Interesting Tab

INTERESTING - MARCH

3/24/25
Just Stuff

With eleven official languages, South Africa has the most official languages of any nation in the world. They are: Afrikaans, English, Ndabele, Sepedi, Southern Sotho, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, and Zulu.

India has twenty-two commonly used languages, many of which are official languages in their particular states or regions; however, Hindi and English are the only designated official languages of India's national government.

Mandarin Chinese is the most widely spoken language on earth. Spanish is second, followed by English, Arabic in all its forms, and Hindi.

The national anthem of the Republic of Kosovo has no lyrics. It was chosen so that no preference would be given to one language over another. Kosovo, which declared its independence in 2008, has several commonly used languages, including Albanian, Serbian, Turkish, Roma, and Bosniak.

The national anthem of Spain, "La Marcha Real,” also has no official lyrics, though there have been several attempts to introduce them, even as recently as 2008.

3/20/25
Just Stuff Q&A

Q:  What is an Astronomical Unit?

A: The average distance between the Earth and the sun is 93 million miles, or one Astronomical Unit (A U). This measurement unit is often used to compare distances between objects in space, for example the sun is about 10, 20, 30 and 40 AU from Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, respectively.

Q: How long is a light-year?

A: Light-years are a measure of distance, not time. The term registers the distance that light travels in one year (a light-year) – about 6,200,000,000,000 miles.

 

Q: If you could travel at the speed of light, approximately how long would it take you to get to the nearest star (Alpha Centauri)? To the brightest star in the sky (Sirius)?

A: Four years to Alpha Centauri, nine years to Sirius.

 

Q: What is a parsec?

A: A unit of measurement used for stellar distances. One parsec equals 3.26 light-years.

 

Q: How wide an area does a solar eclipse cast into darkness?

A: It varies, but typically about 100 miles.

 

3/19/25
Some More Stuff

In Hialeah, Florida, a woman was admitted to the local hospital for abdominal pains. After coming up with baffling results to all their standard diagnostic tests, the doctors finally found that the patient was infested with termites.

The strangest task ever performed by monkeys was undertaken during the nineteenth century, in Africa. European visitors, returning from Ethiopia at the time, brought back the exotic news that monkeys were used as torchbearers during royal feasts. The animals were trained to sit absolutely motionless, waiting the scene, until after the guests had finished eating. Then the monkeys were rewarded by being allowed to finish off what was left of the sumptuous meal.

 

Fortunetelling the future is becoming a popular – and highly paid – business. But few soothsayers will ever be able to equal the record of Julius Verne in predicting what's ahead for the world.

            First and foremost, among all science fiction writers, Verne reached the peak of his writing career before the start of the twentieth century. In his books, he prophesies atomic submarines, the military tank, skyscrapers, aircraft, television, earthmoving machines, talking pictures, and a host of other modern inventions. And not only did he predict them, he explained how they work.

            But Verne’s most uncanny forecast of things to come was his detailed description of a voyage to the moon. Verne described a moon rocket long before anyone dreamed of such a thing, and even told of a dog that would be sent up first – as the Russians did – to test the projectile.

            Most amazing of all, however, in his book Round the Moon, this fantastic man actually described the place from which the moon rocket would take off. These are his words:

            "Everyone in America made it his duty to study the geography of Florida. As a point of departure for the moon rocket, they had chosen an area situated 27° North Latitude and 5° West Longitude."

            That location is only 80 miles from Cape Kennedy.

 

3/17/25
Computers ~ Yuk! Hmm…

In 1972, the first home video game console was released by the Magnavox Corporation. Called "Odyssey," it came programmed with twelve games and was designed by Ralph Baer.

In January 1975, the magazine Popular Electronics featured a picture of the Altair 8800 computer – the world's first small, self-contained computer – built by a company in New Mexico. It was sold by mail order, came with a build-it-yourself kit, including a front panel with a grid of lights (no monitor), and 256 bytes of memory. It costs $397.

The first person to use the word "virus" to describe a destructive piece of computer code was Fred Cohen, a student at the University of Southern California, in 1983. He used the word in his Ph.D. dissertation.

 

3/13/25
Let's Talk Planets Facts about Jupiter

Jupiter has sixty-three moons, more than any other planet. Most, but not all, of Jupiter's moons have names.

