Did you know? (Random things in life)

[Rod MacDonald]

Bagpipes came to Scotland from Ireland.

So did much of the population, we've swapped a few times.

 

[Rod MacDonald]

Perhaps we can say that lightening is just one way mother nature has for getting even! ;-)

Did you KNOW?????
Lightening rods on buildings are not meant or designed to carry the energy of a lightening strike safely down to the ground. The wires being woefully undersized for such purpose. Rather, lightening rods are meant to dissipate ground charges UP to the oppositely charged storm clouds above. And so reduce the likelihood of a direct lightening strike to the building the rods are protecting.

Did you know : It is spelled LIGHTNING, not lightening.

 

[cantunamunch]

Bagpipes came to Scotland from Ireland.

That said, every sheep herding culture, whether in the Iberian peninsula, the Arabian peninsula, Eastern Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaida, Iran, or the Himalaya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashak, has a tradition of a bagpipe-like instrument.

 

[pete]

• Of the approximately 6.5 million companion animals who enter shelters nationwide every year, approximately 3.3 million are dogs and 3.2 million are cats.
• Each year, approximately 1.5 million animals are euthanized (670,00 dogs and 860,000 cats).
• Approximately 3.2 million shelter animals are adopted each year (1.6 million dogs and 1.6 million cats).
• About 710,000 animals who enter shelters as strays are returned to their owners (620,000 dogs and 90,000 cats).
• Of the dogs entering shelters, approximately 48% are adopted and 20% are euthanized
• Of the cats entering shelters, approximately 50% are adopted and 27% are euthanized
• About twice as many animals enter shelters as strays compared to the number that are relinquished by their owners

estimates via ASPCA

 

[pete]

Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft have operated for 42yrs, mission planning continues into 2024
Voyager 1 and 2 are ~11,300,000,000 miles away from the Sun, this around 17 minutes away by light
Voyager 2 left our suns heliosphere into interstellar space last Nov, 2018, 5 instruments are still collecting data despite temperatures of ~-60C
Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in 2012

 

[dbostedo]

^^^
Love space stuff! A few others that I like :

-- The sun is close enough to feel heat from, obviously, but that heat travels 93,000,000 miles, and take 8 minutes to reach earth
-- The sun contains over 99.8% of all the mass in the solar system
-- Most photons of light leaving the sun were actually created inside it a long time ago... estimates range from 10's of thousands of years, to millions of years
-- Most people don't realize how far away the moon really is... if the Earth were shrunk to the size of a basketball, the moon would be the size of softball, and be ~30 feet away
-- Most people also don't realize how far the planets are from each other... if the Sun were shrunk to the size of a basketball, pluto would be over 3/4 of a mile away

Regarding those last two... here's a cool video :

 

[pete]

^^^
Love space stuff! A few others that I like :

-- The sun is close enough to feel heat from, obviously, but that heat travels 93,000,000 miles, and take 8 minutes to reach earth
-- The sun contains over 99.8% of all the mass in the solar system
-- Most photons of light leaving the sun were actually created inside it a long time ago... estimates range from 10's of thousands of years, to millions of years
-- Most people don't realize how far away the moon really is... if the Earth were shrunk to the size of a basketball, the moon would be the size of softball, and be ~30 feet away
-- Most people also don't realize how far the planets are from each other... if the Sun were shrunk to the size of a basketball, pluto would be over 3/4 of a mile away

Regarding those last two... here's a cool video :

very cool, makes one feel pretty insignificant given scale.

Another fun site for scale:

https://scaleofuniverse.com/

 

[CalG]

Did you know : It is spelled LIGHTNING, not lightening.

Did you know, I know, but still spell a lot of words wrong. I've tried to correct my spelling, but it just doesn't seem to work. Maybe it's because I just don't care. Too old I suppose.

I like reading colonial writings. A lot of words are spelled "differently" .

Go figure....

