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Posted

^ That table is actually also available on ETS's website (concordance table) in PDF form.

Another fun fact: While pretty much everyone knows that every 4 years is a leap year by the Gregorian calendar, this is NOT true of years divisible by 100, unless they are ALSO divisible by 400. I.e. 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, etc. are NOT leap years; however 1600, 2000, and 2400 ARE leap years.

Posted

There is also a Texas Hotel on Texas St in Texas City, Texas.

How have I not heard about that?

For weird town names- In Central PA there is Blue Ball, Paradise, Intercourse, and Bird in Hand.

Posted (edited)

How have I not heard about that?

For weird town names- In Central PA there is Blue Ball, Paradise, Intercourse, and Bird in Hand.

There's also a town called Centralia, PA that only has about 10 people living there bc it's been on fire since the 60's. The government bought it and even revoked its zipcode.

Edited by artofdescribing
Posted

A favorite fact I taught my high school science students this year: Global Warming is partially contributed to the ever-growing livestock population. The animal's flatulence contains methane, a Greenhouse Gas, that increases the Greenhouse Effect.

Extra nice tidbit: methane is a flammable gas, suggesting that you can light your farts on fire. Can't say my students didn't try... against my better wishes, of course ><''

Posted

Guess what aibohphobia is? Pretty easy to work out.

Nice! Palindromes. :D

Posted

How about Transnistria - a breakaway state that decided they would rather remain Communist and broke away from Moldova!

Another fun (former) Communist country fact: Belarus' security service is still called the KGB.

The security type people in Azerbaijan were also still called KGB (pronounced kuhgabuh)

Posted

A favorite fact I taught my high school science students this year: Global Warming is partially contributed to the ever-growing livestock population. The animal's flatulence contains methane, a Greenhouse Gas, that increases the Greenhouse Effect.

Extra nice tidbit: methane is a flammable gas, suggesting that you can light your farts on fire. Can't say my students didn't try... against my better wishes, of course ><''

taught that to my highschool grammar students this year, too. (+1 for vegans)

though, I thought it was the primary contributor?

^ That table is actually also available on ETS's website (concordance table) in PDF form.

Another fun fact: While pretty much everyone knows that every 4 years is a leap year by the Gregorian calendar, this is NOT true of years divisible by 100, unless they are ALSO divisible by 400. I.e. 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, etc. are NOT leap years; however 1600, 2000, and 2400 ARE leap years.

wow, the gregorian calendar is a mess.

Posted

taught that to my highschool grammar students this year, too. (+1 for vegans)

though, I thought it was the primary contributor?

Well, from the resources I had used for my class, this is one of the initial contributors (others include burning of fossil fuels...etc), but one of the key concerns for Global Warming from what I know is the evaporation of water.

If you increase the Earth's surface temperature, it increases the amount of water being evaporated into the atmosphere. Water being a Greenhouse Gas, it increases the Greenhouse Effect, which increases the temperature more, which evaporates more water, and this is a constant (and sadly vicious) cycle that contributes to Global Warming. Really sad to know actually... :(

Posted

Maps often include "trap streets" or "trap towns"--non-existent streets, towns, or other geographical features--as copyright traps. Blue Ball, PA, huh? Sounds fishy.

Posted

Maps often include "trap streets" or "trap towns"--non-existent streets, towns, or other geographical features--as copyright traps. Blue Ball, PA, huh? Sounds fishy.

Blue Ball is totally legit, I've driven through it. Intercourse, PA is also legit.

Posted

Blue Ball is totally legit, I've driven through it. Intercourse, PA is also legit.

For sure. I was just joshing.

I'm also aware of Dildo, Come by Chance, and Conception Bay, all in Newfoundland.

Posted (edited)

Maps often include "trap streets" or "trap towns"--non-existent streets, towns, or other geographical features--as copyright traps. Blue Ball, PA, huh? Sounds fishy.

I grew up near there :) There's also a Blue Bell

Blue Ball is totally legit, I've driven through it. Intercourse, PA is also legit.

I'm not sure why but we've come up with some strange names. A fun game freshman year was when my roommates and I would compared the pronunciation of place names near where we grew up. Beyond Blue Ball, Bird in Hand, Mount Joy etc there's Ephrata, Leola, Shamokin, Marietta, and Womelsdorf. And that's just within an hour and a half or so of my home town. Now I miss PA Dutch Country.

Edited by GreenePony
Posted

I'm not sure why but we've come up with some strange names. A fun game freshman year was when my roommates and I would compared the pronunciation of place names near where we grew up. Beyond Blue Ball, Bird in Hand, Mount Joy etc there's Ephrata, Leola, Shamokin, Marietta, and Womelsdorf. And that's just within an hour and a half or so of my home town. Now I miss PA Dutch Country.

Continuing in this vein, there's a Fort Gay, WV. In fact, Xbox Live banned a user because they thought the kid was trolling when he listed that as his location. (Why they might find that offensive is another, less amusing issue....)

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