I?d like a large number of researchers and non-researchers to share
what they believe are the most interesting facts, theories, and ideas
they have heard. These can be in any topical area, but need to be
really, really interesting. After a month (provided I?ve received a
fairly large number of suggestions), I?ll select both a random winner
and a winner based on my opinion of what?s most interesting (from
among the researchers? postings). Each will get $100 ($2 answer + $98
tip). I?ll also pick winning non-researcher entries (no prize beyond
the incredible status). Multiple entries are welcome, but enterprising
researchers should NOT merely list dozens of assorted things in the
attempt to win. Below are seven examples that I suggest would qualify
as contenders (if I hadn?t listed them). Fairly brief yet somewhat
developed descriptions are preferred, along with relevant links or
citations as appropriate. Also, please number your submissions so that
each item has a unique number (i.e., the first submission should be
#8, others should number from there), and if anyone makes comments
about prior submissions (e.g., fleshing them out ? please don?t just
weigh in with your opinion about others? suggestions), please refer to
them by number. Final and obvious note: please don?t ?answer? this
question, but make your submissions as comments. This should be fun!

(#1) THE NEMESIS HYPOTHESIS: More than half of all stars are believed
to have a twin that orbits them, i.e., they form binary star systems.
In trying to explain why Earth has had regular mass extinctions about
every 26-34 million years, Dr. Richard Muller proposed that our Sun
has a companion star that he named Nemesis. This star?s return upsets
the Oort Comet Cloud and typically causes a few large asteroids to
crash into the Earth. While this is a highly controversial theory, the
search for Nemesis is underway and the hypothesis remains plausible,
if perhaps unlikely. Interestingly, Muller writes that if true,
Nemesis ?would only come within one half light-year of the sun, about
30,000 times as far away as the Earth is from the sun.? Thus, it would
only appear like another star to an observer on Earth.

Muller, R. 1988. Nemesis: The death star. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicholson.
http://muller.lbl.gov/pages/lbl-nem.htm
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/nemesis_010320-1.html

(#2) THE ?GREATS? OF THE PAST WEREN?T SO GREAT: Consider this: ?the
winning time for the first Olympic Marathon is comparable to the
current qualifying time for the Boston Marathon, attained by many
thousands of amateur runners every year? (Ericsson & Carness, 1994,
p.737). To repeat: the BEST time of a century ago is today attained by
THOUSANDS OF AMATEURS! Consider the case of music. ?The improvement in
music training has been so considerable that according to Roth (1982),
the virtuoso Paganini ?would indeed cut a sorry figure if placed upon
the modern concert stage? (p.23)? (p.737). ?When Tchaikovsky asked two
of the greatest violinists of his day to play his violin concerto,
they refused, deeming the score unplayable? (p.737). Today that piece
is part of elite violinists? standard repertoire.

Ericsson, K. A., & Charness, N. 1994. Expert performance: Its
structure and acquisition. American Psychologist, 49(8): 725-747.

(#3) SLEEPING HOW MANY HOURS? It is well known that while most people
need about eight or more hours of sleep, a large number of highly
successful people somehow manage to thrive on only around four hours
of sleep per night. This appears to be distinctly abnormal, as most
people who sleep this little usually suffer from many health problems
and impaired performance, but perhaps not these individuals...

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=2201

(#4) SMALLPOX: ?Epidemiologists think that smallpox killed roughly one
billion people during its last hundred years of activity on earth?
(Preston, 2002, p.18). ONE BILLION. And although it?s been officially
eradicated from the planet since 1979, there are at least two known
repositories of the killer virus (or even worse, engineered strains
that are deadlier still).

Preston, R. 2002. The demon in the freezer. New York: Random House.

(#5) AMAZING FACT ABOUT THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE: English is (or soon will
be) the first language in the history of mankind spoken by more
non-native speakers than native speakers.

http://www.uta.fi/FAST/US8/REF/globtong.html

(#6) THE NUMBER OF GALAXIES AND STARS: There are an estimated 125
billion galaxies in the universe, and each contains around 200 billion
stars. That means that there are an roughly 4,000 billion (or 4
trillion) stars for every person living on the planet Earth!

