# 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:** 88
**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:** [April 4, 2021, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1743 "2021-04-04T04:09:08Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Perhaps icebreakers and just constant boat traffic would prevent a solid layer of ice from forming? Speaking of icebreakers, there’s a Canadian company which makes amphibious ones. Here are some keeping Canada’s Red River free of ice so the town of Selkirk doesn’t flood due to ice dams. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/zEaNP6F5Jds/maxresdefault.jpg "The Amphibex") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEaNP6F5Jds) ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1744 "2021-04-04T07:11:25Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > > [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > > > I had to look up this word today. Headline: CNN had a field day with its chyrons during Trump’s ‘meltdown’ at his coronavirus briefing. Chyrons? > > > > > chy·ron > > > /ˈkīrän/ > > > Learn to pronounce > > > nounTRADEMARK > > > an electronically generated caption superimposed on a television or movie screen. > > Some other terms used: > > Lower Third > Super > Font …I forgot **"CG**" (character generator). That’s a common term. Especially as a written direction on a script (whereas the other terms are mostly oral jargon). OK, let me edit this to add that: **"Lower third**" refers to the area of the screen where most names, places, etc are superimposed over the video. **“Super”** refers to the words/characters being superimposed over the video **"Font**" of course comes from ‘fonts’ which are different typographic styles but in this usage the actual ‘font’ doesn’t matter as the term is synonymous to the other terms I mentioned and refers to some set of superimposed characters as a whole, e.g. _“Hey… where’s the Pelosi font? You gotta get her font up, quick!”_ ---
**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:** [April 4, 2021, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1745 "2021-04-04T09:50:56Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I assumed that nowadays rivers like the Thames or the Hudson weren’t allowed to freeze solid, not that it just doesn’t get as cold. The London Thames froze in 1963, but not completely in the tidal part where the currents can be very strong. The pictures of people skating, cycling, driving and ice-yachting on the frozen Thames come from further upstream, beyond Teddington Lock. The ice fairs were all prior to the 1860s when Sir Joseph Bazalgette built the Embankment for the new sewage system that made the river narrower and faster. ---
**Author:** ![cytop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@cytop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cytop)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1746 "2021-04-04T10:29:27Z")
The main reason for the Thames freezing over back then was the ‘Little Ice Age’ when temperatures dipped somewhat - the last Ice Fair on the Thames was in 1814. Even so, the river freezing over was not a regular occurrence, perhaps 1 year in 10 according to the link Side effect of the Little Ice Age - trees grew slower so the wood was denser, and Stradivarius took his opportunity. > **[Little Ice Age](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > > The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of regional cooling, particularly pronounced in the North Atlantic region. It was not a true ice age of global extent. The term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939. The period has been conventionally defined as extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries, but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850. > The NASA Earth Observatory notes th... ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1747 "2021-04-04T13:34:37Z")
TIL, that super-massive black holes were not formed from collapsing stars. M87 for example weighs 6.5 BILLION times more than our sun. That much mass cannot form a stable star. In fact, there is no consensus on how they were formed. For now, it’s a mystery. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1748 "2021-04-04T13:42:14Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > > [@RealityChuck](#): > > > > This led to an issue: at the time of his death, Grant was taking cocaine as a way to help manage his pain. There a big bottle of it on the mantle of the living room. Agents from the DEA periodically test it to make sure it’s all there > > Wouldn’t it be easier to just remove it? Why would they still keep cocaine in the house? Is there a cite for this? I looked and couldn’t find a cite that the cocaine is extant. It’s on the mantle of the main room. They wanted the cottage to remain untouched from the day of his death as a memorial. Here’s a photo of it. [https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g48901-d278738-i468291690-Ulysses\_S\_Grant\_Cottage-Wilton\_New\_York.html](https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g48901-d278738-i468291690-Ulysses_S_Grant_Cottage-Wilton_New_York.html) ---
**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:** [April 4, 2021, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1749 "2021-04-04T13:45:14Z")
Looks like neither of my 2 theories on super-massive blackholes has proven out. First, I considered that super-massive black holes were strange visitors from another universe with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal massive black holes. If that wasn’t the case I assumed they had to have started as smaller black holes that sucked up a lot of mass over time until they got that big. Glad to hear it’s also a mystery to people who know something about it. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2021, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1750 "2021-04-04T14:18:17Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I considered that super-massive black holes were strange visitors from another universe This is where I get confused. I take “universe” to mean “all of reality.” Do you mean another star system or galaxy, like [Oumuamua](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/comets/oumuamua/in-depth/)? ---
