# 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:** 483
**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:** [June 8, 2024, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9653 "2024-06-08T23:15:42Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > For the cheese-rolling itself, the shape of the cheese would be key I believe they now use a wooden stand-in covered in a cheese wrapper. ---
**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:** [June 8, 2024, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9654 "2024-06-08T23:23:47Z")
As I said in post #9611, I lived near Cooper’s Hill from 1987 to 1990. The Wikipedia entry says that in some recent years the cheese was inside a wooden container, while in other recent years there was no cheese in the container but just foam. The entry is inconsistent about which years these were true. ---
**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:** [June 9, 2024, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9655 "2024-06-09T12:19:38Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > But P-I-E is only 6 or 7,000 years old. It itself developed from some even earlier proto language that linguists only make some guesses about. How, when, and where they emerged and spread is pretty much totally unknown. I’ve seen some speculation about a “proto-human” language, ancestral to all languages on Earth. But of course, there’s almost nothing that can be said for sure about it, beyond that “mother” was probably something resembling “ma”. ---
**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:** [June 9, 2024, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9656 "2024-06-09T14:17:17Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > “mother” was probably something resembling “ma”. Isn’t “ma” just babble common to most human babies which adults erringly (but unsurprisingly) interpret as “mother”? I don’t think there would have to be a common linguistic ancestor. ---
**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:** [June 9, 2024, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9657 "2024-06-09T16:54:22Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > P-I-E could offer us fascinating insights into the lives of ordinary people of many millenia past. It already has. My American Heritage Dictionary has an appendix of P.I.E. roots, with a discussion of how words traced through cognates in many languages, can give us information about how, where, and when particular tools, domestic animals, or relationships became part of the social fabric. It’s cool. ---
**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:** [June 9, 2024, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9658 "2024-06-09T16:55:34Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Isn’t “ma” just babble common to most human babies which adults erringly (but unsurprisingly) interpret as “mother”? I don’t think there would have to be a common linguistic ancestor. Ma isn’t particular to humans, either, says a person raising baby goats right now. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2024, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9659 "2024-06-09T17:03:16Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > says a person raising baby goats right now. … and HASN’T been posting pictures? Hmph. ---
**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:** [June 9, 2024, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9660 "2024-06-09T17:05:20Z")
The idea of a single ur-human language that spawned all others is similar to the idea that all life on Earth spawned from a single cell. It may possibly be true. Or it may be possible that many languages formed and that this one simply out-competed the others. At this point it’s unlikely that evidence can be found to support any of these claims. But that never stopped anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2024, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9661 "2024-06-09T17:34:06Z")
Per wiktionary, ‘kid, From [Middle English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_English) _[kide](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kide#Middle_English)_ , from [Old Norse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Norse) _[kið](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ki%C3%B0#Old_Norse)_ (“young goat”), from [Proto-Germanic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Germanic_language) _[\*kidją](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/kidj%C4%85)_ , _[\*kittīną](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/kitt%C4%ABn%C4%85)_ (“goatling, kid”), perhaps from [Proto-Indo-European](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_language) _[\*gʰaydn-](https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/g%CA%B0aydn-&action=edit&redlink=1)_ , _[\*ǵʰaydn-](https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/%C7%B5%CA%B0aydn-&action=edit&redlink=1)_ (“goat”) or [Proto-Indo-European](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_language) _[\*gidʰ-](https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/gid%CA%B0-&action=edit&redlink=1)_ (“kid, goatling, little goat”).’ Per OED, it took from Proto-Indo-European until the 17th century for the meaning to grow to include “young human” as well as “young goat.” Also per OED, it was only in the 17th century that people started to use “baby” to refer to the young of non-human animals. Anecdotally, people seem to be using “baby” to refer to non-human animals more and more. “Baby goat” still sounds wrong to me, but I am old. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2024, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9662 "2024-06-09T17:56:27Z")
> **[Bear Claws Are Sometimes A Donut, Sometimes Not - Foodie](https://www.foodie.com/1419716/how-bear-claw-differs-donut/)** > > They're sold at donut shops, but bear claws aren't always donuts. Depending on how they're made, they could be donuts or something more like a Danish. "Bear claw pastries and bear claw donuts are easy to tell apart once you realize there’s actually a difference between the two. Rather than baked, the kind made with yeasted dough is deep fried like any other donut. As a result, it looks almost identical to a glazed donut except in shape. A bear claw made the traditional way, with puff pastry dough, is baked in the oven instead. It will therefore look more like a Danish. You can also tell the two types apart by the way they’re decorated. Much like a Danish, a traditional bear claw is usually drizzled with icing or sprinkled with coarse sugar and is also garnished with sliced almonds. The other kind of bear claw tends to be simply glazed like a donut, and, aside from the glossy finish, the outside remains bare." ---
**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:** [June 9, 2024, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9663 "2024-06-09T18:13:00Z")
(month five of keto diet) Now I could go out and eat an entire box of bear claws, either kind. ☹ ---
