Interesting facts you've learnt?

Dostoevsky

Jet lag: it has everything to do with flying across time zones, rather than just flying. It's not the same as travel fatigue. You cannot suffer from jet lag unless you change time zones. Even, for instance, if you fly from Tromsø in Norway to Capetown in South Africa - 11,500 km - you will not suffer jet lag because they're in the same time zone. I never knew this distinction until today. (Source)

What interesting facts have you learnt lately?

whirlpool

That the word is "learned." :pac:

Feathers

Is this thread for just reasonably interesting facts, vs the "Mind blowing facts" thread?

Fr_Dougal

Feathers wrote: »

Is this thread for just reasonably interesting facts, vs the "Mind blowing facts" thread?

Should be for "Stuff I should have known already".

stoneill

Your reflection in a mirror is the same size no matter how far away from the mirror you are.

To try this out, stand close to a mirror and draw around your face (use drywipe marker so you can clean it off)
Walk back as far as you can - no matter how far you are from the mirror the reflection will always fill the the outline.

Dostoevsky

whirlpool wrote: »

That the word is "learned." :pac:

Another interesting fact is 'learnt [lurnt] verb, a simple past tense and past participle of learn.' (Source: Random US dictionary)

1ZRed

Dostoevsky wrote: »

Jet lag: it has everything to do with flying across time zones, rather than just flying. It's not the same as travel fatigue. You cannot suffer from jet lag unless you change time zones. Even, for instance, if you fly from Tromsø in Norway to Capetown in South Africa - 11,500 km - you will not suffer jet lag because they're in the same time zone. I never knew this distinction until today. (Source)

What interesting facts have you learnt lately?

Thought that was just common knowledge?

Horses actually perform better when they're jet lagged because they're highly sensitive to a shift in the 24 hour light/dark cycle and can gallop up to 25 additional seconds after they've been on a long flight before fatigue sets in.

But unlike humans they adjust almost immediately because travel releases hormones which improve athletic performance.
The study, carried out at the University of Bristol, was the first of its kind to investigate the effects of jet lag on the physiology and performances of racehorses.
Racehorses are the only athletic animals - apart from humans - regularly flown across time zones for athletic competitions.
Dr Domingo Tortonese, Senior Lecturer in Anatomy in the School of Veterinary Sciences, who led the study, said they originally believed jet lag would have 'detrimental consequences'.
He said: 'In humans, air travel-associated sudden changes in the 24-hour light-dark cycle disrupt biological rhythms with negative effects on cognitive and physical performance.
'Indeed, jet lag has important implications for athletes who travel across time zones for competitive sporting events, particularly after an easterly flight.
'Our study shows that racehorses are different from humans in that they rely on light cues for their daily rhythms of activity, rather than for the synchronisation of an endogenously generated rhythm to the 24-hour light-dark cycle.

'This light dependency underlies a rapid process of adaptation with critical scientific implications and unexpected practical benefits.'
In the study, thoroughbred horses with previous race training were housed in light-controlled rooms and put through a fitness program on a high-speed treadmill every day for three months.
They then experienced a shift in the 24-hour light-dark cycle that mimicked an easterly flight across seven time zones.
In contrast to their predictions based on human and rodent data, the results showed that horses can adapt very quickly to a phase shift.
It is thought this is because of the powerful masking effect of light on the horse's daily locomotor activity together with the absence of a robust sleep-wake cycle.
This can be part of a mechanism of adaption to sudden changes in the environment.
Dr Domingo Tortonese added that the results have practical implications as racehorses do not need to travel to be subjected to changes in daily light.
The research was published in the Journal of Neuroendocrinology.

stefan idiot jones

Not quite a fact, but I've just learned that the new Australian ouside half as as ****e as the last one.
When are they going to start with Quade Cooper?

Peregrine

Dostoevsky wrote: »

I never knew this distinction until today.

I thought everyone knew this.

It was all in the word 'lag', really.

astrofool

stoneill wrote: »

Your reflection in a mirror is the same size no matter how far away from the mirror you are.

To try this out, stand close to a mirror and draw around your face (use drywipe marker so you can clean it off)
Walk back as far as you can - no matter how far you are from the mirror the reflection will always fill the the outline.

I'm pretty sure this is not true, put the mirror 100m away and draw your outline again.

stoneill

astrofool wrote: »

I'm pretty sure this is not true, put the mirror 100m away and draw your outline again.

See about 5:15

wazky

Interesting fact I have learned today?

