# 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:** 495
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9893 "2024-07-12T18:29:07Z")
Today I learned there’s a plan to build a [1,907 feet tall skyscraper in… Oklahoma City](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legends_Tower). 😲 ---
**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:** [July 12, 2024, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9894 "2024-07-12T18:44:26Z")
About as tall as a building ought to be! ---
**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:** [July 12, 2024, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9895 "2024-07-12T18:55:59Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > “It was an eldritch Democrat Wagon, whose proportions were non-Euclidean, its sides covered with squamous fungoid growths, and piloted by a man of batrachian appearance and suspicious aspect.” One of the benefits of reading on my phone is that when there’s a strange word, I can hold my finger on it and the definition pops up. He didn’t just use these types of purple words. He also used a lot of nautical and architectural terms, and referenced Ancient Greek-era math and science as well. He also wrote from the perspective of a dreamer navigating through constantly-changing environments. His earlier works were horror fanboy wanks, but he really matured in his later writing and made his works educational. ---
**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:** [July 12, 2024, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9896 "2024-07-12T19:17:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > About as tall as a building ought to be! About a high as a building oughta _grow_, but that was Kansas City. ---
**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 13, 2024, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9897 "2024-07-13T04:15:17Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > About a high as a building oughta _grow_ … Reminds me of a novel I read years ago, in which a bunch of people were dragged out of the distant past in the “Philadelphia Experiment”. They were confined by the government for study, but eventually escaped. At one point, they made it to New Orleans, and walking among the skyscrapers, ancient Egyptian Princess Nefertari Meryisis remarked, “These men are in love with their phalluses.” ---
**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 13, 2024, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9898 "2024-07-13T12:39:21Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Reminds me of a novel I read years ago, in which a bunch of people were dragged out of the distant past in the “Philadelphia Experiment”. They were confined by the government for study, but eventually escaped. At one point, they made it to New Orleans, and walking among the skyscrapers, ancient Egyptian Princess Nefertari Meryisis remarked, “These men are in love with their phalluses.” not wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9899 "2024-07-13T14:37:34Z")
Today I learned about the recent discovery of [a prehistoric structure in Lake Michigan](https://www.thebrighterside.news/post/9000-year-old-stonehenge-like-structure-discovered-at-the-bottom-of-lake-michigan/). It’s under 40 feet of water, and is believed to be about 9000 years old. It consists of some meticulously-arranged rocks, one of which has a carving of a mastodon. ---
**Author:** ![DETXL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/detxl/32/19366_2.png) [@DETXL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DETXL)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9900 "2024-07-13T16:36:14Z")
Yes—probably—maybe (?). It was first reported in the mid-2000s, when I was in school, and resurfaces every couple of years\* although there hasn’t been much new work there that I’m aware of. [Dr. Holley’s website](https://holleyarchaeology.com/index.php/the-truth-about-the-stonehenge-in-lake-michigan/) has some clarification, and the speculation that it may be related to another site, “a prehistoric drive line for herding caribou.” \* …the story, not the site. The site stays underwater. (There is also another image of the glyph, which is, even marked up, a lot more ambiguous than the one from Pinterest. You can see [an unretouched photograph here](https://rockartblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-grand-traverse-bay-michigan.html). Great Lakes maritime archaeology is often very interesting and well-preserved, which is neat) ---
**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:** [July 13, 2024, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9901 "2024-07-13T18:06:30Z")
_New Scientist_ reports that a wholly unknown culture has been discovered in a part of Venezuela that was not have to have cultures. > **[Mysterious rock art in Venezuela hints at little-known ancient culture](https://www.newscientist.com/article/2437038-mysterious-rock-art-in-venezuela-hints-at-little-known-ancient-culture/)** > > Pictograms and petroglyphs depicting abstract lines and shapes offer a rare glimpse into the culture of people who lived in South America thousands of years ago I think that is open to all.This amazing set of discoveries, which beats Venezuela by many orders of magnitude, is subscriber only. > **[How ghost cities in the Amazon are rewriting the story of civilisation](https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26334980-500-how-ghost-cities-in-the-amazon-are-rewriting-the-story-of-civilisation/)** > > Remote sensing, including lidar, reveals that the Amazon was once home to millions of people. The emerging picture of how they lived challenges ideas of human cultural evolution > Discoveries made this century have finally allowed us to answer that question. The story begins when humans first arrived in the Amazon. Exactly when that happened is up for debate – estimates vary from 27,000 to 13,000 years ago – but it seems to have been remarkably soon after people arrived in the Americas. Those early Amazonians didn’t immediately start building large settlements