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/1999/TopazMurray.shtml

(#7) THE GENETIC LEGACY OF GENGHIS KHAN: A recent population genetics
study suggests that 16 million males, or roughly half a percent of the
male population, can trace their genetic lineage directly to Genghis
Khan (c. 1162-1227).

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030205-100301-1566r

---

Clarification of Question by mharoks-ga on 06 Mar 2005 18:38 PST

First of all, thanks to scriptor, easterangel, politicalguru, and
bobbie7 for their answers. Some of the other submitted answers might
be interesting, but more information would be useful along with web
links. I'd like to reiterate my request that people number their
submissions. Finally, a personal note, I generally don't find
conspiracy theories to be that interesting, because so many (nearly
all?) would be relatively easy to either debunk or have already been
debunked (e.g., the Apollo Moon Landing, the suggestion that the city
of Bielefeld in Germany doesn't really exist). Still, if conspiracy
theories are what you personally find most interesting from the
universe of ideas you've encountered, please feel free to list them.
Thanks and keep the submissions coming!

My personal favorite is the weird theory that 300 years of medieval
European history, from 614 to 911, have never happened and that
everything from that time span, including Charlemagne and the Vikings,
is nothing but a cheap fake...

9.  Marilyn Monroe had six toes on one foot.

I haven't yet woke up fully but when I do I am going to have a crack at this.

Now, for some brekkie!

The Apollo Moon Landing was a fake! (Well according to this conspiracy theory)

http://www.apfn.org/apfn/moon.htm

10. The theory that religious belief is a factor of brain activity.
Unlike my coleagues here I chose a "real" scientific theory, not
something that is basically a sort of conspiracy theory (though wait
for the next one!). Beyond my answer in the first part of the answer
"Our Beliefs are not choices", I found some papers discussing
neurological problems that Ellen G. White allegedly had (To the
Adventists here: I apologise in advance; I neither endorse nor condone
this theory, only mention it)
<http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=473967> 

11. For one of my favourite conspiracy theories: the the city of
Bielefeld in Germany doesn't really exist as a city. Like all real
conspiracy theories, it is impossible to debunk. Saying something
like, "but I know someone who lives there" would get the answer "well,
that what he tells you; he might even think so":
Germany's Latest Conspiracy Theory 
<http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1400913,00.html> 

12. And I coulnd't resist to add the theory that we are all dominated
by lizards, by ex-footballer David Icke :
<http://scholar.google.com/url?sa=U&q=http://getvegan.com/blog/ickereptoid.pdf> 

More theories to come.

If you rub garlic into your feet, your breath will smell of cheese?

BB

Mharoks,

I require your brilliant mind over here, if you care to consider:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Brainstormings/

Phil

The Palm Leaves Library
 
"The library, part of a temple of the dieties Shiva and Parvati, is not
a secret place; everyone who desires it may ask there for obtaining
information from the scipture allegedly containing information on his
past, present and future life. The records - called Naids - are not
written down on parchment or something similar, but on palm leaves.
Hence it is often referred to as the "Palm Leaves Library". For a fee,
the priest in charge of the library will find the visitor's individual
recording from the archives, and a graduate translator for Ancient
Tamil (a very old languange nearly extinct) will translate it orally
to Hindi or English. To consult the records, personal attendance is
essential."
My fellow researcher Scriptor answered a question about it here:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=56469


There most famous palmleaf-libraries are in Bangalore, Vaithisvarankoil and
Hoshiapur.
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:_Gzus47oRoAJ:www.sandiego.edu/theo/risa-l/archive/msg00431.html+Vaithisvarankoil&hl=en


"In ancient times, sages had visions of the lives of all beings and
wrote them down on palm leaves. Given the exact time of ones birth and
ones thumbprint, a Nadi astrologer can determine which palmleaves
correspond to your actual live, and hence make predictions about it.
These palm leaves are still preserved in Vaithisvarankoil."
http://users.telenet.be/jbruyndonckx/tamilNadu.html

Bobbie7

Theory that we in So. Calif will meet our demise when it breaks off
and falls into the ocea

I'm not quite sure what number we're up to....13?

