Daily Curiosities/Obscure Facts

[Spanky]

A Fun and Informative Disarray of Factoids Daily--or Semi Daily--Various Sources:

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11-13-2016

Ancient Babylonians used base 60 instead of 10 to solve math, therefore we have 60 seconds in 1 minute and 360 degrees in a circle.

Students who chew gun have known to do better in math than those to do not. (Helps engage fine motor skills, as kids will stick their tongues out a bit when trying to stay within the lines--Spank)

If a pack of cards are shuffled properly, there are chances that the exact order has never been seen in the entire history of the universe.

74% of girls in middle school express interest in technology, science, math and engineering, but when choosing a college major, just 0.4% of high school girls opt computer science.

We can never find the true circumference of a circle, because we can’t find the true value of pi.



There are about 177,147 ways to tie a tie. (Only 177,144 to go--Spank)


 
TEN FAMOUS SPIES
1
Mata Hari was more of a scapegoat than a spy

   

Mata Hari blew a kiss to the firing squad and refused to be blindfolded
Mata Hari was one of the most notorious spies in history. Born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle in the Netherlands, she began performing in Paris as an exotic dancer in 1905. She instantly won acclaim for her near-naked performances, which were quite risque for the time. By the time World War I had broken out in 1914, she had retired but was blackmailed by the French to use her seductive powers to spy on Crown Prince Wilhelm. Zelle, it seemed, became a double-agent, promising to spy for the Germans, too. The French eventually uncovered her in a sting operation, and a sensational trial unfolded. Zelle was convicted and executed by firing squad. In hindsight, it appears Mata Hari was more a scapegoat of the French failures during the war rather than any damage she had done as a spy. Many historians believe she was more an unfortunate pawn caught in the horrors of war than femme fatale. (Source 1 | Source 2)


2

Russian spy Richard Sorge helped turn the tide in WWII against the Axis

   

Many Americans don't realize that the Red Army actually defeated the Nazis. One of the men responsible for making this happen was Russian spy Richard Sorge. Sorge was of German descent, but an avid Communist who began spying for the Russians in Germany in the 1920s. It wasn't until World War II that his services became invaluable. He lived in Japan posing as a journalist and was able to obtain vital information about the Axis powers. Most crucially, he found out that Japan was not about to attack the Soviets. This allowed them to reallocate troops against Germany and defeat them in the battle of Moscow, a turning point in the war. Sorge was discovered by the Japanese and executed with Stalin never acknowledging him as a spy; however, he was officially recognized by the Soviet Union as a war hero in 1964 and appeared on several stamps. (Source)


3
Aldrich Ames sold secrets to the Soviets for money

   

He is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison (Photo Source)
Aldrich Ames was not a Communist but a greedy, selfish capitalist who became a double agent for the Soviets for personal gain. Ames was a drunk, depressed CIA agent who cheated on his wife and was going through a messy divorce. In 1985, he sold the names of two KGB officers secretly working for the FBI to the Soviets for $50,000. For the next nine years, he continued selling secrets right under the nose of the CIA. It wasn't until a fellow agent noted that in spite of Ames' $60,000 salary, he was able to afford a $50,000 Jaguar, a half-million dollar mansion for which he paid cash, fancy designer suits, and had all of his stained yellow teeth capped. He was eventually arrested in 1994 and convicted of espionage. (Source 1 | Source 2)


 
4

The CIA trained animals for a variety of missions

   

Some of the stealthiest spies in history were not human at all. In the 1960s, the CIA had a secret facility at a children's farm called the IQ Zoo in Hot Springs, Arkansas where they ran a covert program training a variety of animals to perform secret missions. This included ravens, spiders, and even domestic cats. Animals learned tricks like depositing microphones or warning of an enemy approaching using conditioning-based training methods. One of the most incredible projects was called "Acoustic Kitty," in which a microphone was implanted in a cat that was trained to move by sonar impulses and listen to human voices. (The CIA has never officially confirmed or denied any of these operations.)
(Source | Photo)


5
Shi Pei Pu disguised himself as a woman for 20 years

   

The play M. Butterfly is based on the affair
One of the most unusual deceptions of all time was made by Shi Pei Pu, a male Chinese opera singer who became a spy. For twenty years he pretended to be a woman to seduce and steal secrets from a French Ambassador named Bernard Boursicot. During their infrequent sexual trysts, Shi kept his genitals hidden and later managed to convince Boursicot they had a child together (the boy was actually bought on the black market). The pair were convicted of espionage in 1986 but quickly pardoned by the government for their “silly” affair. (Source)


6
The Rosenbergs gave atomic secrets to the Soviets

   

