LEt's have your random facts! Boredom UNITE!!!

[Gone Green]

What about "and sometimes "Y"?
Facetiously?
We were always taught: "a,e,i,o,u,and sometime y".

Uncle!
In my defense RG, I wasn't taught "and sometimes y"...

here's something.

tradition would have us believe that human behaviour is " ... in the blood". of course stuff like our looks and our reflexes, our size and our general health may be.

but most of our behaviour is learned. where we learn it, how we know we are behaving ok, and most of the things we do are Cultural. we learned them from significant and perhaps not so significant others.

looking around at the way we behave (ok, I 'm generalising) this means we have been taught mostly bullshit for most of our lives as far as I can see. but no one wants to take the blame so they say behaviour must be in the blood.

Right ... or not ...? ripped off by our ancestors ... or not?

For the most part, I agree. The belief that behavior "is in the blood" is simply a cop-out for not wanting to take responsibility for it. I think cultural differences (like slurping a bowl of hot noodle soup or different ways of showing respect) should be appreciated and honored when appropriate, but fear and ignorance trump culture by far in shaping our behavior.

We learn TONS of needlessly limiting and otherwise just-plain-wrong crap the moment we're able to start processing it, most often without much if any consideration. If that wasn't so, weed would be legal (and we'd have saved hundreds of billions over the last 50 years on the war on drugs). We'd be in much better health. We wouldn't be so exploitative or greedy. So many excuses could be eliminated.

However, I wouldn't quite say we were ripped off by our ancestors. I don't blame them for any intentional wrong doing as they were simply passing on what they were taught and had come to believe. They didn't know any better. What they never considered was that anything learned can be unlearned. It just takes a drop of humility and the will to change.

 

[WelderDan]

All dogs are descendant from wolves, from the Chihuahua to the Bull Mastiff, and were first domesticated about 15,000 years ago. They are possibly the first species of animal domesticated by man.

 

[Z-Beeblebrox]

The myth about the weight of the soul can easily be tested.

You take a persons body and weigh it before and after death.
Then you take a ginger person of the same size and weight, and do the same.

If the ginger persons weight loss is less than the normal person - Then you got the weight of the soul in difference.

 

[NOKUY]

alaska has more coastline than the entire lower 48

 

[KSP]

Kentucky has more shoreline than Michigan or Florida.

Kentucky has more navigable waters than any state in the Union except for Alaska.

The only moonbow in the western hemisphere occurs in Kentucky, at Cumberland Falls, during the full moon.

 

[TrichyTrichy]

At the Tower of London
The execution site of Robert Devereaux 2nd Earl of Essex is the parade ground and not Tower green
Which if you tour the Tower today you will be pointed to the wrong spot. If you ask the Yeoman he will admit the error but explain it was the Victorian era that added the Earl's name to the Tour.

It was in 1838 when the yeoman of the Tower were officially forbidden to solicit gratuities.

source: The Tower of London by Geoffrey Parnell

 

[sso]

I guess decapitation is an "off of body" experience, eh?

I heard recently that the amount of money the U.S. government spent on bailing out the banks was enough to pay off every mortgage in the country.

probably true and just made me sick to my stomach.
hey,lets use our money to bail out the people we owe a shitload of money to.
course, its "their" money too, but they are a tiny percentage and actually quite well off, individually.

if you think about it, if the government had simply paid the loans for the people (loans they couldnt handle often because of the greedy fuckup of the banks)
well, humm, the banks would have gotten the money, yeah? and been allright.

and the people wouldave been out of trouble (tons of voters and the payers of those taxes anyway..) and been allright.


see, maybe the banks are "important", but...if the majority of the people is fucked or near to it, how are the banks gonna keep doing business for the people?
how is the government going to keep on being a government if the people are gone?
thats like burning a field and salting it, to keep the barn going.

 

[ShroomDr]

The govt could have given the money to homeowners, who could be forced to pay off their mortgages; settling the banks problems...

Capitalism for the poor; socialism for the rich.

 

[genkisan]

All dogs are descendant from wolves, from the Chihuahua to the Bull Mastiff, and were first domesticated about 15,000 years ago. They are possibly the first species of animal domesticated by man.

