# 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:** 4
**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, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/61 "2018-04-30T15:09:11Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > 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. 😉 Mylar??? I used vellum! And not your fancy paper-based stuff–I had to slaughter my own calf to make it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/62 "2018-04-30T15:25:32Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > 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. 😉 Well… there are parts of the government that still DO use Mylar and ink for things. I do in my job. It’s rather interesting to watch the kids wonder what they have to do with it. It was really funny the one time I was using an electric eraser and someone asked me what it was for. It’s a really interesting time in my office. There are people who have been here for 40 years, worked the printing presses, have done the photographic map reproduction, used the scribers, and almost anything else you can imagine. There will be a lot of lost art when they retire in the next couple of years. ---
**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, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/63 "2018-04-30T15:36:59Z")
Bluetooth tech was named after [King Harald Bluetooth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Bluetooth) of Denmark and Norway, who united the tribes of Denmark into a single kingdom. ---
**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, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/64 "2018-04-30T15:40:05Z")
🙂 (to Edward the Head and dropzone). _Luxury!_ ---
**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, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/65 "2018-04-30T15:41:18Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Mylar??? I used vellum! And not your fancy paper-based stuff–I had to slaughter my own calf to make it. 😉 Slaughter? In my day, we had talking cows. None of this newfangled “aleph = ox” writing business. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/66 "2018-04-30T15:48:52Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > 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. IIRC that was done deliberately in the treaty that ended the Mexican war to ensure that all of San Diego Bay would be in the US, while allowing Mexico to have a tiny bit of the Colorado River. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/67 "2018-04-30T20:28:02Z")
Termites aren’t related to ants and bees; they’re actually a type of social cockroach. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/68 "2018-04-30T21:12:28Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Totally. Very like kiwifruit. They call it “pittaya” in Mexico. One of our favorite things about China was fresh dragonfruit every morning on the buffet. You can’t seem to get good, ripe dragonfruit in the states. But they do look super-cool. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/69 "2018-04-30T21:33:11Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Those fancy, super-expensive Japanese square watermelons are not edible. Well, I suppose they’re technically edible, but they are produced solely for the shape; they are not allowed to mature and ripen so they don’t taste good. They’re kind of yellow and gross looking when you cut them open. > > Also, not a weird fact but something I learned firsthand relatively recently: dragonfruit look amazing and taste of absolutely nothing. I’d compare it to the white part of a watermelon, but soft. :eek: You did not get a good one then. The red-inside ones are generally sweeter than the white, but the good white ones definitely don’t taste like nothing. I’d describe them as somewhere closer to super-awesome. The best ones I’ve had are in Phan Thiết, Vietnam, but the ones from my garden make a pretty good substitute. I only get about ten to twenty a year though, so they are a rare treat. I’m starting to doubt your assessment of Japanese watermelons now. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/70 "2018-04-30T22:00:04Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > What do the following people have in common? (No, it’s not the bomb) > > … > > … > > They all went to 3 high schools in Budapest that were within 3 miles of one another. All in the period 1890 to 1920. Yeah, but I’ll bet their football teams all SUCKED! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/71 "2018-04-30T23:48:46Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > I’m starting to doubt your assessment of Japanese watermelons now. I can buy yellow-flesh watermelons in the shops. Nothing yucky about that. I’ve never seen a square one, but if it’s inedible, it’s not just because it’s yellow inside. I can also buy not-seedless watermelons sometimes. They are actually cheaper and sweeter than our seedless melons. But I’m the only one in the family that will eat them ~ ---
**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:** [May 1, 2018, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/72 "2018-05-01T00:10:25Z")
I wish I could buy seedy watermelons. Eating watermelons just isn’t any fun without spitting out the seeds. ---
**Author:** ![K2500](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@K2500](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K2500)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/73 "2018-05-01T00:42:56Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > No. 😕 > [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > “. . . up to hundreds. . .” Indeed. > [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > 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. Having witnessed industrial ground beef production on many occasions it is, as you note, very different. Thousand pound boxes filled from thousands of head of cattle all sampled and blended to the desired fat content. It’s an interesting sight. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/74 "2018-05-01T00:52:03Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Termites aren’t related to ants and bees; [Nitpick]Of course they are. We’re all related. Termites, ants and bees are all insects.[/Nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/75 "2018-05-01T01:02:58Z")
> [@K2500](#): > > Wouldn’t that be true even if it were only from one cow? What I wanted to post. I don’t buy my ground beef from big producers. ---
**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:** [May 1, 2018, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/76 "2018-05-01T07:27:30Z")
> [@K2500](#): > > Having witnessed industrial ground beef production on many occasions it is, as you note, very different. Thousand pound boxes filled from thousands of head of cattle all sampled and blended to the desired fat content. It’s an interesting sight. …and somehow depressing too. There is lot to said for going local and small-scale where your finances allow it. ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/77 "2018-05-01T08:07:09Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Cool! Your link led me to a half hour spent catching up on hominid fossil advances since the 80s. … Wow. Some people are much better at using their free time than I am! ---
**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:** [May 1, 2018, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/78 "2018-05-01T13:45:45Z")
> [@Lizard](#): > > Wow. Some people are much better at using their free time than I am! Ha! Yeah, I do procrastinate a lot (ahem, like, _right now_), but at least I can justify some of it as \*beneficial \*procrastination. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/79 "2018-05-01T13:57:04Z")
This thread has emphasized the fact that many “weird but true facts” aren’t even true. LOL ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266/80 "2018-05-01T14:22:50Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Neither of the ingredients of table salt are edible to humans, or any other form of life we know of. I wouldn’t call ionic atoms bound into a compound “ingredients.” > [@x-ray\_vision](#): > > There are no skeletal muscles in our fingers. There are [arrector pili muscles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrector_pili_muscle). Excellent username/post combo. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-true-facts-you-ve-learned-recently/813266.md?page=5)