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were the only Americans executed for spying during the Cold War (Photo Source)
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were part of a spy ring that funneled vital US atomic information to the Soviets, who were racing to build a bomb of their own in the 1940s. The couple was also able to turn Ethel's brother David Greenglass, who was working on the Manhattan Project. The secrets they revealed were said to have sped up the progress of the Soviet arms race by several years. The Rosenbergs, along with co-conspirator Morton Sobell, were tried and convicted of espionage on March 29, 1951, and sentenced to death. (Sobell served 17 years, and Greenglass made a deal to testify against his sister to save his wife.)
(Source)


7
Juan Pujol tricked Hitler about the D-Day invasion

   

He was such a master actor his code name was “Garbo”
A Spanish farmer, Juan Pujol, was perhaps the greatest double agent ever. He had a passionate hatred for Adolph Hitler, but since Spain was neutral in World War II, he had no direct way to fight the Nazis. That's when he dreamed up a scheme to visit Germany and convince the Nazis to take him on as a spy, and then turn over any information to the Allies. Pujol's ploy was a success — both sides eventually recruited him. One of his most significant contributions was with D-Day. He worked in tandem with the MI5 to convince Hitler that the impending Allied invasion at Normandy was going to take place at Calais. Because of this trickery, Hitler held back several panzer divisions and ensured the success of the attack, saving thousands of lives. (Source)


8
Sidney Gottlieb brought LSD to the CIA

   

One of the most notorious American spies in the Cold War orchestrated mind control experiments on US citizens. In the 1950s and 60s, Sidney Gottlieb was in charge of a secret CIA project called MK-ULTRA and conducted experiments on the possibility of mind control. Gottlieb was a strong advocate for LSD and under his direction, many people were unwittingly dosed with the drug and their reactions observed. One was Army officer Frank Olson, who ended up committing suicide nine days later. The program was exposed in the 1970s, but Gottlieb was exonerated and given a medal of honor. He died at the age of 80 in India, after having retired there. (Source 1 | Source 2)


9
Hermann Görtz was Nazi spy who parachuted into Ireland

   

One of the Third Reich's most notorious spies was Hermann Görtz, who lead a couple of failed missions. The first was in 1936, when he was arrested in Britain after sketches of an air force base were found in a house he was renting; he was jailed for four years and deported back to Germany. Afterward, he devised a scheme to parachute into Ireland and hope to convince the IRA to side with the Nazis. The first part of the plot was successful — he landed in a field in Ireland in 1940 and established contact. However, a raid by the Irish Police uncovered the plot and Görtz went into hiding for 18 months. He was captured and held in Ireland throughout the war. In 1947, when faced with being deported back to Germany to stand trial for war crimes, he took a cyanide pill and died instantly. (Source 1 | Source 2)


10
Belle Boyd was a spy for the Confederate Army

   

She called herself “Cleopatra of the Secession”

Maria “Belle” Boyd was a Southerner who spied on the Union during the American Civil War. Relying on her Southern charm, she infiltrated Union soldier camps and was able to glean valuable information. In one famous episode, she ran on foot to Major General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's brigade to give him last minute information before an attack. Belle was arrested several times and finally incarcerated in Washington D.C. but never gave up her love for the Confederacy, hanging the Confederate flag in her cell and sending messages to her supporters with a bow and arrow. After her release, she wrote several memoirs and toured the US, marrying twice and dying in poverty in 1900.

[Linville]

Spanky, I found this post especially interesting.

I had a hobby of reading non fiction esponouse books a while back .
On that Aldrich Aimes I think his wife also called the FBI on him, as she could,not live with him betraying the country and her knowing it ,and not saying anything, as I recall

Good post Spankster

[Spanky]

A Fun and Informative Disarray of Factoids Daily--or Semi Daily--Various Sources:

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11-20-2016

Symbols such as "!#@%" that are used to indicate swearing in comic strips are called grawlix.  ("Grawlix translator needed, please call !#@% "--Spank)

The first American-made condoms were manufactured from vulcanized rubber and were meant to be re-used.  (Right, reused as bike tire patches, pre glued--Spank)
 
Pour beer foam on the brown patches of grass in your yard—the lawn will drink up the fermented sugars and return to its normal shade of green.  (Then hit on your wife--Spank)
 
President James Garfield could write Greek with one hand while simultaneously writing Latin with the other. 
 
Exocannibals eat outsiders as a means of intimidation. Endocannibals eat members of their own kinship groups.  ("Omnicannibals" will eat anyone who doesn't eat them first--Spank)
 
 
11 Simple Ways to Improve Your Memory
Whether you want to be a Jeopardy! champion or just need to remember where you parked your car, here are 11 things you can do right now to turn your mind from a sieve into a steel trap.

