# 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:** 472
**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:** [May 4, 2024, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9433 "2024-05-04T15:03:27Z")
Very interesting! ---
**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:** [May 4, 2024, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9434 "2024-05-04T18:19:08Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > If you’re sentenced to having an ignition interlock device in your car (for alcohol), you have to pay for that, too. Interesting fact I learned in Norway a few month ago: ALL buses are equipped with those devices and ALL bus drivers are required to use them to start the engine. ---
**Author:** ![LilXMo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lilxmo/32/4225_2.png) [@LilXMo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilXMo)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9435 "2024-05-04T18:29:43Z")
Coral reefs are living organisms. They form a calcium carbonate exoskeleton that protects them and allows millions of other organisms to thrive > **[Coral reef ecosystems](https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/marine-life/coral-reef-ecosystems)** > > Coral reefs are some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. Coral polyps, the animals primarily responsible for building reefs, can take many forms: large reef building colonies, graceful flowing fans, and even small, solitary organisms.... ---
**Author:** ![LilXMo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lilxmo/32/4225_2.png) [@LilXMo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilXMo)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9436 "2024-05-04T18:36:45Z")
There was a store in Fredricksted, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, called Electric Avenue back in 1996. ---
**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:** [May 4, 2024, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9437 "2024-05-04T18:39:13Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > > [@needscoffee](#): > > > > … ignition interlock device in your car… > > Interesting fact I learned in Norway a few month ago: ALL buses are equipped with those devices and ALL bus drivers are required to use them to start the engine Wow. Makes you wonder if that was a problem before. ---
**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:** [May 4, 2024, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9438 "2024-05-04T19:26:34Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Makes you wonder if that was a problem before. I doubt it was a particular problem, it is just that Scandinavians in general and Norwegians in particular are very strict regarding alcohol while driving, even tiny amounts. > [@LilXMo](#): > > Coral reefs are living organisms. Yes, but the point for “the biggest” contest would be if a reef is a single organism, and the answer would clearly be no: each polyp is a separate individual, and they are not even clones. The ecosystem is one, but the constituents are very small. ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9439 "2024-05-04T19:50:11Z")
> [@Awb78](#): > > On August 20th 1989, Erik and Lyle Menendez murdered their parents, Jose and Kitty, while they were eating strawberries and cream and watching television. There’s a blast from the past. The defense attorney argued that the court should show mercy on his clients - because they were Orphans now! Really tugs at your heartstrings, don’t it? I’m wondering if they’ve already let these defects out of prison but I’m far too jaded to look it up. ---
**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:** [May 4, 2024, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9440 "2024-05-04T19:57:22Z")
They are still in prison. ---
**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:** [May 4, 2024, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9441 "2024-05-04T20:06:57Z")
> [@Common\_Tater](#): > > There’s a blast from the past. The defense attorney argued that the court should show mercy on his clients - because they were Orphans now! > > Really tugs at your heartstrings, don’t it? I’m wondering if they’ve already let these defects out of prison but I’m far too jaded to look it up. They are still in prison and the defense never argued any such thing. That’s a very old joke that predates the incidents by decades. ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9442 "2024-05-04T20:59:11Z")
> [@Common\_Tater](#): > > I’m wondering if they’ve already let these defects out of prison but I’m far too jaded to look it up. Both brothers were sentenced to life without parole. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2024, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9443 "2024-05-05T06:10:40Z")
We saw some [Red Trilliums](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillium) on our walk through the woods today, and I learned that they mostly rely on ants to disperse their seeds. Also that the three “leaves” backing the flower are actually bracts - the plant has no true leaves. A couple we talked to while having ice cream after told us that they grow peanuts. I didn’t realize that they would grow this far north (a bit south of Ottawa, Ontario) as I knew they were a South American plant and had only heard of them elsewhere in places like the southern US and Africa. ---
