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aFactADay2022

#730: WHOOOO!!!! i am now definitely the only person in the world whos kept up their new year's resolution for 2 × 365 days!!! what a year its been!

the themed week thing was really fun and definitely changed the way i research. however, i wont continue it into 2023, because i felt it was slightly restrictive, particularly towards the end, so it wont be continued into future fotds - stay tuned though for a whole new format in 2023!!

nonetheless, lets look back on the year in the nerdiest way i could think of: doing one more fact for each themed week!!

(between this and the pub quiz thing, ive been researching and writing facts for a solid four days.... the 51st one is very fun btw.)

#1: Fireworks! fireworks have always been dominated by the chinese: the first gunpowder fireworks were manufactured during the Song dynasty, and the first coloured fireworks were mentioned in 14th century chinese texts. the first rocket propulsion and rocket warfare was employed by the chinese, mentioned in texts from the 14th century. to date, china is the largest manufacturer and exporter of fireworks in the world.

#2: US Laws! in Little Rock, Arkansaw, under article II section 18-54, you cannot honk your horn at a place that serves cold drinks or sandwiches. the exact phrasing is “No person shall sound the horn on a vehicle at any place where cold drinks or sandwiches are served after 9:00 p.m.” and i wonder whether this means you can honk all you want before 9pm, or whether its only at shops that sell after nine that you cant honk your horn. i would also like to know whether 1am is after or before 9pm. badly written law if you ask me.

#3: Tornadoes! texas is the most tornado-ridden state in the US, at an average of 125 tornadoes per year, followed by oklahoma at 57/year. however, florida has more tornadoes per square mile because its much smaller, even though it only gets an average of 55/year.

#4: Yellow! yellow is the easiest colour to see, with a wavelength at around 555nm, which is why its used in warning signs and so on. thats also why yellow screens cause more eye strain, and why taxis and schoolbuses are yellow.

#5: Calories! there is a very popular myth that celery is a negative-calorie food because it takes more to crunch and digest the fibrous makeup than it contains. however, a study at the oxford brookes university busted this, showing that over 85% of the calories it contains are burned to eat it. but that 15% still makes up 2 calories per 100 grams. but all is not lost! another study has shown that celery can act as ballast, with nutritional content but less calories, as it fills you up and takes up space. moreover, it reduces your appetite, meaning that all in all a side-salad of celery could reduce the caloric intake of a meal by 12%, adjusted.

#6: Nothing! this is less of a fact, but nonetheless, i read an interesting opinion from 1995 called Nothing is Nothing. it argues that the universe must have sprung from something: cosmologists claim that the universe started from nothing, and this particular shade of nothing happened to consist of quanta fluctuating in a vacuum. and surely that makes it something? to quote Lev Landau, “Cosmologists are often wrong, but never in doubt.” i would imagine that the theory is more refined these days but i thought it was interesting.

#7: Squid! every year theres a competition held called the All England Squid Championships, where they try to catch the biggest squid. it is literally a squid game. but in 2012 the adverse conditions meant it was very difficult to catch squid. in fact, only one squid was caught that whole day, by Davide Thambithurai, and it was a third of an inch long. of course it won, but it doesnt feel like a win...

#8: Flowers! sunflowers, aka helianthus, can remove toxic substances from the soil, like arsenic, lead and uranium. after the chernobyl disaster, they were planted to remove caesium-137 and strontium-90 from a pond.

#9: Money! a pound of pounds is 52 pounds (nearly). thats right. If you want the most pounds in a pound, five pound coins (no longer minted) are your best bet: a pound of five pounds is 80 pounds. a more modern second place is a pound of two-pounds clocking in at 75.6 pounds, providing you chop of a fifth of that last one.

#10: Wet Wipes! they were invented by Arthur Julius, a cosmetics factory worker who took a soap portioning machine home in 1957. in 1958 he trademarked the name Wet-Nap which is still being used. his invention was unveiled at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago in 1960.

