please empty your brain below
Interesting stuff, something that I was unaware of previously.

I wonder if someone will highlight the inadvertent typos. I don't think I'll risk a barbed riposte.

Frank F | 08.07.20 - 7:40 a.m. | #

I too agree with Frank F 😉

Kevin Too | 08.07.20 - 8:14 a.m. | #

astronomy or astrology?

mikeS | 08.07.20 - 8:14 a.m. | #

Indeed: what are the astrology “facts”?

Andrew | 08.07.20 - 8:36 a.m. | #

Unscrambling that paragraph to make up for missing the quiz the other day.

It does get tougher when you jumble the entire word but if there's some surrounding context I don't think it's impossible.

That said I am stuck on the 4th last word.

Kevin | 08.07.20 - 8:40 a.m. | #

I despair on hearing of those who seek to modify our language by objecting to such terms as "man-made".

Tim W | 08.07.20 - 8:42 a.m. | #

I remember a school physics textbook in the 1970s which depicted the earth's orbit around the sun as a circle, pointing out that although the orbit is elliptical, it is pretty close to a circle and would be indistinguishable in the diagram anyway.

Half a Physicist | 08.07.20 - 8:48 a.m. | #

Thanks DG. This being an art project, I do wonder if some disputable ‘facts’ were deliberately included, to make a statement about how we should question what we are told, and what we believe to be true.

Sam | 08.07.20 - 8:52 a.m. | #

A chemistry nerd writes: hexanol does not exist in cis and trans forms, but hexenol does.
Cis-hex-3-en-1-ol has a powerful odour of freshly cut grass.

Keith | 08.07.20 - 8:54 a.m. | #

According to E.H.Carr, facts are like fish in the ocean. We can only carch a few, but DG has had a good day's haul.

I despair on hearing of those who seek to preserve our language in aspic as it was in 1961.

Malcolm | 08.07.20 - 8:55 a.m. | #

A version of the website is still available via the Wayback Machine.

The full list appears to be hidden in the source file if anyone did want them for prosperity -view-source- here

Tom | 08.07.20 - 9:16 a.m. | #

Patrick Moore was known for his loathing of astrology so I don't know how he felt about this project's description when in reality it probably meant astronomy; the two are poles apart!

I was lucky enough to have met him as a (then) keen young amateur astronomer. He was always an eccentric and I don't think some of his views would go down too well in this day and age.

Tim | 08.07.20 - 10:03 a.m. | #

The first is a prime example as to why I was never any good at science at school!
The earth's orbit being closest to the sun in January and furthest in July just goes against logic to me - ie the closer we are to something very hot, the hotter we should be!
I know tilt is involved somewhere, but that just makes it even more confusing in my books!

Cornish Cockney | 08.07.20 - 10:09 a.m. | #

Goats not only have rectangular pupils but their eyes rotate when they lower their heads so that the pupil remains horizontal to the horizon.

Beanie | 08.07.20 - 10:32 a.m. | #

Hands up all those who have met Patrick Moore - in my case at an astronomy meeting in Maidenhead. Quite a character.
Very sceptical about the cricket chirping one, but I would certainly not hear them chirping myself.

davews | 08.07.20 - 10:38 a.m. | #

Thanks for the Mongolian horse fact, fantastic trivia. Filed away mentally for future use!

TomH | 08.07.20 - 11:19 a.m. | #

Other plaques, now lost..

• You spent approximately half an hour existing as a single cell
• Dry cleaning was first introduced to the UK in 1876 by Achille Serre who opened his factory on the Olympic Park site in 1896
• The Incas based their measurement of time on how long it takes to boil a potato
• Cumulonimbus clouds occur at approximately 10 kilometres above this bench.
• You can get reasonably close to the melody of ‘Happy Birthday to You’ on the buttons of a mobile phone by pressing
112163, 112196, 11085563, ##6421
• Every day around 40 tons of space dust fall on the earth
• Sheerness and Portsmouth Dockyards, and Ongar railway station are home to the only main colonies of wild scorpions in the UK

diamond geezer | Homepage | 08.07.20 - 11:26 a.m. | #

How many others have just tried dialling that

Caz | 08.07.20 - 11:37 a.m. | #

I have a vague recollection that someone had photographed all of them and had a twitter account that only tweeted pictures them, but I can't find the account any more.

Will | 08.07.20 - 11:56 a.m. | #

The earth as a whole does receive more solar radiation in January. It's just that most of it heats up Australia.

Malcolm | 08.07.20 - 1:10 p.m. | #

Plinacg inaitil, sencod and ulmittae chrtacaers coltcerry imevorps initbilgelitliy conbreldaisy.

Gerry | 08.07.20 - 1:21 p.m. | #

Caz I did! I once had a phone (a Tocco Lite) whose number keys played a major scale, but that doesn't match the digits given; nor does the standard dual-tone system that landline phones use (and some mobiles play when dialling), unless you do the audio equivalent of squinting. I wonder what phone they used.

Alex | 08.07.20 - 2:21 p.m. | #

I'm pretty sure I recently read the dry cleaning, clouds and Happy Birthday facts on benches located on this section of path.

Also I recently found an installation that I've somehow managed to miss on the main bridge to the stadium that once allowed you to press a button and lights on the bridge would turn on as you ran across, before pressing the finishing button on a large pole in front of the stadium. Sadly now although the first button seems to register a press, the rest of it no longer works. Having said that I've only tried it during the day, maybe the lights are a little weaker and I should give it go after dark.

Sean | 08.07.20 - 5:01 p.m. | #

I'm afraid your refutation of "everyone is someone's favourite" is incorrect (though I'm sure it's not true). Imagine that all the people in the world are holding hands in a big circle, and that each person declares (truthfully) that the person to their right is their favourite. Then everyone is someone's favourite, namely the person to their left.

The "order of letters" thing has been around for years. Discussed by Snopes here.

Andrew | 08.07.20 - 5:20 p.m. | #

I'm afraid your refutation of my refutation is incorrect because it chooses to ignore my central argument, namely that Sir David Attenborough exists.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 08.07.20 - 5:24 p.m. | #

Please tell me you've made up at least some of those lost plaques! The Ongar scorpions one was a well known set-up.

Andrew S | 08.07.20 - 11:14 p.m. | #

Re: “ The Incas based their measurement of time on how long it takes to boil a potato ” - I’ve been investigating that one and it’s quite misleading. The original (single) reference for that is a quote that Incas would describe the duration of something as taking as long as boiling potatoes, which is not really the same thing. Also, that was written by a Spaniard 200 years after the period he was talking about.

Alan R | 09.07.20 - 1:48 p.m. | #

Shame they ran out of full stops too

Freddie Fitch | 09.07.20 - 3:05 p.m. | #











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