Published on 12, July, 2020
I thought we could start a thread for sharing facts we love or find interesting/fun. Next time we're due to be in a social situation where it might be expected to share a fact as part of introducing ourselves, we can have this thread as a resource to look through so we have something ready. And at least as importantly I think, this can also be a space for info-dumping favourite facts about special interests. I'll start:
Sheep form life long friendships with other sheep, they maybe related but all will be born in the same year and form a group within the main flock.
Honestly I think a lot of prejudice and discrimination just wouldn't exist if our language was constructed according to who is, has been, or might be animate, sentient, alive.
Makes much more sense to me. I find it so hard to fathom that gender shaped so many languages, and then this has had the reverse effect of shaping gender in return.
In Potawatomi, an Indigenous language spoken in parts of what we now know as Central America and Canada, only around 30% of the words are nouns. And then, instead of conjugating things according to gender like most European languages, Potawatomi conjugates according to animacy or inanimacy. For example, animals, plants, and natural elements are animate, while planes and phones are inanimate.
Absolutely - I think having physical contact with words, letters, music notation, and maybe for more mathematically-orientated braillists, numbers too, means I have a particular kind of depth to my relationship with those things.
Absolutely, the language we speak or use to convey particular things shapes the way we understand and perceive those things... That's just reminded me of another fact I'll add to the thread :)
That's fascinating to me. I love hearing about different ways of experiencing the world. The fact that letters have feeling to you beyond the physical. I looked up the braille of 'I' and 'Y'. I think that I get the same with words, but not so much with letters.
There was a book called "The Medium is the Message" where Marshall McLuhan argued that the format of or medium on which a message is presented is as important as the message itself, and is indeed part of the message in it's own right. Your 'Y' and 'I' brings this home to me.
Nectar comes from the roots nek (meaning death) and tar (meaning to overcome).
I love how this relates to the nectar of the Olympian gods as sustenance for their immortality, and the importance of nectar in pollination which keeps almost everything on Earth alive.
Very true! I actually prefer how the Y looks in braille so might stick to that, since there's no right answer with the Roman alphabet :)
I guess that that it is a bit like arguing the western spelling of a Japanese word. If it's ancient Egyptian, then the western spelling doesn't really matter because it was different characters in the first place. (Disclaimer: I don't know the origins of the word)
I remember arguing once in my youth whether it was Ryuichi Sakamoto (Japanese Composer) or Riuichi Sakamoto - and then realised it's neither because it is 坂本 龍一 (Japanese characters)
I appear to have used both spellings - ha ha.
Aw I do feel very honoured :)
And this is a great fact!
For reference, is the Egyptian Sphinx with an I or Y? (I prefer the Y spelling, but the dictionary says the ca is the Y and the Egyptian figure the I?)
It is longer in time from Cleopatra back to the Sphynx being built than it is from today back to Cleopatra.
Cleopatra was born in 69 BCE
The Sphinx dates roughly from 2500 BCE
The Sphynx was older to Cleopatra than Jesus is to us today.
This used to be my go to fact, but then it started appearing on Facebook and places like that. It's normally about the pyramids (2600 BCE), but I have adapted it in honour of the original poster
(great idea for a thread, Sphinx)
There's a phenomenon called inosculation where healthy trees fuse with wounded ones through their trunks or branches so they can share nutrients and support each other in storms.
Some trees need fire to help them grow.
Whales have incredibly strong social bonds, so that the part of their brain dedicated to empathy and communication is more developed than it is in humans. Often, when mass whale drownings happen, it's because one member of the pod got lost and the others followed.
During mating, male cuttlefish disguise the upper half of their body to look like a female so that other male cuttlefish think it's two females socialising and don't interrupt.
Butterflies taste with their feet, and they have to assemble their own proboscis (feeding device).
Owls have a disc-shaped facial muscle that funnels sound like a satellite into their ears.