How about an Interesting as HECK thread???

[Karl12]

Here's a good one - Sigmund Freud got all the European 'intelligensia' absolutely hooked on cocaine.


Video


No wonder they all turned to the pseudo-science of eugenics - they were off their rocker lol.

[FlyingClayDisk]

Did you know :O cashews come from a fruit

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzKFbUxYJys

Something interesting about cashews...

I never knew what cashews were, and I always wondered.  They're not what most people thing (or even close).

I lived over in SE Asia for a while (where cashews come from), and yes, it is a fruit, but it's a crazy fruit indeed.

I quickly learned that the cashews I knew are garbage compared to the cashews in Asia,   What we get in the States amounts to stuff people pick up behind a dumpster in Asia.  Most of the really good #1 and #2 cashews go up to China, and most people have never even seen one (let alone a jar full of them).  The really good, warmed, cashew nuts are better like the best lobster or crab, they're fantastic (i.e. soft, flavorful and out of this world).  What we get are the cast offs, ends and broken pieces...and people think these are great (because that's all they know).  I've seen cashew nuts as big as your thumb (seriously), and when they're toasted and served warm, honest, you've never had anything as good!

Most people don't even know about the crazy fruit which yields cashews, nor the people who give their fingers up to harvest and process them.

I've been to places where people pay hundreds of dollars for a bowl of cashew nuts, toasted and/or smoked to absolute perfection.  It's a spectacular treat.

Now, here in the US, I can hardly eat cashew nuts anymore (yes, I got spoiled).  What's available here is just laughable.

[broccoli]

Something interesting about cashews...

I never knew what cashews were, and I always wondered.  They're not what most people thing (or even close).

I lived over in SE Asia for a while (where cashews come from), and yes, it is a fruit, but it's a crazy fruit indeed.

I quickly learned that the cashews I knew are garbage compared to the cashews in Asia,   What we get in the States amounts to stuff people pick up behind a dumpster in Asia.  Most of the really good #1 and #2 cashews go up to China, and most people have never even seen one (let alone a jar full of them).  The really good, warmed, cashew nuts are better like the best lobster or crab, they're fantastic (i.e. soft, flavorful and out of this world).  What we get are the cast offs, ends and broken pieces...and people think these are great (because that's all they know).  I've seen cashew nuts as big as your thumb (seriously), and when they're toasted and served warm, honest, you've never had anything as good!

Most people don't even know about the crazy fruit which yields cashews, nor the people who give their fingers up to harvest and process them.

I've been to places where people pay hundreds of dollars for a bowl of cashew nuts, toasted and/or smoked to absolute perfection.  It's a spectacular treat.

Now, here in the US, I can hardly eat cashew nuts anymore (yes, I got spoiled).  What's available here is just laughable.

:( I want this ambrosia like cashews you speak of..... plz? I feel I will never get a chance but.... I'm going to bucket list this cashew fountain

[Maxmars]

...

I lived over in SE Asia for a while (where cashews come from), and yes, it is a fruit, but it's a crazy fruit indeed.
...

I've been to places where people pay hundreds of dollars for a bowl of cashew nuts, toasted and/or smoked to absolute perfection.  It's a spectacular treat.

Now, here in the US, I can hardly eat cashew nuts anymore (yes, I got spoiled).  What's available here is just laughable.

I too have had the good (or bad) experience of spending years in other countries, but most of what I have learned echoes what you say here...

Mangos, Avocados, Grapefruits, Bananas, and many more are among those things which I see in the supermarket and immediately utter a sad grunt... what passes for fruit here in the States breaks my heart.  

Tiny, dry, rock-hard, shriveled, overly cultivated, freeze dried, gas cured in a cargo container, most fruit that hasn't seen the sun for months as it's offered up for top dollar as 'a deal.'

It's almost a good thing that most American consumers are totally unaware of how good some food stuffs are... because no one would buy what is offered if they understood that what they are getting is dregs, or garbage so very substandard as to be virtually unsellable in the countries where they are produced locally.

... and don't get me stated on meat and fish...  or chocolate.

[FlyingClayDisk]

I too have had the good (or bad) experience of spending years in other countries, but most of what I have learned echoes what you say here...

Mangos, Avocados, Grapefruits, Bananas, and many more are among those things which I see in the supermarket and immediately utter a sad grunt... what passes for fruit here in the States breaks my heart.  

