Lloyd, John; and John Mitchinson;
The book of general ignorance
Faber and Faber 2006 / Harmony books NY, 266 pages
ISBN 9780307394910
topics: | trivia
How many moons does the earth have? At least six addl ones. One of these, Cruithne (Celtic name for the Pict people: pron. cru-een-ya, ), is a three-mile (5km) wide satellite with an odd horseshoe-shaped orbit. Five others are: p.50 - 2000PH5, 2000WN10, 2002AA20, - 2003YN107 (about to depart, was at 3.4mn km in jun 06, will return in 60 yrs) Three Of this asteroid group are known to "slosh" around the Earth in bizarre horseshoe-shaped orbits. Occasionally, they become trapped by our planet's gravity and, for a few decades, become "quasi-satellites." The only current quasi-satellite of Earth is 2003 YN107, which began its moon-like phase in 1996 and will end it in 2006. Astronomers calculate that a close pass with Earth more than a century from now finally will kick 2003 YN107 into a normal, circular orbit. - http://www.astronomy.com/en/News-Observing/News/2004/05/A%20new%20moon%20for%20Earth.aspx - 2004GU9 (160-350 meters wide, remarkably stable orbit - since 500 years). - made a close pass of 76.7 Lunar Distances, 0.1970 AU, travelling at 7.08 km/s, to the Earth-Moon system on the 28th April 2010. (addl facts from Corkscrew Asteroids, 2006: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2006/09jun_moonlets/) [AM: The book's information seems far more cut-and-dried than these details imply. There may be others - 2002 AA29? 2001GO2? 2003 YN 107's orbit plotted from 1981 to 2026 and centered on its current quasi-stable episode, which ends in 2006. Red indicates that the object is in the evening sky, black indicates its location in the morning sky. The asteroid is orbiting the Sun, but its path is greatly perturbed when it passes close to Earth. The diagram plots its path in a coordinate system that follows Earth. Below: a close-up of the asteroid's quasi-satellite behavior. The size of the Earth is exaggerated. In 2002, astronomers discovered asteroids in unusual orbits that bring them near Earth for extended periods. The Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) survey of close-by minor planets has identified 19 objects orbiting the Sun close enough to Earth that our planet's gravity has a substantial influence on their paths. All are 100-meter-wide (300-foot) wide boulders traveling in orbits shaped very much like Earth's, but angled out of the plane of Earth's path. Cruithne and earth both co-orbit the sun, with the same period. From the earth, Cruithne appears to make a rAjmA-shaped orbit, period ~ 1 year (slightly less). The earth is not "inside" this orbit, but a little "behind" as it precesses around the sun. More near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) have since been discovered. These include 54509 YORP, (85770) 1998 UP1, 2002 AA29, and 2009BD which exist in resonant orbits similar to Cruithne's. The Cruithne was discovered by Duncan Waldron in 1986 at the Sliding Spring observatory in NSW, Australia, the primary source for obsvns on the Southern sky. Since the late 90s, most discoveries of NEOs are by "Lincoln near earth asteroid research" observatory (LINEAR): 54509 YORP: discoverd LINEAR 2000 ~ 150m orbital period 368.3 d 2002A29: discovered LINEAR 2002, ~ 60m 1998 UP1 : discovered 1998 LINEAR, 33 deg incline, 364.5 days orbit 2009 BD : ~ 10m ORBITAL RESONANCE: when orbits are some integer multiple, periodic gravitational influence. may be stable, as in Neptune and Pluto (2:3), or 1:2:4 between Ganymede, Europa and Io - moons of Jup. Cruithne, and most other NEOs are in 1:1 resonance. [Near-Earth object]s ~ greatest dist from earth [perihelion] < 1.3 a.u.) As of Oct 2008, 982 NEOs of dia > 1km are known. The largest is ~32 kilometers (1036 Ganymed), which orbits the sun between Jupiter and Earth. ] The moon does not orbit the earth, the earth also orbits the moon. The combined center is 1000km under the surface of the earth.
Mauna Kea, the highest point in the island of Hawaii, is the tallest mountain. By convention, "tallest" mountain means from the bottom of the ocean. "highest" means from sea level. At 33,465 ft from sea level, Mauna Kea is taller than Everest. Some argue that Mount Kilimanjaro, at 19,340 ft, is taller than Everest because it rises straight out of the African plain, whereas Everest is merely one other rock sitting on the enormous base of the Himalayas. Measured from the center of the earth, even the beaches in Ecuador (at the equator) are higher than the Himalayas. When the Himalayas were formed, the dinosaurs had been dead for 25 mn years.
Moths are not attracted to flame; they are just disoriented by it. Over millennia of evolution, insects have come to expect the light from the sun and the moon. When a moth sees a flame changing orientation, it assumes it must be somehow flying a curved path, and corrects to keep the flame at a constant angle. i.e. it circles the flame.
can be trained to push a lever only at certain times a day (within an hour)
can remember shapes / colours / sounds for > 3 months.
- U. Plymouth psychologists '03
they don't hit the side of the bowl because they use a pressure-sensing
system called the lateral-line.
