Curious Mind Blowing Facts - 33

May make you say "whew"!

Oct 14, 2024

When the steering wheel was first put into use in automobiles, it was called the "whip". The whip is what you used to control the horses on a stagecoach, hence the analogy. Many years later, various hip hop artists noticed that the Mercedes-Benz logo resembled a steering wheel. They then proceeded to use the old term "whip" to describe any Mercedes-Benz vehicle. The term has now been generalized to classify any expensive automobile.

This is the list of words and phrases that AI uses most. This is how an employer could tell if AI wrote your resume. Or how a software AI checker can tell if it was the real author of one of your stories. This is a prompt to use to seem like the answer is not written by AI:

“Strictly follow this requirement: your response should not include any of the following words and phrases: meticulous, meticulously, navigating, complexities, realm, understanding, dive, shall, tailored, towards, underpins, ever-changing, ever-evolving, the world of, not only, alright, embark, Journey, In today's digital age, hey, game changer, designed to enhance, it is advisable, daunting, when it comes to, in the realm of, amongst, unlock the secrets, unveil the secrets, and robust, diving, elevate, unleash, power, cutting-edge, rapidly, expanding, mastering, excels, harness, imagine, It's important to note, Delve into, Tapestry, Bustling, In summary, Remember that…, Take a dive into, Navigating, Landscape, Testament, In the world of, Realm, Embark, Analogies to being a conductor or to music, Vibrant, Metropolis, Firstly, Moreover, Crucial, To consider, Essential, There are a few considerations, Ensure, It's essential to, Furthermore, Vital, Keen, Fancy, As a professional, However, Therefore, Additionally, Specifically, Generally, Consequently, Importantly, Indeed, Thus, Alternatively, Notably, As well as, Despite, Essentially, While, Unless, Also, Even though, Because, In contrast, Although, In order to, Due to, Even if, Given that, Arguably, You may want to, On the other hand, As previously mentioned, It's worth noting that, To summarize, Ultimately, To put it simply, Promptly, Dive into, In today's digital era, Reverberate, Enhance, Emphasize / Emphasize, Revolutionize, Foster, Remnant, Subsequently, Nestled, Game changer, Labyrinth, Gossamer, Enigma, Whispering, Sights unseen, Sounds unheard, Indelible, My friend, In conclusion.”

Since 2000, 52% of companies in the Fortune 500 have either gone bankrupt, been acquired or ceased to exist. With the sudden focus in AI, how many current Fortune 500 companies will be around in the next 20 year period going forward?

Robin Williams Was the First Person to Visit Christopher Reeve in the Hospital and Made Him Laugh by Pretending to Be a Russian Colon Doctor.

The signs at Glacier National Park warning that its signature glaciers would be gone by 2020 are being changed.
The signs in the Montana park were added more than a decade ago to reflect climate change forecasts, at the time, by the US Geological Survey, park spokeswoman Gina Kurzmen told CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/08/us/glaciers-national-park-2020-trnd/index.html

Hydrogen infused water. Scam? “Utter, barefaced bullshit. But what do I know? I'm only a medical physicist, not an advertising copywriter.”

PhanDA global mean surface temperature across the last 485 million years:

The gray shading corresponds to different confidence levels, and the black line shows the average solution. The colored bands along the top reflect the climate state, with cooler colors indicating icehouse (coolhouse and coldhouse) climates, warmer colors indicating greenhouse (warmhouse and hothouse) climates, and the gray representing a transitional state.

A plea for mentorship.

“Mozart”, he says, “I want to write symphonies”.

And Mozart says, “How old are you?”

The man replies; “I’m 23.” And Mozart says, “You’re too young to write symphonies.”

The man replies: “But Mozart you were writing symphonies when you were 10 years old.”

“Yes, but I wasn’t asking other people how to do it.”

The brain in your heart

Your heart doesn't have a "brain" in the same way that your head does, but it does have its own complex and independent nervous system. This system is often referred to as the "heart brain" or the intrinsic cardiac nervous system.

Key Facts about the Heart’s Nervous System:

1. Neurons in the Heart: The heart has around 40,000 neurons (nerve cells) within it, which is why it can be said to have a "mini-brain." These neurons can sense, feel, and respond to signals independently of the brain in your head.

2. Autonomous Function: The heart's nervous system allows it to work independently from the brain. For example, if your brain is cut off from your heart (like in a heart transplant), the heart can continue to beat on its own because of this intrinsic system.