Tiny, dry, rock-hard, shriveled, overly cultivated, freeze dried, gas cured in a cargo container, most fruit that hasn't seen the sun for months as it's offered up for top dollar as 'a deal.'

It's almost a good thing that most American consumers are totally unaware of how good some food stuffs are... because no one would buy what is offered if they understood that what they are getting is dregs, or garbage so very substandard as to be virtually unsellable in the countries where they are produced locally.

... and don't get me stated on meat and fish...  or chocolate.

"Good (or bad)"...is exactly right!  There's plenty of both.

In keeping with the theme of this thread, but hitting on another 'interesting as heck' item, also from SE Asia, is the infamous Durian.  Now, most have probably heard about the Durian fruit (or is it a nut?  I think it's a fruit), so nothing too amazing with that alone, but for anyone who has seen a fresh Durian up close (and personal...and Durian gets real personal real quick) there's a pretty big surprise.

I didn't know what a Durian was before I went to SE Asia, and the first time I was 'assaulted' by one of them I wondered what the horrible stench was.  What I thought was a corpse rotting in a dumpster turned out to be a guy standing out in front of a market with a barrel full of Durians and he was using a parang (a machete like tool) to split them open for people.  Good GAWD, it was horrible!  But, being the Curious George I am, I had to go check it out. 

There are many foods in this world that we wonder why anyone would ever be the first to say..."Hey, let's eat this!"...of all of them, Durian takes 1st place by a wide, wide, margin!  For starters, the Durian is covered by a thick husk and shell which is covered in sharp spikes.  If one of these things ever fell out of a tree and hit a person it would seriously injure them.  Secondly, cutting into one is like cutting into a 4" thick coconut shell, and it takes a heavy blade to bust one open.  Often times the tool of choice is a shorter, but heavier steel, machete like tool known as a "parang'.  When the fruit is still whole it gives off a pretty unpleasant odor, but when you bust one of these things open the stench hits you like a brick to the forehead!  But you're not there yet.  A Durian is about the size of a large coconut, but the part you eat is about the size of a golf ball at the very center.  By the time you get there it smells like you've butchered some 3 day old roadkill.  And the part you eat smells even worse than that (if you can even imagine this).  The stench is so bad it will literally take your breath away and make your eyes water the first time you experience it.  How anyone could have ever said..."Hey, lets eat this"...just defies imagination.  But, "when in Rome, do as the Romans", right? So, now it was time to try it for myself.

There are very few things on this planet which don't taste like what they smell like (smell plays a huge role in our taste).  Well, Durian is one of these things.  Amazingly, it doesn't taste at all like what it smells like.  It's an acquired taste to be sure, and you can't eat it in the vicinity of the husk it came out of because you'll simply vomit.  In my case I waited to try it until I was over a mile away from where they were cutting them.  It still smelled pretty horrifying though.  When I popped a piece of it in my mouth it tasted like cherry at first, but the richest cherry flavor I've ever eaten.  It has the consistency of liver (a very weird mouth feel), and it tastes like cherry with garlic.  You know that overwhelming,  almost gagging, richness you get from eating a clove of raw garlic, well it was just like that.  It was this ultra-rich cherry-garlic flavor.  It was so rich it was difficult for me to even swallow.  I didn't particularly care for it personally, but the local people think Durian is a delicacy, and eat it like it's going out of style.

Not a single thing is normal about the Durian.  It's hostile to handle, very difficult to cut open, stinks beyond imagination, feels like eating liver, and tastes like cherry-garlic.  If nothing else...Durian is "Interesting as HECK!"

[727Sky]

Babies have more bones than adults: Babies have ~300 bones at birth. Most adults only have 206 bones in their skeleton.

[Byrd]

LOL!  OOOookay...but does the word "finesse" really even belong in the same sentence as "ketchup"????  Could someone please pass the black truffles and truffle shaver along with the Pule.  Sheesh!

