# 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:** 182
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3621 "2025-11-18T19:24:48Z")
> [@teelabrown](#): > > The farmer I watch culls all his laying hens at three years old, as egg production drops off at that point. The two chicken farmers near my dad’s farm sold the hens to Campbell’s when they were past their prime egg-laying years. They were trucked about 5 hours north to the Campbell’s plant, where they became soup for the masses. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3622 "2025-11-18T21:31:18Z")
Here’s a couple. Annoyed to hell and gone by Google’s AI summaries, I googled how to turn them off\*. This involved me doing a few random google searches to check that I’d disabled the summaries. At that point I fell down a rabbit hole. I had never heard of flying snakes (gliding, really). Is it just me? Here’s a video. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/kPGNbb5Y2a0/maxresdefault.jpg "Flying Snake Hunts Leaping Lizard | National Geographic") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPGNbb5Y2a0) Also, I had no idea that snakes generally only have one functional lung. > The vestigial left lung is often small or sometimes even absent, as snakes’ tubular bodies require all of their organs to be long and thin. In the majority of species, only one lung is functional. This lung contains a vascularized anterior portion and a posterior portion that does not function in gas exchange. This ‘saccular lung’ is used for hydrostatic purposes to adjust buoyancy in some aquatic snakes and its function remains unknown in terrestrial species. Many organs that are paired, such as kidneys or reproductive organs, are staggered within the body, one located ahead of the other. [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake#Internal_organs) (The entrance to the rabbit hole is this site, which is clickbaity, and no doubt substantially inaccurate, but it does prompt you to react _“Really?”_ - and I was gone for hours.) > **[101 Greatest Animal Facts That Will Blow Your Mind - Fact Animal](https://factanimal.com/animal-facts/)** > > The 101 most bizarre and surprising animal facts in the world. Weird, unusual and extraordinary facts about animals that will amaze you! j \* - there are several ways, but the only one I trust myself with is this: whe you’ve done a search, a load of clickables appear below the query box: **AI Mode, All, Images, Shopping** and so on. One option is **More** , and clicking on this allows you to select **Web** , and that stops the AI summaries. ---
**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:** [November 18, 2025, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3623 "2025-11-18T22:24:00Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > I had never heard of flying snakes (gliding, really). “Gliding”. That snake looks like it had the glide ratio of a 747. > [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Also, I had no idea that snakes generally only have one functional lung. And that’s why you’ll never see a snake smoking. ---
**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:** [November 18, 2025, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3624 "2025-11-18T22:25:11Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > And that’s why you’ll never see a snake smoking. I thought it was because they have no hands to light up and hold a cigarette. ---
**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:** [November 18, 2025, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3625 "2025-11-18T22:44:30Z")
A 747 has a glide ratio of around 15:1. It’s hard to tell angles, against a canopy background like that, but the snake in that video looks like its ratio is less than 1. > [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > And that’s why you’ll never see a snake smoking. I thought for sure that there’d be a Far Side somewhere of this, but I can’t find one. So maybe you’re right. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3626 "2025-11-18T22:55:43Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > on this allows you to select **Web** , and that stops the AI summaries That includes “&udm=14” with your search query. You can also do that by creating a shortcut or favorite for a dummy search: “[//www.google.com/search?q=dope+message+board&udm=14](https://www.google.com/search?q=dope+message+board&udm=14)” Or, if you work on it, you maybe able to set an alternate search engine in your browser: “[//www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14](https://www.google.com/search?q=%25s&udm=14)” ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3627 "2025-11-18T23:20:00Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > radio broadcasting network, Amalgamated Broadcasting In Australia, “Amalgamated Wireless Australasia” was, amongst other things, an early radio communication network with a big government contract. It’s still around, and still doing government work. In Aus, it was “Amalgamated” because Marconi and Telefunken had to agree to work together to get the government contract, They got the business replacing a dodgy Roman Catholic business. The “Roman Catholic” business was dodgy on three levels: Father Shaw didn’t have authorization from the church to use their money, he was using the Marconi and Telefunken patents without license, and he was in with a dodgy state government to get the business. (However, he was providing a working radio system, better than Marconi or Telefunken) Father Shaw lost most of his political support when the church distanced itself from the company, but part of the deal was that Marconi and Telefunken weren’t getting any government contracts or political support for their business or patent claims unless they stopped fighting and started technical co-operation. Hence, Amalgamated Wireless. AWA. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3628 "2025-11-19T00:21:59Z")