There are two threads on "Facts"

Drag00n79

I cannot watch that mirrors vid. Presenter too annoying.

stimpson

Dogs can't look up.

Elbaston

theres a country in south america called 'you are gay'.

bnt

whirlpool wrote: »

That the word is "learned." :pac:

Dostoevsky wrote: »

Another interesting fact is 'learnt [lurnt] verb, a simple past tense and past participle of learn.' (Source: Random US dictionary)

Facts are learnt, but people have sometimes learned facts. In the first case, the facts are the subject of the sentence, and in the second case, people are the subject. So whirlpool is correct in this case.

It's like the difference between "did" and "done": he did the job, and the job was done. When I read something like "the boy done good", a little part of me dies ...

kneemos

We're going to run out of Helieum in the next hundred years is a fact I thought was surprising and interesting.

AnonoBoy

Interesting fact I found out today was that shouting "FACT!" at the end of a statement no matter how untrue now makes it a legal fact in 23 states in America.

FACT!

Banjo String

stimpson wrote: »

Dogs can't look up.

Pigs I believe.

A dog most definitely can look up.

My spaniel Bruno has been on Google all day looking up kennels.

bonzodog2

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Interesting fact I found out today was that shouting "FACT!" at the end of a statement no matter how untrue now makes it a legal face in 23 states in America.

FACT!

What is a legal face ?

RachaelVO

Michael McIntyre isn't funny (does that count?)

MickFleetwood

Nimrod 7 wrote: »

I thought everyone knew this.

It was all in the word 'lag', really.

Yeah, same here. That's common knowledge.

AnonoBoy

bonzodog2 wrote: »

What is a legal face ?

It's a typo caused by me being a drunk.

stefan idiot jones

Ive learned that there is a toilet in Glasgow that wasn't flushed after one of the young girls of the house had a 'sh!t'.


'Fu@king Disgusting'.


Check out the youtube video ' it wasn't me', classic.

Daveysil15

Alcohol doesn't affect the use of antibiotics.

The word 'hooker' came from a soldier called General Hooker.

If you put mustard on a cats arse the cat will kill itself.

keano_afc

I've learned that if you post about folding a piece of paper on itself you better be prepared for the storm thats coming.

AskMyChocolate

Daveysil15 wrote: »

Alcohol doesn't affect the use of antibiotics.

The word 'hooker' came from a soldier called General Hooker.

If you put mustard on a cats arse the cat will kill itself.

Jaysus! If I was reduced to eating a cat's arse I'd have hoped at least it was already dead!

endacl

Daveysil15 wrote: »

If you put mustard on a cats arse the cat will kill itself.

That reminds me of a fact, but its more suited to the 'other' thread, so I'll drop it over there...

paddy147

Dostoevsky wrote: »

Jet lag: it has everything to do with flying across time zones, rather than just flying. It's not the same as travel fatigue. You cannot suffer from jet lag unless you change time zones. Even, for instance, if you fly from Tromsø in Norway to Capetown in South Africa - 11,500 km - you will not suffer jet lag because they're in the same time zone. I never knew this distinction until today. (Source)

What interesting facts have you learnt lately?

There is no new water on this planet,the water cycle on Planet Earth is a "closed loop" system.

Learned that recently when speaking to a company about an underground rainwater harvesting system for our house.

paddy147

keano_afc wrote: »

I've learned that if you post about folding a piece of paper on itself you better be prepared for the storm thats coming.

Here you go....:pac::D

endacl

paddy147 wrote: »

There is no new water on this planet,the water cycle on Planet Earth is a "closed loop" system.

Learned that recently when speaking to a company about an underground rainwater harvesting system for our house.

Not entirely true. There is a negligible amount (seriously negligible!) deposited in the atmosphere each year in the form of trace amounts in meteorites. Here's a link to some Martian water that arrived....

http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/snc/nasa2.html

Get back to the company in question, and point out their nefarious policy of deliberate disinformation!

bonzodog2

paddy147 wrote: »

There is no new water on this planet,the water cycle on Planet Earth is a "closed loop" system.

Learned that recently when speaking to a company about an underground rainwater harvesting system for our house.

WTF has this got to do with jet lag?

endacl

bonzodog2 wrote: »

WTF has this got to do with jet lag?

Dehydration on long haul flights.

Do try to keep up, please.

