Somewhat Useful Facts Thread

[Nebula]

Yes the words are there, but the central letters weren't moved around.

One out of 20 people have an extra rib

[Armondikov]

Arcncidog to a rrscaeeh at Cmargbdie Uivtienrsy, it dseon't matter in waht oderr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iapomtrnt thing is taht the fsrit and last lteter be at the rgiht pcale. The rest can be a ttaol mses and you can stlil read it wuoitht pmreblos. Tihs is bcaesue the human mnid deos not read eervy lteter by itslef, but the word as a wohle...

Mostly complete and utter woo. It's difficult to track down a decent link to describe it, however. Mostly, in the longer versions of this that get sent around, the words are actually pesudo-scrambled - some letters are strategically positioned so that the overall look of the word remains the same, tall letters remain where tall letters are, and with "Cambridge" it was clear that they scrambled "Cam" and "Bridge" separately, for example. Paragraphs that are really randomly scrambled - you can do this with a fairly simple java script - don't make as much sense as the pseudo-scrambled ones. Even so, the vast, vast majority of words that make up common vocabularly are very short, 3 letter words won't change, 4 letter words will just swap two letters (barely anything more than a common typo such as teh/the). 5 letters still isn't a stretch and there's a good chance that even when done randomly, one letter will stay in position. So you have to get above 6 or 7 letters before any kind of real scrambling sets in (and in cases where it's intentionally rigged or manaually scrambled, these are the ones that will be rigged as in the "Cam/Bridge" example above).

http://scienceavenger.blogspot.com/2007/12/cambridge-word-scramble-study-its-fake.html
http://www.personalarchaeology.com/2006/08/14/the-scrambled-letters-fallacy/

[Armondikov]

One out of 20 people have an extra rib

Closer to 1 in 500.

[captain_obvious]

One out of 20 people have an extra rib

Closer to 1 in 500.

Contrary to popular belief the modify button does actually work rather well.
As does the search button.

####
EDIT
####
Behold
The MODIFY button!

[JimmyB76]

we've already covered that

wow all this time with us, since way back when, and still not aware of the edit/modify button to avoid double-posting (unless he's trying to get a high postcount because everyone knows the higher the postcount the cooler you are and better than everyone in life?) lol j/k
*runs*

Nah, I ususally only use "edit" if I want to amend a point. Making a separate point entirely usually warrants a fresh post. Unless that's really frowned on, my forum etiquette has gone to the dogs.

on average, a movie makes about 5 times more from its video sales than ticket takings...

[MLeo]

One out of 20 people have an extra rib

Closer to 1 in 500.

Contrary to popular belief the modify button does actually work rather well.
As does the search button.

####
EDIT
####
Behold
The MODIFY button!

Another useful fact, a modification goes, generally speaking, unnoticed.

[JimmyB76]

Providence, RI (my city) was just named 4th most stressful place to live in the US, according to Forbes Magazine...  
only Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles ranked higher...  economy, weather, and pollution were all taken into account among other factors...
perhaps the fact our unemployment rate is up to 12.5%, second highest state in the US (Michigan being #1 hoghest)...
no wonder i drink alot lol

[captain_obvious]

Kopparberg premium pear cider is roughly 4.5% alcohol.

[Phaser]

The axial tilt of Mars varies between 13 and 40 degrees.

[Armondikov]

So managed to learn quite a lot from my computer crash, particularly about the core workings of a computer. Apparently it's a miracle that they even work. So, one small factoid I learned from a Com-sci...

When connecting drives to an IDE cable you get two options "Master" and "Slave". Although these are actual electronics terms for what controls what, in the context of whether you set you hard drive or CD drive as Master or Slave means absolutely nothing. It's not even anything remotely to do with anything, it just means "1" or "2". It doesn't even mean "primary" or "secondary" it's just a needless label. Which makes me wonder if early computer engineers were a little kinky...

[eclipse74569]

So managed to learn quite a lot from my computer crash, particularly about the core workings of a computer. Apparently it's a miracle that they even work. So, one small factoid I learned from a Com-sci...

When connecting drives to an IDE cable you get two options "Master" and "Slave". Although these are actual electronics terms for what controls what, in the context of whether you set you hard drive or CD drive as Master or Slave means absolutely nothing. It's not even anything remotely to do with anything, it just means "1" or "2". It doesn't even mean "primary" or "secondary" it's just a needless label. Which makes me wonder if early computer engineers were a little kinky...

*cough*theywere*cough*

Henry Waterman, of New York, invented the elevator in 1850. He intended it to transport barrels of flour.

John Greenwood, also of New York invented the dental drill in 1790.

The corkscrew was invented by M.L. Bryn, also of New York, in 1860.

Electrical hearing aids were invented in 1901 by Miller R. Hutchinson, who was (you guessed it) from New York.

Dr. Jonas Salk developed the vaccine for polio in 1952, in New York (aaah!).

Four wheel roller skates were invented by James L. Plimpton in 1863. Can you guess where?

