Official Random Fact/Random Thought Thread!

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  • #201
Random Fact: How many legs does a Hermit crab have? A hermit crab has two pairs of antennae and round eyes on the ends of eyestalks. Hermit crabs have 10 legs, but only 6 legs show. These front 6 legs are known as walking legs. Hermit crabs keep their 4 back legs inside their shell.

Random Fact: Is coffee a berry or a bean...or something else entirely? It is the pit inside the red or purple fruit often referred to as a cherry. Even though they are seeds, they are referred to as 'beans' because of their resemblance to true beans. The fruits - coffee cherries or coffee berries - most commonly contain two stones with their flat sides together.
 
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  • #202
Random Fact: Why do we see different colors? When different wavelengths of light hit our eyes, we see different colors. Light from the sun or light bulbs has many different wavelengths. This great mixture of wavelengths is commonly perceived as white. If the light hits an object - a road, tree, house, anything really - the object absorbs some wavelengths and we see the object with only certain colors.

Random Fact: How fast does a crack in glass travel? When glass breaks, the cracks move faster than 3,000 miles per hour. To photograph the event, a camera must shoot at a millionth of a second.
 
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  • #203
Random Fact: Do sharks have tongues? Sharks have a tongue referred to as a "basihyal". The basihyal is a small, thick piece of cartilage located on the floor of the mouth of sharks and other fishes. It appears to be useless for most sharks with the exception of the cookiecutter shark.

Random Fact: How many songs did Elvis record during his lifetime? Elvis recorded over 700 songs. Elvis, through his own publishing companies (Elvis Presley Music, Gladys Music, Whitehaven Music and Elvis Music, Inc.) was part owner (typically half or third) of a great many of the songs he recorded and even some songs he did not record.
 
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  • #204
Sorry, everyone, I've been kind of slacking on this thread lately. Having a rough go of it lately.

Random Thought: If people were still heavily dependent upon wood and brush and tinder for warmth, the arborist and "tree guy" would *probably* be getting paid for ALL of their unused tree materials and not just for some of te more expensive woods -- and they certainly wouldn't lose any money on disposal. This might sound blatantly obvious, but how often do you think about it?

Random Fact: What does the moon smell like? Moon dust smells like spent gunpowder or coals from a fireplace. This is according to the 12 astronauts that have had the opportunity to smell fresh Moon dust that had been tracked into the lunar module after excursions out on the surface of the Moon. On Earth, moon dust has no smell. However, scientists have tasted moon dust and described it as tasting like the same things.
 
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  • #205
Random Fact: The invention of the fire hydrant is unofficially credited to Frederick Graff, chief engineer of Philadelphia Water Works, in 1801. Ironically, the official fire hydrant patent is rumored to have been destroyed in a fire.

Random Fact: Only two sports ever have been played on the moon. During the Apollo 14 mission, astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell took an entirely different kind of "giant leap for mankind," playing sports on the lunar surface. Shepard famously hit golf balls with a modified six-iron, and Mitchell threw a javelin.
 
Sorry, everyone, I've been kind of slacking on this thread lately. Having a rough go of it lately.

Random Thought: If people were still heavily dependent upon wood and brush and tinder for warmth, the arborist and "tree guy" would *probably* be getting paid for ALL of their unused tree materials and not just for some of te more expensive woods -- and they certainly wouldn't lose any money on disposal. This might sound blatantly obvious, but how often do you think about it?

Random Fact: What does the moon smell like? Moon dust smells like spent gunpowder or coals from a fireplace. This is according to the 12 astronauts that have had the opportunity to smell fresh Moon dust that had been tracked into the lunar module after excursions out on the surface of the Moon. On Earth, moon dust has no smell. However, scientists have tasted moon dust and described it as tasting like the same things.
How many times have I told you? Wipe your feet before you enter the lunar module!
 
Pardon my naivete, but how does you showing an overpriced Raisman bar mean that Stihl products are overpriced? That's what I'm trying to understand. If this is painfully obvious, you shouldn't be critical of me, you should help me to understand. So what if I think too much? I'd much rather be accused of that than accused of not thinking enough. Raisman is owned by the Match Group (MTCH).
Look very carefully at the price they are charging and the original price. It’s on sale for MORE money than it’s regularly.
 
