Really TRUE odd factoids

[Chris S]

St Dwynwen’s Day and Burns' Night are both held on January 25th.
If your half Welsh and half Scottish then you're going to have a really bad hangover on January 26th.

 

[Seevio]

The air you breathe in a train station is 15% human skin.

If you thought leaving the train station will save you from inhaling skin, just so you're aware about 80% of the floating specs you see in a sun beam are also skin.

Clearly not 15% by volume as evidenced by that fact that we can see through the air, even in a train station.

So what about by mass? Google tells me that the average breath is about 1g and the average rate is about 12 breaths a minute. This leads to 720g/hour. 15% of this is 108g/hour of skin. This may not seem a lot but if you stayed for a full day in a train station it would mean that you inhaled nearly 2.5 bags of sugar worth of skin.

Seems somewhat unlikely to me. I tried to find some source for this but all that I came up with was a load of sites of the "15 fun facts that you won't believe" variety.

My apologies for being picky but the whole point of this thread is that the factoids are true. I'll be happy to believe this but I will need to see some credible data.

 

[classic33]

Clearly not 15% by volume as evidenced by that fact that we can see through the air, even in a train station.

So what about by mass? Google tells me that the average breath is about 1g and the average rate is about 12 breaths a minute. This leads to 720g/hour. 15% of this is 108g/hour of skin. This may not seem a lot but if you stayed for a full day in a train station it would mean that you inhaled nearly 2.5 bags of sugar worth of skin.

Seems somewhat unlikely to me. I tried to find some source for this but all that I came up with was a load of sites of the "15 fun facts that you won't believe" variety.

My apologies for being picky but the whole point of this thread is that the factoids are true. I'll be happy to believe this but I will need to see some credible data.

https://www.metro.us/study-shows-subway-air-samples-include-human-skin/

https://weatherboy.com/breathing-in-dead-skin/

 

[Seevio]

https://www.metro.us/study-shows-subway-air-samples-include-human-skin/

Yeah, thats one of the ones I looked at. 15% of the matter [in the air] is not 15% of the air...

 

[classic33]

As if being alone on a cold, faraway planet wasn't bad enough the Curiosity rover on Mars, was programmed to play "Happy Birthday" to itself. On its first "birthday"/landing date anniversary on Mars, 6th August 2013.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

As if being alone on a cold, faraway planet wasn't bad enough the Curiosity rover on Mars, was programmed to play "Happy Birthday" to itself. On its first "birthday"/landing date anniversary on Mars, 6th August 2013.

 

[Chris S]

In 2019 over 10,000 people applied for refugee status in Japan. Only 44 were accepted.

 

[Blue Hills]

By the end of ww2, 40 per cent of the Gestapo were women.

 

[Chris S]

By the end of WWII Indian, Arab and Turkic legions had been incorporated into the Waffen SS. It was far more ethnically diverse than the British Army's Brigade of Guards and Royal Military Police which had official 'whites only' policies until 1968.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

By the end of WWII Indian, Arab and Turkic legions had been incorporated into the Waffen SS. It was far more ethnically diverse than the British Army's Brigade of Guards and Royal Military Police which had official 'whites only' policies until 1968.

Given that the Waffen SS actively recruited in these areas whereas the guards and the RMP recruited solely in the UK, this is hardly surprising. Initially the SS criteria were - "They were to be German nationals who could prove their Aryan ancestry back to 1800, unmarried, and without a criminal record. A four-year commitment was required for the SS-VT and LSSAH. Recruits had to be between the ages of 17 and 23, at least 1.74 metres (5 ft 9 in) tall (1.78 metres (5 ft 10 in) for the LSSAH). Concentration camp guards had to make a one-year commitment, be between the ages of 16 and 23, and at least 1.72 metres (5 ft 8 in) tall. All recruits were required to have 20/20 eyesight, no dental fillings, and to provide a medical certificate"

As they were slaughtered, recruitment policies changed.

 

[Chris S]

Given that the Waffen SS actively recruited in these areas whereas the guards and the RMP recruited solely in the UK, this is hardly surprising.

The Brigade of Guards and RMP actually had a colour bar until the Race Relations Act came into force in 1968.

 

[Blue Hills]

The Brigade of Guards and RMP actually had a colour bar until the Race Relations Act came into force in 1968.

fair point about the brigade of guards but don't think you can push the comparison with the SS too far chris.
Am reading three books about their activities at the moment.
On one point they were quite happy to work with some Ukranians.

 

[Chris S]

The only comparison I intended was their ethnic makeup in 1945.

 

[classic33]

The average person will spend six months of their life waiting for red traffic lights to turn green.

That's 4,344 hours!

 

[Blue Hills]

The average person will spend six months of their life waiting for red traffic lights to turn green.

That's 4,344 hours!

A fair bit less for a cyclist i assume (am not referring to/promoting red light jumping)