 

[CalG]

^^^
Love space stuff! A few others that I like :

-- The sun is close enough to feel heat from, obviously, but that heat travels 93,000,000 miles, and take 8 minutes to reach earth
-- The sun contains over 99.8% of all the mass in the solar system
-- Most photons of light leaving the sun were actually created inside it a long time ago... estimates range from 10's of thousands of years, to millions of years
-- Most people don't realize how far away the moon really is... if the Earth were shrunk to the size of a basketball, the moon would be the size of softball, and be ~30 feet away
-- Most people also don't realize how far the planets are from each other... if the Sun were shrunk to the size of a basketball, pluto would be over 3/4 of a mile away

Regarding those last two... here's a cool video :

Most people have no idea how much empty space there is in an atom.
Most people don't have a clue what is inside an atom, and that includes a lot of very bright people that make the study their life's work. Scary! ;-)

 

[Posaune]

^^^

-- Most people also don't realize how far the planets are from each other... if the Sun were shrunk to the size of a basketball, pluto would be over 3/4 of a mile away

Since we're being picky around here; Pluto isn't a planet, but it is capitalized.

 

[CalG]

Did you know that a single mature >60ft deciduous tree can put 40,000 gals of water into the air during the growing season. That like 200 gals on a good day.

 

[Scruffy]

Did you know that a single mature >60ft deciduous tree can put 40,000 gals of water into the air during the growing season. That like 200 gals on a good day.

We humans can't live without trees, and trees can't live without fungi, thus, we can't live without mushrooms.

 

[Bad Bob]

We humans can't live without trees, and trees can't live without fungi, thus, we can't live without mushrooms.

It's magic.

 

[Bad Bob]

Working with botanists specializing in timber , learned that in the Western Cascades and Coastal Range that:
trees grow at approximately 6% per year in both height and girth.
Pretty much all the trees planted in the forest today are GMO.
Trees can get sunburned if their neighbors are removed.
Modern softwood tree crops are ready for harvest in 33 to 40 years.
1 acre of hemp can produce more paper than 4 acres of trees and grows in 1 season.

 

[mdf]

^^^
Love space stuff! A few others that I like :

-- The sun is close enough to feel heat from, obviously, but that heat travels 93,000,000 miles, and take 8 minutes to reach earth
-- The sun contains over 99.8% of all the mass in the solar system
-- Most photons of light leaving the sun were actually created inside it a long time ago... estimates range from 10's of thousands of years, to millions of years
-- Most people don't realize how far away the moon really is... if the Earth were shrunk to the size of a basketball, the moon would be the size of softball, and be ~30 feet away
-- Most people also don't realize how far the planets are from each other... if the Sun were shrunk to the size of a basketball, pluto would be over 3/4 of a mile away

Regarding those last two... here's a cool video :

I had a vague memory of a city-wide scale model of the solar system, so I googled to try to find it. This isn't the one I was thinking of, but it is very cool. Akaa, Finland. It is scaled so walking speed is the speed of light, so it takes 8 minurtes to walk from the Sun to the Earth. It includes Voyager in a nearby village.

 

[dbostedo]

I had a vague memory of a city-wide scale model of the solar system, so I googled to try to find it. This isn't the one I was thinking of, but it is very cool. Akaa, Finland. It is scaled so walking speed is the speed of light, so it takes 8 minurtes to walk from the Sun to the Earth. It includes Voyager in a nearby village.

There's one in Anchorage, AK too : http://anchorageplanetwalk.org/

 

[cantunamunch]

Modern softwood tree crops are ready for harvest in 33 to 40 years.

It should be clarified that that is for lumber products, not for pulp; and even so the 33-40 year harvest is advantaged by thinning at the 15 year pulpwood age and periodically after that.

 

[Uncle-A]

I saw this on TV this morning and not sure if it is true.
A bottlenose dolphin has no sense of smell.

 

[James]

Did you know that people used to use the inner bark of living pine trees as food and medicine? Native Americans and native peoples of Scandinavia at least.

———————-
Pine inner bark contains substances – mainly carbohydrates, dietary fiber, vitamin C, and minerals – that were important complements to the protein-rich food of the indigenous peoples living in northern regions of both continents. The climate in these regions was (and is) sharply seasonal, and the stored carbohydrates in pine inner bark were particularly important during late winter. On both continents, a strip of live cambium was commonly left to show respect to the tree and the tree spirits and to ensure the tree’s survival.

Old Man [the sun] showed them the roots and the berries, and showed how to gather these, and certain times of the year they should peel the bark of some trees and eat it... Blackfeet creation (Grinell 1913)

They [the Sami] also use pine bark for food, which they take from Pine trees and subtly cut from the innermost part of the bark which is sweetest... From a description of the Sami people of northern Sweden in 1672 (Graan 1899)
——————————
https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_other/rmrs_2009_ostland_l001.pdf

 

[Bad Bob]

While we are in nature's pantry, willow bark tea is a pain reliever.