#11: Fwoggies! the Truadiobatrachus massinoti is an extinct species of “proto-frog” around 10cm long that is thought to be the common ancestor to all frogs.

#12: Chimpanzees! chimpanzees are really bad at rock paper scissors. it took them around 100 days to learn it and only 5 of the 7 subjects got it. and even then theyre awful because they just go for the same thing again and again. the tricky part was the circular nature of it: if scissors beats paper and rock beats scissors, why should paper beat rock? i expect most people have wondered this, actually. i spose you could wrap it up and hide it in a recycling bin... in japan, the traditional alternative is the tiger, the village chief, and the village chief’s mum. the mum kills the chief when he doesnt come home for tea, the chief kills the tiger when it threatens the village, and the tiger kills the mum because thats what tigers do. i think that makes much more sense.

#13: Ice Skating! the first ice skates were probably developed in scandinavia, c1000BC. this was probably more like sliding than skating, but when the dutch made sharp-edged blades in the 13th/14th century it became more refined. the first ice skating club in england was founded in edinburgh in the 1740s.

#14: Tetris! the game was developed partially in order to demonstrate how easy computers could be used, to show that a computer isnt just “a sophisticated thing to deal with numbers and spreadsheets, but also a fun toy to play a simple and engaging game.” the 10x20 grid that the game takes place on is called the matrix.

#15: Easter! 76% of people eat the ears of an easter bunny first.

#16: Trains! in the 50s, there was still a law that train operators had to run affordable 3rd class trains. but they didnt want people to pay less than lots, so they decided to remove the second class, and raise the price of the third class to that of the second, so they effectively had no third class but it was still around. they also gave chimney sweeps free travel because they could sit in third class in their skanky sooty clothes and scare away all the passengers, so people would rather pay the price for first class. sneaky!

#17: Sports Grounds! the oval in south london opened as Kennington Oval, because cricket grounds are shaped like an oval and its in Kennington. the word oval itself comes from latin “ovum” meaning egg. it gives its name to Oval Station, which was the first station in london to get electrified tracks.

#18: Stained Glass! one theory for the prevalence of stained glass was for the benefit of medieval churchgoers, who would have been illiterate, so the stories told through stained glass made the religion more accessible.

#19: Sounds Effects! one major progress moment for foley was the invention of the Vitaphone system by Warner Bros that allowed for sounds to be played in perfect synchronisation with film, allowing for complicated interlocking sounds.

#20: Hedges! formal hedges (the ones in topiaries) need to withstand regular shearing, but even the hardiest plants get tired of this, so they need to be allowed to grow a little longer every time theyre sheared. this means that eventually you need to cut it down and start again. this makes some types of tree very unsuitable for this sort of hedge, like many needle-leaved plants.

#21: Clown! the word Clown comes from cloyne in the 1560s meaning peasant or a man of rustic manners. theories include that it came from scandinavian or low german. one theory i like is that it came from the same stem as clod [of dirt] because clod and clot are used in many languages as synonyms for clown. another theory i find interesting is that it came from Latin “colonus” meaning colonist or farmer, but this seems less likely.

#22: Sedan Chairs! sedan chairs were named after the town of Sedan in France, where they were first used. when introduced to london, they were much cheaper than the hackney cabs, and were much quicker and more versatile, which was why they became so popular so quickly.

#23: Big Ships! Santa Maria, christopher columbus’s largest ship when he reached america, was only 19m long. the largest ship ever built is a tanker called the Seawise Giant, which is 457m long. it was bombed during the iraq-iran war, rebuilt, renamed, resold, rebuilt again, and scrapped after 34 years of life, 5 of which were spent doing nothing in a dock in japan.

#24: Count Dracula! he has appeared in nearly 300 films, making him the most portrayed film character! Christopher Lee has played 11 of these.