3. Communication with the Brain: The heart and the brain are in constant communication. The heart sends more signals to the brain than the brain sends to the heart. It influences emotional processing, decision-making, and cognitive functions, according to research.

4. Emotional Influence: The heart is involved in emotional regulation, and some research even suggests that the heart’s signals can influence our emotional experience. When you're stressed or feeling calm, your heart rate variability (HRV) changes, and this, in turn, affects your overall emotional and mental state.

So, while your heart doesn’t have a "brain" in the strict sense, it has a complex system that can operate somewhat autonomously and plays an important role in the overall communication between the heart and brain.

The first color TV hit stores in late Sept. 1951.
“Color TV will sweep the country!” the president of CBS promised.
Only 100 sets were sold — and CBS killed its color broadcasts 3 weeks later. It was not until the mid-1960s that color sets started selling in large numbers, due in part to the color transition of 1965 in which it was announced that over half of all network prime-time programming would be broadcast in color that autumn. The first all-color prime-time season came just one year later.

CNN wants to start charging users $3.99/month to access their website. Is it worth it to you? Or will you find a way around the paywall?

Why did NASA buy a licence to use the advanced surveillance software system from Clearview AI. The company has been in the news over the years. “Clearview AI is a facial recognition company that can take a photo of the face of the target, and run it against the company’s database of around 30 billion faces. Clearview AI obtained many of these images by scraping the web, including sites and services like Facebook, YouTube, and Venmo.”

Earth’s tallest mountain, Mount Everest, is getting even taller. An eroding river gorge has thrusted Mount Everest higher, as it pulls rock and sediment away from the area. Over the past 89,000 years it is believed to have increased the mountain’s height by as much as 164 feet.

Fastest spacecraft ever.
After more than a six year journey in space, the Parker Solar Probe (operated by NASA) is set to undergo its final gravitational encounter with Venus while en route to within 4 million miles of the Sun. Parker currently achieves maximum speeds of 176 km/s (109 mi/sec): making it the fastest spacecraft of all-time. Parker Solar Probe will swoop to within 4 million miles of the Sun's surface, facing heat and radiation like no spacecraft before it. (https://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/The-Mission/index.php)

The largest privately owned piece of land in the U.S. is a cattle ranch in Texas that’s bigger than the entire state of Rhode Island.

The world isn’t running out of sand, but the situation is more complex than it seems. Sand is used in many everyday materials like glass, semiconductors, and most importantly, concrete. Concrete is made of simple ingredients—water, cement, gravel, and sand— and is critical to building structures all over the world. The concern about sand scarcity mainly comes from the environmental effects of mining it, especially from rivers, which can be very destructive. However, it's important to know that we can actually manufacture sand by crushing rocks, and this process can be better for the environment in some cases.
The type of sand used in concrete also affects its strength. For example, sand with angular grains from rivers or manufactured sand can make stronger concrete compared to round, wind-blown desert sand. However, round sand makes the concrete easier to work with because it needs less water. While sand is a non-renewable resource, we can find alternative sources like crushed rock or even recycled concrete. The real issue is the cost and environmental impact of mining and transporting sand, but the world is not actually running out of this vital resource. https://practical.engineering/blog/2024/10/1/is-the-world-really-running-out-of-sand

Antarctica produces wine. Ice wine, obvs. This video shows the origins of wine:

"It was something I couldn’t have imagined," she says. "For several years, I had wished to step onto the international stage as a model.” Said Choi Soon-hwa of South Korea. This week, the 81-year-old took to the stage with women a quarter of her age for Miss Universe South Korea, hoping to make it to the finals in Mexico later this year. Unfortunately for her, she did not win, but got the “Best Dressed” title. At 81, Choi Soon-hwa is the oldest ever Miss Universe contestant:

I couldn't've said it better? Contractions are not always just two words combined. Long contractions include but are not limited to "couldn't've" ("could not have"), "wouldn't've" ("would not have"), and "I'dn't've" ("I would not have"). These are considered very informal but are grammatically correct.

Beyoncé’s co-star in her latest Levi’s commercial in a laundromat is none other than Levi Dylan, the grandson of Bob Dylan!