Actually, only the spitz (samoyed, husky, spitz, etc) family of dogs is descended from wolves...the rest are descended from jackals.
This was proven with genetic tests recently.

 

[ShroomDr]

^^^^ Would love to read about that, gotta source?

African 'kingpins' keep jackals as 'guard dogs/animals'.

From what ive read, dogs basically started showing up / hanging around our primative 'garbage dumps'. The most 'tame' had the balls to hang around us; we took their puppies, etc etc.

There is a russian 'experiment' domesticating silver foxes (i think), they have them living with people within 60 years.

 

[avant gardener]

there is only one pair of words the english language that are homophones and antonyms:
raise and raze.

 

[RetroGrow]

The English word with the most different definitions:
Set:464 different definitions.

 

[med_breeder]

As poverty increases in the US, arrest,prosecution, and conviction of statutory rape decreases.

Do dirty ole men not have the cash flow to spend on jail bait?

or

With families on the edge of losing everything, a parent is not as quick to bust their 15 year old's daughter 42 year old boyfriend. Especially if he is taking care of her material needs, when her family is unable to.

The more things change...

 

[ShroomDr]

I found NOTHING about dogs being descendent from Jackals. EVERYTHING i read was saying that dogs came from wolves, most likely in 4 waves, all the time, interbreeding back with wolves.

Without our domestication of dogs, the domestication of sheep, pigs, cattle, would most likely not have been possible.

Either way, lets keep a thread about facts, with factual information, not scientific hypothesis.

i guy with the handle H2O, should have known hydrogen is not 2% of the weight)

==

A 'Three Dog Night' has to do with it being cold, and needing 3dogs to keep warm.

 

[Anti]

I found NOTHING about dogs being descendent from Jackals. EVERYTHING i read was saying that dogs came from wolves, most likely in 4 waves, all the time, interbreeding back with wolves.

Yeah. Dogs are wolves. Not jackals, hyenas or any other "dog like" animal.

They likely began by domesticating themselves. I.e. the wolves that were least afraid of humans (and didn't flee when a human approached) gained an advantage of getting to eat our scraps. In time, their descendents were adopted by humans who moved the domestication process along by selectively (or unconsciously) selecting the ones who were the 'most tame' to breed.

There's a Russian experiment that has been going on for 30 or so years where they took foxes and have bred the tamest (least afraid of humans) and the wildest (most afraid/aggressive to humans) and kept them in separate facilities. The tame ones now look much more dog-like (floppy ears, wagging tails, licking) and the wild ones now charge their cages whenever a human comes near, growling and scratching and biting whenever they get the chance.

Evolutionary science is fascinating!

 

[coloradochem]

smoking pot is awesome!!!

 

[MIway]

8/84 Value of marijuana, opium, heroin, and hashish smuggled out of Lebanon via Israel last year: $400,000,000

10/85 Percentage of the marijuana smoked in the United States that is imported, according to the DEA: 88
According to NORML: 45

10/85 Rank of corn, marijuana, and soybeans, among all U.S. crops, in annual cash value: 1,2,3

1/87 Portion of the U.S. marijuana crop that is grown indoors: 1/4

10/89 Percentage of job applicants to the Houston Police Department who say they have used marijuana: 50

10/89 Tons of marijuana that must be seized in Miami before the U.S. Justice Department will prosecute: 2.5

2/89 Percentage of state and local district attorneys who say that marijuana should be decriminalized: 25

9/90 Number of calls the Illinois Animal Poison Information Center received last year regarding pets swallowing marijuana: 68

12/92 Weekly church services a Kentucky man must attend until 1997 as part of his sentence for growing marijuana: 3

8/92 Percentage of cancer specialists who say they would prescribe marijuana for their patients if it were still legal to do so: 48

11/93 Percentage of economics majors at Ivy League colleges who say at least one of their parents has smoked marijuana: 23
Percentage of English majors who say this: 41

7/93 Ratio of the value of the marijuana crop destroyed in Kentucky last year to the value of the tobacco harvested: 5:3

