Really TRUE odd factoids

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Who knew that alligators go into a state of hibernation beneath frozen water?

View: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-68077687

I'm still not going ice skating

 

[Dave7]

The word 'kibosh' as in 'well that's put the kibosh on it' is of unknown origin.
One theory is that it is Irish/Jewish origin but no one knows.

 

[classic33]

https://news.mst.edu/2017/12/st-etymologist-co-authors-book-on-origin-of-put-the-kibosh-on/

 

[Chris S]

There are no bus stops or tube stations in the Soho area of London.

 

[Beebo]

There are no bus stops or tube stations in the Soho area of London.

It’s an interesting fact but not that surprising.
It’s a very small area with mainly narrow traffic free streets. Which is part of its charm.

But there are loads of good bus and tube connections on Regent street, Oxford street, Shaftesbury avenue and Charring Cross Road.

I would guess you are never more than
400m from a tube station at any point inside Soho.

 

[classic33]

One of the most famous haunting stories of the underground is the story of Anne Naylor, murdered in 1758. She is said to haunt Farringdon Station, with passengers reporting hearing blood-curdling screams as the last train leaves.

Mosquitoes in the Underground have have evolved into a completely different species to those that live above ground.

 

[Andy in Germany]

One of the most famous haunting stories of the underground is the story of Anne Naylor, murdered in 1758. She is said to haunt Farringdon Station, with passengers reporting hearing blood-curdling screams as the last train leaves.

Mosquitoes in the Underground have have evolved into a completely different species to those that live above ground.

Are those two facts related?

 

[classic33]

Are those two facts related?

Not as far as I'm aware.

 

[classic33]

For 87 years, from 1854 until 1941, a bizarre train service - the London Necropolis Railway - ran an almost daily service from Waterloo Station to Brookwood Cemetery, carrying anything up to 2,000 bodies a year, and segregating both the living and the dead according to their class and their religious persuasion.

https://www.london-walking-tours.co.uk/secret-london/london-necropolis-railway.htm

 

[simongt]

If you put one grain of rice on the first square of a chessboard, two on the next one, four on the next and so on 'til every square is occupied, apparently if you lay all the accumulated grains end to end, they'll stretch to the moon four times - !

 

[Mike Ayling]

https://news.mst.edu/2017/12/st-etymologist-co-authors-book-on-origin-of-put-the-kibosh-on/

Thanks for calling BS on that one!

 

[Chromatic]

If you put one grain of rice on the first square of a chessboard, two on the next one, four on the next and so on 'til every square is occupied, apparently if you lay all the accumulated grains end to end, they'll stretch to the moon four times - !

View: https://purposefocuscommitment.medium.com/the-rice-and-the-chess-board-story-the-power-of-exponential-growth-b1f7bd70aaca

 

[markemark]

There are no bus stops or tube stations in the Soho area of London.

New Tottenham Court Road Elizabeth line entrance is on Dean St in soho.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/eGKgsoLre92MdJdp8?g_st=ic

 

[Mike Ayling]

One of the most famous haunting stories of the underground is the story of Anne Naylor, murdered in 1758. She is said to haunt Farringdon Station, with passengers reporting hearing blood-curdling screams as the last train leaves.

Mosquitoes in the Underground have have evolved into a completely different species to those that live above ground.

What did Anne's ghost do for the 100 or so years until Farringdon station was built in the eighteen fifties?

Maybe it was those savage mosquitoes that caused the blood curdling screams!

 

[Seevio]

Every second, the Sun's core fuses about 600 million tons of hydrogen into helium, and in the process converts 4 million tons of matter into energy.

This works out as 3.6x10^23KJ. Enough to heat 7 Olympic sized swimming pools.