Elbaston

there was once a type of thing that came from those asiany/chinese places that arent really chinese but where they have the triangulary type bamboo hats and the leaf trees in the water jungle. it was a complete c.unt.

shame on you.

DEFTLEFTHAND

The fastest selling album of all time in the UK and Ireland is Oasis 'Be Here Now'. It sold 350,000 units on it's first day and had sold 696,000 by the end of it's first week on sale.

That when Richard Burton was having surgery on his back, the doctors found that his spine had crystalised alcohol all along it

Karl Stein

Swans (and other birds) can only land and take off on water. Some birds mistake wet roads for rivers and fatally injuer themslves trying to land on them.

I've taken this from my memory and have been drinking.

kneemos

Cathal Cloch wrote: »

Swans (and other birds) can only land and take off on water. Some birds mistake wet roads for rivers and fatally injuer themslves trying to land on them.

I've taken this from my memory and have been drinking.

Corrupted data bases aren't acceptable.

An Capall Dubh

Daveysil15 wrote: »

Alcohol doesn't affect the use of antibiotics.

The word 'hooker' came from a soldier called General Hooker.

If you put mustard on a cats arse the cat will kill itself.

I believe the word is Pussy??...

paddy147

bonzodog2 wrote: »

WTF has this got to do with jet lag?

Maybe you can open your eyes,engage your brain and actually read the very last sentence/question of the OPs opening post.


Now take a deep breath in,then exhale slowly and think about it for a minute.

paddy147

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

The fastest selling album of all time in the UK and Ireland is Oasis 'Be Here Now'. It sold 350,000 units on it's first day and had sold 696,000 by the end of it's first week on sale.

Bet you Liam wished that Nicole would still say that to him.....:pac::pac::D

endacl

paddy147 wrote: »

Bet you Liam wished that Nicole would still say that to him.....:pac::pac::D

But what has that got to do with jet lag?!?

paddy147

endacl wrote: »

But what has that got to do with jet lag?!?

"all around the world" :pac::pac::D

Vicar in a tutu

Deer like to eat weed plants.

endacl

Vicar in a tutu wrote: »

Deer like to eat weed plants.

Only ghetto deer!

Vicar in a tutu

endacl wrote: »

Only ghetto deer!

From 1.13 is so funny ha! It feels like im watching cops...but with angry deer:cool:

Cookie_Monster

Daveysil15 wrote: »

Alcohol doesn't affect the use of antibiotics.

.

of most antibiotics, I thought there were some that it can cause a severe reaction with and hence the general rule

Dostoevsky

bnt wrote: »

Facts are learnt, but people have sometimes learned facts. In the first case, the facts are the subject of the sentence, and in the second case, people are the subject. So whirlpool is correct in this case.

It's like the difference between "did" and "done": he did the job, and the job was done. When I read something like "the boy done good", a little part of me dies ...

This is incorrect on both counts. The difference between 'learnt' and 'learned' as verbs is that the former is British English; the latter is US English. They both mean precisely the same thing. Here is a dictionary definition for both:

learned = simple past tense and past participle of learn (Source)
learnt = a simple past tense and past participle of learn (Source)


In contrast, let's look at the meaning of the words 'did' and 'done' in your above analogy.

did= simple past tense of do.
done = past participle of do.

You'll note that the above two words, while also being irregular forms of the same verb like 'learn', cannot be used in the simple past tense and as a past participle. In contrast, 'learnt'/'learned' can. In my original sentence 'learnt' is used as a past participle (in a present perfect construction 'you have') and is therefore perfectly correct. Had I said 'you learnt' (past simple) it would also have been correct. However, had I said 'you done' it would be incorrect (because 'done' is not a simple past tense word) but 'you've done' (auxiliary verb 'have' + past participle 'done' making a present perfect* construction) would have been correct.

*The present perfect is a grammatical combination of the present tense and the perfect aspect, used to express a past event that has present consequences.

Read this: 'learnt' vs 'learned'

Gamayun

Dostoevsky wrote: »

This is incorrect on both counts. The difference between 'learnt' and 'learned' as verbs is that the former is British English; the latter is US English. They both mean precisely the same thing.

You sound like a very learned fellow.

bnt

Dostoevsky wrote: »

This is incorrect on both counts.
...

Well, I disagree, obviously, or I wouldn't have written what I did. We can discuss the intricacies of grammar until the cows go back out in the morning, but this is AH: know your audience.

Aidric

Barry Gibb was only capable of hitting those high notes with the help of a concealed clamp on his nutpurse.