**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:** [May 5, 2024, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9444 "2024-05-05T23:03:00Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > I doubt it was a particular problem, it is just that Scandinavians in general and Norwegians in particular are very strict regarding alcohol while driving, even tiny amounts. How tiny an amount of driving? Even a block? ---
**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:** [May 6, 2024, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9445 "2024-05-06T04:07:36Z")
I just read the Wikipedia article on the Infinite Monkey Theorem and came across this interesting study: _In 2002, lecturers and students from the University of Plymouth MediaLab Arts course used a £2,000 grant from the Arts Council to study the literary output of real monkeys. They left a computer keyboard in the enclosure of six Celebes crested macaques from May 1 to June 22, with a radio link to broadcast the results on a website._ _Not only did the monkeys produce nothing but five total pages largely consisting of the letter “S”, the lead male began striking the keyboard with a stone, and other monkeys followed by urinating and defecating on the machine_ Maybe monkeys can’t compete with Shakespeare, but they are doing better than the average human Internet user. ---
**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:** [May 6, 2024, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9446 "2024-05-06T09:42:15Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Maybe monkeys can’t compete with Shakespeare, but they are doing better than the average human Internet user. I wish I knew where I read this anecdote (vague recollection of Gregory Bateson writing in one of the iterations of Coevolution Quarterly, which dates it back to the Neolithic), but pre-internet, someone devised a ‘learning machine’ for children with some kind of physical program a child could work through, replacing a teacher. The result was that, left alone, the children after finishing a few programs, and now understanding how it worked, took the whole thing apart and put it back together made into games for themselves. ---
**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:** [May 6, 2024, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9447 "2024-05-06T11:14:39Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > I just read the Wikipedia article on the Infinite Monkey Theorem and came across this interesting study: I’ve pointed it out before, but it deserves repetition. In the November-December 1977 edition of \*American Scientist \* (Vol. 65 #6), W.R. Bennett, Jr. published an article entitled “How Artificial is Intelligence” in which he did sveral computer simulations of the Monkeys with Typewriters experiment. He found that simply using random numbers to generate letters anbd spaces he got givbberish. He then tried using an algorithm that generated the letters and spaces with the probabilities they had in English, with similar results. But then he started using probabilities of two-letter pairs (which he called “second-order monkeys”) and it looked a lot less randoim. Third order monkeys generated things thAt started looking almost realistic, Fourth order monkeys generated a lot of obscenities, but higher order monkeys started producing reasonable-looking text. If he showed you fourth or fifth order output from a language you weren’t familiar with, you’d have a hard time telling it from the real thing. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/27848169](https://www.jstor.org/stable/27848169) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2024, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9448 "2024-05-06T11:17:49Z")
For most animals, plants, and fungi, sex and reproduction are the same activity. But for most bacteria (prokaryotes), they’re entirely distinct: reproduction is usually some sort of cloning, while “sex” is often an exchange of genetic material (conjugation) at some other time. (I may have learned this in high school biology, and had forgotten, until reading it just yesterday.) ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2024, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9449 "2024-05-06T14:41:45Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Not only did the monkeys produce nothing but five total pages largely consisting of the letter “S”, the lead male began striking the keyboard with a stone, and other monkeys followed by urinating and defecating on the machine So, the monkeys are more like editors than writers, then. ---
**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:** [May 6, 2024, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9450 "2024-05-06T15:02:52Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > So, the monkeys are more like editors than writers, then. Bravo! ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2024, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9451 "2024-05-06T18:24:13Z")
The rabbi at a service I attended yesterday mentioned the 1979-81 hostage crisis in Tehran, which led me to look up afterwards where the former hostages are now. Turns out one, Joseph Subic, has led a not-so-charmed life. A Staff Sergeant in the Army during the crisis, he cooperated too much with the captors, so he was the only military person denied a medal afterwards. Then, in 2007, having been a police chief in a Florida town, he was charged with insurance fraud, having tried to include his girlfriend in his medical insurance. (Not sure if he was convicted). _Then,_ in 2022, he was arrested for “two counts of unlawful sex with a minor, two counts of prohibited computer use, two counts of traveling to meet a minor, two counts of unlawful use of a two-way communication device, and three counts of interference with child custody, all felonies.” (Not sure if he was convicted). A lifetime of poor choices. ---
**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:** [May 6, 2024, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9452 "2024-05-06T19:00:50Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Turns out one, Joseph Subic, has led a not-so-charmed life. A Staff Sergeant in the Army during the crisis, he cooperated too much with the captors, so he was the only military person denied a medal afterwards. What sort of cooperation did he provide? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=471) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=473)