 The four largest moons of Jupiter were the first astronomical objects to be discovered with a telescope. Io, Ganymede, and Callisto and Galilean are called satellites in honor of their discoverer, Calileo Galilei.

The largest moon of Jupiter, Ganymede, is also the largest moon in the solar system. It is bigger than the planet Mercury.

Jupiter's moon Io is one of only three moons known to have active geysers. (Neptune’s Triton and Saturn’s Enceladus are the only other two active.)

It is believed that large oceans exist deep beneath the crust of Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

Many of Jupiter's moons are small and irregular in size with odd, retrograde (backward) orbits.  Astronomers believe these moons were originally asteroids that were captured by Jupiter's strong gravity

3/12/25
Stuff About Military/War

Why when two people share the cost of a date do we say they’re "going Dutch"?

War has influenced the slurs in our language more than anything else. For example, when a soldier runs from battle the French say he's gone traveling "English style," while the English say he's on "French leave." During the Anglo-Dutch wars of the seventeenth century, British insults were that "Dutch courage" came from a bottle, while a "Dutch treat" meant that everyone paid their own way, which of course was no treat at all.

 

Why do the military say "Roger" then "Wilco" to confirm a radio message?

During the Second World War, the U. S. Navy used a phonetic alphabet to clarify radio messages. It began Alpha, Baker, Charley, Dog, and went on to include Roger for R. Because R, or "Roger," is the first letter in the word received, it confirmed that the message was understood. On the other hand, "Wilco" is a standard military abbreviation for "will comply."

 

Why is the bugle call at day’s end called "taps"?

In the seventeenth century, the British borrowed a Dutch army custom of sounding a drum and bugle to signal soldiers that it was time to stop socializing and return to their barracks for the night. The Dutch called it "taptoe," meaning "shutoff the taps," and the abbreviated "taps" became a signal for tavern owners to turn off the spigot on their beer and wine casks. After lights out, taps signals that the soldiers were safely home, which is why it's played at funerals.

 

3/10/25
More Stuff

On earth, there are an estimated six thousand nine hundred nine living languages, meaning ones used as the primary language of conversation in a community and taught to babies when they're learning to speak.

More than four hundred and fifty languages have been designated as endangered; in other words, the number of people who speak these languages is dwindling and when those populations die out, there won't be anyone left who uses them. More than seventy endangered languages are (or were) native languages of the United States.

 Between 2005 and 2009 it's estimated that ninety-one languages went "extinct," meaning that there are no longer any living native speakers. With the death of Chief Marie Smith Jones in two thousand eight came the death of Eyak, the language of the Eyak people of central Alaska.

 The Bo or Aka-Bo language of India's Andaman Islands was classified as extinct in 2010 when the last native speaker died. Aka-Bo had been in use for more than sixty-five thousand years.

 

3/6/25
Just Stuff Q&A

Q: What are the most used letters in the English language?

A: The most used letters in the English language are E, T, A, O, I, and N, followed by S, H, R, D, U, and L.

Q: What are the five most commonly used words?

A: The, of, and, a, and to.

Q: From what languages did English borrow the words mattress; bizarre; sauna; boondocks and yogurt?

A: Arabic; Basque; Finish; Tagalog; and Turkish, respectively.

 

Q: Why was the QWERTY keyboard developed?

A: In the late nineteenth century, typewriters often jammed, so slower typing was necessary to keep them running. By spreading out the common letters and concentrating them on the left side of the keyboard (the left hand being slower), experts were able to alleviate the problem.

 

Q: What is the longest word in English that is typed entirely with the left hand?

A: "Stewardesses."

 

3/5/25
Just Stuff

Man can live practically anywhere he chooses on earth, but he can't always build up a community in faraway places. Where is the northernmost spot on earth, he has managed to establish a town?

            It is near the top end of Norway, called Hammerfest, and it's a nice little town with all the comforts of home – plus a few unusual ones.

            For one thing, the people in this town see sunshine around the clock from May 13 to July 29. But it's very quiet and dark – no sun at all – from November 18 to January 23.

            The temperature? Surprisingly enough, in January the average temperature in Hammerfest is just a little below the freezing point.

South American Indians use the chemical called bufotenine (from the skins of poisonous toads). It is also employed in their cohoba snuff (Piptadenia peregrine) to promote a feeling of well-being when they hold dances. In larger doses, cohoba induces trances during which the Indians speak with their gods and the spirits of their dead.

