The weirdest 'did you know'

[Andrez]

Sorry, boredom is carrying me away... Share the weirdest/coolest things and facts you know!

UVB-76
There's a radio station (4625 KHZ) that transmits the same buzz, costantly and non-stop since late 70's. In its history only few times the buzz halted because of vocal messages. No one still knows what its purpose is. You can listen to it live here. You may also happen to listen to some environment sounds, because the buzz is apparently produced by some kind of mechanical device near the microphone.


The Max Headroom incident
In 1987 two TV networks have been hijacked in the same day by a pirate that is still unknown nowadays. In the first hijacking, that lasted few seconds, he showed himself wearing a Max Headroom mask, while in the second/last one, that lasted about 90 seconds, he told some pointless things and then he got spanked by another person. You can find the vids on youtube.


The Taos hum
In Taos, and few other places in the world, about 2% - 11% people hear a hum that apparently comes from nowhere. Its origin is still unknown, but it exists, and led some people even to suicide for the strong stress it caused.


The giant ice-cream cup
In 1988, in Edmonton, Canada, a giant cup of ice-cream weighing up to 25 tons was made.


Weird coincidence
I don't remember where, but someone had to kill another guy, by shooting at him. When the killer shot, he thought to have succesfully hit the victim, while the bullet just dodged him. Thinking of being a killer, the guy suicided, while the bullet stuck in a tree trunk. Few years later, the 'victim' had to get rid of that tree, and used dynamite. When it exploded, the stuck bullet totally hit him in the head. I lol'd when I read this.


Egg in egg
A Malese woman, I think her name was Norhayati Ahmad, found another egg inside an egg she opened.


Intestines
If our intestines were totally opened, they would be as big as a tennis pitch.


Zombie mantis
There's a species of mantis that can control roaches minds, making them true zombies.


I'll add other things later when I'll remember.

[Marti]

Amsterdam Has More Canals Than Venice

While Venice is the most well-known canalled city in the world, this isn’t because of quantity. Often called the “Venice of the North,” Amsterdam boasts over 165 canals that compose a comprehensive network throughout the entire city.

Three Vaginas

Female kangaroos have three vaginas

Light
Light doesn't necessarily travel at the speed of light. The slowest we've ever recorded light moving at is 38 mph.

Cheese
Casu marzu is a Sardinian cheese that contains live maggots. The maggots can jump up to five inches out of cheese while you're eating it, so it's a good idea to shield it with your hand to stop them jumping into your eyes.

The Mighty

Sigurd the Mighty, a ninth-century Norse earl of Orkney, was killed by an enemy he had beheaded several hours earlier. He'd tied the man's head to his horse's saddle, but while riding home one of its protruding teeth grazed his leg. He died from the infection.

No Road

The Dutch village of Giethoorn has no roads; its buildings are connected entirely by canals and footbridges

Teeth

The Romans used to clean and whiten their teeth with urine. Apparently it works. Please don't do it, though.

Lolololol

An epidemic of laughing that lasted almost a year broke out in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in 1962. Several thousand people were affected, across several villages. It forced a school to close. It wasn't fun, though — other symptoms included crying, fainting, rashes, and pain.

Avatar

A family of people with blue skin lived in Kentucky for many generations. The Fulgates of Troublesome Creek are thought to have gained their blue skin through combination of inbreeding and a rare genetic condition known as methemoglobinemia.

[Andrez]

Actually light does always travel at c (300.000 km/s). What you meant is that probably it was slowed down by some kind of medium (high refraction and such)

The Sardinian cheese is as much tasty as disgusting :P

I lol'd at the avatars and Sigurd

[Marti]

Actually light does always travel at c (300.000 km/s). What you meant is that probably it was slowed down by some kind of medium (high refraction and such)

Kind of, it got slowed down in some sort of gas

[ExodusS]

Zombie mantis
There's a species of mantis that can control roaches minds, making them true zombies.

It pushes them to suicide.

[Luc@s]

Actually light does always travel at c (300.000 km/s). What you meant is that probably it was slowed down by some kind of medium (high refraction and such)

Kind of, it got slowed down in some sort of gas

actually most mediums have a refractive index such that light appears to travel slower than in the vacuum, but its only because of the superposition of the incident electromagnetic wave and the wave emitted by the electrons oscillating because of it. So, the velocity of light calculated from the refractive index (usually the phase velocity of the wave) doesnt have much physical significance. So mediums even have refractive indexes lower than 1 which mean this velocity is greater than c.
you can also calculate the group velocity, but then again the velocity obtained is not much more than a mathematical object.
The reason why i'm explaining that is because people usually consider light as photons.
if we consider photons in the relativistic theory, and assume their velocity c is also the maximum velocity authorized in this theory (which is the case from what we know so far), then they can't travel faster or slower. they always move @ 299792458 m/s
none of these descriptions of "light" are really satisfying in every context, so it is better to assume, that it is more complicated than that.

[Marti]

Actually light does always travel at c (300.000 km/s). What you meant is that probably it was slowed down by some kind of medium (high refraction and such)

Kind of, it got slowed down in some sort of gas

actually most mediums have a refractive index such that light appears to travel slower than in the vacuum, but its only because of the superposition of the incident electromagnetic wave and the wave emitted by the electrons oscillating because of it. So, the velocity of light calculated from the refractive index (usually the phase velocity of the wave) doesnt have much physical significance. So mediums even have refractive indexes lower than 1 which mean this velocity is greater than c.
you can also calculate the group velocity, but then again the velocity obtained is not much more than a mathematical object.
The reason why i'm explaining that is because people usually consider light as photons.
if we consider photons in the relativistic theory, and assume their velocity c is also the maximum velocity authorized in this theory (which is the case from what we know so far), then they can't travel faster or slower. they always move @ 299792458 m/s
none of these descriptions of "light" are really satisfying in every context, so it is better to assume, that it is more complicated than that.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v39...7594a0.pdf

[Luc@s]

Actually light does always travel at c (300.000 km/s). What you meant is that probably it was slowed down by some kind of medium (high refraction and such)

Kind of, it got slowed down in some sort of gas

actually most mediums have a refractive index such that light appears to travel slower than in the vacuum, but its only because of the superposition of the incident electromagnetic wave and the wave emitted by the electrons oscillating because of it. So, the velocity of light calculated from the refractive index (usually the phase velocity of the wave) doesnt have much physical significance. So mediums even have refractive indexes lower than 1 which mean this velocity is greater than c.
you can also calculate the group velocity, but then again the velocity obtained is not much more than a mathematical object.
The reason why i'm explaining that is because people usually consider light as photons.
if we consider photons in the relativistic theory, and assume their velocity c is also the maximum velocity authorized in this theory (which is the case from what we know so far), then they can't travel faster or slower. they always move @ 299792458 m/s
none of these descriptions of "light" are really satisfying in every context, so it is better to assume, that it is more complicated than that.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v39...7594a0.pdf

ive read articles about years ago. dunno what youre trying to say with this link ?

[Marti]

had no clue what you were talking about, thought you might be interested in the article lol

[1Cap]

The "Flash" has the punch stronger than "Hulk" and the "Super Man".
That's because he is the fastest and the force increases proportional to speed.