# Minor everyday astonishments



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

A thread for things just learned that you found surprising or entertaining. Here's mine.

Dictionary.com says that the ampersand was invented by Roman scribes who had a practice of running the two letters of the word "et" ("and") together, giving the ampersand its shape...but not its name.

_The word "ampersand" came many years later when "&" was actually part of the English alphabet. In the early 1800s, school children reciting their ABCs concluded the alphabet with the &. It would have been confusing to say "X, Y, Z, and." Rather, the students said, "and per se and." "Per se" means "by itself," so the students were essentially saying, "X, Y, Z, and by itself and." Over time, "and per se and" was slurred together into the word we use today: ampersand._

Next?


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## Proms Fanatic (Nov 23, 2014)

This came up on the British game show "Countdown" a little while ago. Definitely a cool fact that I've unabashedly told to others!


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I never realized that one could actually observe the moon moving, but, if you line it up with the top of a tree or some other stationary object, you will observe it to ascend above it within minutes.

To my surprise, a couple of days ago as I was lying on my balcony enjoying the cool night air and the multitude of stars that were visible, even in the city, I noticed that stars close to the eaves trough disappeared behind it within a minute or two. This is how fast the Earth rotates! It's dizzying.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

John Tyler -- born in the 1790s, President of the U.S. in the 1840s -- has two living grandchildren.


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

I remember hearing an interview with a woman on the radio in the late 80s whose grandfather had been born in the late 1700s. I thought that that was impressive then, never mind John Tyler having two living grandchildren now.


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## cwarchc (Apr 28, 2012)

Every day I wake up


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## Gaspard de la Nuit (Oct 20, 2014)

I saw a shooting star last night.


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## breakup (Jul 8, 2015)

I have a grandson who's name is followed by XV in Roman numerals, think about it.


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## breakup (Jul 8, 2015)

I don't have a middle name, only an initial.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Both of my parents were born in the 19th C.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

breakup said:


> I don't have a middle name, only an initial.


I seem to remember that Harry S Truman was the same.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

GreenMamba said:


> John Tyler -- born in the 1790s, President of the U.S. in the 1840s -- has two living grandchildren.


Wow. I dated one of his descendents. She never spoke of them. But, heavens to Betsy, she talked about everything else.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

My wife's grandfather, who just passed away last year, was had an interesting lineage: His father was in the Civil War. (A drummer boy.)


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Gaspard de la Nuit said:


> I saw a shooting star last night.


We really need gun control.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Our microbiota accounts for 1-3% of our body mass. That means that about 1½-2½ kilos of you is not you: it's bacteria that live on or in you. They have 10 times as many cells as the cells in your body, but, because they are so small, compared to yours, they make up so little mass.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

In the US, there were more automobile deaths in 1934 than in 2013.


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## Proms Fanatic (Nov 23, 2014)

GreenMamba said:


> In the US, there were more automobile deaths in 1934 than in 2013.


Really?! That's astonishing!


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

In the United States, a student is far more likely to be killed getting on or off a school bus than in a school shooting. The violent crime rate (per 1,000 population, as of 2012) is the lowest in over 40 years.

Things your favorite Internet news site never told you...


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

GreenMamba said:


> In the US, there were more automobile deaths in 1934 than in 2013.





KenOC said:


> In the United States, a student is far more likely to be killed getting on or off a school bus than in a school shooting. The violent crime rate (per 1,000 population, as of 2012) is the lowest in over 40 years.
> 
> Things your favorite Internet news site never told you...


Infact, the U.S. homicide rate is less than half of what it was in the early 90s.

Auto theft rates have dropped by even more (hard to steal the new models).


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

Apparently the first TV programme broadcast in colour in Britain was _The Black And White Minstrels_


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

A small thing, but I wasn't aware and just learned it tonight. Axe can also be spelled ax.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

SimonNZ said:


> Apparently the first TV programme broadcast in colour in Britain was _The Black And White Minstrels_


Lovely thought but .... it was Wimbledon Tennis on July 1 1967.


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

hmmm...then I've been lied to by the history book I'm currently reading


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## Guest (Aug 20, 2015)

GreenMamba said:


> In the US, there were more automobile deaths in 1934 than in 2013.


Was that because there was so much boozing to be caught up on??!!


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

Americans use more than 2 million tons of toilet paper every year.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Wood said:


> Americans use more than 2 million tons of toilet paper every year.


Is that weight before or after use?


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

dogen said:


> Was that because there was so much boozing to be caught up on??!!


Part of it. Airbags, seat belts. Driving is just a lot safer nowadays.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

GreenMamba said:


> Part of it. Airbags, seat belts. Driving is just a lot safer nowadays.


Also a lot of advances in road design, lane markings, warning rumble strips at the edges, channelization, and so forth. I remember "suicide roads," which were three-laners with the center lane used for passing...from either direction!


