I didn’t get my planned shit finished today (writing about major nuclear disasters takes work, and this one’s a biggie). So in lieu of a repost, here’s some more dreck wrangled from the abyss of science facts.
Today’s (mini) Moment of Science… Hey, did you know? Edition: Things that keep me awake at night.
Anthrax is annoyingly hard to kill and there are three places called Anthrax Island. Note, none of them were called Anthrax Island because someone found a bunch of anthrax there. Humans tested anthrax as bioweapons and, wouldn’t you know it, the stuff is goddamn effective. And did I mention it’s damn near indestructible and basically lives forever? Ralphwiggumimindanger.gif
In 1958, a mid-air collision during an Air Force training exercise led to one of the pilots ejecting their cargo into the water off the coast of Georgia: a 7,600lb nuclear bomb. It’s still never been found. Well, it hasn’t been found by the US Military.
We typically have 1.5-2.5 million mites on us, mostly in the hair follicles. They fuck on your face. They wait until you’re asleep though because, idk, manners.
The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a fault line running from Northern California to British Columbia. It tends to have a major earthquake, on average, every 250 years. The last one was 322 years ago. The fault is capable of producing a magnitude 9 earthquake. America’s infrastructure was already fucked on a non-devastate-all-life-as-we-know-it-earthquake day, so.
We haven’t explored 80% of the world’s oceans. Which concerns me, because whatever the fuck is still hard to get to today is probably goddamn terrifying.
The pacu fish has teeth like humans, and as I was saying, we have explored enough ocean.
What do you think the success rate of CPR is? In surveys, people typically think it’s 75%. In reality, it’s only about 10-15%. Still, if I’m on the floor without a pulse, start the compressions and make it snappy.
Dust isn’t mostly human skin cells as is often quoted, but it’s an uncomfortably high percentage. So if you’re allergic to dust, go ahead and say you’re allergic to people.
In cases of Exploding Head Syndrome, patients hear an explosive crashing noise, sometimes accompanied by lights, typically while falling asleep or waking up. There’s no known cause to the disorder, so one day patients just get a rather rude awakening.
Chainsaws were invented for childbirth.
In the 1780s.
Before anesthesia.
This has been your Moment of Science, with permanently haunted dreams from a life of studying science history. And from reading the comments section.
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