# Tell us an interesting random fact you stumbled across (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 25, 2024, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785 "2024-07-25T15:06:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 117
**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:** [May 12, 2025, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2321 "2025-05-12T19:40:15Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > It was genetically bred by a guy in South Carolina Could you elaborate on that? Sounds interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2025, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2322 "2025-05-12T19:42:24Z")
Well, when a man loves a pepper very much… ---
**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:** [May 12, 2025, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2323 "2025-05-12T19:43:41Z")
With a ~~melon~~ Carolina _Reaper_? ---
**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:** [May 12, 2025, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2324 "2025-05-12T20:11:47Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > a guy in South Carolina Ed Currie: > **[Ed Currie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Currie)** > > Ed Currie (born August 18, 1963) is an American chili pepper breeder who is the founder and president of the PuckerButt Pepper Company. He is best known for breeding two of the hottest chili peppers in the world as recognized by Guinness World Records: the Carolina Reaper and Pepper X. > Currie was born in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan. He graduated from Central Michigan University- "on the seven-year college plan" "drinking with the frat boys"- subsequently becoming a stockbroker; his firs... ---
**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:** [May 12, 2025, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2325 "2025-05-12T20:29:15Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > Good Lord! It turn out a market in Beverly is selling boxes of Carolina Reaper peppers in the fresh produce section! This pepper is not found in nature. To be fair, most produce that humans eat isn’t found in nature. All of those different pepper varieties? Just three different species (basically, one for the super-hots, from habanero on up; one for paprika; and one for almost all of the other varieties). Most of the squashes, from zucchinis to pumpkins? One species. Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, and several others? All one species. In many cases, we don’t even know what the original wild type was, while in others, we do, but nobody ever actually eats it, because it’s so far inferior (for our purposes) to the carefully-bred ones. ---
**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:** [May 12, 2025, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2326 "2025-05-12T20:34:07Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Most of the squashes, from zucchinis to pumpkins? One species. Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, and several others? All one species. That’s interesting and I have heard it before. Does that mean that every one of those vegetables can interbreed (be interbred)? You could make all kinds of crazy stuff, which of course is how we got to where we are. ---
**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:** [May 12, 2025, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2327 "2025-05-12T20:43:25Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Does that mean that every one of those vegetables can interbreed (be interbred)? The general rule is that things within the same species can interbreed. Things within the same genus can often interbreed. The product of interbreeding between two species within the same genus are oftern infertile. ---
**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:** [May 12, 2025, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2328 "2025-05-12T21:30:32Z")
In the case of the cabbages, I think so. Of course, for many other popular fruits and vegetables, the result is that they can’t even be bred at all: Due to hybridization or polyploidy or some other factor, they don’t produce seeds or are otherwise sterile. Those fruits and vegetables, we reproduce artifically, such as by grafting on cuttings to rootstock of related plants. ---
**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:** [May 12, 2025, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2329 "2025-05-12T21:49:10Z")
The family _Solanaceae_ includes the genus _Capsicum_ in which we find bell and chile peppers, as well as the genus _Solanum_ in which we find nightshade and a host of other toxic flora alongside eggplants, tomatoes and potatoes. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2025, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2330 "2025-05-12T21:54:38Z")
At the behest of of the book of faces, I googled, “why were chainsaws invented”. The results were disturbing to say the least. > Chainsaws were originally invented in the late 18th century by Scottish doctors, John Aitken and James Jeffray, as a surgical tool for childbirth and other surgical procedures. Specifically, they were designed to aid in [symphysiotomy], a procedure to widen the pubic cartilage during childbirth, and to excise diseased bone. [Link](https://malindafusco.medium.com/chainsaws-were-invented-for-a-disturbing-reason-cd39cefb5983). With pics and diagram. ---
**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:** [May 12, 2025, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2331 "2025-05-12T22:18:27Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Does that mean that every one of those vegetables can interbreed (be interbred)? You could make all kinds of crazy stuff, which of course is how we got to where we are. Every fall the farmer’s markets and some of the local stores in my locale carry an assortment of edible but bizarre squashoids, either crossed deliberately or by accident. > [@Projammer](#): > > Chainsaws were originally invented in the late 18th century by Scottish doctors, John Aitken and James Jeffray, as a surgical tool And here I thought it would be just a chain with sharpened links worked reciprocally like those pocket survival cutting chains they sell. But no; in the absence of compact motors, _hand-cranked_ chainsaws!? 😱 ---
**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:** [May 12, 2025, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2332 "2025-05-12T22:28:27Z")
I had been under the impression that episiotomy was the common approach to simplifying childbirth, but now I read that [antenatal perineal massage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perineal_massage) has become a popular alternative, as it involves no cutting or blood loss. ---
**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:** [May 12, 2025, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2333 "2025-05-12T22:34:40Z")
Before effective anesthesia, antisepsis and antibiotics things were often grim when a neonate’s head was simply too big for its mother’s pelvis. In fact I’ve sometimes wondered if the Flynn Effect was in part due to more large-brained children not dying or being brain-damaged thanks to the availability of Caesarian section. ---
**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:** [May 12, 2025, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2334 "2025-05-12T23:45:45Z")
Before the 1500s, most women who had a caesarian section died. ---
**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:** [May 13, 2025, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2335 "2025-05-13T00:03:04Z")
Before the 1500s, most women who didn’t have caesarian sections died, too. In fact, you could say the same about before 1900. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2336 "2025-05-13T00:17:45Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Later surpassed by the brass steam-charged flywheel torpedo The important point is that shore-protection torpedoes were later surpassed by shore-protection artillery. The think most people don’t remember is that High Explosive artillery was a newish thing in WWI. Before that, artillery was really limited by the fact that the propulsion charge detonated the warhead while the shell was inside the gun. “Dynamite Guns” were trialed using compressed air to get controlled propulsion. The Brennan Torpedo saw limited (and top-secret) use as harbour protection, and was withdrawn when the British got good harbour protection artillery. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2337 "2025-05-13T01:01:43Z")
I don’t think that’s true. I mean, it’s true that all women around before 1900 are now dead, but most women didn’t die in childbirth or from complications thereof. > **[The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure,...](https://www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/2024/09/19/childbirth-in-the-past/)** ---
**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:** [May 13, 2025, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2338 "2025-05-13T01:10:56Z")
That’s not the point I was making. The point was that caesarian sections killed the pregnant woman at that time. Not later. She died from bleeding to death quickly. When a doctor (or whoever did the caesarian section) did it, the choice that they were making was to let both the baby and the mother die because the baby couldn’t get out of the mother or to cut her open, knowing that the mother would probably die by bleeding to death. ---
**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:** [May 13, 2025, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2339 "2025-05-13T01:34:03Z")
Although there are apocryphal accounts of women surviving the procedure, the oldest such account considered well-documented enough to be taken as fact was in the sixteenth century: > **[Caesarean section | History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesarean_section#History)** > > There are many conflicting stories of the first successful caesarean section (or C-section) in which both mother and baby survived. It is, however, known that the procedure had been attempted for hundreds of years before it became accepted at the beginning of the twentieth century. While forceps have gone through periods of high popularity, today they are only used in approximately 10% of deliveries. The C-section has become the more popular solution for difficult deliveries. In 2005, one-thi His... ---
**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:** [May 13, 2025, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/2340 "2025-05-13T01:35:56Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > The think most people don’t remember is that High Explosive artillery was a newish thing in WWI. Before that, artillery was really limited by the fact that the propulsion charge detonated the warhead while the shell was inside the gun. Indeed, most people think TNT is an incredibly hazardous substance, but it literally can be shot out of a cannon without detonating. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=116) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=118)