#25: Locusts! locust trees are a genus of north american trees used for decoration (and lumber). many of the plants’ flowers can also be eaten and are often had in pancakes and fritters. theyre allegedly called this because the flowers look like locusts... the word locust itself comes from Old French “languste” from Latin “locusta” which is also the origin of langoustine and lobster. people arent quite sure how the c in locust went to a p in loppestre - the prevailing theory is that it was an intentional corruption, influenced by the Old English for spider, “loppe”.

#26: the Charts! since the start of the charts, bands have been trying to cheat the system. rich artists in america would buy and resell thousands and thousands of their own songs to get into the charts. until quite recently, if you bought a t-shirt or went to a gig, it would come with a free record, just so they could say they sold one.

#27: Conspiracy Theories! heres a few more conspiracy theories:

the ice bucket challenge is a baptism ritual for indoctrinating people into satanism.

nigerias 75yo president, who was ill for a while, is a clone.

the hadron collider is a gateway for shiva.

finland doesnt exist - its a ploy by the swedish, russians and japanese to get more fishing rights. the top bit is allegedly just part of sweden and the bottom bit you see on the maps is all sea.

pokemon go is designed by the US government to track everyone. if they wanted to track you, im guessing there are easier ways to do it.

dinosaurs built the pyramids of egypt.

back to the future predicted the 9/11 attacks and the JFK assassination.

the earth is hollow and filled with civilisations.

#28: Bri’ish Monarchs! 88% of brits think queen elizabeth ii faced to the left on all the coins, but she actually faced to the right. this may be because she faced to the left on stamps, but in denmark, there is exactly the same false bias, and the queen of denmark faces outwards on the stamps. this negates the stamp theory, in favour of the fact that its a right-handed thing. apparently its just easier to draw profiles towards the left. the monarchy alternates the direction of facing, since charles ii: the first coin with charles iii on it was recently minted and he is facing to the left, just like george vi.

#29: Caviar! even though its fish eggs, the name derives from bird. it comes from Persian “khaviyar” from Middle Persian “Khayak” from Old Iranian root “qvyaka”, a diminutive of “avya-” from PIE “owyo-” meaning “egg” from root “_awi-” meaning “bird”. this root is also the source of ocarina (diminutive of italian “oca” meaning goose), as in the game.

#30: Microorganisms! sadly, the NCTC havent published their christmas quiz yet. but there was an experiment where tardigrades were shot out of a gun. they survived speeds of up to 2 kilometres per second and pressures of up to 1.4 gigapascals and apparently their gait simply goes dizzy.

#31: Magnetism! Hans Christian Ørsted was the lad who discovered that an electric current produces a magnetic field. he initially discovered this in april, 1820, but he ignored it for three months for some reason... there is a CGS unit named after him, the oersted, which is equivalent to one dyne per maxwell.

#XXXII: Roman Numerals! man, dem engineers getting everywhere! even the i’s in roman numerals are turning into j’s! thats right, during the middle ages when lowercase letters were favoured, the last i in a chain was changed to a j, possibly as a swash variant. this was actually continued into the 20th century in medical documents. the medieval scribes really wanted everything a lot shorter, though, so they started inventing new roman numerals willy nilly. like s for vii (“s”even), S for lxx (“S”EVENTY i guess), F for xl (“F”ORTY), O for xi (“O”NZE). for some reason an X with a little tick after it was 9.5 and a K was 151. maybe they were fans of gen 1?

#33: Potatoes! the Frietmuseum is a museum in Bruges dedicated to chips. it was founded in 2008 by eddy van belle in a building from 1399. exhibits include the history of potatoes, the history of potato peelers, artworks of chips, and how to make the perfect fries. i visited bruges not long ago and im sad i missed this.

#34: Lighthouses! the Sharps Island Lighthouse was blown off its pedestal in 1881, and was swept five miles down the bay with the keepers still inside. It was rebuilt, but this new lighthouse was subject to 40 feet of ice in 1976, pushing it over to an angle of about 15 degrees, rather leaning-tower-of-pisa-esque.