deep within the rainforest. Instead, they stuck to the margins of the Amazon basin where an astonishing variety of landscapes still exists. “There are lush evergreen forests, seasonally flooded savannahs, huge areas of wetlands – it’s very diverse,” says José Iriarte at the University of Exeter, UK. “Right from the start, these hunter-gatherers were looking for transitional zones where they could exploit different environments.” > > … > > By 11,600 years ago, most of the megafauna had disappeared, driven to extinction through a combination of human activity and climate change. Then came a new way to obtain food. Instead of simply foraging, some Amazonians began domesticating plants. José Capriles at Pennsylvania State University, Iriarte and their colleagues published the first evidence of this early cultivation in 2020. It comes from the flooded savannahs of the Llanos de Mojos in the Bolivian Amazon. Here, the modern grassy landscape is littered with curious little hills, many about a hectare in size, and each covered in thick vegetation. “We’ve mapped over 6000 of them,” says Capriles. > > It turns out these “forest islands” are human-made mounds, some dating back 10,800 years. ---
**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 13, 2024, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9902 "2024-07-13T21:32:37Z")
There was, nominally is, a programming language called ADA. Many of us know that that is not an acronym (or is maybe a backronym) but was named in honor of a colleague of Charles Babbage.        TILT (things I learned today): she had 3 children, who were a Viscount, a Baroness and an Earl, for the name we commonly use for her was not her actual name (Ada King) but her title, Countess Lovelace.        But, King was her married name. Her maiden name was Ada Byron. She was in fact the daughter of Anne Milbanke and _the_ Lord Byron. ---
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9903 "2024-07-13T22:26:30Z")
But _his_ name was George Gordon, Lord Byron. Wouldn’t her name then be Ada Gordon? Being American I’m not quite sure how British surnames and titles work. ---
**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 13, 2024, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9904 "2024-07-13T22:44:28Z")
It appears that his birth name was George Gordon Byron, the Gordon being his mother’s maiden name. The “Lovelace” bestowed upon Ada’s husband was from a line of peers that had extincted out some decades earlier and was revived for him. ---
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2024, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9905 "2024-07-14T15:07:56Z")
Thanks, that makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9906 "2024-07-15T15:25:47Z")
I was born and raised in Duluth and now live a few miles away. Telly Savalas was married to a Duluth woman (his third marriage) and had 2 kids. He spent a lot of time in Duluth. And yes, the Congdon Mansion or Glensheen Mansion is a murder mansion. Google and read the tale. The movie _You’ll Like My Mother_ (1972) with Patty Duke and Richard Thomas was filmed in that house and on the grounds. It’s opened for tours now. ---
**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:** [July 15, 2024, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9907 "2024-07-15T15:28:31Z")
FWIW, the first time I heard about Duluth was as the town Bob Dylan grew up in and went to school. His “North County Blues” is about the region (as “Girl From The North Country” is about a girl from there). ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9908 "2024-07-15T15:37:01Z")
Until fairly recently, steel for radiation-sensitive uses had to be salvaged from WW2 shipwrecks and earlier because steel produced after 1945 was contaminated with nuclear fallout. Background radiation levels peaked in 1963; by 2008, anthropogenic background radiation has decreased to 0.005 mSv/yr above natural levels. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9909 "2024-07-15T16:24:59Z")
One of our family’s favorite classic baseball players is pitcher Luis Tiant. He used to say “I pitch, I win.” **Mrs. FtG** once saw him play in the minors. After a long MLB career he eventually joined a senior baseball league thing. He wasn’t happy with the team he was on and got traded. For former Braves player Ralph Garr and [500 Teddy Ruxpins](https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/07/29/baseball-trade-deadline-luis-tiant-teddy-bears). (I wonder how one submits this to Tom Scott’s Lateral.) ---
**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:** [July 15, 2024, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9910 "2024-07-15T18:10:39Z")
Over the weekend I learned that the term battery to denote a device that provides a charge was coined by Ben Franklin. He created a battery in 1749, while engaged in experiments with electricity. He used the term because the linked capacitors he was using were reminiscent of a military battery, where all the members work together towards a common goal. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9911 "2024-07-15T18:29:10Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > “It was an eldritch Democrat Wagon, whose proportions were non-Euclidean, its sides covered with squamous fungoid growths, and piloted by a man of batrachian appearance and suspicious aspect.” Don’t forget the gibbous moon. ---
**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:** [July 15, 2024, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/9912 "2024-07-15T19:50:24Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > He created a battery in 1749, while engaged in experiments with electricity. He used the term because the linked capacitors he was using were reminiscent of a military battery, where all the members work together towards a common goal. I thought it was because the battery was a collection of individual cells. Just like a unit of artillery pieces is a battery. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=494) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=496)