Fastfacts


Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday, December 3, 2003

Things you always never wanted to know

  • Many bacteria that live on the human body reproduce most efficiently in warm, damp conditions. Taking a hot bath or shower may wash off innumerable dead bacteria, but it also encourages those remaining to increase their rate of production by up to 20 times.

  • Perhaps the most bizarre idea for the commercial exploitation of space was proposed by Space Services of America, Inc., run by a former astronaut, Deke Slayton, in association with a consortium of Florida morticians. As the ultimate funeral service, they planned to place the ashes of the departed in capsules aboard a satellite. The satellite would have been covered with a reflective material, so at night it would appear as bright as a star as it orbited the Earth. Interest in the novel form of immortality was not sufficient to get the idea off the ground.

  • Squirrels can fall long distances without coming to harm. One squirrel was observed plummeting 600 feet from a tree to the ground yet was unhurt, thanks to the long fur on its limbs and tail, which when spread helped slow down the animal's descent.

  • The shortest war ever fought occurred on Aug. 27, 1896 between Britain and Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania). Faced by a rebellious sultan, the British fleet bombarded his palace until he surrendered, after just 38 minutes.

  • In 1810, the Welsh "Bank of the Black Sheep" - the Aberstwynth and Tregaron Bank - issued bank notes that carried pictures of sheep, so that illiterate local shepherds could readily grasp their value. The 10-shilling note showed a lamb, the pound note a sheep, and the two pound note two ewes.

  • The famous distress message "SOS" doesn't actually stand for anything. It does not, for instance, mean "Save Our Souls" - it is simply an easy Morse code message to remember and recognize, even if badly distorted by adverse radio conditions ". . . - - - . . .". "Mayday," the distress call used in radiotelephone messages, is a corruption of the French "m'aidez," or "help me."