Free Facts

Compilation of “Free” Facts. They are not fun, but they are free.

Disney Aladdin

There is a Willhelm scream in the movie Aladdin.

Dumping Chemical Weapons Directly into the Ocean

After World War II, it is claimed that scientist did not know how to destroy the massive arsenals of chemical weapons. Russia, the UK, and the US opted for what seemed the safest and cheapest method of disposal at the time: dumping chemical weapons directly into the ocean.

Experts estimate that 1 million metric tons of chemical weapons lie on the ocean floor—from Italy’s Bari harbor, where 230 sulfur mustard exposure cases have been reported since 1946, to the US East Coast, where sulfur mustard bombs have shown up three time in the past 12 years in Delaware, likely brought in with loads of shellfish.
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Lighting

Lightning is a significant force contributing to mountain erosion.
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MV Derbyshire

The MV Derbyshire was a British ore-bulk-oil combination carrier built in 1976. It was lost on September 9, 1980 during Typhoon Orchid, south of Japan. At 91,655 gross register tons, she is the largest British ship ever to have been lost at sea.
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Rogue Waves

Rogue waves are unusually large, unpredictable, and suddenly appearing surface waves that can be extremely dangerous to ships, even to large ones. In oceanography, rogue waves are more precisely defined as waves whose height is more than twice the significant wave height (Hs or SWH), which is itself defined as the mean of the largest third of waves in a wave record. Therefore, rogue waves are not necessarily the biggest waves found on the water; they are, rather, unusually large waves for a given sea state.
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Sea Sickness

Ginger is proven to help those who suffer from sea sickness.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

TMS is a noninvasive form of brain stimulation in which a changing magnetic field is used to induce an electric current at a specific area of the brain through electromagnetic induction. An electric pulse generator, or stimulator, is connected to a magnetic coil connected to the scalp.

Weasel Words

A weasel word, or anonymous authority, is slang for words and phrases aimed at creating an impression that something specific and meaningful has been said, when in fact only a vague or ambiguous claim has been communicated. Examples include the phrases “some people say”, “it is thought”, and “researchers believe”.

Using weasel words may allow one to later deny any specific meaning if the statement is challenged, because the statement was never specific in the first place. Weasel words can be a form of tergiversation, and may be used in advertising, (popular) science, opinion pieces and political statements to mislead or disguise a biased view or unsubstantiated claim.

Yak Shaving

Yak Shaving is programming lingo for the seemingly endless series of small tasks that have to be completed before the next step in a project can move forward.