# 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:** 490
**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:** [June 29, 2024, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9793 "2024-06-29T19:08:38Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Horses don’t know shit about trains. I know you’re a horse person and know much more about them than me, but from my experience when I still rode horses, wouldn’t the horse have been alarmed by the noise of the train, even it was dark night? (ok, I just thought that it actually might have been alarmed, but got confused and disorientated by it in the dark) ---
**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 29, 2024, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9794 "2024-06-29T20:08:40Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > (As a side note, it has always bugged me that, here in Ohio, you can be charged with a DUI while riding a bicycle.) Same in Germany, and here you can even get charged with the equivalent of DUI when walking drunk. You have to behave really obnoxiously, but you may lose your driving license without driving at all. You may even lose your driving license when you smuggle cannabis, courts have argued that who smuggles dope will consume it even when driving. And courts have also decided that if you smuggle dope you have to pay taxes for the alleged gain you would have made if you sold it for profit. Plus the fine for not declaring those gains, as it is expected that you would not include those gains in your tax declaration. German courts can be as political in their decisions as in other countries. Now that cannabis is legal (conditions apply) the revoquing of the driving license is probably no longer used, but I am not sure. And I am not planning to find out. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2024, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9795 "2024-06-29T21:00:08Z")
Carlinville, Illinois (pop: about 6,000) had the largest county courthouse in the US when it was built in 1870. It still remains in use as a courthouse today. [Courthouse History - Macoupin County (macoupincountyil.gov)](https://macoupincountyil.gov/tourism/courthouse-history/) in 1917, Standard Oil needed housing for its workers in Carlinville. So it ordered 156 homes from the Sears catalog. At least 150 of the homes are still standing. [Entire Illinois neighborhood built from Sears homes (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etM2jk4Jb0c) ---
**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 30, 2024, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9796 "2024-06-30T00:48:11Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > > [@DCnDC](#): > > > > You can still be charged with DUI while riding a horse in 27 states. > > How does each state find out about your transgressions in the other 26? Well, it should be pretty obvious. If your horse was not loaded down with bottles, you would probably be sober by the time you got to the eighth or tenth state. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9797 "2024-06-30T02:07:19Z")
According to an Instagram post, the Seattle Mariners, in their 48 years of existence, have experienced as many testicular ruptures (5) as they have playoff appearances (5). ---
**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 30, 2024, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9798 "2024-06-30T02:16:28Z")
That makes the Mariners similar to most people in the world, since they have a greater chance of a testicular rupture than being in a playoff. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9799 "2024-06-30T13:03:26Z")
I think that’s only true for roughly half the people in the world. The other half have a far greater chance of being in the playoffs than of having a testicular rupture. ---
**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 30, 2024, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9800 "2024-06-30T15:58:33Z")
Zero chance is not greater than zero chance. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2024, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9801 "2024-06-30T18:17:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And the most notable feature of that “currency in circulation” graph isn’t the overall decline; it’s what appears to be a considerable covid bump. Why would it have increased during the pandemic? My initial response was, “Covid, man: it’s weird.” Most of the economic data had pronounced bumps. We’ll get it sorted out eventually. I found a paper addressing your question. I’m highly dubious about the thesis and analysis, but the early paragraphs summarize what is known about the issue. I add bolding. > Physical money (also referred to as “cash” or “currency” in this paper) **is being used less and less for everyday transactions**. For example, the proportion of retail and person-to-person payments made in cash fell from around 79% to 73% ([ECB, 2020](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664053/#bib0019)) in the euro area, 31% to 26% in the US ([Greene & Stavins, 2021](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664053/#bib0022)), and 40% to 23% in the UK ([Caswell et al., 2020](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664053/#bib0012)) in 2016-2019. **However** , cash is not disappearing. On the contrary, the **demand for cash has been steadily rising** in absolute terms over the past few decades ([Ashworth & Goodhart, 2020](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664053/#bib0005); [Pietrucha, 2021](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664053/#bib0040)), **with non-transactional demand** reported to be the major driver of this increase ([Zamora-Pérez, 2021](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664053/#bib0046)). > The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated both phenomena. Recent studies show that, during the pandemic, cashless instruments usage intensified ([Greene et al., 2021](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664053/#bib0021); [Jonker et al., 2022](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664053/#bib0030); [Kotkowski & Polasik, 2021](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664053/#bib0034)) while the demand for cash increased ([Ashworth & Goodhart, 2021](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664053/#bib0006); [Rösl & Seitz, 2021](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664053/#bib0042)). Moreover, this occurred despite cash being used less frequently in retail transactions due to the fear of contracting COVID-19 through handling money ([ECB, 2020](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664053/#bib0019); [Huterska et al., 2021](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664053/#bib0029); [Wisniewski et al., 2021](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664053/#bib0045)) and despite the findings of [Cevik (2020)](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664053/#bib0013), who demonstrated that the demand for cash had decreased during previous epidemics (e.g. during the Ebola and SARS epidemics). > However, this observed increase in the demand for physical money was not uniform worldwide. IMF International Financial Statistics database (IMF IFS) data for 128 countries shows that the value of currency in circulation increased on average by 18.7% in 2020, but that this change varied from a 7.5% decrease to a 120.5% increase. > **[National culture and the demand for physical money during the first year of...](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664053/)** > > There was a significant increase in the demand for physical money during the COVID-19 pandemic. This stood in stark contrast to the decline in demand witnessed during previous pandemics. However, the change was not uniform and varied significantly... Cash isn’t only a medium of exchange (falling); it’s also a store of value (rising, apparently). The author notes that the paper dollar, euro, and yen have significant foreign demand (possibly as high as 50% for US currency). That could have comprised most of the US story. We’ll see. ---