You’ve heard of Cataract Surgery. Cataract surgery is a procedure to remove the lens of the eye and, in most cases, replace it with an artificial lens. A cataract causes the lens to become cloudy when it is typically clear. The first true cataract extraction was performed in 1747, in Paris, by the French surgeon Jacques Daviel. His procedure had an overall success rate of 50%.
In my 40’s, my eyesight was getting blurry and also cloudy while night driving. Both my eyes were equally bad and I had to really squint to see well - especially after dark. I went to my eye doctor and he said I had cataracts in both eyes. He referred me to the doctor whose name was on the clinic. Doctor Howard Gimbel.
He is co-inventor of the continuous curvilinear capsulorhexis, which was a significant advance in cataract surgery. In 1974, he introduced small incision cataract surgery to Canada. In 1980 he was the first surgeon in Canada to introduce out-of-hospital eye surgery.
He performed the cataract surgery to both of my eyes, and it was truly like a miracle. I could see perfectly after that. He figured out which was my dominant eye, and put in a lens which also corrected my poor long distance sight. The other eye got a lens for reading and short range. So between the two lens implants, my vision was better than at any time in my life. I was 52 when I got the cataract surgery, and that was considered young to have the procedure. There was a patient who was twice my age, 104, who got the surgery from my Doctor. Dr. Gimbel is 90 years old now (2024), and still lives in Calgary. He performed cataract operations at his clinic while he was still in his 80’s.

Midjourney’s interpretation of how my eyes should look…Close, but too much brow

More: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/comparing-the-u-s-and-china-on-eight-measures-of-power

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For a story, Reuters bought everything needed to make $3 million worth of fentanyl.
All it took was $3,600 and a web browser.
At the tap of a smartphone, Chinese chemical sellers will air-ship the ingredients to produce fentanyl to North America. Reuters purchased enough to make 3 million pills. Such deals are astonishingly easy – and reveal how drug traffickers are eluding efforts to halt the deadly trade behind the fentanyl crisis.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/drugs-fentanyl-supplychain/
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-fentanyl-supply-chain-shipping/
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/drugs-fentanyl-shipping/

Ever see a single Croc shoe on a beach? It could have come from a shipping container that fell overboard en route to a port. More than 20,000 shipping containers have tumbled overboard in the last decade and a half, usually because of rough seas. Most of these containers sink to the sea floor and are never seen again. Sometimes they open up and their contents wash onto shorelines, and are added to swirling ocean trash vortexes. You’d think there may be a business idea to retrieve the big steel boxes from the ocean floor?

Switzerland uses a mobile overpass bridge to carry out road work without stopping traffic:

Ninety seven percent of web pages get zero traffic from Google according to Ahrefs.

Matthew Yglesias, a prolific political writer, co-founded Vox in 2014. Six years later, he left to run his own Substack newsletter.
That turned out to be a very good decision: Yglesias says Slow Boring is grossing around $1.4 million a year, with limited overhead.

Cheapest cars to insure in U.S, according to https://www.bankrate.com/insurance/car/cheapest-cars-to-insure/

Burma-Shave once promised to send a contest winner to Mars as part of a promotional campaign.
In 1955 the company offered “Free — Free A Trip To Mars For 900 Empty Jars Burma-Shave”. They chose highway billboards to advertise the contests. Burma-Shave figured that 900 empty Burma-Shave jars was going to be hard to come by.
But Arliss French was a manager of a supermarket in Appleton, Wisconsin. He could get the jars without issue.

“Mr. French wired Burma-Shave and said he was accepting its offer — where should the jars be shipped? In response, the company wired back:
“If A Trip To Mars You Earn, Remember, Friend There's No Return”
French was not to be dissuaded. He countered with another telegram:
“Let's Not Quibble, Let's Not Fret, Gather Your Forces, I'm All Set”
What could Burma-Shave do but respond?
“Our Rockets Are Ready, We Ain't Splitting Hairs, Just Send Us The Jars And Arrange Your Affairs”

Burma-Shave was concerned. But they figured out a way to save face.
Burma-Shave sent him, dressed as an astronaut, to Moers, Germany (of which they felt was pronounced Mars).

Police radio codes like 10-4 for “affirmative” all start with 10 to allow time for the radio to power up. The first syllable spoken of a transmission was often not understood due to early technology quirks.

Up, up and away…The “Mile High Club” was first referenced in a book from 1785, 2 years after the first successful balloon ascent.

John Lennon signed termination papers to dissolve the Beatles while he was vacationing at Disney World in 1974.

Mel Blanc's gravestone reads "That's All Folks!"—the phrase made famous by the character Blanc voiced, Porky Pig, at the end of Looney Tunes cartoons. Blanc, known as "The Man of 1,000 Voices," voiced Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety, Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, and numerous other characters.