# Weird (true!) facts you’ve learned recently **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 28, 2018, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266 "2018-04-28T15:33:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2018, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/41 "2018-04-29T16:45:31Z")
That most of the Native Americans who died on The Trail of Tears did so in the internment camps rather than on the march itself. Starvation, exposure and disease were the primary causes. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2018, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/42 "2018-04-29T17:56:01Z")
This thread could be re-titled “Trivia you are wrong about, as proven by somebody who knows more about the topic than you.” It’s also a good reminder how much “trivia” is half-true or outright nonsense. I blame Facebook. Mine, which I didn’t learn recently but was reminded about in another thread this morning, is why $10 note is called a “sawbuck.” [https://www.google.com/search?q=sawbuck&client=ms-android-hms-tmobile-us&prmd=isvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjshJbBh-DaAhWlzIMKHZXLDugQ\_AUIESgB&biw=360&bih=512](https://www.google.com/search?q=sawbuck&client=ms-android-hms-tmobile-us&prmd=isvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjshJbBh-DaAhWlzIMKHZXLDugQ_AUIESgB&biw=360&bih=512) Such a duuuuh moment when I realized that. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2018, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/43 "2018-04-29T18:05:56Z")
Any given pound of ground beef contains meat from up to hundreds of different cows. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2018, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/44 "2018-04-29T18:13:13Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#): > > Mine, which I didn’t learn recently but was reminded about in another thread this morning, is why $10 note is called a “sawbuck.” > > [sawbuck - Google Search](https://www.google.com/search?q=sawbuck&client=ms-android-hms-tmobile-us&prmd=isvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjshJbBh-DaAhWlzIMKHZXLDugQ_AUIESgB&biw=360&bih=512) > > Such a duuuuh moment when I realized that. It you knew what that definition of a sawbuck was, then I can see it being a minor facepalm. But not for me since I’ve seen sawing horses but never heard them called a “sawbuck”. ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2018, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/45 "2018-04-29T19:54:34Z")
I learned today that, in 1956, the pilot of a F-11 combat airplane managed to shoot his own airplane down by means of his own airplane’s guns: > **[Self-Shootdown](https://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/Tiger138260.htm)** > > Check-Six - Offering Aviation History, Collectibles and Adventure First-Hand! ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2018, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/46 "2018-04-29T20:52:33Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > What do the following people have in common? (No, it’s not the bomb) > > 1. [Leo Szilard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Szilard) (Founded the Manhattan Project) > 2. [Edward Teller](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Teller) (Known as Father of the Hydrogen Bomb for his work on nuclear physics) > 3. [Eugene Wigner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Wigner) (Nobel prize winning nuclear physicist) > 4. [John von Neuman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann) (Legendary mathematician - set theory, self-replication analysis used to discover DNA, explosive lensing math used for nuclear explosion) > 5. [Nicholas Kurti](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Kurti) (Physicist on Manhattan Project) > 6. [Theodore von Karman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_von_K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n) (Founded Jet Propulsion Lab) > 7. [Michael Polanyi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Polanyi) (Chemist and polymath – 2 of his pupils and his son won Nobel Prizes in chemistry) > 8. [Andrew Grove](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Grove) (Founded Intel corporation, Time magazine’s Man of the Year in 97) > 9. [John Kemeny](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G._Kemeny) (Invented BASIC computer language) > 10. [Dennis Gabor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Gabor) (1971 Nobel Prize - Physics) > 11. …and a half dozen other geniuses, including George Soros – I got tired of typing. > > They all went to 3 high schools in Budapest that were within 3 miles of one another. All in the period 1890 to 1920. > > I find this utterly astounding. > > [Cite.](http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/26/the-atomic-bomb-considered-as-hungarian-high-school-science-fair-project/) They were all born into Jewish families, too. The Jewish communities of Budapest, Vienna, and a few other European cities around the turn of the 20th century gave rise to an amazing collection of highly influential people. The traditional Jewish emphasis on education and asking questions undoubtedly played a large role in this confluence of important scientists and thinkers. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2018, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/47 "2018-04-29T22:09:16Z")
> [@x-ray\_vision](#): > > It’s not uncommon for incorrect facts to be included in death notices. > > Here is a list of members: > > [List of members of the Hockey Hall of Fame - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Hockey_Hall_of_Fame) > > Scott Young is not on it. Journalists are not on it. > > [List of members of the Hockey Hall of Fame - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Hockey_Hall_of_Fame) Well I’ll be crosschecked. Thanks for the info. mmm ---