There are only about 1,200 people in Ushuaia, Argentina. But this makes it a "town."

    And so the natives of Ushuaia, which is at the very bottom of the southern tip of Argentina, claim that theirs is the southernmost town in the world. They say that the few communities that are farther south have so few people they are mere hamlets.

3/3/25
Some Animal Facts

The dragonfly can fly 50 to 60 miles (80 to 96 km) per hour and is one of the fastest flying insects in the world.

The common honeybee kills more people than all poisonous snakes combined.

Although there are three general types of spider web, every web is unique.

Only one of the queen bee’s eggs will survive to become the new queen. The first bee to hatch and emerge from the cell will break open the cells of the competing bees and bite them to death.

 

INTERESTING - FEBUARY

2/17/25
Strange Things About Space

Astronomers suspect that the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is the remains of a planet that either failed to form or was torn apart by the enormous gravitational pull of Jupiter.

The most distant objects in the known universe are quasars: stars that send out powerful radio waves. Because their distance makes them so ancient, quasars provide astronomers with extremely valuable information about the birth of the universe.

Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because the methane gas released while passing wind can damage spacesuit material.

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

It takes three minutes for the sunlight that is reflected from the moon to reach our eyes.

 

2/6/25
Just Stuff Q&A

Q: How did John Chapman transform himself into a part of American folklore?

A: Massachusetts born John Chapman (1774 to 1845) was a practical nursery man who, in the waning years of the eighteenth century, went westward. Until shortly before his death, he planted hundreds of apple orchards all over the Midwest, and distributed free seeds and religious literature everywhere he traveled. A symbol of generosity, austerity, and the American spirit, he became renowned as "Johnny Appleseed."

 

Q: Who was Parson Weems and what was his most famous lie?

A: Hoping to increase sales of his biography of George Washington, 19th-century preacher and book peddler Mason Locke Weems invented a now-ubiquitous story of the future president cutting down a cherry tree. Today, Weems is best remembered for this fib.

 

Q: Every year on November 5, England celebrates Guy Fawkes Day with bonfires and fireworks. Who was Guy Fawkes and why all the ruckus?

A: Guy Fawkes was a member of a group that plotted to blow up the British Parliament building in 1605. However, the revolutionary plan went for naught: Informed of the conspiracy, the government searched adjacent areas and Fawkes, who had fuses and kindling in his pockets, was arrested. He and other confederates were tried and executed, but every year since, on November 5, the English have celebrated not being blown sky high.

 

2/5/25
Just Stuff

St. Pantaleone was once the patron saint of Venice, Italy. He was later depicted in a play as a silly old man who wore long trousers. From the play, trousers were called pantaloons, later shortened to pants.

The Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey, in London, England, contains the remains of many great writers and poets. This includes the ashes of Thomas Hardy. But his heart is not there. It is buried in a grave at Stinsford, in Dorset.

Kulang, China, runs seven centers for recycled toothpicks. People rummage through garbage cans to find toothpicks. They wash them, check for splinters, and are paid the equivalent of thirty-five cents a pound for usable toothpicks.

When you watch the Mehter band of the Turkish army on parade, their costumes will seem strange. That's because they are styled after those worn by soldiers during the sixteenth century. The Mehter band happens to be the oldest military band in the world.

 

2/3/25
Early Medicine Egyptian Style

Ancient Egyptian physicians treated night blindness by mashing an ox liver into a paste and frying it pancake style. Ox liver is known today to be rich a rich source of vitamin A, which is important for the health of the eyes.

Some language experts believe that the word chemistry comes from the word "Kemet," the ancient name for Egypt. Maybe this is because the Egyptians were such great mixers of potions.

Some basic Egyptian medicines were made from sulfur, antimony, and zinc, which are ground into powder and used as eye and skin ointments. More than 150 kinds of plants were used, such as senna, sycamore, castor oil, acacia gum, mint, and linseed.

The Egyptians used yeast internally to treat indigestion and externally to treat leg ulcers.

 

INTERESTING - JANUARY

1/30/25
Who Knew?

Did you know vinegar can do this?

