongue around their brain for extra padding. A hummingbird’s super-long tongue wraps around its brain in a similar manner. Not for protection, but simply because they need a place to put it when it’s not in use. ---
**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:** [August 31, 2023, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7416 "2023-08-31T13:24:57Z")
Eddie van Halen’s mother (and Alex’s) was a native of Java. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7417 "2023-08-31T13:39:28Z")
I just love the image that “shouting bat” creates in my head. The hand and footprints in front of Los Angeles’s Chinese Theater tradition started accidentally when silent film actress, Norma Talmadge stepped on wet cement. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7418 "2023-08-31T14:52:49Z")
Under the heading of things done while trying to fall back asleep, I was curious about why does 8 times a triangular number yield an integer square minus one. So, I multiplied 8 times the equation for triangular numbers and got: (4N^2) + (4N). After a bit of number fondling I realized that the square root of ((4N^2) + (4N)) is ((2N+1)^2) - 1). Plug any integer into that and you get an integer square minus one. Somewhere in there I pleasantly dozed off, and fortunately remembered it in the morning. ---
**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:** [August 31, 2023, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7419 "2023-08-31T15:23:54Z")
Nice. When I was younger and had a nimbler mind, I was reading one of Arthur C. Clark’s 2001 sequels. Star Baby Dave Bowman was marveling at the fact that the ratio of the lengths of the sides of the monolith (1:4:9) continued into higher dimensions. While falling asleep, I wondered if the sequence had to be the sequence of squares or if something else started 1,4,9,… I thought of the sums of odd integers and then proved the two sequences were the same. It’s pretty easy to do algebraically but I did it by induction. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7420 "2023-08-31T15:42:36Z")
A pleasant and productive method for inducing sleep. Thanks for sharing the recollection. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7421 "2023-08-31T18:03:52Z")
Rose Byrne, too. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7422 "2023-08-31T18:53:51Z")
Incredibly, I have no recollection of this momentous event: > Mr. Kelly is the only person in the history of the human race to put on a gorilla suit in space, a true milestone of Evolution. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7423 "2023-08-31T19:01:17Z")
I, for one, welcome our new simian overlords. ---
**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:** [August 31, 2023, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7424 "2023-08-31T19:04:06Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > Mr. Kelly is the only person in the history of the human race to put on a gorilla suit in space, a true milestone of Evolution. It’s National Gorilla Suit Day … Innnn Spaaaaaaaceee! [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/N2n5gAN3IlI/hqdefault.jpg "National Gorilla Suit Day") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2n5gAN3IlI) ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7425 "2023-08-31T19:04:12Z")
percentages can be inverted (yet the result stays the same) … e.g. can you do 8% of 25 in your head? possibly… but 25% of 8 is way easier to calculate and leads to the same result check: 20% of 50 or 10% of 100 ;o) ---
**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:** [August 31, 2023, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7426 "2023-08-31T19:21:59Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > Mr. Kelly is the only person in the history of the human race to put on a gorilla suit in space, a true milestone of Evolution. Damn! I hoped to be the first person to put on a gorilla suit in space. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2023, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7427 "2023-08-31T19:25:40Z")
You could always be the second. ---
**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:** [August 31, 2023, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7428 "2023-08-31T19:26:46Z")
Or the first in an orang-utan suit. ETA: damn, I now have that video in mind with people passing a ball while a guy in a gorilla suit walks through you don’t notice because you were told to concentrate on the ball passing. They should have redone that in space. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/vJG698U2Mvo/hqdefault.jpg "selective attention test") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo) ---
**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:** [August 31, 2023, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7429 "2023-08-31T19:28:40Z")
Orang Utan means Forest Person in the Bhasa, the language of Indonesia and Malaysia. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2023, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7430 "2023-09-01T00:13:56Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > You can do something similar with quinces and you end up with [membrillo (aka quince cheese and other names)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quince_cheese). It somewhat resembles turkish delight when you’re done. And yes, I have done it - never again; cooking up a hugely hot boily, sticky, spitty thing - it’s like cooking with napalm. … and just to make things a little bit more complicated: MEMBRILLO is the spanish word for quinces (the german Quitte) what you produce is referred to in spanish “dulce de membrillo” (Quittenkäse) … > [@Askance](#): > > > [@Sunspace](#): > > > > …which hospital? > > Breast care? burn victims 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=370) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=372)