Fact O' The Day

[Lady4Fiddy]

[Krandall]

'Development of functional invisibility is well underway.'

Light-bending metamaterials that could essentially "cloak" a two-dimensional object viewed from a specific direction existed back in 2006, but physicists are making consistent progress toward devices that can bend light around three-dimensional objects. Silicon "carpet cloaks" can achieve this effect already, and although they have only done so on an incredibly tiny scale, the technology can, in theory, work with larger objects. The limitations for viewing from a specific angle are also gradually being overcome; UC Berkeley physicists were "optimistic" in improving the technology to work from any angle within a few years.

[Krandall]

'The first modern boxing match lasted 21 rounds.'
The first world heavyweight fight that involved boxing gloves and the new Marquess of Queensbury rules occurred in New Orleans in 1892. Several years before, reigning bare-knuckle champion John L. Sullivan had defended his title in a brutal, illegal bout that lasted 75 rounds and saw Sullivan vomit during the 44th. In 1892, he fought "Gentleman Jim" Corbett in a fight that ushered in a new era of respectability and legality for the sport. Corbett, fully 25 pounds lighter than Sullivan, but an educated and technical fighter, knocked Sullivan out in the 21st.

[Spartan]

Fact of the day...Krandall is a slacker on the weekends

[Krandall]

I didnt sign onto a computer until about 10:00pm last night

[Krandall]

'The FBI's first mission was to investigate prostitution.'
Originally an unnamed force of agents whose purpose was to assist the Department of Justice, the FBI was founded in 1908 under Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte. It was tasked with investigations relating to the Mann Act, also called the White-Slave Traffic Act, a law intended for the prosecution of illicit sexual behavior, including the transport of women for "debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose." J. Edgar Hoover became the first director of the agency (then the Bureau of Investigation), and the Mann Act went on to repeatedly influence American jurisprudence (it was used to prosecute Charles Manson, and is still on the books today).

[Krandall]

'The phrase "O.K." expresses support for Martin Van Buren.'


The 1840 election saw the birth of political catchphrases involving both candidates -- the Whig Party's William Henry Harrison ("Tippecanoe and Tyler, too") and the Democratic Party's incumbent President, Martin Van Buren ("O.K." was an abbreviation for Old Kinderhook, his birthplace). Whether this is definitively the very first use of "O.K." is a matter of debate, but it was definitely used in a pro-Van Buren context, and it soon became part of the American linguistic consciousness.

[Peelz]

interesting.

really. 

[rappyfreak]

I thought it was from WW2 when platoons came back to base with "0 Killed"

[Krandall]

couple different stories.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okay

[Krandall]

'One strike in Britain continued for 25 years.'


The longest-running strike in Britain's history started in 1914, in the form of English schoolchildren protesting the dismissal of their teachers. When the village school at Burston fired Kitty and Tom Higdon on (somewhat suspicious and unlikely) charges of abuse, their pupils marched out of the school and set up makeshift classes on the village green to be conducted by the schoolteachers. A proper school was built on the strength of donations in 1917 (the Burston Strike School). The school closed upon Tom's death in 1939, but still exists in the form of an educational charity.

[Krandall]

'Swarming locusts have larger brains than non-swarming locusts.'


One of the most destructive pests on the planet, locusts can, when swarming, cover a fifth of the Earth's land surface, with swarms hundreds of miles across containing tens of millions of locusts per square mile. Most locusts don't swarm, however; the average locust is solitary and not part of a vast migratory group. According to Cambridge scientists, locusts who are kept solitary, while larger, have significantly smaller brains. Though solitary locusts have brains developed for responding to stimuli, swarming locusts are substantially more invested in learning and processing information, to the tune of a brain 30% larger than that of their solitary counterparts.

[Peelz]

FACT: the "reply" button under each thread should be bigger. So people can see it easier. Apparently, we have lost it. 

no more whores, so lonely. 

[Krandall]

Fact.

Peelz is on strike 2.

[Peelz]

fact:

Im sorry... no ban plz kthxbai