1. CONCENTRATE FOR 8 SECONDS.
These days we’re all about things being faster. That’s why this advice is invaluable: When you really need to remember something, concentrate on it for at least 8 seconds. That can seem like a long time when you're running around trying to get a million things done, but it is worth it. Studies have shown that 8 seconds is the minimum amount of time it takes for a piece of information to go from your short-term memory to your long-term memory.

2. DON'T WALK THROUGH A DOORWAY.
We’ve all walked into a room and suddenly realized we can’t remember why we needed to be there in the first place. Don’t worry, you’re not getting more forgetful—chances are it was the act of walking through a doorway that made you go completely blank. Researchers found that participants in both virtual and real-world studies were far more likely to forget what object they had just placed in a container if they were asked right after walking through a doorway than if they carried the object the same distance in a single room. Scientists have yet to figure out why, but something about entering a new place seems to restart our memory.

3. MAKE A FIST.
If you’re having trouble remembering things at work, get a stress ball. The act of clenching your fist, if done correctly, can significantly improve your ability to recall information. Studies show that if you are right-handed, you should make a fist with your right hand before you try to memorize a piece of information. Then when you need to remember it, clench your left hand (the process is reversed for lefties.) Be sure to hold that position for a little while though; the study that discovered this had the participants squeezing for a good 45 seconds before letting go.

4. EXERCISE.
At this point we should just accept it that science considers exercise the cure for absolutely any problem, and memory is no different. The physical act increases alertness and oxygen supply to the brain, and may even increase cell growth in the parts of your brain responsible for memory. One study found that right after light exercise, women were able to recall things better than they could before working up a sweat. And while a quick jog can help you out right now, it is even more effective over the long term. A different study found that women who kept fit over six months significantly improved both their verbal and spatial memory.

5. SLEEP.
At some point in high school or college, almost everyone has tried to pull an all-nighter before a big test (or so pop culture would have us believe). But even if you left your cramming until almost the last minute, it is more beneficial to get a good night’s sleep than to study until dawn. Studies have found that the processes your brain goes through while you're asleep actually help you remember information better the next day. Your brain is bombarded with stimuli when you’re awake, and it uses the time you are asleep to process everything. That's when it gets rid of unnecessary information and doubles down on remembering important things, like all that stuff in your biology textbook. Sleep is when it consolidates that information into a long-term memory. If you stay awake, your brain can’t go through this process.

6. USE CRAZY FONTS.
We’re all font snobs to some extent. When it comes to books, newspapers, or the internet, we want everything to be clear and easy to read. But researchers have discovered that one of the best ways to remember something you’ve read is to read it in a weird font. The size and boldness makes no difference, although the harder it is to read, the better. When something is unfamiliar and difficult to read, you are forced to concentrate on it more, allowing you to remember it easier.
Large, bold fonts may actually hurt your ability to remember, as studies found that when asked to memorize a list of words, people predicted they would recall bold words easier than non-bold words, and therefore studied them less, leading to the opposite result.

7. CHEW GUM.
If you need to remember a piece of information for around 30 minutes, try chewing gum. Studies have found that people do better on both visual and audio memory tasks if they are chewing gum while they do them. Just the act of chewing seems to keep people more focused and improve concentration.
But if you have a pop quiz sprung on you, leave the Juicy Fruit in your pocket. People who didn’t chew gum did better on very short memory tasks, while masticating helped people stay alert during longer ones.  (An earlier curiousities roundup cited a study suggesting students who chewed gum did better overall, so this makes two.  I expect Juicy Fruit to show up in the RC category any day--Spank)

8. WRITE THINGS OUT.
These days it’s far more common to type up almost all the writing you need to do on your phone or computer. Shopping lists are saved on your tablet, phone numbers and email addresses under your contacts—it’s hardly necessary to remember anything anymore. That is, until you forget your phone and realize you don’t remember if you need to pick up bread and eggs. In the future, if you want to recall something, write it out in longhand. It doesn’t matter if you never actually read back what you wrote: Studies have shown that just the act of writing something out allows you to recall it in a way that touching a keyboard does not.

9. KNOW WHEN TO TURN THE MUSIC ON—AND OFF.
Many people like a bit of music playing while they work or study. And listening to music before you start reading something you need to remember does indeed give you better recall. But once you start work, take out those ear buds. Researchers have found that listening to almost any noise, including music, while studying is a distraction, and you will recall less of what you read in the future. It doesn’t matter if you love the music or hate it; it has the same distracting effect as someone yelling random numbers at you. It might seem strange at first studying in complete silence, but science says it pays off in the long run.

