Trivia

[Lady Sidhe]

I collect trivia, and here's some stuff I thought was interesting:


Fleas can accelerate 50 times faster than the space shuttle.

There's enough energy in ten minutes of one hurricane to
match the nuclear stockpiles of the world.


Papaya leaves and unripe papaya have an enzyme called
papain that breaks down protein in meat to make it tender.
That’s why papaya can be used as a meat tenderizer.

Oak trees are struck by lightning more often than any other
tree. It has been theorized, this is one reason that the
ancient Greeks considered oak trees sacred to Zeus, god
of thunder and lightning.


Body language differs from one country to another. For
instance, grasping one's ears is a sign of repentance or
sincerity in India. A similar gesture in Brazil--holding
the lobe of one's ear between the thumb and forefinger--
signifies appreciation.

Chicago, Illinois was nicknamed the Windy City because
of the excessive local bragging that accompanied the
Columbian Exhibition of 1893. Chicago has actually been
rated as only the 16th breeziest city in America.



Seals can withstand water pressure of up to 850 pounds
per square inch.

Physicists now believe the universe to be three billion
years younger than previously thought. New information
gathered by the Hipparcos satellite, combined with a
reanalysis of other distance data, has enabled researchers
to refine the lower age limit of the universe to
9.6 billion years.

[Lady Sidhe]

There are 62,000 miles of arteries, capillaries, and veins
in the adult human body.

At 12,000 feet above sea level, there is barely enough
oxygen in La Paz, Bolivia to support combustion. The city
is nearly fireproof.

The only crime defined in the U.S. Constitution is treason—
Article III, Section 3.

In 1841, Oberlin College in Ohio became the first U.S.
College to award degrees to women.

An organization called SCROOGE was formed in 1979 in
Charlottesville, Virginia. the acronym stands for the
Society to Curtail Ridiculous, Outrageous and Ostentatious
Gift Exchanges.


Sidhe

[wolf]

My word, that's trivial.

You fact-checked all of that before you posted it, right?

[Lady Sidhe]

Originally posted by wolf
My word, that's trivial.

My word, you're quick.

You fact-checked all of that before you posted it, right?

No, actually, I just made them all up on the spur of the moment.


Sidhe

[Lady Sidhe]

The practice of naming hurricanes began early this century
when an Australian weather forecaster decided to insult
politicians he didn't like by naming devastating tropical
storms after them.

There is about one quarter-pound of salt in every gallon
of seawater.

The average pollen particle is less than the width of a
human hair. Pollens can remain on your skin and hair for
hours after spending time outdoors. Pollens can travel as
far as 400 miles and up to two miles high in the air.


A distillery was originally on the site of America's first
mint, the Philadelphia mint, which opened in 1792.


According to the Recruitment Code of the U.S. Navy, anyone "bearing an obscene and indecent" tattoo will be rejected.

The candies most likely to cause tooth decay are dark
chocolate and fudge.


Actor Jeremy Irons provides the voice of the narrator for
Spaceship Earth at Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida.


Sidhe

[dar512]

Ray: D'you know that the human head weighs 8 pounds?

Jerry Maguire: Did you know that Troy Aikman, in only six years, has passed for 16,303 yards?

Ray: D'you know that bees and dogs can smell fear?

Jerry Maguire: Did you know that the career record for hits is 4,256 by Pete Rose who is NOT in the Hall of Fame?

Ray: D'you know that my next door neighbor has three rabbits?

Jerry Maguire: I... I can't compete with that!

[Elspode]

Originally posted by Lady Sidhe
The practice of naming hurricanes began early this century
when an Australian weather forecaster decided to insult
politicians he didn't like by naming devastating tropical
storms after them.
Sidhe

This seems odd...hurricanes used to be exclusively named after women (allegedly due to their fury). So how, in the early part of the century, when women could not vote and did not hold office, did this guy name hurricanes after politicians?

[Lady Sidhe]

Originally posted by Elspode


This seems odd...hurricanes used to be exclusively named after women (allegedly due to their fury). So how, in the early part of the century, when women could not vote and did not hold office, did this guy name hurricanes after politicians?