45 bn people - half the humans that ever lived - may have been killed by diseases like malaria, yellow fever, dengue, encephalitis, fiariasis, and elephhantiasis, all borne by mosquitoes. Today, one person every 12 seconds is killed my mosquitoes. mosquito = small fly in Spanish 2500 known species of mosquito; 400 in the anopheles family; of these 40 can transmit malaria. Male mosquitoes sing at a higher pitch than females. They can be sexually enticed by a B-natural tuning fork. Female mosquitoes are attracted by moisture, milk, CO2, body heat and movement. Sweaty people and pregnant women have > chance of being bitten. 10
Every few years, mild winters result in overpopulation, and they then set off en masse into new territory - there they pile up against natural obstacles like cliffs, lakes seas. Since more keep piling up at the rear, accidents happen. 12
they match the chameleon's moods.
Invented by US missionary Jonathan Scobie, who used it to wheel his invalid wife through Yokohama, 1869. Fortune Cookies invented in the USA by Japanese immigrant, Makato Hagiwara, creator of the Japanese tea garden in Golden Gate Park, ~1907 onward. However, Chop Suey is a Chinese invention. 17
born Marko Pilic in Korcula, Dalmatia. his book was largely the work of a romance writer called Rustichello da Pisa, who was incarcerated with Polo by the Genoans; Polo dictated it, Rustichello wrote it in French, a lg Polo didn't speak. 18
"Hravat" is the Croatian word for "Croat". --> "Cravat". Became popular in W europe after the uniform of a Cravat regiment in Louis XIII's army (17th c.). Preferred by dandies (called "macaroni") in the 18th c. 19
filed a "caveat" patent with working models etc in 1860, for a device he called teletrofono. He sent his papers to the Western Uni9n, where Bell worked in the very same lab. The models disappeared there. But he was injured in an explosion of the boiler in the Staten island ferry, and did not file the $10 fee for renewing the caveat in 1874. He sued Bell after the latter's patent was registered in 1876, but died while the case was under way. Bell was no fraud though. He also invented the hydrofoil, whose waterspeed record of 70.84 mph from 1919 stood for ten years. His mother and wife were deaf, and he taught the young Helen Keller. 23
kilts: invented by the irish; but the word kilt is Danish (kilte op: tuck up). bagpipes: ancient, probably invented in Central Asia. Mentioned in old testament, Daniel 3:5-15, and in Greek poetry of 4th c. BC. whisky: invented in ancient china. Arrived in Ireland before Scotland, first distilled by the monks. The word derives from Irish uisge beatha, from L. aqua vitae, water of life.
Chicken tikka came from Bangladesh [?] to England; chicken cooked in a tandoor. and in the 1960s, when a customer wanted gravy with it, CTM was invented by a [South-Asian?] unnamed chef. 25
"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" - attrib 1789 to Antoinette. 18th c. brioche was only lightly enriched and not very far removed from a good white loaf of bread (Alan Davidson, Oxford Companion to Food. So the remark might have been an attempt at kindness - give them some good bread. But the line was often used to illustrate aristocratic decadence, at least since 1760; Rousseau said he first heard it as early as 1740.
Albanian: pig goes "hunk hunk", dog barking sounds: Albaninan: "ham ham" Catalan: : bup bup Greek : gav gav Slovenians hov hov Ukrainians: haf haf Iceland: "voff" Indonesian: gong gong Italian : bau bau bangla: "bhou bhou" nearly every lg has cows going "moo", cat going "meow" and cuckoo going "cuckoo". 33 [doesn't hold for bangla / hindi - not cow or cuckoo] dogs tend to mimic the family they are with. terrier with a young family will be lively and hard to control. same dog with an old lady will end up quiet, prone to long periods of sleep. 34
sight hearing taste smell touch - Aristotle At least four more: Thermoception (sense of heat) Equilibripception - sense of balance Nociception: perception of pain from the skin, joints and organs Proprioception : body awareness - unconscious knowledge of where boty parts are without being able to see or feel them. May be as many as 21. Hunger? Thirst? sense of depth, sense of language, synasthesia, sense of electricity,
medieval windows are often thicker at the base because glaziers sometimes couldn't cast perfectly uniform sheets of glass; then they found it easier to stand the glass on its thicker edge. German physicist Gustav Tammann 1861-1938, observed that glass structure is irregular and non-crystalline. As an anaology, he compared it to a "frozen super-cooled liquid". But glass is just an amporphous (non-crystalline) solid.
Only in vacuum does it go at 300K km/hr. Elsewhere, it depends on
the medium. In diamonds, it goes half as fast - 150 K kmph.
Slowest speed:
Until recently, through sodium at -272 deg C it goes at just over 38mph;
slower than a bicycle. [Harvard U team]
In 2000, same group got light to stand still by shining it into a
Bose-Einstein condensate (bec) of rubidium.
is the volcano Olympus Mons on Mars. - 14 miles high and 388 miles across - 3x the height of everest. 57
no centipede known has exactly a hundred feet. Most have odd numbers of pairs of feet - from 15 to 191 pairs. The one closest to 100 is also the only one known with an even # of pairs: 48. - p. 58
The hippopotamus, which often lies submerged near boat routes, or beside the water. According to the Oxf companion to food, the best part of the hippo to eat are the breasts, pot roasted w herbs and spices. Second-best, back muscles.
In the USA. Between 3K and 4.7K in India; as many as 4K in Texas alone; Am Zoo and Aquarium assocn estimate: 12K tigers in private US zoos. Mike Tyson has four. Not very expensive either; cub = $ 1K, a pair of Bengal tigers: 3.5K. Tigers can't stand the smell of alcohol. They'll savage anyone who's been drinking. Tigers fade as they grow older. 67