Well, I never knew that! Share your interesting info...

[MommyPenguin]

Dish soap is also useful to get diaper rash cream out of hair.  Don't ask me how I know.

However, it is not very useful for removing Aquaphor from baby hair when one reads on the Internet that Aquaphor is good for cradle cap and tries it.  Bad, bad idea.  Stick to baby oil, which is bad enough!

[bopper]

German chocolate was not invented/developed in Germany. It gets its name from the American person who created it; his last name was German.

And German chocolate cake is not from Germany--it was a cake recipe that used German's chocolate.

'

Much to my dismay when I moved to Germany.

[drzim]

An adult human can live quite normally with only one third of one kidney. I found this out when as a student nurse, in my Pediatric clinical rotation, I had to counsel the parents of a three-year-old who had been born with one atrophied kidney and was going for surgery to have it removed. Odd coincidence, the mother of the little one was someone I had worked with prior to going into Nursing.

My dad's cousin was 53 when he had to go in for some abdominal surgery....and learned for the first time that he only had one kidney!  Apparently, he was born with only one kidney but it was never discovered because he was healthy all those years and never had a reason for the doctors to find it.

[singingserpent]

The "correct" way to use a bobby pin is with the wavy side DOWN. I have been doing it wrong forever! Wavy side down keeps the pins in place for a longer amount of time.

[mbbored]

The "correct" way to use a bobby pin is with the wavy side DOWN. I have been doing it wrong forever! Wavy side down keeps the pins in place for a longer amount of time.

Whoa. My mind is blown.

[MizB]

The average woman's vocal folds when stretched out are about as big as a dime, whereas a mans are as big as a nickle.

[girlysprite]

As a mom who nurses her baby I found some fun facts when looking for info about nursing:
The natural nursing period for mans is 3-7 years. 6 momths fulltime, then in addition of solids. It can be observed in many non-western cultures. It also makes sense, as the immune system of a child isn't finished until it's three years old, and until that time it can still benefit from moms immune system.
Babies actually habe instinctual behavior to find the nipple and latch themselves. Moms who have nursed may recognise the tossing of the head, pushing with the arms, throwing the head back and kicking with the feet. If you lay a young baby with his belly on your belly, these movements help him reach his destination. Pushing the arms to reach the right height, moving the head to find the exact location, kicking the feet to crawl a bit up. I tried it myself with me then-3weeks old, and he found his mark in two minutes, with a perfect latch.

On other topics: there is a frog that lives in an area where it freezes during the winter. He lets himself freeze solid. In the spring he aws and is his old froggy self. This is possible because the fluids in his body are adjusted for that (sugary) which prevents cell damage due to frost.

For the people who may remember the soundtrack from inception: in inception, one of the plot points is the use of the melody 'je ne regrette rien'. Another plotpoint is how time slows down in each dream layer. In the soundtrack, when things get really tight, there is this heavy bassy sound that goes like 'duuun dum, duuun dum'. This is actually the start of the song I just mentioned, but just super slowed down. Here is a youtube link which shows what I am talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2sD3QvwnjY

Next topic: people often view witch burnings as something of the middle ages. However, it didn't happen so much back then. It didn't really start as we know it until the 15th-17th century. Before that time the officials of the church mostly shrugged about such issues and went like 'oh, silly superstitions'.

Next topic: dogs are not color blind. They can see two primary colors. Humans can see three primary colors. There are animals that can see over ten primary colors. Compared to them, we are very color blind.

Next topic: scientists have wondered where the wide variety of fur colors in dogs came from, and the fact that they bark. Wolves don't have such colors and don't bark. An experiment with snow foxes showed how these attributes came to be: a scientist bred snowfpxes for one trait: friend.y behavior towards humans. Some foxes are shy and run away quick, some dared come closer. The latter were used for breeding, creating friendlier and friendlier foxes. However, these foxes also gained the following traits, which they hadnt been selected for: spotted fur, floppy ears, and barking. It is indeed known that the change in one trait can bring about the sudden appearance of other trait changes.

[lady_disdain]

Next topic: people often view witch burnings as something of the middle ages. However, it didn't happen so much back then. It didn't really start as we know it until the 15th-17th century. Before that time the officials of the church mostly shrugged about such issues and went like 'oh, silly superstitions'.

