What's the last weird or unusual thing you've learned?

[GrownupGirl]

Today I learned about a tiny little (and actually quite cute) spider that lives in Australia. It's called the peacock spider, because the male has these very colorful wing-like coverings wrapped around his abdomen, and when he sees a female spider he raises them in a fan-like shape to attract her as a mate, similar to the feathers on a peacock. He also does a weird dance while raising two of his legs straight up in the air. However, if the female isn't interested, she will try to kill and eat him! Imagine all that effort to attract a potential mate just to end up as a snack. The male can escape by jumping. I saw it in a video.

So what interesting things have you learned or discovered recently?

 

[Aspychata]

I have learned no matter what your age or social standing or intelligence, you can be harrassed in life for really ridiculous stuff.

 

[Progster]

The term 'common sense' actually comes from a diagram drawn by Leonardo da Vinci showing the inside of a human skull where he has drawn all the nerves coming to a central point, which he calls the 'common sense.'

 

[Thinx]

I learned that if you transport your phone in a random pile of books and papers it will jump out as you go downstairs and bounce into 2 pieces at the bottom of the stairs, smashing the screen. Who knew?

But then I learned that if you take it to the shop, a guy can fix on a new screen for not so much money as you might think, considering what the phone looked like after this debacle. It'll be ready at lunchtime.

Unless it's not, then I have to get an Open phone so I can put the SIM in it to keep using my contract. That will cost more so fingers crossed that the guy can just point his wand and go, Repario!

 

[Raggamuffin]

I learned yesterday that my walking in the balls of my feet is due to overstretched calf muscles. I went to see a pediatrist and happened to mention my gait. It was interesting to hear and she tested the movement in my ankles which should be 10 degrees from 90, but mine had no movement at all at 90 degrees. I did wonder why my calf muscles would hurt or felt stretched if I walked particularly quickly or for a long period of time.

They're making me some insoles to see if it helps. If not, she said there's exercises they can teach me which could help.

Ed

 

[Nervous Rex]

My children came home the other day and told me this one:

Your tongue is the only part of your reflection that you can lick.

 

[Thinx]

Wow yes.

And your nose is the only part of your reflection you can rub noses with....

 

[Wolfnox]

To be king you must wear the jester har to understand his point of view.

 

[Nervous Rex]

I got a book titled "What the Fact" by Gabe Henry. For every day of the year, it has a weird historical fact relating to that day. Here's today's:

In 1649, Oliver Cromwell helped abolish the British monarchy and overthrow King Charles I, but by 1660 the kingdom was restored and Charles's son was in power. Charles II accused Cromwell of treason and sentenced him to death. The problem was, Cromwell died two years earlier.

Charles II had Cromwell's corpse exhumed, then publicly hanged, beheaded, and buried in an unmarked pit. Oliver Cromwell's head hung on a pike outside Westminster Hall for about 25 years before a storm knocked the pole down. It passed among several different owners and was finally reburied in 1960.

 

[tree]

To be king you must wear the jester har to understand his point of view.

What's a "jester har"?
His laugh & sense of humor?

Or is that a typo for "hat"?

 

[Wolfnox]

What's a "jester har"?
His laugh & sense of humor?

Or is that a typo for "hat"?

Yes. Or acronym for his area relatively.

 

[Fino]

"Good-bye" is a contraction of "God be with you," is the fun fact I kept hearing. But really it's a contraction of "God be with ye," which makes much more sense as far as spelling is concerned.

 

[Aspychata]

To be king you must wear the jester har to understand his point of view.

Hark l hear the jester quote, to be king, one must builde a moat.
The king upon his throne, ruled supreme.

 

[Major Tom]

I've recently learned that if you give a Jamaican man with a beautiful voice and a guitar with one string, great things can happen.

I also learned that researchers are finding out how to destroy cancer cells with a certain frequency of sound.

 

[Nervous Rex]

Rattlesnakes are ovoviviparous - The female gives birth to live young after carrying the eggs inside its body.

 

[Nervous Rex]

On January 31, 1874, after robbing a train in Missouri, Jesse James handed the engineer a prewritten press release to give to the newspapers. It contained a blank space to fill in the amount stolen and the headline, "The Most Daring Robbery on Record."

 

[onlything]

After looking up peacock spiders I got interested if they produce the blue pigment. However, just like their namesakes, as well as almost every other animal (including humans), they do not, although while peacocks produce mostly brown pigment, peacock spiders produce reds and creamy yellows. It's their nanostructure that allows the light to be reflected in a way that we perceive as different colours, such as blues, turquoise and green.

Obrina olivewing butterfly is the only one with the ability to naturally produce blue pigment.

 

[Fino]

Scientists don't know for certain why ice is slippery or how ice skating works.

 

[Nervous Rex]

Scientists don't know for certain why ice is slippery or how ice skating works.

As it was explained to me in high school, water expands when it freezes. That means that pressure put on ice to compress it will also liquefy it. The ice directly under the skates turns liquid, which creates the 'slipperiness' needed to skate. Once the water is no longer under pressure, it refreezes.

Check out how you can use the same principle to pass a wire through a block of ice.

To your point, though, the end of the video says that this "pressure theory" doesn't explain all the slipperiness of ice.

 

[Ken S.]

@Fino @Nervous Rex
Frank Zamboni Invented the first ice resurfacing machine in 1949 and Zamboni is still the official ice resurfacer of the NHL.