Tell me something truly interesting.?

Question

Preferably something insightful, meaningful, and good humored.

Yes, I see people are rating these answers negatively. Frankly, most are rather banal. For now it's a toss up between the woman who told the story about mercury poisoning (I know this stuff but I'm impressed with the intelligent, interesting answer) and the story about carrots, eggs, and coffee.

Answer 1

This has little bearing today, but you might find it interesting anyway. In all the old movies, they show the lonely prospector as being half nuts and that's because most of them were. Occupational hazard.

You see, they used mercury in processing gold dust. In order to gather the gold dust together after they'd separated it from everything else, they would break a mercury thermometer and roll the liquid mercury around on the piece of paper the gold dust was clinging to. It would pick up the dust. They'd then drain the mercury into a hollowed out raw potato and throw the potato onto the camp fire. As the potato got hot, the mercury would go from liquid to vapor but the gold couldn't. When the potato was done baking, they could just squeeze the potato and the mercury would leak out and disappear and leave the gold dust as a nugget inside the potato. Clever idea, but those old prospectors suffered from mercury poisoning which made them paranoid, delusional, and senile. The more successful they were, the poorer their health.

Hatters also suffered the same problem because they used mercury to process the beaver felt. The term "mad as a hatter" did apply.

Today we have some people in society who look paranoid and delusional, but are actually suffering from mercury poisoning. Some of these eat a consistent diet of fish high in mercury. Unfortunately, mercury cannot be removed from the body the last I heard. It accumulates and stays.

Answer 2

A short while back here on Yahoo answers a question was asked in the History section if you could have dinner with any three people who would they be.

Answers of course varied, well one person including myself chose William Wallace.

Next thing we know we are getting a thumbs down from not the asker, but another answerer who stated to us that to even UTTER the name William Wallace is Heresy and that he never existed and we are all fools to beleive he did.

To me it is interesting because I thought we had grown out of the age of ignorance and into an age of reason.

Answer 3

Here is a little story for you, you tell me which you are, the carrot, the egg or the coffee.

Carrot, Egg, or Coffee
A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She　filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see."

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. 　

The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity - boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and relenting.
However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water. "Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?"

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.

When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Answer 4

1. Your thumb is the same length as your nose.

2. The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland was a symbolic character for hat makers in towns during the late 1800s. The large felt hats of the day had supports made out of lead. The lead caused an organic form of psychosis (brain damage) to develop in the hat makers causing them to be declared crazy.

3. The Pharaohs of ancient Egypt wore garments with thin threads of beaten gold. Some fabrics had up to 500 gold threads per one inch of clothe.

Answer 5

today america's public school system does not allow prayer in schools, doesn't allow teachers to bring bible's in the classroom(but, interesting, does allow the Qu'ran), and generally tries to do away with all Christianity in the classroom. The reason being the separation of church and state (however misconstrued).
But, did you know, they allow the teaching of secular humanism? perhaps you've never heard of it: this religion teaches that matter is all that exists, that there is no absolute truth, that we should all be tolerant(except of judeo-christian faiths), and that life came to exist through Darwinian evlution. Why is this a religion? The national secular humanist organization claims tax breaks for being a church. There are 5 secular humanist churches in New York City.

Answer 6

My sister says:

"People supposedly sleep 1/3 of their lives."

My answer:

"Courage is not the absense of fear; but rather, the judgement that something else is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all."
~The Princess Diaries

So maybe it was from a kid movie, maybe it was made to be quoted, but it rings pretty true to me.

:-)

Answer 7

Reality is holographic images. And images create other images. The universe self-replicates itself. Humans and all life forms do it. Everything and anything or even nothing creates something.

Answer 8

It is estimated that millions of trees in the world are accidentally planted by squirrels who bury nuts and then forget where they hid them.

Really that is truly amazing!

:o) Be Well and Peacefull!!

Answer 9

In Michigan when you register your boat, no two boats are allowed to have the same name.

Answer 10

1) A lot of people think shadows are black. But they're really just the absence of light.

2) Society associates the color black with nothingness and death... but it's really the combination of all colors.