Things I Learned in June 2025
Serendipitous Factoids 17: A dollop of nurdles, a couple of bloodless wars, and a 13-second concert.
Trivial things I’ve learned while looking for something else…
13 seconds. That’s the length of the world’s shortest concert. On March 13, 2007, The Who (also holders of the loudest concert - 126 dB sustained) took the stage in front of 9,000 fans in Tampa. Lead singer Roger Daltrey discovered at the beginning of the opening song (the band’s first single, 1965’s “I Can’t Explain”) that, due to a nasty case of bronchitis, he could not sing, so they immediately stopped playing.
In 1942, Thailand declared war on the United States. The Thai ambassador to the US, however, decided to not deliver the official declaration. As a result, the US simply ignored the state of war between the two countries.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Spanish town of Huéscar was at war with Denmark for 172 years. Why? It was mainly because people forgot about it. How the war came about is a bit complicated, but it was a part of the 1808 Napoleonic War between France and Spain. In 1981, the declaration of war was found and it was discovered that there was no corresponding peace treaty. Rather than re-engaging in hostilities, the Danish ambassador to Spain went to Huéscar to sign a peace treaty with the mayor. On the day of the signing, the Danish contingent, dressed as Vikings, were met with signs in Danish warning them they were entering enemy territory. No blood was shed and the treaty was signed, ending the 172-year old conflict.
The island of Nantucket, 30 miles south of the Cape Cod peninsula, has near-continuous battles with invasive species. The worst invasion, according to the islanders themselves, was (drum roll, please) prairie dogs. How the Great Plains critters (named by the Lewis and Clark Expedition as barking squirrels) got to Nantucket is speculation, but since there are no predators there the population exploded in the 1890s. They became such a menace to crops and livestock (cattle would break legs in prairie dog burrow holes) that a campaign was launched to exterminate them. They were all gone by February 1900.
That dollop of toothpaste on your toothbrush is called a “nurdle.” The word was used in an ad for now-defunct toothpaste brand Vote Toothpaste in 1968. It was borrowed from the name for pellets used in making plastics. In 1990, nurdle was accepted by the American Dental Association, so that makes it as official as it gets.
More obscure etymology: The horizontal figure-8 shape that represents infinity (∞) is called a “lemniscate.”
One-third of all data centers in the world are located in Virginia.
That’s it for now. The Goblins of Minutiae that live in my head are signing off for this month! They’ll be back to enlighten you in bite-sized bits in July!
2W:LYK