A 3 year $4.2 million study funded by the US Government and National Geographic established that elephants have a tendency to burp in unison, especially female elephants (males generally live apart from the herds). Scientists speculate that it serves a social “bonding” function, not unlike that of male college students. Further research is planned to see if this is also true of other species of animals.
ETA: this was not inspired by the user-name of the previous poster, at least not consciously.
Most five-year-olds have an inherent ability to perform integral and differential calculus, but this is lost when they are taught to count - and, tragically, within even a few weeks, nearly all of them are unable to even articulate what they have lost.
Sheep and goats can interbreed successfully, but the resulting offspring are good for neither meat, nor milk, nor wool, and are hyper-aggressive as well. The last characteristic usually prevents them from breeding further generations, and farmers usually destroy the cross-breeds at birth.
American Fainting Goats, who possess the startling ability to drop like flies when spooked, descend from a herd of American Normal Goats owned by the grandparents of Alfred Hitchcock. During a summer visit to their farm, young Alfred used the goats as test subjects in numerous experiments exploring the effects of suspense and fright on living creatures.
The following spring Alfred’s grandparents were horrified to discover their latest crop of kids falling like dominoes during a thunderstorm. Resilient and resourceful, they promoted the mutants as a new breed and sold them for twice the going rate of their normal goats.
The bacteria that are responsible for making modern cheeses have evolved due to the heavy selection pressure created by the cheese-making process. Ancient cheeses tasted nothing like modern cheeses. And future cheeses will be unlike modern cheeses. Cheese taste is truly a moving target when measured over centuries.
There was a potentially massive amount of unmined gold ore discovered in Eastern Oklahoma in 1907. At the time, authorities were wary of the experiences in gold rushes in California and the Klondike, which caused much disruption and lawlessness, as well as a damaging boom-and-bust cycle, so the information was suppressed, and the gold remains out there, for you to find …
Originally, the Pomeranian was the size of what we now refer to as “Teacup Poms.” Over the years the breed got larger due to inbreeding and better husbandry. The original name came from the size of the breed: they could fit in the “pom” of your hand.
The pomegranate, like the Pomerian breed of dog, is so named because early breeders of the fruit discovered it fits conveniently in the “pom” of one’s hand. It is for this reason that some Hebrew scholars suggest it may have been the “apple” in the myth of Adam and Eve.
The first-ever string instrument, contrary to popular belief, was not the cello, lute, or even the simple single-bow-and-string arrangements found in Mesopotamia: it was the Rounded Harp. Prehistoric men and women carved a circular wooden frame and punctured small holes around its circumference. Hundreds of different weights of string were strung like spokes, and the contraption was then suspended from a player’s left shoulder and spun, creating haunting harmonies. Due to the comparative ease of playing other musical instruments of the day - namely, the basic flute and the canvas drums - this invention never caught on, and many were found sitting around collecting dust in caves. An unknown caveman who was tired of dragging dead animals back on a sled one day found a new use for them: wheels.
The tradition of drill sergeants calling new recruits “maggots” dates back to the Civil War when they were originally called “maggot eaters” because of the often poor quality food available.
Häagen-Dazs, the brand-name of a popular ice cream, is not a Danish word as many assume. In fact, it was completely made-up by the founders, Rueben and Rose Mattus of the Bronx. After weeks of brainstorming and coming no closer to an agreement, they decided to drink vodka shots and take turns throwing darts at their son’s human anatomy chart. Thus was born the name Häagen-Dazs, an acronym for head, arm, anus, groin, elbow, nose, diaphragm, ankle, zygomatic bone, and spine. The umlaut is not actually an umlaut, but Rose’s drunken attempt to make a happy face.
Contrary to popular belief, almost no one jumped out of windows during the 1929 Stock Market crash–it was much easier to use the elevator shafts when the car was at the top floor.
Actually, it goes back a lot further than that–to the Royal Navy, in fact. Poor-quality food has been a commonplace in militaries since well before the American Revolution, and this usage was carried to the New World by several different navies. English sailors brought the term to the North American colonies, and it was well-established in colonial militias by the middle of the eighteenth century.
Heck, a good case can be made for the expression being current during the English civil war.
You should start writing history books. I’ll bet you could crank them out faster than humans could create historical events. Then the rest of the world wouldn’t have to actually do anything. We could lounge around, grill stuff, drink beer and wait for the movie versions of your books.
If you do actually write history books, let me know and I’ll go put a steak on the grill.
Oh, man, I love that. Sunspace has been accused, at least twice that I know of, of being factual in the face of utter lunacy/boldfaced fibs, the poor soul. He’s just too good at what he does.