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The 189k letter word is some medical chemical formula word as I understand it.  A molecular forumula of some sort, or a description of the same.

edit -- I can't imagine anyone ever using such a word, and I suspect it is rolled up into an acronym, but even the acronym must be as long as your arm!  So, there most be some other more practical way to express the same thing.  Can you even imagine someone handing you a letter or paper with a single word which was (16) pages long just by itself???
It would look like..."First you add one liter of water and then start adding the 18 grams of aflkasfaldjadldgjadlfgjdflgjsdlgjs'fdgjsoigusrtogsijgsklbnxkfbhjxviohkdgfjhoasidfjbmzeepoinaoiadfanaeroiubaohlkajdgadflkmsdfhbvciuhsaaltijagnzvlj (plus 15.5 more pages and 189,650 more characters)!  Following this, you add 17 ml of sodium and 16 ml of denatured alcohol"  LOL!! 

A definition I found reads as follows (for the 189,819 letter word)...
 

I read that the word is so long it actually takes (3) HOURS to say it!!!  LOLOLOLOLOL~!!!

Half of that reading is carefully going over the syllables... and then backing up and starting again when you realize that "oops!  You missed something!"

[Byrd]

OOOOO!!!  Me next!  Me next!!!

This has volcanos, boiling snow, and mystery!

https://www.lakescientist.com/mystery-of...ns-solved/

These are cemented into place by minerals that are resistant to erosion, and appear to be related to a large volcanic explosion that took place about 760,000 years ago. Scientists say that the blast was more than 2,000 times larger than that of the eruption of Mount Saint Helens, and created the Long Valley Caldera that holds the Crowley reservoir today.

[Maxmars]

OOOOO!!!  Me next!  Me next!!!

This has volcanos, boiling snow, and mystery!

https://www.lakescientist.com/mystery-of...ns-solved/

Aliens... it has to have been aliens....

[Moon68]

How about a thread on interesting little factoids you been made aware of in life?  You know, a thread of..."Did you know?"...kind of stuff.

I'll start, and please feel free to add yours in...

Did you know...Heinz Ketchup is a Newtonian fluid?  That the recipe was specifically designed to have properties of a Newtonian fluid, and that this was intentional?

You know how ketchup can be notoriously difficult to get out of a ketchup bottle?  Remember the commercials back in the 70's with the little jingle..."An-Tiss-i-Pay-Shun...it's making me wait!"...Well, Heinz (and probably others) realized this so they re-engineered the recipe to create a solution.  Make ketchup a Newtonian fluid.

So what is a Newtonian fluid and why does this matter?  Well, without getting into a bunch of Physics and Chemistry an easy way to explain a Newtonian fluid is a fluid or substance which changes its properties based on exposure to physical energy (in this case shaking).  If you shake a bottle of Heinz ketchup before you pour or squirt it, the ketchup will come out of the bottle much easier.  Shaking the bottle actually changes the 'viscosity' of the ketchup so it pours easier, even when cold.

How many times have we grabbed the squeeze ketchup bottle only to have none come out at first, followed by a fire hose gusher squirting out all over everything?  Too many times, right?  Now try the same thing, but shake the bottle up first and then squirt it...comes out like water, all nice and even and controlled.

When I learned this, I was like..."DOH!!!  Why didn't I know this sooner???"

So now you know...ketchup is a Newtonian fluid!

Just think about how many beers you can win at the bar with this little trivia factoid!  Ask people to name a "common Newtonian fluid?", "KETCHUP!" and...BOOM!...instant free beer! 
Who'da' thunk it???

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Here's another one...

Did you know...jet fuel is not particularly flammable.  Don't try this at home, but if you throw a lit match into a bucket of jet fuel the match will just go out (in most cases).  The reason is because the match doesn't have enough time just above the surface of the jet fuel (refined kerosene) to ignite the fumes, and it's the fumes which burn.  Now, if you instead held the match just 1/8 of an inch above the surface of the fuel, and held it there for a few seconds, it would ignite big time (NOT recommended!).  And definitely don't try this with boiling hot jet fuel either...just sayin'.

Jet fuel, like its counterpart, diesel fuel, has a much higher flashpoint than gasoline does.  And this is why diesel engines have so much higher compression over gas engines, as well as the fuel needing to be atomized during injection into the cylinder, to get it to ignite.

Useless trivia, to be sure.

A few little tidbits from the top of my regarding ketchup.

The round area with 57 on the label on the neck of the glass bottles are the perfect place to tap in order to help extract the ketchup from the bottle quicker, this was an intentional design.

Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as....medicine.