Vinegar can get rid of swimmer's ear, a bacterial infection of the ear canal. Dab a solution of one part vinegar and five parts warm water into each ear three times a day. The vinegar will defend against the bacteria that causes the infection.

If you are stung by a wasp apply cider vinegar to the area with a cotton ball and the sting will diminish.

Vinegar can remove stains in clay and plastic flower pots. Fill the kitchen sink with two-thirds water and one-third vinegar, and soak the pots. It'll take about an hour but then they’ll be as good as new. Make sure to wash them with soap and water before using.

Does your dishwasher have a soapy film coating? Run it on an empty cycle using vinegar instead of detergent.

 

1/29/25
Let's Talk Planets Facts about Jupiter

Because Jupiter is the most massive planet in the solar system, it also has the strongest gravity.

The strong gravity has helped Jupiter earn the "most moons of the solar system" title. Many a stray asteroid has passed too close to this gas giant and been captured by its gravity.

Strong gravity also means that you would weigh more on Jupiter. On Earth, your weight is determined by the amount of mass in your body and the amount of gravity Earth is exerting on that mass.

If you were to travel to Jupiter, your body mass wouldn't change, but you would feel a great deal heavier because Jupiter's gravity is more than twice as strong as Earth's.

Just how much would you weigh? A 100 pound (43.3 kg) person would weigh 253 pounds (114.7 kg). To find your Jupiter weight, multiply your Earth weight by 2.53.

1/27/25
Stuff About ~ Military/War

During the American war of Independence, which country contributed the most soldiers to fight alongside the British?

The country that contributed the most soldiers to fight with the British against Washington was America itself. By 1779, there were more Americans fighting alongside the British then with the colonists. Washington had about thirty-five hundred troops, but because one third of the American population opposed the revolution, up to eight thousand loyalists either moved to Canada or joined the British Army.

 

What exactly is a "last-ditch stand"?

In the sixteenth century, when an army attacked a walled city or fortress, they would advance by digging a series of trenches for protection until they were close enough to storm the walls. If there was a successful counterattack, the invaders would retreat by attempting to hold each trench in the reverse order from which they had advanced until they might find themselves fighting from the "last ditch." If they failed to hold that one, the battle was lost.

 

Where did the expression "the whole nine yards" come from?

During the South Pacific action of the Second World War, American fighter planes’ machine guns were armed on the ground with .50 caliber ammunition belts that measured exactly 27 feet, or 9 yards, in length before being loaded into the fuselage. If, during mortal combat, a pilot gave everything he had by firing all his ammunition at a single target, it was said he'd given it "the whole nine yards."

 

What is the origin of the twenty-one-gun salute?

All salutes are signals of voluntary submission. Early warriors simply placed their weapons on the ground, but when guns came along, the ritual of firing off or emptying cannons was done to illustrate to approaching foreign dignitaries that they had nothing to fear. In 1688, the Royal Navy regulated the number of guns to be used in saluting different ranks. For a Prime Minister, nineteen guns should be used, but for royalty or heads of state, the salute should be done with twenty-one guns.

1/23/25
Mountains

K2, the second highest mountain on earth after Mount Everest, was named by Thomas Montgomeie in a geological survey he did in 1856. He called this K2 because it was the second peak he charted in the Karakoram mountain range of Pakistan, India, and China. ("K" for "Karakoram"; "2" representing the second peak.) When it was discovered that the local people had no particular name for the enormous yet remote mountain, the name K2 stuck.

Although K2 is not as high as Mount Everest, it's more treacherous. As of June 2008, Everest had 3684 ascents and 210 fatalities in its history. K2 had 284 ascents and 66 fatalities.

Annapurna 1 is the most dangerous of the mountains known as "8000ers" (so named because they are higher than 8000 meters or 26,246.72 feet). As of June 2008, 153 people had tried ascents and 58 had perished in the attempt. Annapurna 1, which is located in Nepal, is the tenth highest mountain on earth.

 

1/22/25
Just Stuff Q & A

Q: What was Fred Astaire's real name?

A: Frederick Austerlitz. The agile dancer/film star was born in Omaha, Nebraska on May 10, 1899.

 

Q: Who was Andre Celsius?

A: Andre Celsius (1701 – 1744) was a Swedish astronomer, physicist, and mathematician who is best remembered today for his development of the centigrade temperature scale. According to this convenient scale, zero represents the freezing point of water and 100° marks the boiling point of water. The phrase "degrees Celsius" still pays tribute to this short-lived genius.

