# Unbelievable facts that turn out to be true. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 27, 2010, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unbelievable-facts-that-turn-out-to-be-true/530648 "2010-02-27T14:47:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unbelievable-facts-that-turn-out-to-be-true/530648/221 "2010-03-31T04:23:18Z")
My understanding has always been he did get off the boat, but only on the islands of the New World – Hispaniola etc – not on the mainland. That would mean if he did sail up the Orinoco, which I don’t know, then he stayed on the boat at that time. I suppose he could have sailed up the river without getting off the boat. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unbelievable-facts-that-turn-out-to-be-true/530648/222 "2010-03-31T04:30:21Z")
They’ve recently mapped out the cell mutations detected in a person with lung cancer and divided it by the average number of cigarettes smoked by a patient with lung cancer. Current estimate: one mutation per 15 cigarettes. [[Cancer genomes reveal risks of sun and smoke | Nature](http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091216/full/news.2009.1143.html)] ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unbelievable-facts-that-turn-out-to-be-true/530648/223 "2010-03-31T04:37:05Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > My understanding has always been he did get off the boat, but only on the islands of the New World – Hispaniola etc – not on the mainland. That would mean if he did sail up the Orinoco, which I don’t know, then he stayed on the boat at that time. I suppose he could have sailed up the river without getting off the boat. D’oh! :smack: In trying to research this, I now see that Columbus never set foot **on the mainland of North America**. So South America he did. My bad. ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unbelievable-facts-that-turn-out-to-be-true/530648/224 "2010-03-31T05:07:29Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > No, this is probably true. Minnesota contains about 12,000 lakes over 10 acres in size, thus at least a mile of shoreline each. Many are much bigger, from hundreds of acres to hundreds of thousands of acres. > > And ‘shoreline’ includes river shores, too. So Minnesota is nearly completely defined by shoreline: the whole northeast border is Lake Superior or Lake of the Wood shoreline, the east border is the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers, and the west border is largely Big Stone Lake, Lake Travis, and the Red River. Is it not impossible to actually measure a coastline with complete accuracy, as the closer one looks at the coastline, the more curvature detail we see. One could measure around every stone, and further into every pit on every stone, and so on, right down to the atoms themselves? But I’m being, what’s the word: pedantic? Is that right? I suppose that if we were to get anywhere with this we would have to agree upon the resolution to be used. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unbelievable-facts-that-turn-out-to-be-true/530648/225 "2010-03-31T05:21:57Z")
Seattle (latitude 47° 36’ N) is farther north than Montreal (45° 30’ N). Portland, OR (45° 31’ N) is farther north than Portland, ME (43° 40’ N). ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unbelievable-facts-that-turn-out-to-be-true/530648/226 "2010-03-31T08:02:29Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > There are more people of Swedish descent in America than in Sweden … Once upon a time the largest (or second largest, I don’t remember exactly) Swedish town was Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unbelievable-facts-that-turn-out-to-be-true/530648/227 "2010-03-31T09:59:48Z")
A sea sponge can survive being put through a blender, it can re-form itself. The same trick doesn’t work with mice. ---
**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:** [March 31, 2010, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unbelievable-facts-that-turn-out-to-be-true/530648/228 "2010-03-31T13:19:02Z")
> [@Alka\_Seltzer](#): > > A sea sponge can survive being put through a blender, it can re-form itself. > The same trick doesn’t work with mice. I’m not totally convinced of the latter, but I will be checking it out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unbelievable-facts-that-turn-out-to-be-true/530648.md?page=11)