Weird Fact of the Day

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Hyenas are more closely related to meerkats than to dogs.

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TIL: When Lincoln Cathedral was constructed in 1072 to 1092 CE (1 thousand years ago), it was the tallest building in the world. Up until that time, the record-holder had been the Great Pyramid of Giza, which was built in 2580 to 2550 BCE (4.5 thousand years ago). The record was not broken again until the construction of the Ulm Minster in 1890 (135 years ago). The record has been broken 12 times since then, with the current tallest building ever being the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

1850 building height comparison:

Current building height comparison:

[weirdfact]

Battles of the Sexes: Duels between Women and Men in 1400s *Fechtbücher*

These manuscript illustrations from the 1400s raise a historically vexing question: did men and women really duel to settle judicial dispute

[weirdfact]

TIL that the Buddha was actually a well-known saint in the medieval western and eastern Christian churches. He was called St. Josephat, derived from "St. Budhasaf", derived from the word "bodhisattva". When Marco Polo traveled to the east, he mentioned in one of his manuscripts how crazy it was that the story of the Buddha sounded so much like the story of St. Josephat! What a coincidence! Meanwhile, westerners didn't figure out that they'd been venerating Buddha as a Christian saint for 800 years until a couple of scholars figured it out in 1860.

[delphinidin4]

Today, on More Historical Figures Tumblr Would Love: St. Columba

I just learned this, and I am THRILLED.

St. Columba is most famous as the guy who told the Loch Ness Monster to fuck off, and it fucked off. But THIS story is FAR more exciting:

St. Columba started a war over a copyright dispute.

I am not even exaggerating.

(Obviously, the following story is HIGHLY SUSPECT historically - but the best hagiographies always are!)

St. Columba was Irish. He went away to study at the Movilla Abbey. This abbey had a particular psalter (a songbook) that Columba wanted a copy of. So he copied it by hand (as you do).

Well, St. Finnian of Movilla found out about this and was FURIOUS. He demanded to have the copy back, saying that Columba had had no right to copy the book without permission. It turned into a legal battle, and Diarmid, the High King of Ireland, ruled that "To every cow belongs her calf, therefore to every book belongs its copy." So the copy legally belonged to Movilla.

Well, Columba did not LIKE this. (He also had a grudge against the High King for a number of reasons - for instance, some cousin or something of Columba's had sought legal sanctuary with Columba for some crime, and Diarmid's men literally tore him out of the church in order to kill him, so Columba didn't have any very tender feelings toward Diarmid.)

So Columba supported his own clan, Uí Néill (anglicized version: O'Neill) in a rebellion against the High King of Ireland. The following battle of Cúl Dreimhne (also known as the Battle of the Book) resulted in the deaths of about 3,000 people.

So Columba got in a liiiiittle trouble for being involved in the deaths of 3,000 people when he was SUPPOSED to be a man of peace, so he left to go to Scotland, where he founded the monastery of Iona and told a water monster to fuck off, and then got sainted.

By the way, the manuscript still survives: the 'Cathach (meaning "the Battler") of St. Columba' is the oldest surviving manuscript in Ireland, and the second oldest Latin psalter in the world.

After the battle, it ended up in the hands of clan Ó Domhnaill (anglicized: O'Donnell). It was regarded "as a rallying cry and protector in battle." It was said to protect and guarantee victory in war to the Donegal leaders. Before a battle it was customary for a chosen monk or holy man (usually attached to the Clan McGroarty, and someone who was in a state of grace) to wear the Cathach and the cumdach, or book shrine, around his neck and then walk three times sunwise around the warriors of Clan O'Donnell. (That metal book-shrine looks HEAVY, btw!) No word on how efficient it was as a protector.

Anyway, that's how St. Columba started a war over a copyright dispute. He is now the patron saint of, among other things, poets and bookbinders. I personally chose to consider him the patron saint of Fair Use and media piracy.

[delphinidin4]

TIL: Diamonds are flammable.

Which I mean, makes sense, because they're made of the same stuff as coal, but like, wow. What a visual!

[weirdfact]

The concept of alphabetic writing was invented by a middle-eastern migrant worker.

(source)

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The country of Monaco (514 acres/1.96 km2) is smaller than Manhattan's Central Park (843 acres/ 3.41 km2).

[weirdfact]

Even though the Chinese knew about giant pandas for millennia, westerners had never heard about them until 1896, when a Frenchman brought home a panda skin. However, due to the animals strange black-and-white coat, most people believed that the fur had been painted, and that the whole thing was a hoax. It wasn't widely accepted as a real animal until 1927, when an expedition of westerners saw one in the wild.

Conclusion: 100 years ago, the panda was as "real" to westerners as bigfoot is today.

(source)

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Each one of your cells contains SIX FEET of DNA.

(source)

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By the beginning of the 19th century, tuberculosis, or "consumption," had killed one in seven of all people that had ever lived. 

(source)

[weirdfact]

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Scientifically speaking, rubies and sapphires are the same mineral (corundum). Both are made of alumina and oxygen, but they just differ in color. When a corundum is red, it is classified as a ruby, and when it’s blue, it is called a sapphire. Rubies are red colored mainly because of the presence of the chromium element. Sapphires are blue when they contain traces of iron and titanium. (Source)

[mapsontheweb]

The lost rivers of London that have now been built over.

[weirdfact]

“Centipedes are long, thin arthropods with one pair of legs per body segment. Despite "centi" in their name, which implies 100 legs, centipedes can have fewer than 20 legs to more than 300 legs, but they always have an odd number of pairs of legs.“

(source)

[tkingfisher]

TUMBLR I HAVE JUST LEARNED SOMETHING AMAZING AND MUST INFLICT IT IN YOU

There is a Japanese water beetle called Regimbartia attenuata. It has developed an incredible adaptation to be being eaten by pond frogs.

It walks out the frog’s butt.

The beetles get swallowed whole, and usually that would be considered Kinda Fatal, but this particular species is just like “DID YOU THINK A FROG’S DIGESTIVE TRACT COULD HOLD ME?!” and proceeds to walk through the frog’s intestines, then presumably stimulate the frog’s hind gut with its legs so that the frog poops. The beetles emerge headfirst and 93% of them survive and live on for weeks afterward.

Apparently some beetles can do this obstacle course in six minutes! (Usually takes a few hours, but some people will speedrun ANYTHING.)

Isn’t that COOL?!

After being swallowed alive, water beetle stages 'backdoor' escape from frog's gut

Life's journey sometimes takes you to unexpected places.

[bogleech]

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