I dunno...someone got that off a trivia page and sent it to me because they thought it was interesting. I always thought they were named after women, too....I guess maybe we assume that because they're called "Hurr"-icanes...??


Sidhe

[Lady Sidhe]

Sunbeams that shine down through clouds are called
crepuscular rays.


The youngest person to take the position of U.S. President
was Theodore Roosevelt. He was 42 at his inauguration. Next youngest was John F. Kennedy, who was 43.


In one day, a full-grown oak tree expels 7 tons of water
through its leaves.


The national anthems of Japan, Jordan, and San Marino each have only four lines.


The highest-selling internet domain name to date, business.com, went for $7.5 million in 1999. The buyer was eCompanies.

According to the Anxiety Disorders Association, one in
11 people suffer from some kind of phobia at some time in
their lives.


More than one million Earths would fit inside the sun.


Tornadoes seem to be an almost-exclusive North American phenomena--they occur more often in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world.


Aristotle, Sir Isaac Newton, Moses, and Charles Darwin had a problem expressing themselves because they stuttered.



Sidhe

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally posted by Lady Sidhe



I dunno...someone got that off a trivia page and sent it to me because they thought it was interesting. I always thought they were named after women, too....I guess maybe we assume that because they're called "Hurr"-icanes...??


Sidhe

Australia.

[Lady Sidhe]

I'm not really sure if this is trivia, but....


Canadian Occupational Hazards
(real maladies as reported in the Atlas of Occupational
Markers in Human Remains and the Journal of the American
Medical Association)


1. HOOKER'S ELBOW: No, it's not what you think. Hooker's
elbow is a bone spur common among fisherman, the Inuit in
particular, caused by the constant yanking of a line while
standing stationary. The world's original repetitive
strain injury.

2. MUSHER'S KNEE: A bone deformation caused by pushing off
on a dogsled using the same leg again and again.

3. BEER-DRINKER'S FINGER: A swelling in the finger, sometimes
accompanied by bruising and lacerations, caused by the
repeated opening of beer tabs. (Switching to twist-offs
doesn't help either, because all you're doing is swapping
one malady for another.) Again, this is a real affliction-
I kid you not!

4. MAL DE RAQUETTE: Stress and chronic pain in the knees and
hips caused by wearing snowshoes.

5. HUMPER'S LUMP: A strain or even outright dislocation of the
lower neck that afflicts lumberjacks and lumber carriers.
(Not to mention "Squashed Lumberjack Syndrome," an all-too-
common affliction, usually fatal.)

6. PADDLER"S TOE: A deformation of foot joints that plagues
long-distance canoeists, first noted among voyageurs in the
1700s.



Sidhe

[Lady Sidhe]

There is, reportedly, no way to tell a moth from a
butterfly. Though there are differences of physiology
and habit between them, it is almost impossible to isolate
a single differentiating characteristic that applies
uniformly to both species.


I always thought that moths had feathered antennae, and butterflies didn't. Hm. You learn something new every day....

Sidhe

[Lady Sidhe]

Mae West's 1959 autobiography was titled "Goodness Had
Nothing to Do With It."


"Big cheese" and "big wheel" are Medieval terms of envious
respect for those who could afford to buy whole wheels of
cheese at a time, an expense few could enjoy. Both these
terms are often used sarcastically today.

"Little Miss Sure Shot," Annie Oakley, had all of her gold
shooting medals melted down, then sold the gold and gave
the money to charity.

Before filming the role of Iris, the teen prostitute in
the 1976 film Taxi Driver, actress Jodi Foster had to
undergo psychiatric evaluation by the California Labor
Board. Because she was a minor, the board had to determine
whether she was capable of handling the controversial role.

The eggplant was domesticated in Southeast Asia more than
4,000 years ago. It belongs to the same family as the
poisonous deadly nightshade (as do potatoes, tomatoes,
and petunias). In the Middle East and then in Europe,
doctors blamed it for all sorts of things, from epilepsy
to cancer. In the fifth century, Chinese women made a
black dye from the eggplant skins to stain and polish
their teeth. And some people in medieval Europe considered
eggplant an aphrodisiac.

Without using precision instruments, Eratosthenes measured
the radius of Earth in the third century B.C., and came
within 1 percent of the value determined by today's
technology.



Sidhe