2/95 Number of marijuana plants for which a grower may be sentenced to death under the crime bill passed last fall: 60,000

4/97 Chance that a U.S. oncologist has recommended marijuana use to combat nausea caused by chemotherapy: 1 in 2

4/97 Factor by which marijuana use increases the likelihood of other drug use, according to the president of Phoenix House: ∞

4/97 Factor by which the number of teenagers using marijuana last year exceeded the number arrested for violent crime: 16

7/97 Ratio of Californians who voted to legalize medical marijuana last year to those who voted for Bill Clinton: 21:20

9/97 Annual amount the U.S. government spends to maintain a one-acre medicinal-marijuana farm in Mississippi: $250,000

5/98 Number of Americans sentenced to federal prison for marijuana convictions since 1992: 21,424

9/98 Estimated amount Americans spent on marijuana last year, according to the federal government: $7,000,000,000

Minimum amount federal, state, and local governments spent combatting marijuana, according to NORML: $7,500,000,000

11/00http://harpers.org/index/subject/Days Days by which a Texan’s prison sentence for candy-bar theft this year exceeded his sentence for marijuana possession: 550

2/00 Percentage change in the number of marijuana arrests since Bill Clinton became president: +56

3/01 Pounds of marijuana that a private company has been contracted to grow for Canada ‘s health ministry next year: 407

3/01 Pounds of marijuana seized in Chicago last December from a 22-year-old’s bedroom: 700

7/03 Ratio of New York City’s minimum fine for smoking tobacco in a bar to its minimum fine for possessing marijuana: 2:1

3/07 Number of U.S. states where marijuana is the top cash crop: 12

11/08 Number of marijuana plants found under cultivation inside Miami’s Mall of the Americas in August: 360

9/08 Estimated annual sales-tax revenue that California receives each year from medical-marijuana sales: $100,000,000



It's dated somewhat... but all that a free search of harper's index allows... they have some interesting stat's.

 

[sso]

Yeah. Dogs are wolves. Not jackals, hyenas or any other "dog like" animal.

They likely began by domesticating themselves. I.e. the wolves that were least afraid of humans (and didn't flee when a human approached) gained an advantage of getting to eat our scraps. In time, their descendents were adopted by humans who moved the domestication process along by selectively (or unconsciously) selecting the ones who were the 'most tame' to breed.

There's a Russian experiment that has been going on for 30 or so years where they took foxes and have bred the tamest (least afraid of humans) and the wildest (most afraid/aggressive to humans) and kept them in separate facilities. The tame ones now look much more dog-like (floppy ears, wagging tails, licking) and the wild ones now charge their cages whenever a human comes near, growling and scratching and biting whenever they get the chance.

Evolutionary science is fascinating!

also possible a "pack" of humans killed a pack of wolves and adopted the cubs, similar to when other species adopt other kinds.

"ooh , he´s too cute to kill, im taking him home to the missus" kinda deal

 

[h^2 O]

how the hell do you grow 360 plants in a MALL????????????? Unless....maybe they were putting plants in those stupid fake ass landscaping things where the benches are

 

[mad librettist]

I found NOTHING about dogs being descendent from Jackals. EVERYTHING i read was saying that dogs came from wolves, most likely in 4 waves, all the time, interbreeding back with wolves.

Without our domestication of dogs, the domestication of sheep, pigs, cattle, would most likely not have been possible.

Either way, lets keep a thread about facts, with factual information, not scientific hypothesis.

i guy with the handle H2O, should have known hydrogen is not 2% of the weight)

==

A 'Three Dog Night' has to do with it being cold, and needing 3dogs to keep warm.

Dogs are still technically wolves. The most widely accepted nomenclature is Canis lupus familiaris.

However, I find the "alpha" paradigm, as well as the "pack leader" approach to be actually based on human culture. The resulting dog-human interface is sui generis. It's not a pack, it's a team of dogs and humans.

The difference to me between a dog and a wolf is the overriding instinct to watch humans dominating all other inborn drives. That's why "pack leader" theory works - not by describing something found in Nature but by reminding humans how to lead themselves.