# 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:** 164
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2025, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3261 "2025-10-01T19:37:07Z")
You can buy and sell futures contracts for almost any agricultural commodity in the United States - corn, wheat, etc… But not onions Trading in onion futures was banned by the appropriately named Onion Futures act in the 1950s, after two traders cornered the market. ---
**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:** [October 1, 2025, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3262 "2025-10-01T19:44:40Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > Trading in onion futures was banned by the appropriately named Onion Futures act in the 1950s, after two traders cornered the market. Maybe they had learned from the Tulip Mania? > **[Tulip mania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania)** > > Tulip mania (Dutch: tulpenmanie) was a period during the Dutch Golden Age when contract prices for some bulbs of the recently introduced and fashionable tulip reached extraordinarily high levels. The major acceleration started in 1634 and then dramatically collapsed in February 1637. It is generally considered to have been the first recorded speculative bubble or asset bubble in history. In many ways, the tulip mania was more of a then-unknown socio-economic phenomenon than a significant econo ---
**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:** [October 1, 2025, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3263 "2025-10-01T19:59:16Z")
In terms of a single species, [cows](https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/what-animal-collectively-makes-up-the-largest-biomass-on-earth) comprise the highest biomass on earth, followed by either humans or Antarctic krill. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2025, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3264 "2025-10-01T20:00:37Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > Trading in onion futures was banned by the appropriately named Onion Futures act in the 1950s, after two traders cornered the market. I looked it up because it sounded interesting. That act was amended to include a ban on box office receipts futures. ---
**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:** [October 1, 2025, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3265 "2025-10-01T20:31:31Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > In terms of a single species, [cows](https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/what-animal-collectively-makes-up-the-largest-biomass-on-earth) comprise the highest biomass on earth, followed by either humans or Antarctic krill. And that’s depressing, in an ethical and ecological way. I would have thought that the krill biomass was orders of magnitude above bovines and humans, but that’s where we are now… ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2025, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3266 "2025-10-01T20:36:20Z")
It’s because cows are spherical. Highest volume per surface area means the most mass. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2025, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3267 "2025-10-01T21:02:27Z")
And frictionless! ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2025, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3268 "2025-10-01T21:29:25Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > It’s because cows are spherical. Highest volume per surface area means the most mass I’m pretty sure it’s because we raise a lot of cows to feed us on a regular basis. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2025, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3269 "2025-10-01T21:45:03Z")
> **[Spherical Cows? | The Spherical Cow](https://www.sphericalcowblog.com/spherical-cows)** ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2025, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3270 "2025-10-01T21:49:37Z")
Ah, got it! ---
**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:** [October 1, 2025, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3271 "2025-10-01T22:13:56Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > In terms of a single species, [cows](https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/what-animal-collectively-makes-up-the-largest-biomass-on-earth) comprise the highest biomass on earth, followed by either humans or Antarctic krill. Single species excludes the **[ants](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2201550119)**, right? Pity, I like it when **[ants eat cows](https://askentomologists.com/2015/07/01/is-there-any-truth-to-the-rumor-that-ants-eat-cows-people-and-crops/)**. ---
**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:** [October 1, 2025, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3272 "2025-10-01T22:38:52Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Single species excludes the **[ants](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2201550119)**, right? Probably. Insects are in [serious decline](https://scitechdaily.com/the-great-insect-apocalypse-why-are-bugs-vanishing/) worldwide, and, as much as they might _bug_ us, we really do need them around, in abundance. ---
**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:** [October 1, 2025, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3273 "2025-10-01T22:54:31Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > Trading in onion futures was banned by the appropriately named Onion Futures act in the 1950s, after two traders cornered the market. I remember hearing about that in a Planet Money episode. [Episode 657: The Tale Of The Onion King](https://www.npr.org/transcripts/448718171) ---
**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:** [October 2, 2025, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3274 "2025-10-02T00:50:28Z")
Yes, in fact that was the caveat in the article. Ants are of many species. ---
**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:** [October 2, 2025, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3275 "2025-10-02T01:51:19Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I would have thought that the krill biomass was orders of magnitude above bovines and humans, but that’s where we are now… Krill probably do outmass bovines and humans. But there are lots of different species of krill. To do a species-to-species comparison, you have to pick only one krill species. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3276 "2025-10-03T00:44:22Z")
I saw that too. I couldn’t find any thing that explained why box iffi e receipts futures trading would be banned. I didn’t look very hard though. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3277 "2025-10-03T01:40:40Z")
> [@robby](#): > > Today I learned that George Orwell is actually a pen name for Eric Arthur Blair. This is more important today than it was years ago, because society has emphasized the idea of “One True Name” or “Real” ID. When I was a kid, you could just choose the name you used. Because when you got old enough to choose your own clothes, of be confirmed, you could choose your own name. Or for writing, or war, or crime, or rent evasion, or any other reason. Anyway, I’ve recently been seeing Library / Publisher references where they use Blair explicitly, as if you ought to know that Orwell isn’t his ‘real’ name. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3278 "2025-10-03T05:32:42Z")
As a kid, I watched _The Addams Family_. And I assumed that Blossom Rock, the actress who portrayed Grandmama was of Native American heritage (based on her name). Not so. She got her surname from marriage to her husband, Clarence Rock, and she was the older sister of Jeanette MacDonald, the Iron Butterfly. ---
**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:** [October 3, 2025, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3279 "2025-10-03T18:52:18Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > Trading in onion futures was banned by the appropriately named Onion Futures act in the 1950s, after two traders cornered the market. Is that why people stopped wearing them on their belts?! (As was the style at the time) … For you word nerds, I learned the other day that scale (meaning to climb), scale (meaning a machine to weigh stuff) and scale (meaning the skin of a fish) have different word origins. Other than spelling and pronunciation, these words have nothing to do with each other. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3280 "2025-10-03T19:52:27Z")
The real-life kid, Ronald Edwin Hunkeler, on whose story Blatty’s “The Exorcist” was based, [became an engineer for NASA.](https://www.iflscience.com/boy-who-inspired-the-exorcist-became-a-nasa-engineer-on-the-apollo-program-64418) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=163) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=165)