# 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:** 86
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1703 "2021-03-24T00:40:10Z")
I hope they do a good job with ventilation. Twenty years ago I drove my kids to [Penn’s Cave](https://www.pennscave.com/), a completely flooded cavern you tour in a boat. I thought it sounded cool, but it turns out the boats were powered by little gasoline powered motors that were on their last legs, burning equal amounts of gas and oil. By the end of the tour we were craving fresh air. Headaches all around. I’m sure they’ve switched to electric motors. ---
**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:** [March 24, 2021, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1704 "2021-03-24T00:54:35Z")
Yeah, it’s a disaster waiting to happen. Those Scandinavians know nothing about boats and seafaring. ---
**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:** [March 24, 2021, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1705 "2021-03-24T01:03:15Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > What happens when a ship grounds and catches fire in the middle? If you’re in France, it’s March 24 now…the anniversary of this tunnel fire. > The fire burned for 53 hours and reached temperatures of 1,000 °C (1,830 °F), mainly because of the margarine load in the trailer, equivalent to a 23,000-litre (5,100 imp gal; 6,100 US gal) oil tanker, which spread to other cargo vehicles nearby that also carried combustible loads. The fire trapped around 40 vehicles in dense and poisonous smoke (containing [carbon monoxide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide) and [cyanide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanide)). Due to weather conditions at the time, airflow through the tunnel was from the Italian side to the French side.[[3]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Blanc_tunnel_fire#cite_note-3) Authorities compounded the effect by pumping in further fresh air from the Italian side, feeding the fire and forcing poisonous black smoke through the length of the tunnel. > **[Mont Blanc Tunnel fire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Blanc_tunnel_fire)** > > On 24 March 1999, a transport truck caught fire while driving through the Mont Blanc Tunnel between France and Italy. When it stopped halfway through the tunnel, it violently combusted. Other vehicles traveling through the tunnel quickly became trapped and they also caught fire as firefighters were unable to reach the transport truck. 39 people were killed. In the aftermath, major changes were made to the tunnel to improve its safety. > On the morning of 24 March 1999, 39 people died when a Belgia... ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1706 "2021-03-24T11:37:27Z")
[Dudley Canal Tunnels - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRSlMqb7e8Y&ab_channel=GrahamEdgeworth) They do use electric boats for the tours. ---
**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:** [March 24, 2021, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1707 "2021-03-24T11:47:11Z")
I just noticed - someone already started another thread on this subject. A 200,000 ton cargo ship has run aground in the Suez canal - ending up perpendicular to the relatively narrow channel at that point - completely blocking it. The backlog is building up - and even causing oil prices to move upwards. [Suez Canal blocked after massive container ship runs aground | Shipping News | Al Jazeera](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/24/container-ship-blocks-suez-canal-causing-traffic-jam) ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1708 "2021-03-24T11:51:43Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Today I learned it has a younger cousin that’s going on right now: That explains this video I saw years ago: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ksYWSIlD-Bw/hqdefault.jpg "Moment Louisiana sinkhole swallows 40ft high trees in a swamp") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksYWSIlD-Bw) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1709 "2021-03-24T11:58:12Z")
> [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > I just noticed - someone already started another thread on this subject. > > A 200,000 ton cargo ship has run aground in the Suez canal - ending up perpendicular to the relatively narrow channel at that point - completely blocking it. The backlog is building up - and even causing oil prices to move upwards. [Suez Canal blocked after massive container ship runs aground | Shipping News | Al Jazeera](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/24/container-ship-blocks-suez-canal-causing-traffic-jam) For those interested, that thread is: > [@Breaking News: Suez Canal blocked by a mega-sized container vessel \[Cleared\]](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-suez-canal-blocked-by-a-mega-sized-container-vessel/938516): > > This happened this morning, and holy cow, this thing is WEDGED. I was thinking of cracking a joke about how the captain couldn’t be bothered to get directions, but having the Suez blocked is pretty significant. And, of course, my paranoia is whispering to me (it’s not a clinical paranoia, just my brain being able to conceive of evil scenarios) that this is not a case of sometimes shit happens, it’s a case of someone deliberately blocking the canal and the ship is actually a really HUGE float… ---
**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:** [March 24, 2021, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1710 "2021-03-24T13:20:46Z")
You can see that clearing the ship in the Suez just needs bulldozers. It is just a big trench in the ground. ---
**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:** [March 24, 2021, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1711 "2021-03-24T14:31:09Z")
Police find real firearm disguised as a Nerf gun in North Carolina raid They matched the colors pretty well, and even added a very real-looking Nerf logo. > **[Police seize real gun disguised as Nerf toy in North Carolina drug raid | CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/20/us/nerf-gun-drug-bust/?iid=ob_article_organicsidebar_expansion)** > > Police in North Carolina found a real gun disguised as a Nerf toy while conducting a drug raid in Catawba County, north of Charlotte, this week. You gotta wonder why they went to all this trouble. Was it to smuggle the gun in somewhere (but wouldn’t the unpainted endstock give it away? Or were the counting on people not looking at that?) Was this an attempt to absolutely dominate the next round of Nerf War? ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1712 "2021-03-24T14:34:32Z")
I didn’t realise you could get drum magazines for pistols (outside of the “Borderlands” series of games). ---