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  • #208
Random Thought: Don't be "that guy" who uses the same or similar passwords for everything on your computer and phone. I realize that it's ultra convenient, but how convenient will it be when someone uses your credit card, your Amazon account, your MineCraft and Roblox account, your Etsy account, BANK ACCOUNT, Wesspur/TreeStuff/Abrsession/, SherrilTree/, Bartlettman accounts and buy ultra expensive DMM rigging pulleys. Naw, they'd likely buy a tractor on EBay from a Chinese buyer for a local sale.

Anyways, I know some of you out there use the same or similar password for certain things, or perhaps everything...take the time to create a password book (a physical book) and make new passwords for everything. Eventually, so long as you use the apps and programs you store passwords for, you will quickly memorize them with little problem.

"Oh, but I'll never be hacked! I'm careful on the internet! I don't watch porn! Who in tarnation would take the time to hack me? This is alarmist nonsense!"

It's all fun and games until your identity has been stolen, used up like a MacDonald's napkin, and ditched faster than a Chinese buffet without MSG.
 
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Password managers are essential imo. I use keepass variants on all my systems, and sync the database to my nextcloud account. Not as convenient as some options, but it's all controlled by me, the software is libre, and my cloud account doesn't have a big bullseye on it like a company that specializes in storing passwords has.

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A sample generated password...

Code:
}5tDN_`*6r\Z#S[5bS4i

That's on the simple side of options, and is virtually uncrackable using current methods. It also isn't something that can be remembered, so a manager is necessary.
 
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  • #210
I'm a little more conservative. I store everything encrypted onto small, portable thumb drive I have the option of using biometrics or using a seed phrase to open it. If my only option is to decrypt with a phone, most will have the biometrics capability, but if the phone does not, I can access it with an alphanumeric access password. So for each password, or collection passwords, I want to access, there exists a second password for it. This is just a back up for my Microsoft cloud where I have a locked folder that allows me to access all of these passwords with just one, single password. I can quickly destroy this file if needed, or perhaps the cloud itself incurs serious damage from a hack attack or Microsoft makes a mistake or goes bankrupt (unlikely)...I can easily still access my passwords with my thumb drive on any device. The drive has an adapter for any type of phone input out there, so I'll never be limited.

For my cryptocurrency, I have everything loaded onto a single Ledger thumber drive. However, each password is a 24 word seed phrase. So in order to access what's on the thumb drive you need to be able to provide a 24 different, correctly spelled, utterly random words in correct order or you will not be able to access my the desired cryptocurrency. When I was really into it, I had at least 16 different cryptocurrencies and each was put into several different wallets (encrypted storage locales for cryptocurrencies). For each wallet there was also a seed phrase. I use to use a 2lb hammer and a set of small hand operated stamps that I used on small 2x3 pieces of 304 stainless steel which has numbers and lines laser etched to help me position everything neatly. Yes, I hand stamped all of my seed phrases onto aircraft grade stainless steel. Don't believe me? Here we go...

This way, whether it be hell or high water, fire or tsunami, I know that my seed phrases will survive just about any type of destruction and I will be able to reuse them if the internet and cryptocurrency still remain available and relevant. So if my house burns down, I'll be protected. It's even resistant to acidic corrosion, physical impact, it is able to be hunted by metal detector as a unique frequency to isolate it from garbage, it is highly rust resistant when submerged in water, extremely shock resistant (explosions and detonations), and it will typically retain its obvious, geometric shape regardless of the elemental obstacle, making it readily identifiable to the naked eye and it will produce obvious patterns for ground penetrating radar.

Sometimes stone age techniques are superior the anything else. Let me know your thoughts and feelings...

The plates shown are seed phrases for wallets that I no longer use, so don't bother trying to access the associated accounts. Honestly, I guarantee nobody on here will even consider doing so. But just saying, don't waste your time. This isn't me slipping up insofar as protecting my privacy. I'm not that stupid. However, I am sometimes very stupid. But not when it comes to online security. Go big or go home.

PXL_20230925_035826258~2.jpg
 
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  • #211
If you want to learn more about SHA-25, SHA-3, etc. cryptography and how your encryptions sequences are transformed into the four first letters of 24 different and unique/random seed words to form one unique phrase, then read this digestible summary...

 
Looks like overkill to me, but if it works for you, great! The important thing is to use it consistently. Any awesome password strategy falls apart if it isn't used.