[captain_obvious]

So managed to learn quite a lot from my computer crash, particularly about the core workings of a computer. Apparently it's a miracle that they even work. So, one small factoid I learned from a Com-sci...

When connecting drives to an IDE cable you get two options "Master" and "Slave". Although these are actual electronics terms for what controls what, in the context of whether you set you hard drive or CD drive as Master or Slave means absolutely nothing. It's not even anything remotely to do with anything, it just means "1" or "2". It doesn't even mean "primary" or "secondary" it's just a needless label. Which makes me wonder if early computer engineers were a little kinky...

*cough*theywere*cough*

Henry Waterman, of New York, invented the elevator in 1850. He intended it to transport barrels of flour.

John Greenwood, also of New York invented the dental drill in 1790.

The corkscrew was invented by M.L. Bryn, also of New York, in 1860.

Electrical hearing aids were invented in 1901 by Miller R. Hutchinson, who was (you guessed it) from New York.

Dr. Jonas Salk developed the vaccine for polio in 1952, in New York (aaah!).

Four wheel roller skates were invented by James L. Plimpton in 1863. Can you guess where?

Timbuktu?

Coordinates: 16?46?33?N 3?00?34?W? / ?16.77583?N 3.00944?W? / 16.77583; -3.00944Coordinates: 16?46?33?N 3?00?34?W? / ?16.77583?N 3.00944?W? / 16.77583; -3.00944
Country     Mali
Region    Tombouctou Region
Cercle    Timbuktu Cercle
Settled    10th century
Elevation    261 m (856 ft)
Population (1998[1])
 - Total    31,973

[JimmyB76]

today in history: August 31, 1954

Hurricane Carol slams into Southern New England, first over Long Island, and then again over Groton, Connecticut with sustained winds of 115 mph and gusts of 120 to 135 mph across Southern Rhode Island as the state was hit squarely by the damaging eastern half of the hurricane...
T.F. Green State Airport (near Narragansett Bay, RI) reported sustained winds of 90 mph, with gusts to 115 mph, while Block Island, RI reported sustained winds of 100 mph with a gust to 135 mph...
storm surges of 8 to 13 ft were reported across the Rhode Island, eastern Connecticut, and southeastern Massachusetts coastlines, and downtown Providence was flooded with 12 feet of water...  since then, they have built a retractable hurricane barrier at the tip of Narragansett Bay, where it channels into downtown Providence to avoid any future storm surge flooding...
there were 66 deaths from the storm...  Hurricane Carol caused $460 million in damage (1954 USD, $3.45 billion 2006 USD)...


http://www.geocities.com/hurricanene/hurricanecarol.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Carol
http://www.stormpulse.com/hurricane-carol-1954
http://news.webshots.com/album/404374533KugDuq

[Armondikov]

Your hurricane comments remind me of the alt (sorry, "title") text of this cartoon: http://xkcd.com/611/

[JimmyB76]

'Second Street' is the most common street name in the U.S.; 'First Street' is the sixth...

[Dalek]

I continue that fact...

Second Street is the most common because First Street gets renamed to something else, like Main Street.

Thankyou, The Big Bang Theory for teaching me that. Comedy has its uses.

PS. First Street according to Sheldon also gets renamed to Michigan Avenue.

[Armondikov]

The town I was born in named the main streets after various themes, each of the main collieries built their own housing each with an original theme. One being numbers, so there was 1st Row, 2nd Row etc. (although I think 1-4 were demolished ages ago), the second was trees, leading to Sycamore Street, Chestnut Street, Maple Street, and the third group was Shakespeare's Heroines, so there is Beatrice Street and Rosalind Street etc.

[captain_obvious]

Armonds was once a n00b

The drivers seat in my car also has adjustable lumbar support which I discovered to my delight this morning.
W00T!!! NO MORE ACHING BACK!!!!! GETIN!!!

[Armondikov]

Armonds was once a n00b

Indeed. In fact, my first post (IIRC) on BCN confused "post reply" with "new thread" or whatever they were labelled, I remember it being quite ambiguous.

Additionally, my first CG model was something vaguely resembling some sticks and a saucer (an occaisionaly used term to describe the deluse of Star Trek ships that newbies model) and was made in Milkshape.

My first 2D drawing program (besides MSPaint and a few others like it) came free with my first scanner. It was a bit shit, but I managed to make this: http://vr.rated-art.com/Wallpapers/040731_Armondikov_01.jpg (which I have since lost, but I did manage to track it down to here just this morning: http://vr.rated-art.com/vrpa_wallpaper_gallery_02.php )

And I recall being unable to download the .NET framework (or whatever) required to run BC Mod-Installer due to being on a 56k connection that would cut off and reconnect after an hour, stopping any download.

I still can't understand programming languages.

[captain_obvious]

I still can't understand programming languages.

neither do I.
And I never really mastered modelling and can't try again due to blender not agreeing with vista

a 40mm grenade impact can be devastating to a dog's health. Found that out on a stray dog hunt/cull in basrah*



*ok so it was a scrapyard on the base and not the city center.