**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:** [June 9, 2024, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9664 "2024-06-09T19:35:02Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The idea of a single ur-human language that spawned all others is similar to the idea that all life on Earth spawned from a single cell. It may possibly be true. Or it may be possible that many languages formed and that this one simply out-competed the others. It’s definite that all life on Earth spawned from a single origin. It’s unknown whether life arose multiple times and that that one cell outcompeted all the others. Though of course it’s a lot more complicated with languages, because languages can merge much more easily than organisms: If multiple languages did arise independently, then when they met, you probably wouldn’t get one outcompeting the other, so much as both adopting features from the other. > [@Lumpy](#): > > (month five of keto diet) Now I could go out and eat an entire box of bear claws, either kind. ☹ Don’t worry, I’m sure the OTHER other kind of bear claws are fully consistent with a keto diet. You’re on your own for harvesting them, though. ---
**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:** [June 9, 2024, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9665 "2024-06-09T23:11:59Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’m sure the OTHER other kind of bear claws are fully consistent with a keto diet. He’s got a constitutional right to [bear arms](https://schumanchu.eu/html/r1/r1_00141bear~arms.html). The claws are just a subset of the arms, he’ll be alright. ---
**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:** [June 9, 2024, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9666 "2024-06-09T23:26:19Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > > A bear claw made the traditional way, with puff pastry dough, is baked in the oven instead. It will therefore look more like a Danish. [The quote above was from the linked article, not Dropo.] Bear claw dough is Danish dough, not puff pastry dough. Danish dough is a laminated (layered) dough similar to puff pastry, but it’s made with yeasted sweet roll dough rolled out with layers of butter (actually, margarine or butter-flavored shortening) instead of un-sweet, un-yeasted puff pastry dough. ---
**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:** [June 10, 2024, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9667 "2024-06-10T03:06:56Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The idea of a single ur-human language that spawned all others … does not describe P-I-E. Its influence extends from Sanskrit through English. Most modern indigenous African languages do not have primary roots in P-I-E, nor do Chinese, Cambodian, etc, the language of Austtralian aboriginies, most Native American dialects, and, I think, most Arabic-type languages (including Farsi, Urdu and Hebrew). The range of P-I-E spans a very broad but limited area, less than a fifth of the inhabited globe. ---
**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:** [June 10, 2024, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9668 "2024-06-10T03:29:49Z")
My statement was explicitly _not_ about P-I-E. The link I gave to Daniel Ross a few posts up discusses in depth the many language families that paralleled the growth of P-I-E and therefore must be taken into account when discussing a possible ancestor. Those would fill in the rest of the globe, although they also raise many currently unanswered questions. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2024, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9669 "2024-06-10T04:12:40Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > … most Arabic-type languages (including Farsi, Urdu and Hebrew). FWIW, Persian (Farsi in Iran, Dari in Afghanistan) and Urdu are both Indo-European languages. Use of Arabic script may obscure those languages’ origins — see also Pashto in Afghanistan. Hebrew, like Arabic and the Amharic language of Ethiopia, is a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2024, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9670 "2024-06-10T12:52:31Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Don’t want you to get in trouble, but is there more to this story? How did you stumble across this info? Well, the tech department is a large office with cubes, so it was a random conversation that started between my boss and our data guy. Being only 15 feet away, I couldn’t help but hear the heresy first hand. It was kind of shocking. I staunchly defended history and the men and women who made it, but to no avail. Finally, I said, “Well, we’ll just have to agree to disagree.” ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2024, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9671 "2024-06-10T13:01:18Z")
Since 2017, at least five people have been swallowed by pythons in Indonesia. ---
**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:** [June 10, 2024, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9672 "2024-06-10T20:13:27Z")
Here’s one that’s making my head hurt. We’re in Langstone in Hampshire (south coast of England). Took a walk, stumbled across Langstone Mill, a tower windmill plus millpond. Uhhh… a moment please - why does a windmill have a millpond? Oh, it gets much more complicated. > **[Langstone Windmill](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langstone_Windmill)** > > Langstone Windmill is a Grade II listed tower mill at Langstone, Hampshire in England. It has been converted to residential accommodation. > Langstone Mill was built around 1730. It worked in conjunction with a tide mill close by. The mill was derelict in 1934. By 1939 it had been converted to residential accommodation, with the tower tarred and a new cap constructed. The conversion was to a design by Ernst L. Freud with the first resident being Flora Twort. > Langstone Mill is a four-storey tow... From which > Langstone Mill was built around 1730.[[2]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langstone_Windmill#cite_note-Pastscape-2) It worked in conjunction with a [tide mill](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide_mill)close by. A tide mill has a millpond? I guess. But wait > _[Built around 1800](https://www.hampshire-history.com/langstone-mill/)_ , the tide mill operated two ten foot wheels, one set higher than the other to make full use of the stream feed and the tide, which was kept back behind tide gates. The more distinctive black windmill is an earlier structure, dating from 1720 – 1740 Source: [Langstone Millpond – The urgent need to balance habitat, heritage and amenity – Havant Civic Society](https://havantcivicsociety.uk/2023/05/14/langstone-millpond/) Note: it used the tide AND stream feed; so the site was a water-tide-windmill. The second cite describes it as “possibly unique”. You don’t say. j [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=482) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=484)