#35: the Channel Tunnel! one major concern of construction was that animals could carry rabies through the tunnel onto the otherwise rabies-free island. another major concern i already talked about was invasion. oh and by the way, the trains drive on the left for the whole duration of the tunnel.

#36: Dinosaurs! one of the earliest known dinosaurs was the Eoraptor, whose name means “dawn plunderer”, allegedly because it lived in the dawn of the dinosaurs. the eo prefix comes from greek “eos” meaning dawn, which comes from the same root as aurora, east, easter, austria and australia. so aurora australis means dawn dawn wind. or something.

#37: Spreadsheets! Tatsuo Horiuchi, aka the Michelangelo of Excel, uses Excel to create digital vector paintings of japanese landscapes.

#38: Cowboys! since they were exposed to a lot of cacti, cowboys wear chaps on their legs. no, not fellows, nor flakey lips, nor divisions of political parties. a piece of leather clothing thats like leggings with a belt. they were originally used in southern spain by vaqueros.

#39: Cats! cats spend 13-16 hours a day sleeping, which is quite typical of predatory animals. the mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska, was an orange tabby called Stubbs, for 20 years! this town also holds annual moose dropping festivals. it only has 900 residents so the cat doesnt hold much legislative power. according to the manager at a general store, “He doesn’t raise our taxes - we have no sales tax. He doesn’t interfere with business. He’s honest.”

#40: Coyotes! theres one story in the indigenous Chinookan folklore where a half-coyote, half-human goes up to a river and tries to fish but it cant so it does a big poo and the poo tells it that its really bad at fishing, so the coyote-thing asks the poo how to fish and the poo gives detailed instruction. the next day the coyote-thing comes back to the river and forgot how to fish, so it does another big poo, and the poo gives even more detailed instructions. and thats how the coyote learned how to fish.

#41: Car Safety! the WHO has a list of 7 utmost important regulations of safety standards, but only 40 countries comply with them and 80% of cars sold are not compliant. in the US, a pedestrian is hit by a car every 8 minutes. 90% of crashes are caused at least in part by human error according to Stanford Law School.

#42: Hibernation! even fish hibernate. for example, the antarctic cod (Notothenia coriiceps) burrows under the seabed for days at a time during the polar night.

#43: Carrageen Algae! most algae are photosynthetic, but some are mixotrophic, getting some energy from phagotrophy and myzocytosis. but some are parasitic! for example, the Oodinium algae is a genus of dinoflagellates that causes velvet disease in fish by living inside the gills and covering it in its yellowy spores.

#44: PEZ! each PEZ sweets is 15x8x5mm. The logo is made to appear like its constructed out of 44 sweets (a total coincidence that thats the week number, i swear!), making the P 41mm tall, the E 35mm tall and the Z somewhere between 24 and 32mm tall. even thought theyre all portrayed as the same size...

#45: Folding Chairs! the two major varieties of folding chairs are called Front-X and Side-X for obvious reasons. side-X chairs are actually defined by having the support for the backrest and front foot conjoined.

#46: Lightning Rods! lightning rods are often called finials because they act as a finial. sometimes a finial acts as a lightning rod. why cant one thing be two things, i spose. a finial is some sort of pointy thing that emphasises the apex of a building, for example a dome, spire or tower. some finials are pinnacles and some finials are called bouquets. it comes from latin “finis” meaning end, because the finial is the end of the building. but if you didnt have a lightning rod, then surely _that_s the end of your building? xD

#47: Avatar! in Avatar the last airbender, the people can manipulate one of the four elements. The moves for each element was inspired by a different martial art: waterbending by T’ai chi; earthbending by Hung Gar, firebending for Northern Shaolin and Ba Gua for airbending. the styles for each was carefully selected to reflect the element and characters. but interestingly, Toph Beifong who was born blind, was completely self-taught in the ways of earthbending, so her moves are like Southern Praying Mantis, a martial art stemming from a type of kung-fu, which focuses on the hands and speed. there are five main branches of this style, each refined by a different family.