**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:** [April 29, 2018, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/48 "2018-04-29T22:34:16Z")
> [@JoseB](#): > > I learned today that, in 1956, the pilot of a F-11 combat airplane managed to shoot his own airplane down by means of his own airplane’s guns: > > [Self-Shootdown](http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/Tiger138260.htm) Wow. And he survived, to supervise the building of the first “in action” Apollo lunar lander, and even to contribute to the development of digital cameras. ---
**Author:** ![K2500](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@K2500](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K2500)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/49 "2018-04-30T00:34:27Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Any given pound of ground beef contains meat from up to hundreds of different cows. Wouldn’t that be true even if it were only from one cow? ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/50 "2018-04-30T00:49:40Z")
Ripe dragon fruit does have a taste–very nice. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/51 "2018-04-30T01:22:57Z")
Tiny Tim may not have died on stage, but J.I. Rodale, advocate of organic foods, probably did. It happened in 1971 during a taping of the Dick Cavett Show on which Rodale appeared as a guest. Earlier in the program he told Cavett, “I’m in such good health that I fell down a long flight of stairs yesterday and I laughed all the way”, “I’ve decided to live to be a hundred”, and “I never felt better in my life!” When Rodale’s segment was over, Cavett went on to interview Pete Hamill, who noticed at some point that Rodale didn’t look good. Several people tried to revive Rodale, including a doctor and some firefighters. He was taken to Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. It seems likely that Rodale died on stage. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/52 "2018-04-30T03:36:03Z")
> [@K2500](#): > > Wouldn’t that be true even if it were only from one cow? No. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/53 "2018-04-30T04:01:03Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > No. 😕 “. . . up to hundreds. . .” ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/54 "2018-04-30T04:20:33Z")
California’s boundary with Baja California doesn’t lie along a parallel of latitude, but is ever so slightly canted northward in the east. At the Pacific Ocean in the west, it’s about 23 minutes of arc further south than it is at the Colorado River in the east. It’s not that I never noticed this before, but until a few months ago I thought its slightly tilted appearance was just an optical illusion caused by other boundaries in the area and the shape of the local coasts. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/55 "2018-04-30T12:17:49Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Cool! Your link led me to a half hour spent catching up on hominid fossil advances since the 80s. Then, the possible common ancestor to humans and most of all apes — 11 to 7 million years ago, give or take — was Ramapithecus. I see now that’s been renamed Sivapithecus, and is considered ancestral only to orangutans. > > Instead, the current best candidate for a common ancestor to apes and humans (but not orangutans) is Ouranopithecus, first found in Greek Macedonia, and later in Turkey. Who knew! I got my Anthro degree in 1976 and it wasn’t long before everything I knew was wrong. Then I became a draftsman using pens and pencils and stuff. Obsolescence has dogged my life. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/56 "2018-04-30T12:26:46Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Any given pound of ground beef contains meat from up to hundreds of different cows. Completely dependent on where you get your meat. Small and local butchers will keep trimmings off the joints as they prepare them and then they mince them up and sell them. There is a lot that gets cut off even a single carcass and the trimmings will be minced fairly regularly. There isn’t a massive amount of mixing-up done and only two-passes through the plate at most (as you get a paste very quickly by doing it more). So for local butchers it may be single animal or two/three at most in their ground beef. Industrial production will of course be very different. ---
**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:** [April 30, 2018, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/57 "2018-04-30T12:41:59Z")
> [@susan](#): > > Ripe dragon fruit does have a taste–very nice. Totally. Very like kiwifruit. They call it “pittaya” in Mexico. ---
**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:** [April 30, 2018, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/58 "2018-04-30T12:43:39Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > I got my Anthro degree in 1976 and it wasn’t long before everything I knew was wrong. Then I became a draftsman using pens and pencils and stuff. Obsolescence has dogged my life. ☹ Dude, I feel you. I am (more or less) a friggin’ _cartographer_! Kids these days wouldn’t know ink on mylar if it smacked 'em on the face. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/59 "2018-04-30T14:35:41Z")
Horses with dental problems will sometimes chew food for a while, then drop it. This is called _quidding_. This weekend my gf mentioned a friend’s horse was quitting. She thought that was the term (the horse chewed for a while, then quit). Looking into the etymology, it turns out it comes from the same origin as _cud_ > [@Online Etymology Dictionary](#): > > quid (n.1) > “bite-sized piece” (of tobacco, etc.), 1727, dialectal variant of Middle English cudde, from Old English cudu, cwidu (see cud). ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/60 "2018-04-30T14:48:09Z")
The closest US state to Africa is Maine. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266.md?page=4)