**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 30, 2024, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9802 "2024-06-30T18:39:17Z")
A surprising number of vendors either don’t want to have to pay the fees charged for credit or debit cards, or pass them on to the customer, offering a discount for cash. In some neighborhoods check fraud or stolen cards are so common that the stores don’t want to deal with them. ---
**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 30, 2024, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9803 "2024-06-30T20:00:24Z")
Here’s something true for the UK but (so far as I have been able to establish) not the US, Canada or Australia (yet). Please feel free to put me right if that’s incorrect. And information from other countries would be interesting. Nicorette Quickmist mouthspray, a nicotine sublingual spray used to assist in quitting smoking, is now also indicated for quitting (nicotine) vaping. This appears to have been the case since late 2022, but I’ve only just seen TV adverts\* relating to vaping in the last couple of days. Here’s the relevant section of the licensed documentation aimed at medical professionals: > Nicorette QuickMist relieves and/or prevents craving and nicotine withdrawal symptoms in nicotine dependence, such as those arising from the use of tobacco or electronic cigarettes. It is indicated to aid quitting or reduction prior to quitting….\*\* ([Source](https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/product/5956/smpc#gref) – see section 4.1) [Trade announcement](https://hbw.citeline.com/RS153291/JJs-Nicorette-Becomes-Worlds-First-Licensed-Vaping-And-Smoking-Cessation-Therapy#:~:text=Conducted%20with%20a%20total%20of,%2C%E2%80%9D%20explained%20J%26J%E2%80%99s%20Mark%20Watt.) Two points of interest for me. (a) I’ve been out of the game a while, but I’m sure that in order to persuade the licensing agency to allow this change to the licence, they would have to be convinced that inhalation of nicotine by vaping was a bad thing (albeit not as bad as smoking). I didn’t realize that there was any general agreement on this. (b) If you’re going to do the clinical study required for this change (they did - Promotional material, [PDF](https://academy-plus.co.uk/sites/uk/files/assets-list/Nicorette%20Quickmist%20Vaping%20Indication%20Study%20Leaflet._0.pdf)), you have to know that there’s a market. My back of a fag packet calculation (joke intended) is that there are around 6.7 million (adult) smokers in the UK. This promotional piece says that 4.3 million adults use e-cigarettes. You can see which way the wind is blowing. j \* - TV advertising of non-prescription medicines is permitted in the UK \*\* - Full disclosure – I cut the sentence at that point because I couldn’t understand what followed. Full version, my bold: Nicorette QuickMist relieves and/or prevents craving and nicotine withdrawal symptoms in nicotine dependence, such as those arising from the use of tobacco or electronic cigarettes. It is indicated to aid quitting or reduction prior to quitting, **to assist those who are unwilling or unable to use such products** , and as a safer alternative to smoking tobacco for smokers and those around them. Nicorette QuickMist is indicated in pregnant and lactating women making a quit attempt. ---
**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 30, 2024, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9804 "2024-06-30T20:37:59Z")
Obviously nicotine is addictive, and using it is not considered particularly healthy. The point of the sublingual mist, like nicotine gum, is that it can deliver a precisely measured dose of nicotine, which smoking or vaping cannot. In principle allowing a person to taper off. ---
**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:** [July 1, 2024, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9805 "2024-07-01T00:24:25Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I know you’re a horse person and know much more about them than me, but from my experience when I still rode horses, wouldn’t the horse have been alarmed by the noise of the train, even it was dark night? (ok, I just thought that it actually might have been alarmed, but got confused and disorientated by it in the dark) Perhaps this horse was long-habituated to trains. We don’t know. My horse would turn inside out if a train went by near her. Horses see very well in the dark, by the way. The story has a fair amount left out of it, methinks. But, I know a person who grew up in Saskatchewan on a farm where farms are measured in sections, which is a quarter mile square; her own farm was a small one, only six sections. She remembered her parents telling her about her great uncle who was killed by a train while driving a horse and wagon. So that’s two data points , ---
**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:** [July 1, 2024, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9806 "2024-07-01T01:52:14Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > I know a person who grew up in Saskatchewan on a farm where farms are measured in sections, which is a quarter mile square I kind of suspect Saskatchewan has a different definition of “section” in the modern era, given that they have gone all metric. Odd, also, that they would call 40 acres a section: in the US, a quarter section is 160 acres. I guess they speak a different language up there. ---
**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:** [July 1, 2024, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9807 "2024-07-01T01:57:17Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I kind of suspect Saskatchewan has a different definition of “section” in the modern era, given that they have gone all metric. But what if [the land survey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Land_Survey) was done before metric existed or was adopted by the UK? They wouldn’t change the definition because the land measurements are still the same. ---
**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:** [July 1, 2024, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9808 "2024-07-01T02:30:42Z")
Maybe @Dr.Drake and your friend are cousins ---
**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:** [July 1, 2024, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9809 "2024-07-01T02:47:02Z")
According to the following Wikipedia entry, a section was 650 acres which is one square mile: > **[Dominion Land Survey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Land_Survey)** > > The Dominion Land Survey (DLS; French: arpentage des terres fédérales, ATF) is the method used to divide most of Western Canada into one-square-mile (2.6 km2) sections for agricultural and other purposes. It is based on the layout of the Public Land Survey System used in the United States, but has several differences. The DLS is the dominant survey method in the Prairie provinces, and it is also used in British Columbia along the Railway Belt (near the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway)... ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2024, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9810 "2024-07-01T02:52:01Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > a section was 650 acres which is one square mile That should be 640 acres, just as it is in the USA. ---
**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:** [July 1, 2024, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9811 "2024-07-01T02:59:19Z")
My apologies, that was just a typing error. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2024, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9812 "2024-07-01T04:57:09Z")
Man, that’s a big horse. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=489) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=491)