So much of what we "know" about the Middle Ages is just plain wrong. From the start, trying to lump together several centuries of history in a large geographical area and with varied cultures is bound to create misconceptions. The second thing is that Renaissance scholars wanted to erase the period, thinking that the Classic period had been the high point of human culture and everything after that was just worthless. The Renaissance tried to erase all the values and culture that had evolved over the last 15 centuries and return to Classical values. I wouldn't argue that the Renaissance brought some wonderful things but it also brought terrible things.

Finally, the cultures of the Middle Ages often operated on very different concepts from ours, which makes them much harder to understand and relate to. From our view points, a lot just doesn't make sense. However, if we understand their assumptions, the end result often makes a lot of sense.

Yes, I am passionate about this subject! If anyone is interested, I recommend Regine Pernout's brilliant "Those Dreadful Middle Ages" (she was a leading medievalist in the 70s and wrote this book to debunk many of the myths about the period. It is dated in some points but still worth the read) and "The Worlds of the Middle Ages" by an author I can't remember but I will check later.

[hermanne]

Another use for Dawn dishsoap:  It works very well to take oil spots off of a paving stone driveway.  I would assume it would work well on concrete, too.  Little bit of soap, little bit of a scrub with a stiff brush and rinse.

Dawn and Ivory Snow dish detergent also work for getting grease spots out of clothes. Squirt some on, rub it in andet it sit for a bit, then wash as usual. If you're not sure it came out the first time, air dry the item in question and check.

[Snooks]

Babies actually habe instinctual behavior to find the nipple and latch themselves. Moms who have nursed may recognise the tossing of the head, pushing with the arms, throwing the head back and kicking with the feet. If you lay a young baby with his belly on your belly, these movements help him reach his destination. Pushing the arms to reach the right height, moving the head to find the exact location, kicking the feet to crawl a bit up. I tried it myself with me then-3weeks old, and he found his mark in two minutes, with a perfect latch.

I've seen laying the baby on the mom's stomach as soon as possible after birth as part of some people's birthing plans on other sites.  The idea being that the baby will do exactly what you've described and it will help both mom and baby with feeding.

[Mad Goat Woman]

Goats are extremely picky about what they'll eat, and while they will eat grass, it's not their preferred meal. They're also related to the deer, and not the sheep, contrary to what most people think-- the reason people think they're more sheep-like is due to the fact that they're what's known as a "small ruminant" animal, i.e. they have more than just the one stomach, where a cow is classified as a "large ruminant" animal.

Also another interesting fact is that Corrie ten Boom was the first female to become a licensed watchmaker in Holland.

[camlan]

Another use for Dawn dishsoap:  It works very well to take oil spots off of a paving stone driveway.  I would assume it would work well on concrete, too.  Little bit of soap, little bit of a scrub with a stiff brush and rinse.

Dawn and Ivory Snow dish detergent also work for getting grease spots out of clothes. Squirt some on, rub it in andet it sit for a bit, then wash as usual. If you're not sure it came out the first time, air dry the item in question and check.

If you have a grease spot on fabric that can't get wet, try rubbing corn starch or talcum power into the spot. Let it sit for a while, then brush it out. You might have to repeat this a few times, but it does eventually absorb the grease/oil.

[stitchygreyanonymouse]

It took me 20 years to realize that the back of the ice scraper has little protrusions so that you can attack particularly difficult sections or large sheets of ice on your window (it will score them so that the scraper side can get beneath the ice). I mean, I knew they were there, but never what they were for. As a midwestern transplant living in central NY now, it’s really nice to know!

[JonGirl]

A former Prime Minister of Australia, Bob Hawke, was in the Guiness Book of Records for sculling 2.5 pints of beer in 11 seconds.

I don't care what party he is. I would totally vote for that guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5mBShX9fdU

There ya go. Now you can see it! 

[IslandMama]

A former Prime Minister of Australia, Bob Hawke, was in the Guiness Book of Records for sculling 2.5 pints of beer in 11 seconds.

I don't care what party he is. I would totally vote for that guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5mBShX9fdU

There ya go. Now you can see it! 

Worth noting that he's 81 in this clip... and it's quite a few years since he led the country.  Still a proud Australian though... hand him a beer, call out "One for the country" and he sculls it without hesitation