 

Q: Who was Jethro Tull?

A: Jethro Tull (1674 – 1741) was an English inventor and agricultural writer. He authored the popular Horse-Hoeing Husbandry (1733) and, in 1701, reinvented seed drill. (The ancient Babylonians had preceded his discovery by about two millennia with a primitive version of a seed drill.) Before Tull’s invention, most seed was still planted by throwing the seed by hand.

            The Jethro Tull most of us know best is an English rock band led by flutist Ian Anderson. When the group formed in 1968, it whimsically borrowed Tull’s name.

 

Q: Which U.S. president was born with the name Leslie Lynch King?

A: Gerald R. Ford. After his parents divorced and his mother remarried, he was adopted and renamed after his stepfather, Gerald R. Ford Sr..

 

Interesting 1/20/25
Customs

In general, there are no family surnames in Iceland. The country uses a patriarchal naming system, which means that children's surnames are formed from the Christian name of their father and the addition of –son for boys and –dottir for girls. Suppose that Jon Einarsson has a son named Stefan and daughter named Helga. Stefan becomes Stefan Jonson and Helga becomes Helga Jonsdottir. When Miss Jonsdottir marries she does not take her husband's surname, but it is styled Mrs. Jonsdottir. While this is not confusing to Icelandic families, it does cause wonder when Icelanders travel abroad and all members of the family register at a hotel under different names.

 

What is so special about the fourth finger on the left hand? Why does that finger get to wear the wedding ring?

            In ancient times according to some experts, the right-hand was the symbol of power and authority, the left-hand of subjugation. That would explain the ring being placed on the left hand – a token of subordination to the other party.

            But why the fourth finger of the left hand? The ancient Greeks had a superstition that a certain vein passed directly from the finger to the heart, which may have started the custom.

            But there really may be a simpler reason: It is the least used of all fingers – so it's not inconvenient to wear an ornament on it.

 

1/16/25
Some Animal Facts

A cricket must be full grown before it can chirp. Only then are its wings large enough and thick enough to produce a chirping sound when rubbed together.

Two of the spiders that are most poisonous to humans are the black widow and the brown recluse. You can recognize the black widow by the red hourglass marking on its side. The brown recluse spider is somewhat smaller (it's body and legs cover the size of a large coin), and it has a fiddle or violin marking on its back.

The poison of a female black widow spider is more potent than that of a rattlesnake.

The daddy longlegs spider releases a foul-smelling chemical from the front of its body as a defense against predators. This chemical can cause serious allergic reactions in susceptible individuals.

1/15/20
Let's Talk Planets Facts about Jupiter

Astronomers think there might be an Earth-size solid core in the center of Jupiter.

So how can there be a solid core the size of our own planet and no surface for a spacecraft to land on? Easy.

For one thing, if Jupiter were hollow, it could hold 1,400 Earths. So, one Earth sized object inside the gigantic planet really isn't such a big deal.

For another thing, any spacecraft trying to reach this solid core would have to plunge through more than 40,000 miles (65,000 km) of super dense gas to get to it.

The Galileo probe, which plunged into Jupiter on December 7, 1995, made it only 120 miles (200 km) into the clouds before it was destroyed by the incredible pressure. If it were to continue on to the core, the probe would have had to travel another 39,880 miles (64,800 km).

    Note: just because this core is Earth size doesn't mean it is anything like our planet.

Located in the center of Jupiter, where the pressure is millions of times greater than what we find on earth and the temperature is several thousand degrees, this core would be a super dense, superhot mass.

 

1/13/25
Why An Animal?

Why do we call a predictable trial a "kangaroo court"?

The expression "kangaroo court" came out of Texas in the 1850s. It meant that the accused’s guilt was predetermined and that the trial was a mere formality before punishment. Kangaroo was a Texas reference to Australia, a former British penal colony where everyone had been guilty of something, and so if a convict were accused of a new crime, there would be no doubt of his guilt.

 

When a person is upset why do we say someone's "got his goat"?

When someone "gets your goat," it usually means you've lost your temper or become angry enough to be distracted. It's a term that came from a horse trainer's practice of putting a goat in a stall with a skittish racehorse to keep him calm before a big race. An opponent or gambler might arrange for the goat to be removed by a stable boy, which would upset the horse and its owner and so reduce their chances of winning.

