# 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:** 64
**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:** [January 19, 2021, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1263 "2021-01-19T09:43:51Z")
> [@Tabco](#): > > damn if it didn’t turn out there was a whole history to this particular spam email. > > [Copy This Article & Win Quick Cash!](https://www.wired.com/2004/07/hoax/) ([wired.com](http://wired.com) article) > > I thought it was a neat little bit of Internet history That was a fun read. This was the best part: > stumbled upon the Internet equivalent of a perpetual motion machine. Here was a hoax that had been in circulation since 1997, laden with factual improbabilities and logical contradictions, widely reviled and frequently debunked yet thriving on a Net strewn with spam and other causes of universal cynicism - a prank lacking in both brains and brawn that nevertheless, cockroach-like, had outlasted the Melissa virus and Saddam Hussein. ---
**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:** [January 19, 2021, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1264 "2021-01-19T22:49:44Z")
Don’t know, that was a quote from the wiki. ---
**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:** [January 19, 2021, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1265 "2021-01-19T23:12:35Z")
Isn’t this the song, about 2:40 in? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/5jngc-sYMPA/maxresdefault.jpg "LOONEY TUNES (Looney Toons): BUGS BUNNY - Case of the Missing Hare (1942) (Remastered) (HD 1080p)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jngc-sYMPA) ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1266 "2021-01-20T03:46:33Z")
Vladimir John Ondrasik III is the full name. > In 1995, Ondrasik signed with EMI Records. He adopted Five for Fighting as a “band name” that same year[[17]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_for_Fighting#cite_note-17)[[18]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_for_Fighting#cite_note-18) at the request of EMI executives, who found Ondrasik’s name difficult to pronounce.[[19]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_for_Fighting#cite_note-Heuston-19) “Five for Fighting” is an ice hockey term that means a five-minute major penalty for participating in a fight. Ondrasik is a lifelong fan of the National Hockey League’s [Los Angeles Kings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Kings). [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/tR-qQcNT_fY/maxresdefault.jpg "Five for Fighting - 100 Years: Music Video") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR-qQcNT_fY) ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1267 "2021-01-20T23:04:01Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > Isn’t this the song, about 2:40 in? That’s it. ---
**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:** [January 25, 2021, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1268 "2021-01-25T22:34:24Z")
Ewen McGregor’s brother is a former Royal Air Force pilot. His call sign was “Obi Two” ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1269 "2021-01-26T01:00:25Z")
The **International Gay Rugby Association & Board** is commonly referred to by its acronym. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1270 "2021-01-26T18:17:41Z")
Today I learned that [a regiment of French Hussars (cavalry!) once captured a Dutch war fleet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_the_Dutch_fleet_at_Den_Helder) in 1795. (Sort of.) My favorite quote from the article is: > A capture of ships by horsemen is an extremely rare feat in military history. TL;DR: the harbor froze over. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1271 "2021-01-29T00:38:25Z")
Today I learned that Omaha was bombed by the Japanese during WWII. [Link.](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/site-of-a-japanese-balloon-bomb-explosion) I’d heard of the balloon bombs but I didn’t realize one got that far, I thought of them as a West Coast thing. ---
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1272 "2021-01-29T01:32:25Z")
I was googling Bic pens because I wanted to know when the hole was put in the cap, becase a picture on linked in purporting to show how the design never changed from 1955 to now had holes in the cap on all pens, but that wasn’t the fact I wanted to tell. I then ended up on a wiki stroll and I found out that the US secret service maintain the international ink library. As manufactures change their formulations ever so slightly thin layer chromatography can be used to identify the manufacturer and date of ink. Additional random fact 2 , gel pen ink is immune to this method of identification. ---
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1273 "2021-01-29T01:41:24Z")
Which I wonder if it has ever been an element in any of the police procedural shows or a crime book. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1274 "2021-01-29T10:25:48Z")
I knew they did for printer ink, mostly to combat counterfeiting activity. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1275 "2021-01-29T11:50:41Z")
> [@Precambrianmollusc](#): > > As manufactures change their formulations ever so slightly thin layer chromatography can be used to identify the manufacturer and date of ink. > [@Precambrianmollusc](#): > > Which I wonder if it has ever been an element in any of the police procedural shows or a crime book. I can’t find it, but years ago I watched a program about a plane crash. It was in a poor country as I recall, maybe in Africa. Investigators couldn’t figure it out; they suspected the tires but that didn’t square with (hand written) records, which listed the correct pressure when it was serviced. Eventually they realized that someone had gone back, altering numbers (like making a 3 into an 8 with an added stroke of the pen). To the naked eye, it looked ok. However they’d used a different brand of pen, so the inks were different and chromatography revealed the alteration. My contribution: Wisconsin’s Oleo Wars. Butter producers didn’t want the competition, of course. > The controversy started in 1895, when the state Legislature first passed a law forbidding the manufacture or sale of butter-colored oleo. > **[Bootleg margarine and farmer protests: A look back at Wisconsin's 'oleo wars'](https://madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/bootleg-margarine-and-farmer-protests-a-look-back-at-wisconsins-oleo-wars/article_3b73f3aa-8ca3-54bc-9e5e-de4f06d080bd.html)** > > Oleo, commonly known as margarine, has a long and controversial history in Wisconsin. Did you know that it only became legal to buy yellow oleo in the dairy state in Nice caption to a photo in the article: > Gov. Warren Knowles signs into law a bill repealing the state’s long-imposed ban on the sale of colored oleo. Oleo supporters are shown gathered around the seated chief executive as he displays the new law, signed with yellow ink, on May 24, 1967. ---
