Make Millions Of Coals Go In There.

[rionaleonhart]

A couple of nights ago, I dreamt that I was being strangled by a Furby. They don't even have arms!

Anyway, I have been musing on the wonders of the Internet. One of the things I like most about the Internet is the way you can learn all sorts of pointless trivia as you leap about from page to page.

Therefore, here is a pointless trivia entry! Tell

Comments

[yumiboo]

Wow, that is a dream. I had an odd dream where I was chased around some weird video-game-esque dungeon by a weird blob thing.

Anyway, I don't know many useless facts (most of the stuff that I know is psych-based, and it might be uninteresting/a bit dorkish of me), but here are some ones I didn't know:

- all polar bears are left-handed
- Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors
- Walt Disney was afraid of mice. Apparently.
- If a month starts with Sunday, the 13th of that month will always be a Friday.
- 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321.

[rionaleonhart]

Don't worry about being dorkish! Part of the idea behind this entry is that people might learn things in areas they wouldn't otherwise study.

I sort of love that blood donor fact.

[yumiboo]

Hehe, I know, it's a darling little stipulation. Although, knowing my luck, it'l turn out to be wrong :(

[dracothelizard]

Do share the psych-based ones!

[yumiboo]

oh, I'm getting requests - this is rather nice :)

Ok, here are a couple I've managed to drag out of my notes:

- Milgram's experiment on obedience (which he did in the 1960's, i think it was 1961?) was created in light of the trial of the World War II criminal Adolph Eichmann had begun. Eichmann’s defense that he was simply following instructions when he ordered the deaths of millions of Jews, which roused Milgram’s interest. His study was to see how many people would 'electrocute' a person, if asked by someone in a position of authority, and if they would 'shock' the person to 400 volts (I.E: more than enough to kill a man) - he predicted that only 3 out of 100 people would comply and 'shock' the man upto 400volts, but roughly 65% actually did this, despite any emotional trauma they were experiencing (panicking, anger, etc) because Milgram probed them to continue with the shocks

[rionaleonhart]

This is all incredibly interesting! I don't know why you were hesitant to post it.

[yumiboo]

because I'm embarrassed by how dorkish I can get about my degree, even though there's a part of me that wants to run away from it and join the circus work in a bakery.

But thank you! :D

[dracothelizard]

Those daydream ones are interesting!

If you like unusual experiments, you should check out Elephants On Acid by Alex Boese. It's filled with 'WTF' and 'that's so cool' kind of stuff, and I think does mention both the Milgram and Stanford Prison experiments. As well as more cheerful stuff, luckily.

[yumiboo]

That link is downright magnificent! I can't wait til I have money cause that book is sop going on my reading list! :D Thank you ever so much for the link and the interest in my knowledge.

[dracothelizard]

I bored EVERYONE around me to death with it. I was like 'hey, guys, some researcher made a COCKROACH STADIUM so he could study if cockroaches ran faster when watched by other cockroaches! And they did!'

And then the sciency conclusion was that when humans are watched while doing simple tasks, we perform them better/faster, but when we're doing something complicated, we get worse at it.

[yumiboo]

Are you kidding me?! I love stuff like that! It helps that I study stuff like this most of the time (like a study someone did into maternal bonds using baby monkeys - they made two wire structures; one was just the metal wiring which had plentiful food and drink, and the other had a soft fluffy cloth wrapped around it, but with minimal food, and they let the baby monkeys choose which structure to go to. The baby monkeys went to the second structure because it was soft and had warmth, which led the scientists to conclude that it's not just nourishment that a child looks for in a parent, but warmth and comfort too).

I'm just a big science/psychology geek who finds this stuff interesting :)

[dracothelizard]

That one is in the book too! :D

[yumiboo]

:D

I now know that I need this book in my life. It could help me with so many of my essays and further reading stuff.

[dracothelizard]

Oh yeah, there's an extensive bibliography in the back :D

[yumiboo]

Yes! That study was recreated in The Heist, thank you for reminding me.

And it is absolutely fascinating stuff to study :)