Anyway, here's a pretty amazing story that's making the rounds:




http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=59732

The Man Who Died a Hundred Times


None of the Piedmont Hospital doctors or nurses had ever seen anything
like it, nor had any of their colleagues anywhere in the country, nor
was it in any of the scientific literature....For 12 hours on November
20th, circumstances threw Piedmont's emergency department and cardiac
staff together with Atlantan Jim McClatchey to make medical
history....

...McClatchey had collapsed and was unconscious..."V-Fib" --
ventricular fibrillation ? or what is commonly known as cardiac
arrest... What happened next made medical history.

"He was so unstable that he would literally be shocked, go back into
regular rhythm long enough to start to wake up and then he would
fibrillate again, and lose consciousness and we'd have to shock him
again,? Dr. Wilmer said.

In the first hour, McClatchey's heart stopped 50 times... 

...Dr. Wilmer and his team had never seen anything like this before.
"We really were sort of thinking on the go -- how can we save this
man's life? -- We've tried all of the proven therapies, he's not
living, so let's take a chance, let's take a step [and] see if we can
advance the science,? he said.

...McClatchey died a hundred times on November 20h and was shocked so
frequently and so severely that he sustained second degree burns to
his chest.

"You just keep shocking him because you realize that if you don't
shock him back into a regular rhythm, you're gonna lose him,? Dr.
Wilmer said.

...His story will be told to heart specialists around the country and
the how and why of he survived could lead to advances in the treatment
of cardiac arrest.

HI,
I think you need to get the counting going again, while you still can
(skipping comments that aren't suggestions?)

I will not ask the atheist's question or questions, nor about miracles.

What about Nostradamus and his prophesying?  Only one million hits on his name.

This has so far been a disappointing experiment. I'm quite surprised
that more researchers and others haven't posted really interesting
things. Are interesting things that rare in modern life?

Anyway, myoarin suggested clarifying the numbering, since several
people didn't number their entries and the numbering is off, so here
goes. The items so far are:

(#1) THE NEMESIS HYPOTHESIS
(#2) THE ?GREATS? OF THE PAST WEREN?T SO GREAT
(#3) SLEEPING HOW MANY HOURS?
(#4) SMALLPOX
(#5) AMAZING FACT ABOUT THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
(#6) THE NUMBER OF GALAXIES AND STARS
(#7) THE GENETIC LEGACY OF GENGHIS KHAN
(#8) 300 YEARS OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY (614-911) NEVER HAPPENED
(#9) MARILYN MONROE HAD SIX TOES ON ONE FOOT
(#10) CONSPIRACY THEORY THAT APOLLO MOON LANDING WAS A FAKE (SEE CAPRICORN ONE)
(#11) RELIGIOUS/SPIRITUAL BELIEF IS MERELY DUE TO BRAIN ACTIVITY
(#12) THE CITY OF BEILEFELD IN GERMANY DOESN'T REALLY EXIST
(#13) EX-FOOTBALLER DAVID ICKE'S THEORY THAT WE'RE DOMINATED BY LIZARDS
(#14) RUBBING GARLIC ON FEET MAKES BREATH SMELL OF CHEESE
(#15) THE PALM LEAVES LIBRARY
(#16) SOUTH CALIFORNIA IS GOING TO FALL INTO THE SEA (AFTER THE BIG EARTHQUAKE)
(#17) THE MAN WHO DIED 100 TIMES
(#18) NOSTRADAMUS AND HIS PROPHECIES

That means the number of the next listing should be #19. Serious
entries only please.

Note on #18: Is the really interesting thing Nostradamus's prophecies
themselves or (my opinion) the fact that the human mind is so powerful
that it can find meaning in his truly ambiguous and equivocal
statements, particularly retrospectively? See the various articles on
this in Skeptic or Skeptical Inquirer.