# 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:** 36
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2024, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/701 "2024-10-22T15:47:16Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > There are also a few towns and villages that use a 45 minutes offset, which is just getting ridiculous. Nepal is GMT +5.45. Did my head in when a friend went travelling there and kept phoning me at stupid times. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2024, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/702 "2024-10-22T15:54:53Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > Speaking of Isaac Asimov, he’s the only author to have books in all 10 sections of the Dewey Decimal system. I remember reading this factoid when I first joined the Internet in the mid 90s. I wonder if it is still true that he is **only** author to achieve or if someone else has managed to equal this feat. ---
**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 22, 2024, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/703 "2024-10-22T17:21:40Z")
While Mansfield wasn’t decapitated, she was partially scalped, and her skull was sorta ‘crunched in.’ And it’s worth noting that to show that she wasn’t a ‘dumb blonde,’ her press machine cooked up this exorbitant IQ and that she knew (five?) languages. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2024, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/704 "2024-10-22T17:30:36Z")
Her decoration tastes, however [![](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/STFYor2yNsZr0ZN_R3BYn1pDaQs=/0x0:1600x1143/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1600x1143):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/9555797/mansfield8.jpg) ](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/STFYor2yNsZr0ZN_R3BYn1pDaQs=/0x0:1600x1143/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1600x1143):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/9555797/mansfield8.jpg) ---
**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:** [October 22, 2024, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/705 "2024-10-22T17:52:47Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > Time is Australia is weird Time in Japan was, once upon a time, weird: > **[Japanese clock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_clock#Temporal_hours)** > > A Japanese clock (和時計, wadokei) is a mechanical clock that has been made to tell traditional Japanese time, a system in which daytime and nighttime are always divided into six periods whose lengths consequently change with the season. Mechanical clocks were introduced into Japan by Jesuit missionaries (in the 16th century) or Dutch merchants (in the 17th century). These clocks were of the lantern clock design, typically made of brass or iron, and used the relatively primitive verge and foliot es... ---
**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:** [October 22, 2024, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/706 "2024-10-22T23:23:02Z")
**Broken Hill** in the far west of the state of New South Wales uses South Australian time (as Adelaide is closer to it than Sydney is) so is always on a different time to its state capital. And the town of **Eucla** (pop \< 100) in the far east of Western Australia [has its own timezone](https://danielbowen.com/2020/09/12/tiny-timezone/). ---
**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:** [October 22, 2024, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/707 "2024-10-22T23:24:09Z")
> daytime and nighttime are always divided into six periods whose lengths consequently change with the season. Didn’t the ancient Romans use a system like that too? ---
**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 22, 2024, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/708 "2024-10-22T23:37:32Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Time in Japan was, once upon a time, weird: Our modern hours originated with the ancient Romans, who used the same system (except twelve hours per day and per night, of course). ---
**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:** [October 23, 2024, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/709 "2024-10-23T00:20:16Z")
It actually wouldn’t be all that hard to have a clock mechanism that kept track of the mean solar year and adjusted the day and night hours accordingly. The main complication would be setting it for a particular latitude. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2024, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/710 "2024-10-23T00:43:37Z")
Today I learned why flying insects (e.g. moths) are attracted to lights. Up until this year, scientists didn’t know the answer. There have been a lot of theories over the years, but not any conclusive answers. [But now they know](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=MzLe0Zk31_U). The reason is quite fascinating (and somewhat depressing). The bugs don’t _want_ to fly around the light, but they can’t help it. The light screws up their navigation system so much that it forces them to endlessly circle around the light. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2024, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/711 "2024-10-23T00:48:24Z")
Another oddity I just learned from your link is Lord Howe Island, which has daylight savings time, but only springs forward 30 minutes. ---
**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 23, 2024, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/712 "2024-10-23T01:26:36Z")
That’s the explanation I’ve always heard. What other candidate explanations were there? ---
**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 23, 2024, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/713 "2024-10-23T01:40:56Z")
A recent article I read somewhere detailed England’s plan to restore island/atoll territory to Mauritius (for those of you who are unclear on it, Mauritius is an Indian Ocean, about 500 miles east of Madagascar), and then stated that, once the transfer is complete, the sun will at long last set on the Brittish Empire. But, if the “empire” is defined as the Commonwealth, member state Australia owns some rocks out in the Mid Southern/Indian Ocean, about due south of India, basically obviates the assertion. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2024, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/714 "2024-10-24T03:04:32Z")
Surprisingly she was an okay amateur violinist. On the Ed Sullivan show she played an abbreviated version of Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto in A Minor, Op 3, Nr 6. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFEIOO8YIWY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFEIOO8YIWY) If her tempo seems a bit slow, here’s a pro orchestra playing the same work just a bit faster. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYAzRHvV6mU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYAzRHvV6mU) ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2024, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/715 "2024-10-24T07:07:05Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Interesting trivium I like that word! Even though I was surprised to learn that it doesn’t mean what it looks like it should mean. (it’s not the Latin 2nd declension singular of Trivia ) The root is Latin, “meeting of three ways " and hence: Trivium means " a group of studies consisting of grammar, rhetoric, and logic-- forming the lower division of the seven liberal arts in medieval universities” ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2024, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/716 "2024-10-24T12:23:07Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Trivium means " a group of studies consisting of grammar, rhetoric, and logic-- forming the lower division of the seven liberal arts in medieval universities” The remainder being the **quadrivium** : arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. ---
**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:** [October 24, 2024, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/717 "2024-10-24T13:58:18Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > (it’s not the Latin 2nd declension singular of Trivia ) It looks like it is: > [**trivium**](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trivium#Noun_2) n (_genitive_ **[triviī](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trivii#Latin)** _or_ **[trivī](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trivi#Latin)**); _[second declension](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Latin_second_declension)_ ---
**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 24, 2024, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/718 "2024-10-24T14:12:23Z")
If an institute covers the seven arts and does a bad job of it, is that a deviant septium? ---
**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:** [October 24, 2024, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/719 "2024-10-24T14:42:41Z")
It would have to be a septivium. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2024, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/720 "2024-10-24T16:09:40Z")
By now, everyone has heard of the Great Molasses Flood of Boston. But TIL of a similar incident in Wisconsin in 1991: [The Great Cheese Fire](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Butter_Fire). Tons of cheese, butter, and collateral hot dogs conflagerated, with an ensuing liquid deluge. Thankfully, no human lives were lost, no margarine of course, but perhaps a few misadventurous mice. [“It literally was a river of butter,”](https://www.wisfarmer.com/story/opinion/columnists/2022/05/11/over-20-m-lbs-commodities-lost-great-butter-fire-1991/9650051002/) [![](https://www.wisfarmer.com/gcdn/presto/2022/05/09/PWWF/0fd9dc7a-1fab-4a2d-b248-494766f614fb-WSF_0513_oncken_4.jpg?width=189&height=267&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp) ](https://www.wisfarmer.com/gcdn/presto/2022/05/09/PWWF/0fd9dc7a-1fab-4a2d-b248-494766f614fb-WSF_0513_oncken_4.jpg?width=189&height=267&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=35) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=37)