 

Why is something useless and expensive called a "white elephant"?

The term white elephant comes from ancient Siam, where no one but the king could own a rare and sacred albino, or white, elephant without royal consent. The cost of keeping any elephant, white or otherwise, was tremendous, and so when the king found displeasure with someone, he would make him a gift of a white elephant, and because the animal was sacred and couldn't be put to work, the cost of its upkeep would ruin its new owner.

 

Why do we call a leg injury a "charley horse"?

The phrase charley horse has its roots in baseball. At the beginning of the twentieth century, groundskeepers often used old and lame horses to pull the equipment used to keep the playing field in top condition. The Baltimore Orioles had a player named Charlie Esper, who, after years of injuries, walked with pain. Because his limp reminded his teammates of the groundskeeper’s lame horse, they called Esper "Charley Horse."

 

1/9/25
More Stuff

In Superman comics, one of the few things that can defeat our hero is a strange metal called kryptonite that comes from the planet Krypton. Although the gas krypton exists, kryptonite does not.

 Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who created, wrote, and drew the original Superman, sold the rights to the character to DC Comics for $130 in 1938. Several years later, after the company had reaped millions from the Superman franchise, Siegel and Shuster tried to claim a share of the profits. Instead they were fired.

            It took until 2009 for the Siegel and Shuster families to win a court case allowing them to reclaim the rights to Superman.

1/8/25
Just Stuff Q&A

Q: Where did the MoonPie first see the light of day?

A: The original marshmallow sandwich was first served in 1917 at a bakery in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is said that the inventor, Earl Mitchell, Sr., named the MoonPie because of a conversation with miners: When asked about how big this lunch-pail treat should be, the workers pointed at the huge, full moon.

 

Q: Which candy bar is the oldest: Snickers, Oh Henry!, Mr. Goodbar, or Three Musketeers?

A: Oh Henry!, Which first hit candy stands in1921, is the oldest of these three candy bars. Mr. Goodbar (1925), Snickers (1930), and Three Musketeers (1932) all came later.

 

Q: When did Mickey Mouse club first appear on TV?

A: The Mickey Mouse Club TV series premiered on October 3, 1955, but the Mouseketeers made their first television appearance a few months earlier; on July 17, 1955, on the ABC broadcast special celebrating the opening of Disneyland.

 

Q: The following public figures have one thing in common: Fred Astaire, Dick Cheney, Warren Buffet, Sandy Dennis, and Malcolm X. What is it?

A: All five celebrities were born in Nebraska.

1/6/25
Interesting/Odd Facts About the Human Body

Your brain weighs about three times as much as your heart.

The pupil of the eye only appears to be black; it is actually a hole in the middle of the iris. The pupil looks black because the retina, which lies behind it, is dark in color, and because the amount of light inside the eye is small compared to the amount of light outside.

For the first forty days of the growth of a fetus within the womb, it has no fingers or toes – only flippers. The fingers separate around the fiftieth day, and the toes form a week later.

Did you know that your brain has two halves, called hemispheres? The right one controls the left side of your body, and the left one controls the right side of your body.

 

1/2/25
Some Animal Facts

When you disturb an ant, it secretes a chemical signal called a pheromone that rapidly defuses through the air. Within a certain radius of the ant, the pheromone conveys the message "Flee!" to other ants. Outside the radius, the message changes to "Close in and attack!"

An ordinary black ant can lift fifty times its own weight and pull thirty times its own weight.

An ant always falls over on its right side when poisoned with an insecticide.

Ants never sleep.

 

1/1/25
Let's Talk Planets Facts about Jupiter

Jupiter is made up almost entirely of gas – hydrogen and helium gases, that is. Not the kind we use in our cars. :-)

Hydrogen makes up about 86% of Jupiter, while helium makes up another 13% of the giant planet – which leaves little room for anything solid.

A spacecraft trying to land on the planet would simply plunge deeper and deeper into the clouds.

The deeper it fell, the thicker the clouds and the greater the pressure. Eventually, the pressure from all that gas pushing in on it would completely destroy the spacecraft. The crushed wreckage would remain floating within Jupiter's clouds, which is exactly what happened to the Galileo probe in 1995.