#48: from Kalamazoo to Timbuktu! the first example of rhyming found is the Chinese Shi Jing from c.10th century BC. rhyming is occasionally used in the bible as well. The Quran also uses a form of rhymed prose called saj’. it is known that the ancient greeks knew of rhyming, but classical greek/latin poetry only used it occasionally.

#49: Darts! the line you throw from is called the oche, and must be 7’9” from the board, which is most often positioned at 5’8” off the ground. just from what little i can find around and about, the word used to be hockey (probably pronounced like the hokey pokey) and this word seemed to spring up from nowhere. there is a theory that it comes from the brewery “S. Hockey and Sons” and their crates were used as the toe-line. however, it is unlikely, because there arent any records of such a brewery.

#50: Disneyland! the park in california costed $17m to build, and took 2500 labourers. it is the only of many disney parks to be overseen by walt disney himself. the bench he sat on to dream up the idea of the park is for some reason on display in the park.

#51: Pub Quiz!! for the grand grand finale of the year, heres seven more pub quiz questions! theyre going to be impossibly difficult, as ever, but the theme for this set is #aFactADay! thats right - seven meta-facts!!

1) throughout the whole of #aFactADay2022 and #aFactADay2021, how many characters (not including newlines or the hashtags themselves) were used?

2) throughout the three hashtags, 1.6589% of letters were uppercase. in just #aFactADay2022, what percentage of letters were uppercase?

3) how many spaces are in #aFactADay2022?

4) in #aFactADay2022, how many prices in GBP or USD are mentioned?

5) of the 6447 capital letters used in the three hashtags, how many of them were Es?

6) in 2021, 100%, 85% and 6% were the most commonly used percentages at 3 occurrences each, followed closely by a tie between 2%, 3%, 5%, 8%, 16% and 80% at 2 occurrences each. in 2022, what were the most commonly used percentages?

7) on the first of january, 2022, what time was the first ever #aFactADay2022 posted? one point for on ph and one point for on discord.

_ _

ANSWERS:

1) 503274. this is about three and a half times the length of hamlet, shakespeares longest play.

2) 1.43229936%. i find it interesting that the capital density went down this year.

3) 45622. i didnt count newlines in this, and emoji had a space either side so they were counted double. apart from this, its a close estimate for the wordcount. this is about two-thirds the length of frankenstein by mary shelley. which i struggle to believe because i read most of the fotd-2022s in about three days, but it took me about three months to read frankenstein.

4) 46. i just did a count for all the instances of $ and £ so it should be close enough. in 2021 it was just 24.

5) 145. this is just 1 in 44 capitals, whereas the lowercase e makes up about 1 in 8. i will now refer you to the lipogrammatic works of Georges Perec, and in particular, his univocalic novel, which i impulsively bought late at night a few months ago simply because its cool.

6) 4% and 60% were both used three times in 2022.

7) 11:11 on pokeheroes and 12 minutes later at 11:23 on discord. there is approximately a 30% chance that i posted at 11:12 on pokeheroes, which doesnt have the same ring to it (this uncertainty derives from the way it rounds the date). i didnt note it down, you see, i just stalked the feed until the time since posting changed. i say i stalked it, i mean i got some code to stalk it for me.

#52: Christmas! brits love sprouts. 25% of sprout sales in the UK happen in the 2 weeks before christmas - as mentioned previously, thats 750 million! if you lined these up, it would stretch from london to sydney! however, some estimates (there are disagreements on this) say that around 12 million sprouts go uneaten. some sources claim this figure is as high as 300 million. why are sprouts so divisive?? (i love em xD ) well apparently theres a gene carried by about two-thirds of people that makes you taste a sharp bitterness in sprouts that not everyone tastes.

and that concludes #aFactADay2022!!! happy new year, and see you tomorrow :D

#afactaday #aFactADay2021 #fact of the day #fotd730 #this post was auto-posted by flanbot

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