**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:** [April 4, 2021, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1751 "2021-04-04T14:36:11Z")
He’s saying that supermassive black holes are to normal massive black holes as superheroes are to normal heroes. And they probably did form from smaller black holes; it’s just not clear precisely how. It could be that you start out with one smallish black hole, that progressively eats more and more until it’s big enough. Or it could be that you start out with a bunch of black holes, which merge into larger holes, which in turn merge into larger ones yet, and so on. But neither model really seems consistent with all that we know about them. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1752 "2021-04-04T15:29:00Z")
As I understand it, part of the problem is their age. [quote] J0313-1806, dates back to when the universe was just 670 million years old, or about 5 percent of the universe’s current age. That makes J0313-1806 two times heavier and 20 million years older than the for earliest known black hole. Finding such a huge supermassive black hole so early in the universe’s history challenges astronomers’ understanding of how these cosmic beasts first formed,[/quote] Astronomer Feige Wang of the University of Arizona and colleagues calculated that even if J0313-1806’s seed formed right after the first stars in the universe and grew as fast as possible, it would have needed a starting mass of at least 10,000 suns. From [here](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sciencenews.org/article/most-ancient-supermassive-black-hole-quasar-bafflingly-big/amp). ---
**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:** [April 4, 2021, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1753 "2021-04-04T15:58:59Z")
Bobby Gimby was a singer/composer known to Canadians for his rendition of “Ca-Na-Da” written in 1967 for Canada’s Centennial. He also wrote a song which almost became Malaysia’s national anthem in 1963. After Singapore broke away in 1965, it lost its popularity. Canada: [Ca-na-da! - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vE17TazIvM) Malaysia: [Malaysia Forever - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtEBs98AFOY) ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1754 "2021-04-04T19:43:06Z")
> [@cytop](#): > > The main reason for the Thames freezing over back then was the ‘Little Ice Age’ when temperatures dipped somewhat - the last Ice Fair on the Thames was in 1814. Even so, the river freezing over was not a regular occurrence, perhaps 1 year in 10 according to the link Thousands of lakes and rivers still freeze over every year. The reason the lower Thames doesn’t ever do so any more is because it’s a different river than it was in the 1800’s. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1755 "2021-04-04T21:43:21Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Speaking of icebreakers The Amphibex is a wonderful tool and worth the dosh if it can keep the flooding back. I hope insurance companies are financially appreciative. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1756 "2021-04-04T21:45:21Z")
Quesadillas have been around since the Aztecs. Having no cheese to fill them with, squash and other vegetables were typical fillings. ---
**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:** [April 5, 2021, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1757 "2021-04-05T00:40:04Z")
Did you mean tortillas? A quesadilla is literally a tortilla filled with cheese (and sometimes other things too). ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1758 "2021-04-05T03:23:45Z")
Well, it’s two tortillas with stuff in the middle, fried to make the middle stuff hot/melty ---
**Author:** ![cytop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@cytop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cytop)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1759 "2021-04-05T07:05:40Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > The reason the lower Thames doesn’t ever do so any more… You’re reading my post ‘too literally’. Of course it’s not exactly the same river now, but at the same time, with lower average temperatures, it was more likely to freeze during the so called Little Ice Age, and it did. I could reply to the quote from your post by saying the Thames last froze over in 1963 but I won’t… I’m out of here ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1760 "2021-04-05T08:50:04Z")
> [@cytop](#): > > I could reply to the quote from your post by saying the Thames last froze over in 1963 but I won’t… I’m out of here You could’ve avoided making the same mistake twice, but you didn’t – you stuck around to repeat yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2021, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1761 "2021-04-05T09:07:18Z")
Typically 1 tortilla. ---
**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:** [April 5, 2021, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1762 "2021-04-05T14:00:44Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > There is a clam with markings that look very much like some kind of writing > > Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) Tweeted: > The Lioconcha Hieroglyphica, a species of saltwater clam with markings often with the appearance of hieroglyphs. > > Source of images: [https://cutt.ly/sdFLR18](https://t.co/qR89lJaQpL) [https://twitter.com/gunsnrosesgirl3/status/1291469894312169493/photo/1](https://t.co/ZxA8jQd3PY) [https://twitter.com/gunsnrosesgirl3/status/1291469894312169493?s=20](https://twitter.com/gunsnrosesgirl3/status/1291469894312169493?s=20) Looks like a variation on Rule 30. > **[Rule 30](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_30)** > > Rule 30 is an elementary cellular automaton introduced by Stephen Wolfram in 1983. Using Wolfram's classification scheme, Rule 30 is a Class III rule, displaying aperiodic, chaotic behaviour. > This rule is of particular interest because it produces complex, seemingly random patterns from simple, well-defined rules. Because of this, Wolfram believes that Rule 30, and cellular automata in general, are the key to understanding how simple rules produce complex structures and behaviour in nature. For ... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=87) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=89)