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## breakup (Jul 8, 2015)

Do you think that driver education might have something to do with it? Is it possible that we are teaching our young drivers to be safer on the road in the 79 years since then?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

breakup said:


> Do you think that driver education might have something to do with it? Is it possible that we are teaching our young drivers to be safer on the road in the 79 years since then?


Didn't work for my son. Like many others, he considered a car to be a hormone enhancer.


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

GreenMamba said:


> Part of it. Airbags, seat belts. Driving is just a lot safer nowadays.


So long you are not a cyclist or a ped.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

breakup said:


> Do you think that driver education might have something to do with it? Is it possible that we are teaching our young drivers to be safer on the road in the 79 years since then?


In the 30s, there were still a number of states that didn't require driver's licenses.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

My alarm clock broke last night and turned on at 4AM instead of 10:30AM >_<. I couldn't turn off the radio, so I put the volume down to 0 instead. I woke up with phone alarm instead at 10:30AM, and when I went to check on what was on the radio playing then anyhow (turning up the volume on the radio), well... isn't it kinda cliche now? But the WEIRDEST PART... my clock was magically all better after that. I could turn the radio OFF after _his _piece was finished playing. _Ain't that so convenient? _

So apparently I witnessed a miracle. :tiphat:


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

I saw a bald eagle for the first time(in the wild, that is) as I was leaving Irvine: It was perched on the guard rail on one of the bridges that leads to the SR 73. I thought it was a statue when I saw it from far away because it looked so large, but as I drove right by it, I saw that the 'statue' had white feathers on its head, and brown over the rest of its body. It was staring out at the river under the bridge. I was just surprised that my first time seeing a (formerly)endangered species outside of a zoo would be near a freeway.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

The city is again enveloped in a thick blanket of smoke. The air quality alert has been raised to 11 (very high health risk) on an upward open-ended scale of 1-10. The forest fires, mainly in the American Pacific Northwest, about 1000-1500 kilometres distant, but also in the interior of BC, are the cause. The south-westerly air currents are driving the smoke here. It is eerie: visibility is about three blocks. Even across the street is visibly shrouded in haze. It is astonishing that events so distant can have such a profound effect here—and how big those fires must be, and how vast the forests, since we had a month of this in June, and now another week of it, even more intense!

It is advised for susceptible people to stay indoors. I think I'm pretty hardy, but the more I read, the more I think I just might be experiencing diminished lung function  or is it for real?  I was going to go for a jog and now I don't know what to do.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I'm still on Peter Ackroyd's biography of Shakespeare & his world, and learned today that a 'ham' actor comes from the fact that the old-style rhetorical actor *strutted* ostentatiously on stage, and therefore the audience saw a good deal of his hamstrings!


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## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

The nine-volt battery was introduced to power transistor radios.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

geralmar said:


> The nine-volt battery was introduced to power transistor radios.


I remember that! And now, the only use I have for them is to power my smoke detector


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Reading about horned lizards, which are covered with horny spikes like certain ancient dinosaurs. They defend themselves by squirting streams of blood from the corners of their eyes -- carefully aimed and up to five feet.

In the US, horned lizards are growing rare because of predation by pets and particularly because their favorite ant species are being wiped out by newly-arrived fire ants and Argentine ants.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I love parsnips  They were once an extremely valuable commodity. From Wikipedia:

"The parsnip was much esteemed and the Emperor Tiberius accepted part of the tribute payable to Rome by Germany in the form of parsnips."


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## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

The movie studios used to send separate prints to movie theatres and to outdoor drive-ins. The prints delivered to drive-ins were brighter than those delivered to movie houses. It makes one wonder about the prints used for DVDs and television.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I was astonished when today I was standing on the deck outside when this little green hummingbird comes to the planters to sip some nectar. It first started at a planter about 8 feet away from me, so I stood still. Then it came to the planter right _next _to me, so it was literally 2 feet away from me. I could look at its feathers in detail, and hear its wings flap. It then flew past my legs (so only a _few inches_ away) and that surprised me so I moved, and maybe that motion scared it so it left. Did it not see me??? I did have a flowery shirt on and was standing still, but really?? That's pretty cool! To be one with nature is not something that you grasp for, it's something that _comes _to you.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Anne Frank and Martin Luther King Jr. were born the same year


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Reading of the 1,000 mph car to be. I want one.

http://www.redbull.com/us/en/motors...hound-ssc-the-1000-mph-car?wtk=13807406905246


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## breakup (Jul 8, 2015)

Vaneyes said:


> Reading of the 1,000 mph car to be. I want one.
> 
> http://www.redbull.com/us/en/motors...hound-ssc-the-1000-mph-car?wtk=13807406905246


Do like Walt and Art Arfons, build your own. I was once in Walt's shop, and it was not very sophisticated.


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