Page 66 - Other Facts

In 2005, the cardboard box was inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame.

Children and cats alike have enjoyed the unexplainable fun of a cardboard box. Cardboard was first invented in the 1600s by the Chinese, presumably because they got bored of playing with gunpowder hundreds of years before the rest of the world. The cardboard box first came around in 1817, by the English.

Initially, cardboard was used for the lining in men’s hats, and later to cushion glassware. By 1879, the first efficient cardboard box would come around. Gradually, they would replace wooden crates in numerous ways. Then children learned of cardboard’s usefulness for playing. Because the cardboard box has become an infinite gateway to the imagination, it earned its place in the Toy Hall of Fame in 2005.

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In the geographical center of Antarctica stands a bust of Lenin!

The bust marks the place where an old Soviet base was established for a few weeks in 1958. The cabin, which made up the base, now lies buried under ice. Before the Soviet team left, they fixed a bust of Soviet revolutionary Bolshevik Vladimir Lenin on the chimney. 

Now it is the only part of the cabin visible over the ice. Scientists trekking towards the South Pole of Inaccessibility were surprised to find Lenin peering across the ice towards the former Soviet Empire. You’d think that the bust would have to be made out of something very strong and amazing to resist such a harsh climate. Temperatures in Antarctica get to lower than 60 degrees below zero and winds blast the surface of the terrain. 

No sun shines for three months out of the year in Antarctica. The bust is simply made out of plastic. Nothing special about it! 

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There are 35 cities around the world that are inhabited by only one resident!

Antarctica tops the list of cities with only one resident. Technically it is only a station, but nonetheless there is only one person manning it. Canada and the good ol’ U.S.A top the list with most cities with only one resident. Between the two of the, there are twenty-one cities with just one resident.

The rest of the cities lie within European countries. Interestingly, there are more cities in the world with no one inhabiting them than there are with just one or two residents. There are more than one hundred cities around the world without anyone living in them. In some cases, people drive to the cities to work and then leave. Others are simply still recognized as cities, but have become ghost towns that were slowly abandoned and forgotten.

So, these towns seem to have no reason to really exist with no one or next to no one living in them. They aren’t really ran by anyone. There is no need. They were established townships previously and it is more work than needed to remove them from being recognized as an established town. It is just easier to let them be, and maybe someday people will live in them once again.

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The deepest part of the ocean is NOT the part closest to the center of the Earth!

The deepest part of the ocean is, of course, the Mariana's Trench. Just to clarify, I’m not talking about the Canadian pop punk band, but deepest part of the world’s oceans located in the Western Pacific Ocean (a lot less musical, just as interesting). It reaches a maximum known depth of 10.994km (this is greater than the height of Mt.Everest), has a width of 69km, and is about 2500km long. 

However, contrary to popular belief and common sense, “the deepest part of the world’s ocean” does not equal “the part of the seafloor closest to the center of Earth.” This is because the Earth is not a perfect sphere; its radius is about 25km less at the poles that at the equator. 

Therefore, parts of the Arctic Ocean seabed are at least 13 km closer to the Earth’s center than Mariana’s Trench. But hey, they there’s no band named “Parts of the Arctic Ocean Seabed.” 

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The Gish Gallop is the debating technique of drowning the opponent in such fragmented information that they can’t possibly address it all!

The Gish Gallop is named after Duane Gish, and it’s a debate technique. The person drowns the opponent in such a torrent of half-truths, lies, and straw-man arguments that the opponent can’t possibly answer every falsehood in real time. The term was actually coined by Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education. 

The formal debate jargon for the term is spreading. It came about as a way to throw as much crap into five minutes as humanly possible. Some judges have called the technique out and only allow so many arguments to be heard at a time. In places like the internet, though, the technique can be very effective and time consuming. It’s often used as an indirect argument from authority. 

It paints the arguer as an expert in a broad range of topics and the opponent as a bumbling idiot. So, Duane Gish must have been an expert at talking his way into or out of anything.

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