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1276 "2021-01-29T14:31:50Z")
And thanks to CNN I now know that wombats have cube shaped poop, and we now know how they get cube shaped poop, which apparently may benefit manufacturing of cube shaped things , the why is still out there ,may be a territorial communication thing. > **[Why do wombats poop cubes? Scientists may finally have the answer | CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/29/australia/wombat-poop-cubes-intl-scli-scn/index.html)** > > For years, scientists have been wondering why wombat poop is cube-shaped (yes, really). Now, they say they have got to the bottom of the mystery. ---
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1277 "2021-01-29T14:32:52Z")
And if they can work that into a police procedural, I’ll be impressed. ---
**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:** [January 29, 2021, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1278 "2021-01-29T14:38:44Z")
> [@Precambrianmollusc](#): > > And thanks to CNN I now know that wombats have cube shaped poop, and we now know how they get cube shaped poop, which apparently may benefit manufacturing of cube shaped things , the why is still out there ,may be a territorial communication thing. Reminds m of Carl Barks’ **Lost in the Andes** – only that used cubic eggs, not poop > [@](#): > > Barks had heard jokes about square eggs and chickens since his childhood and decided to use them as an idea for a story. The plot combines themes and story elements that Barks often used in his stories. A mythical creature or legendary artifact that leads to an expedition, the long search for information, often seeming futile, an isolated civilization hidden from the outside world thanks to its natural environment, the Ducks bringing new ideas with them but sometimes faced as threats, and the characters ending up defeated or empty-handed are all such themes. > > The story has been considered as representative of Barks’ work in general and successful in its own right, and has often been declared as one of his best. References to this story are often in the works of Barks’ “successors” and fans of his work in general. In a 1962 interview, Barks agreed that “my best story, technically, is probably the square egg one.”[[2]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_in_the_Andes!#cite_note-2) [![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_in_the_Andes!#/media/File:Donald_Duck_-_Lost_in_the_Andes_Coverart.png) ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_in_the_Andes!#/media/File:Donald_Duck_-_Lost_in_the_Andes_Coverart.png) [Lost in the Andes! - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_in_the_Andes)! > **[Square Eggs](https://scrooge-mcduck.fandom.com/wiki/Square_Eggs)** > > The Square Eggs are a unique type of egg produced by the Square Chickens of Plain Awful. The eggs laid every night by Square Chicken resemble small stone cubes (either gray or brownish in color), going along with all things in Plain Awful being at... ---
**Author:** ![a6ka97](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c2a13f/32.png) [@a6ka97](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a6ka97)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1279 "2021-01-29T17:04:23Z")
Wasn’t square (cube) eggs what the chickens laid on Green Acres? ---
**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:** [January 29, 2021, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1280 "2021-01-29T18:04:14Z")
I don’t recall that episode, but you seem to be right. > **["Green Acres" A Square Is Not Round (TV Episode 1966) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0592667/)** > > A Square Is Not Round: Directed by Richard L. Bare. With Eddie Albert, Eva Gabor, Pat Buttram, Tom Lester. Oliver discovers that one of his chickens is laying square eggs, but he can't find out which one it is. In addition, he finds out that he has a... [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/t5xsN3zkyyY/maxresdefault.jpg "Oliver and Lisa's Chicken Lays Square Eggs - Green Acres - 1966") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5xsN3zkyyY) I wonder if the writer, Elroy Schwartz, was a Carl Barks fan. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2021, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1281 "2021-01-30T23:31:43Z")
The term “banana republic” was coined by O. Henry. > **[Banana republic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > In political science, the term banana republic describes a politically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the export of natural resources. In 1904, the American author O. Henry coined the term to describe Honduras and neighbouring countries under economic exploitation by U.S. corporations, such as the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita). Typically, a banana republic has a society of extremely stratified social classes, usually a large... ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2021, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1282 "2021-01-31T00:35:02Z")
Well well. I did not know that the Republic of Anchuria was Honduras, nor that O. Henry had lived there. I’d always just kinda assumed that he’d taken a cruise ship along Central America, and made up the rest based on small-town American and reading newspaper reports. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=63) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=65)