**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:** [March 24, 2021, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1713 "2021-03-24T14:47:41Z")
Totally unrelated to the last item, Sotheby’s in New York is auctioning off 200 early photographs next month > **[Images by one of history's earliest photographers fetch almost $2M](https://www.cnn.com/style/article/talbot-photography-sale-sothebys/index.html)** > > Offering a rare glimpse at early Victorian Britain, around 200 images by one of history's first photographers, William Henry Fox Talbot, sold at auction for over $1.95 million. Contrary to their headline, though, they do not appear to all by by William Henry Fox Talbot, the inventor of the “Calotype” method that produces a negative, from which a positive is struck (as opposed to the daguerreotype method). If you go to their site and look at the collection, there are a lot of early photographers represented. Purely by chance, I had sent off an article I wrote about Talbot just last night. In 1851 he took what appears to be the very first strobe photograph (and also the first “flash” photograph, requiring an exposure of well under a second at a time when photographs typically required a 30-90 second exposure, and not that long after exposures of half an hour were not uncommon). ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1714 "2021-03-24T15:06:44Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Many of us have heard of the semi-comic incident at Louisiana’s Lake Peigneur, where back in the '80s a drill rig drilled through the bottom of a lake into a salt mine below and the lake, boats, barges, trees, etc., etc., promptly disappeared down the drain into the mine. Oops. Sometimes the opposite happens: drilling breaks through and stuff comes out uncontrollably. > **[Sidoarjo mud flow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidoarjo_mud_flow)** > > The Sidoarjo mud flow (commonly known as Lumpur Lapindo, wherein lumpur is the Indonesian word for mud) is the result of an erupting mud volcano in the subdistrict of Porong, Sidoarjo in East Java, Indonesia that has been in eruption since May 2006. It is the biggest mud volcano in the world; responsibility for the disaster was assigned to the blowout of a natural gas well drilled by PT Lapindo Brantas, although company officials contend it was caused by a very distant earthquake that occur > A... ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1715 "2021-03-24T15:13:13Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I didn’t realise you could get drum magazines for pistols (outside of the “Borderlands” series of games). They made them for some models of the [Luger](https://www.cmrfirearms.com/pistols-luger-luger-pistol-accessories-artillery-luger-snail-drum-trommel-magazine-refta6rd-p-745.html). Didn’t work very well, but they are out there. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1716 "2021-03-24T15:16:09Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > The disguised weapon, OTOH, does not have a drum magazine. You may be mistaking the arm brace for a drum. It wasn’t in the picture, but from the article: > The Glock 19 pistol, along with a 50-round drum magazine, had been painted blue and orange and labeled with the Nerf logo to look like a toy, the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release on Facebook I had to google my own pictures of Glocks with drum magazines. 😇 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1717 "2021-03-24T15:18:55Z")
I caught that when I went back to look. I didn’t know they made them for Glocks either. Idiotic invention for idiotic shooters. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1718 "2021-03-24T15:33:55Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Sometimes the opposite happens: drilling breaks through and stuff comes out uncontrollably. Yeah. Like this only bigger: [http://www.armoton.com/farside/pic/111-mosquito.gif](http://www.armoton.com/farside/pic/111-mosquito.gif) I _hate_ it when that happens! 😉 ---
**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:** [March 25, 2021, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1719 "2021-03-25T03:21:36Z")
I did enjoy “The Far Side,” and when I mention to others my love of “Calvin and Hobbes,” this strip often comes up. IMO C&H is better because in the long run, repeating characters gives the audience a chance to learn about them, care about their development, something. But let’s not disrespect Gary Larson either: > \*\* Pointing at the rear end of a Stegosaurus diagram, he says “Now this end is called the thagomizer … after the late Thag Simmons.” Without meaning to, Larson’s strip plugged a gap in the scientific lexicon. Previously, nobody had ever given a name to the unique arrangement of tail spikes found on Stegosaurus and its relatives. But today, many paleontologists use the word “[thagomizer](https://books.google.com/books?id=zCQmeIqVVKQC&pg=PA130&dq=stegosaurus+thagomizer&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiV057h6K3PAhVDLyYKHQZ0D2E4ChDoAQgqMAM#v=onepage&q=stegosaurus%20thagomizer&f=false)” when describing this apparatus, even in scientific journals.\*\* > **[11 Twisted Facts About ‘The Far Side’](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/88286/11-twisted-facts-about-far-side)** > > For 15 years, "The Far Side" added a dash of irreverence to the funny pages. Offbeat, macabre, and sometimes controversial, Gary Larson’s trailblazing cartoon was a gigantic success. ---
**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:** [March 27, 2021, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1720 "2021-03-27T03:21:40Z")
The Chinese dictator Xi Jinpin spent two weeks living with an American family in Muscatine, Iowa in 1985. He was about 22 years old. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2021, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1721 "2021-03-27T11:46:54Z")
In Panama, cock-fighting to the death is legal, but is a crime to train a poodle to jump through a hoop. > **[Cockfight | Panama](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockfight#Panama)** > > Law 308 on the Protection of Animals was approved by the National Assembly of Panama on 15 March 2012. Article 7 of the law states: 'Dog fights, animal races, bullfights – whether of the Spanish or Portuguese style – the breeding, entry, permanence and operation in the national territory of all kinds of circus or circus show that uses trained animals of any species, are prohibited.' However, horse racing and cockfighting were exempt from the ban. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1722 "2021-03-28T17:53:35Z")
From 2½ years ago but I just heard about this: deputy head of the SS in Denmark warned Jewish tailor of impending deportation. > **[The tip-off from a Nazi that saved my grandparents](https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-45919900)** > > A Jewish tailor was advised to flee Denmark in 1943 by a German client. But why would this leading Nazi defy Hitler? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=85) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=87)