# 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:** 448
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8951 "2024-02-11T15:31:28Z")
I was joking, sorry! ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8952 "2024-02-11T15:33:35Z")
No worries - sometimes it’s hard to tell if I’m being whooshed or not. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8953 "2024-02-11T15:44:54Z")
Though I’m old enough that the first time I read it, c1980, I had no idea. The only Christie book that was “spoiled” for me in my tween-teen consumption of all her works was Death on the Nile, which was made into a movie in 1978, starring Peter Ustinov. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8954 "2024-02-11T21:16:26Z")
The Elm Street in Nightmare on Elm Street refers to the street that President Kennedy was on when he was assassinated because Wes Craven considered it the moment that he lost his innocence. ---
**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:** [February 11, 2024, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8955 "2024-02-11T21:30:17Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > And is it really worse than this?: From that article: > [@](#): > > They built an exact replica of the reactor, true to the last detail (except the actual nuclear material) on a nearby tennis court to practice and track their progress. This after the world’s first nuclear reactor was built at a squash court. I eagerly await the Pickleball Reactor. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8956 "2024-02-11T21:54:22Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > This after the world’s first nuclear reactor was built at a squash court. The model of a nuclear reactor in the squash court was for practice. There actually was a meltdown in the nuclear reactor. Carter and the men in his team were lowered into the reactor to repair it. None of them spent more than a minute and a half in it because it was so dangerous. It was close enough to being dangerous that Carter had radioactive urine for months afterwards. Despite that, he’s now 99 years, 4 months, 1 week, and 3 days old. Have we discovered that a certain amount of radiation extends your life? Is it like the way that some superheroes in comics became superheroes? What’s happened to the other 22 men in Carter’s team? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8957 "2024-02-11T22:43:52Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > There actually was a meltdown in the nuclear reactor. Carter and the men in his team were lowered into the reactor to repair it. None of them spent more than a minute and a half in it because it was so dangerous. > It was close enough to being dangerous that Carter had radioactive urine for months afterwards. Despite that, he’s now 99 years, 4 months, 1 week, and 3 days old. Have we discovered that a certain amount of radiation extends your life? Evidently there were no spiders in there. ---
**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:** [February 11, 2024, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8958 "2024-02-11T22:58:24Z")
No, no, the one Carter and his team built was in a tennis court. The one Fermi and his team built, decades earlier, was in a squash court. ---
**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 11, 2024, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8959 "2024-02-11T22:59:36Z")
Yeah, but were they bigger on the inside? ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8960 "2024-02-12T17:45:57Z")
If you enjoy mountains, then the West African nation of the Gambia is NOT for you. Its highest point (which doesn’t have a name, nor does it really merit one) is a mere 64 m (210 ft) above sea level. ---
**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:** [February 12, 2024, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8961 "2024-02-12T17:54:50Z")
That is interesting. I’d never looked at a map of [The Gambia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_the_Gambia#/media/File:Gambia_Map.png) before. It’s a small country that occupies the banks along the western half of the Gambia River which is sourced in higher ground further inland. ---
**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 12, 2024, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8962 "2024-02-12T18:48:47Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Have we discovered that a certain amount of radiation extends your life? As a matter of fact, yes (maybe): > **[Radiation hormesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hormesis)** > > Radiation hormesis is the hypothesis that low doses of ionizing radiation (within the region of and just above natural background levels) are beneficial, stimulating the activation of repair mechanisms that protect against disease, that are not activated in absence of ionizing radiation. The reserve repair mechanisms are hypothesized to be sufficiently effective when stimulated as to not only cancel the detrimental effects of ionizing radiation but also inhibit disease not related to radiation ex... I harbor a faint hope that my annual trip from Detroit to Japan, during which our plane flies across southern Alaska, exposes me to enough radiation to be beneficial but not so much as to be harmful. ---
**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 12, 2024, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8963 "2024-02-12T18:53:05Z")
Or you can enjoy a bask in a [uranium mine health spa](https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/radon-treatment-mine-radiation-covid/2021/08/06/2bcf9ebc-f08f-11eb-81d2-ffae0f931b8f_story.html) ---
**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 12, 2024, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8964 "2024-02-12T19:33:44Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > As a matter of fact, yes (maybe): Now if they only made [radium-laced water](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radithor) I could drink. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8965 "2024-02-12T20:34:08Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > > [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > > > Have we discovered that a certain amount of radiation extends your life? > > As a matter of fact, yes (maybe): > > [Radiation hormesis - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hormesis) That’s why I regularly eat bananas. > [@](#): > > Bananas contain naturally occurring [radioactive isotopes](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_isotope), particularly [potassium-40](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium-40) (40K), one of several naturally occurring [isotopes of potassium](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_potassium). [Banana equivalent dose - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose#:~:text=Source%20of%20radioactivity,-The%20major%20natural&text=Plants%20naturally%20contain%20radioactive%20carbon,activity%20of%20roughly%2015%20Bq). ---
**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 12, 2024, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8966 "2024-02-12T20:42:09Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Now if they only made [radium-laced water](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radithor) I could drink. Yeah, but it contained thorium, too. ---
**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 12, 2024, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8967 "2024-02-12T20:44:18Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Yeah, but it contained thorium, too. That’s like a BOGO. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2024, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8968 "2024-02-12T21:41:25Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > > [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > > > As a matter of fact, yes (maybe): > > Now if they only made [radium-laced water](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radithor) I could drink. It occurs naturally in the mineral springs in Saratoga Springs, NY. People can drink from them (I have – it’s naturally carbonated and tastes awful) though they are advised to limit how much they drink, since it’s far above the legal limit for ingesting radium in water. [https://www.nytimes.com/1973/07/31/archives/saratoga-waters-termed-unsafe-if-taken-steadily-cautions-issued-on.html#:~:text=People%20who%20have%20been%20drink,a%20potential%20cause%20of%20cancer](https://www.nytimes.com/1973/07/31/archives/saratoga-waters-termed-unsafe-if-taken-steadily-cautions-issued-on.html#:~:text=People%20who%20have%20been%20drink,a%20potential%20cause%20of%20cancer). ---
**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 13, 2024, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8969 "2024-02-13T14:55:10Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > This after the world’s first nuclear reactor was built at a squash court. I eagerly await the Pickleball Reactor It wouldn’t be the first time a scientific breakthrough was made in the kitchen. ---
**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 14, 2024, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8970 "2024-02-14T14:36:09Z")
I just stumbled across this, and I’m amazed. The actual bathtub that French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat was assassinated in still exists. It’s at the Grévin Museum in Paris, which is apparently a wax museum a la Madame Tussaud’s. A year ago a couple of dermatologists examined it, hoping to find clues about his skin disease and how it was treated. They didn’t find much about the disease, it turns out. But bloodstains from newspapers he used yielded DNA evidence that he suffered from sebhoerreic dermatitus and was also infected with _Staphylococcus aureus_ and _Cutibacterium acnes_. The bathtub did suggest that he was using sulfur to treat it. > **[Which treatment for the French revolutionist Jean-Paul Marat’s dermatitis...](https://academic.oup.com/ced/article-abstract/48/3/263/6852770)** > > The history of medicine makes it possible to understand both the evolution of the conceptualization of pathological processes, but also the modification of ther [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=447) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=449)