The AWA tower was the tallest structure in Sydney for many years, my father told me.It’s still there: > **[AWA Tower](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AWA_Tower)** > > The AWA Tower is a heritage-listed office and communications complex in Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia built for AWA. The AWA Tower consists of a radio transmission tower atop a 15-storey building. It is located in the Sydney central business district at 45-47 York Street, close to Wynyard Park and Wynyard railway station. It was designed by Robertson, Marks and McCredie in association with DT Morrow and Gordon and built from 1937 to 1939 by William Hughes and Co. Pty Ltd. ... and clearly modelled on the Eiffel. ---
**Author:** ![Hook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@Hook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hook)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3629 "2025-11-19T14:15:58Z")
And the AWA tower is one of the very few (if not only) landmark in the Matrix series that identifies the location as Sydney. ---
**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:** [November 19, 2025, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3630 "2025-11-19T22:58:12Z")
Wait, really? There was one point in the series where there’s a cyclone of some sort rotating clockwise, and I commented to whomever I was watching it with “Unless this is in the Southern Hemisphere, they just screwed up”. So, what do you think: Deliberately in Sydney and they consciously and intentionally made the cyclone the right way, or they just guessed and happened to get it right? ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2025, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3631 "2025-11-19T23:31:24Z")
In the first movie the Woman in Red walks past a fountain, which is in Martin Place in the centre of Sydney > **[Martin Place and Fountain](https://sydney-australia.biz/parks/martinplace.php)** > > Martin Place and Fountain: This plaza is a gathering place for many Sydney civic events, from entertainment to important memorials on ANZAC Day. A lunch time favourite with the workers, there are places to eat, drink and shop. ---
**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:** [November 20, 2025, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3632 "2025-11-20T00:40:00Z")
20 cities with populations larger than 100,000 sit on the Great Lakes. 12 of them are on Lake Ontario. And 11 of these are in the province of Ontario. Only Rochester on the US side. ---
**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:** [November 20, 2025, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3633 "2025-11-20T01:08:59Z")
Well, yeah, if you’re in Canada, where else is there to put a city? ---
**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:** [November 20, 2025, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3634 "2025-11-20T01:43:55Z")
Haha. How about the Pacific Ocean? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2025, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3635 "2025-11-20T02:01:21Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > 20 cities with populations larger than 100,000 sit on the Great Lakes. 12 of them are on Lake Ontario. And 11 of these are in the province of Ontario. Only Rochester on the US side. Yeah, but aren’t 10 of those suburbs of Toronto? ---
**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:** [November 20, 2025, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3636 "2025-11-20T10:49:42Z")
And, I was going to nitpick that Rochester isn’t on Lake Ontario…but I just learned that a sliver of the city limits reaches the lake shore - a mile-long neighborhood called “Ontario Beach” - as well as the exclave of Durand Eastman Park. ---
**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:** [November 20, 2025, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3637 "2025-11-20T12:50:20Z")
Actually, if you look at the corporate boundaries of Rochester, you’ll see that there are two places where it touches directly on Lake Ontario https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=43.1913006,-77.6297154&z=12&output=embed&dg=ntvb&q=Rochester,%2BNY What’s really interesting to me is that the Eastern part – the one containing Seabreeze Amusement Park - is connected to the rest of Rocheste by a tendril that’s only one street wide cutting through the town of Irondequoit. I’ve wondered about the history of that weird division. It’s like Rochester’s own Polish Corridor. Two other pseudopods extend outward to the east and west of Rochester, but these are easy to explain – they are where the Erie Canal used o run, before they re-routed it south of the city as the New York State Barge Canal. The Erie Canal used to run right through downtown Rochester, crossing the Genessee River on a bridge that’s still there, right next to the main branch of the library. The Rochester Subway used to cross the river on the lower deck of that bridge. ---
**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:** [November 20, 2025, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3638 "2025-11-20T12:50:58Z")
(question answered about those one-block wide strips of Rochester terrotory\_. ---
**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:** [November 20, 2025, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3639 "2025-11-20T13:22:50Z")
So where’s the answer? And it’s not even a whole block wide. ---
**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:** [November 20, 2025, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3640 "2025-11-20T14:21:58Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > What’s really interesting to me is that the Eastern part – the one containing Seabreeze Amusement Park - is connected to the rest of Rocheste by a tendril that’s only one street wide cutting through the town of Irondequoit. Similar thing with Denver. When Adams County gave the City & County of Denver the land to build the new airport, it was connected via a strip of land following I-70 that now belongs to Denver. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=181) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=183)