10. VISUALIZE.
One of the weirdest and most effective ways to remember something is to associate it with a visual image. This can be taken to an extreme, where you can recall a huge number of pieces of information just by building up a detailed visual image in your brain. Let’s say you wanted to remember that J.K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books. Rowling sounds like bowling, so visualize a bowling alley. Now add to this image a hairy potter. This hirsute man, his hands covered with clay, gets up to roll the ball down the lane. From there you could add other bits of information, for example the names of the different Harry Potter books. Eventually you have a place in your head full of information that you can access at any time. It sounds bonkers, but science says it works.

11. DOODLE.
If you are sitting in a boring class or meeting, don’t be afraid to start drawing hearts and flowers in your margins. While it can look like doodlers are paying less attention than non-doodlers, in reality the act of drawing is helping to keep their brain active. Just sitting there when you are bored makes it easier for you to tune out and as a result you will remember less information. In studies, people who were given a doodling task while listening to a boring phone message ended up remembering 29 percent more of what was on the tape than people who just sat still and listened.
 
I would simply add, for me, making a visual association works best of those listed.  My mom, long passed, went to a "memory improvement" talk for seniors.  The guy concluded by reminding all there:  "And if after all you can't remember, just forget it" ha.  Spank

[Linville]

Interesting things to try, Spanky 

[Popster]

let it be

   

[Spanky]

Nice one Popster.  I'm about to add a post some of which about Einstein.  He was also an activist, and advocate of integration of all sorts.




Spank

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A Fun and Informative Disarray of Factoids Daily--or Semi Daily--Various Sources:

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11-26-2016
Albert Einstein never visited lab, he worked all his theories either in his head or on paper at his desk.
 
Einstein had bad memory; he couldn’t remember names, phone numbers and dates.
 
Albert Einstein was against segregation, calling it a disease of white people. He also worked against racism in America.
 
Albert Einstein considered himself as an agnostic, not an atheist.
 
Albert Einstein was among the people who signed a petition to overturn the ban on Homosexuality in Germany.
 
Einstein considered creativity to be more important than knowledge.
 
Einstein quotes: Education is not learning of facts. It’s rather the training of mind to think.
 

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Fractals:
Fractals have doubtless been shown in the pic thread, but they are fascinating.  I started looking at them about thirty years ago or so in a DOS program called "Fractal Magic" I think.  They are an integral offshoot of "Chaos" theory which was big at at one time.  I here include a decent and short definition, and some examples. 
 
"A fractal is a never-ending pattern. Fractals are infinitely complex patterns that are self-similar across different scales. They are created by repeating a simple process over and over in an ongoing feedback loop. Driven by recursion, fractals are images of dynamic systems – the pictures of Chaos. Geometrically, they exist in between our familiar dimensions. Fractal patterns are extremely familiar, since nature is full of fractals. For instance: trees, rivers, coastlines, mountains, clouds, seashells, hurricanes, etc. Abstract fractals – such as the Mandelbrot Set – can be generated by a computer calculating a simple equation over and over.
For a simple description of fractals, please download our “One Pager” (380Kb)."


(Here is an animated GIF which I hope works, Spank)

     


   


   

(Below is the kind of "Mother" of fractals, seen often, and created by a guy named Mandlebrodt--Spank)
   


   


   

 

(The fern "leaf" or "frond" is an oft cited example of repetition or "self similarity" found in nature--Spank)

   

(The below is very interesting.  If you can read the digital mess of the printing, you are becoming a robot--Spank)
   

[Charon]

interesting. especially the other day about entering a doorway re starts one's train of thought, potentially. i shall use it to reassure myself next time i do that.

always well done, mr. spankster.

thank u for the Spoiler alert that a flashing avatar was coming on. I just went past that one quickly.

I like ur thread. Very much like you my friend. intriguing.

[IceWizard]

President James Garfield could write Greek with one hand while simultaneously writing Latin with the other.

Wow! I can hardly write "english" with one hand while speakin it

Good stuff Spank...

Ice

[Spanky]

Spanky sometimes I will post a picture with the links as to where it is and if it get removed from the internet then it can drop off at places it is posted too, such as here.

What do you think?


Gues you will just have to keep going, starting again, I hope.....


Have a good day Spankster

Hi Linville,

I just download them or copy them from the Internet, then "add" them here, and they stay here, even if I take them off my computer.  If you load a pic as a link to some pic on the net, yes, it will go away if the pic the link goes to goes away.  You just have to go through the process at the bottom of the post page, i.e., browse, add pic, then "insert into post".  I think that makes it work.  Good you mentioned it.  i've been deleting all those pics I've added in earlier posts and they seems to stay here, so I guess that works.

best, Spanky

[Popster]

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