Post a random fact!

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I asked Derek if he wanted to contribute a random fact. Here's his two cents:
(Warning for the youngsters: National Geographic-type image at bottom of post)

Contrary to popular notion, Mary Phelps Jacob did not invent the first "bra".

[Paraphrased from the website, "Useless Information, Stuff You Never Needed to Know but Your Life Would be Incomplete Without", http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/index.html.]

Around 2500 B.C., Minoan women that lived on the Greek isle of Crete actually wore a bra-like garment that actually lifted their bare breasts out of their clothes.

Years later, ancient Roman and Greek women took the opposite approach. They actually strapped on a breast band to reduce their bust size.

Marie Tucek patented the first brassiere in 1893. This "breast supporter", as she called it, looked very similar to the modern brassiere. The device included separate pockets for the breasts, straps that went over the shoulder which were fastened by hook-and-eye closures.

In comparison, Mary Phelps Jacobs device was patented in 1914 [and was also a device to reduce bust size]. However, it was the first device to be called a "brassiere".

I guess the pundits may have been wrong. I don't think the "bra" on this minoan statue is wearing really qualifys as a "breast support device".

I couldn't find any other pictures with the alleged "minoan breast support devices".

The non-math, lay explanation of this is usually because cats to need enough time and distance to twist themselves into a proper landing posture that enables them to absorb the shock with the least amount of stress to their bodies. Cats are extremely limber animals, which has its pros and cons. In terms of absorbing shock, if the cat's body is not properly alligned to diffuse the shock, the cat's limberness works against it, making it much more vulenrable to injury.

We know this mainly from the very detailed frescoes unerthed at Crete and Thira. I would post a pic of one of these frescoes but I wouldn't want ot offend anyone. We're not sure why Minoan women liked to wear dresses designed specifically to reveal their uplifted breasts, or if it had any particular soicological or political meaning.

We know very little about the Minoans. We didn't even know they existed before 1900. They were named the Minoans, because the extraordinary palace discorved on Crete appeared to resemble Plato's descrption of the city of Atlantis. Plato's story tells of a benevolent king, Minos, which which the first researchers of the Minoans got that name.

Many archeologists think the Minoan civilization was indeed Atlantis .It appears to fit other of Plato's details: a peaceful, weathly and powerful trading civilization that was more advanceed than any other civilization of its day. It even had a writing system older than heiroglyphics. Its geographic location and sudden disappearence fits Plato's story as well.

It is not clear what destoryed the Minoans, although it is well known that an eruption of the ocean volcano Santorini around 1650 BC wiped out the Minoan settlement on Thira. It is speculated that the sudden destruction at Thira wiped out the Minoan navy, rendering Crete defenseless to invading Greeks, who ay have destroyed the last of the Minoans only 50 years later.

The eruption at Santorini is estimated to be 4 times more powerful than the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. In first, it is beleived to be the most powerful volcanic event int eh last 10,000 years.

We live on a world called Earth, it is in the Milky Way.

*applause*

Today is still Saturday if you live in the Western Hemisphere. It's Sunday for you if you don't.

The only reason I'm posting is because I'm trying to distract myself from cleaning up my art stuff in my room, because I made quite a mess tonight and I don't want to clean it up, even though I need to clean it up before I go to bed, but fortunately I don't have to go to bed soon, so I need to come up with stuff to post about, and oh yeah, my cat's sitting on my monitor and he's staring at me.
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The above is a run-on sentence.

There are two kinds of lava: a'a and pahoehoe, both of which are Hawaiian words that all geologists use. A'a lava looks crinkly, pahoehoe looks smooth and ropy. Here are pictures of each:

A'a lava:



Pahoehoe lava:

Dimes, Quarters, half Dollars and Dollar (Silver); minted in 1964 and prior are made out of silver and are worth more money.

I still recieve the quarters and dimes for change, and i keep em.

aylissa:

I am guessing the a'a lava is formed when it flows into water

and the pahoehoe formed when it cools in the air?

No, hermit, that is not correct. However, thank you for pointing out that there is actually a third kind of lava, called pillow lava, that forms when lava hits the water:

The 5 most stolen items from US drugstores:

1. Batteries
2. Cosmetics
3. Film
4. Sunglasses
5. Preparation H

Everyone knows that spinach is loaded in iron and makes you stronger - Just look what it has done for Popeye's career. Well, Popeye was wrong. So were all of those parents that stuffed it down their kids' throats. In reality, spinach has no more iron in it than any other vegetable. This spinach misconception dates back to the 1950's when a food analyst made an error while calculating the iron in spinach. His decimal place was off by one place, suggesting that spinach had ten times as much iron content than it really did.
From website "useless information" http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/fast_facts/index.html

Andromeda Galaxy 2.9 million light years away from the Milky Way.

I knew that spinach wasn't that high iron but I never knew the backstory behind Popeye. Besides iron doesn't build strong muscle - it mainly helps with the formationof hemoglobin in the red blood cells. People like me who tend to be anemic don't suffer with muscle weakness due to low iron, but fatigue.

Calcium is more important in muscle formation and strength, and spinach is high in calcium. However, like collard greens and kale, spinach contains a lot of oxalic acid which can interfere with the body's absorption of calcium, causing the calcium to be filtered out of the blood by the kidneys. That's why in people who are suspectible to kideny stones, eating large amounts of these vegetables can lead to the formation of stones, since kidney stones are mostly ade of calcium. No wonder they hurt so much.
Ouch.

There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on Earth.

there are more grains of sand on the beaches of normandny than there are functioning brain cells in ALL OF CONGRESS!! !! !! !

lol