I only recently started using biometrics to access stuff on my phone. In some ways, it's worse than a password, but good passwords are a pita on a phone, so I switched to something that was more secure for *my* use case. It was what I was willing to maintain, so it's better than something technically superior that doesn't get used.
 
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  • #213
It honestly is overkill, but the experience of all of it is super fun for me. Why write something on paper when can stamp it out on metal? Maybe I'm just weird. Lol
 
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  • #214
Any awesome password strategy falls apart if it isn't used.
I disagree. In the case of my crypto keys, I just have to remember where I put them. Because they are stamped onto 304 stainless steel, even if something horrible happens, I still only have to remember where I put the passwords and they will be there under almost all circumstances, barring a nuclear blast. You may be protecting your privacy, but I'm protecting money that's on a continuous live market. The longer I wait, the better. I'm taking long positions, betting on cryptocurrency becoming increasingly more relevant, especially once the FTX scandal blows over. I can't actually use these passwords unless I withdraw or add funds and I almost never do that anymore. I'm holding my position and waiting... Plenty of opportunities to lose my password between now and whenever I want to cash out, so why not ensure that I can't lose them?
 
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  • #216
Random Fact: Where did the "thumbs up" sign come from? The thumbs up gesture originated in ancient Rome. The crowd would decide the fate of a defeated gladiator by gestures. If the gladiator had fought well, he could be spared by a thumbs down (yes, you read that correctly; thumbs down used to be the good thing!). The Latin term for the gesture is pollice verso, which means "with a turned thumb".

The gesture became popular in the United States during World War II. Pilots used the thumbs up to communicate with ground crews before take-off. This custom may have originated with the China-based Flying Tigers, who were among the first American flyers involved in World War II.

The term two thumbs up comes from the movie review program At the Movies. When both critics gave the film a thumbs up, it was assumed that the film was very good.
 
Is there a sideways thumb versus up or down?
The sideways thumb as well as the 3 and 9 o’clock positions indicate intermediate like or dislike of a food as displayed by our 10 year old. Of course the full up or down correlate to extreme like or dislike respectively.
 
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  • #219
Random Fact: Did you know that there exist two crossbreeds between tigers and lions known as Ligers and Tigons? So what's the difference?

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    Liger
    A liger is the offspring of a male lion and a female tiger. They are the largest of all big cats. That's right! The largest.
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    Tigon
    A tigon is the offspring of a male tiger and a female lion. They are about the same size as the average lion.
 
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  • #221
Random Fact: For those of you who own a DMM Pinto pulley, you might be interested to learn that "Pinto" is an acronym for "Pulley I Need To Own!"

Random Facts: Tree climbing has many benefits, including:
  • Physical development: Tree climbing is a whole-body activity that improves strength, dexterity, balance, coordination, and spatial awareness.
  • Mental development: Tree climbing can help children and adults become more flexible in body and mind. It can also improve problem-solving skills, self-efficacy, and risk negotiation.
  • Social development: Tree climbing can enhance social, creative, and imaginative skills.
  • Confidence: Tree climbing can boost self-confidence and self-esteem.
  • Happiness: Tree climbing can deliver happiness.
Random Facts: There are over 23,869 tree climbers currently employed in the United States. The average tree climber age is 37 years old.
 
Random Fact: Did you know that there exist two crossbreeds between tigers and lions known as Ligers and Tigons? So what's the difference?

  • View attachment 132650
    Liger
    A liger is the offspring of a male lion and a female tiger. They are the largest of all big cats. That's right! The largest.
  • View attachment 132649
    Tigon
    A tigon is the offspring of a male tiger and a female lion. They are about the same size as the average lion.
I sort of did know that.
I do want to point out that a Liger is not the largest of the big cats in the sense that it’s not a naturally occurring species, and the males are sterile.
 
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  • #223
I sort of did know that.
I do want to point out that a Liger is not the largest of the big cats in the sense that it’s not a naturally occurring species, and the males are sterile.
Oh wow! Google's AI generated info made an oopsie! AI is so suspect. You never can tell when it's feeding you bullshit. I probably should have fact checked.

But damn, @Mick! I never would have guessed you were a big cat expert! That's valuable knowledge right there! Sterile males?! That's incredible! Nature is all like, "hell naw! You're breeding a who with a what?! Not in my house!"
 
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