Total Trivia

[Daizie]

"All the way to Timbuktu" means something like "all the way to the ends of the world." And the name of Timbuktu might sound like a strange, romantic place invented by a writer. But there really is a place called Timbuktu!

The city of Timbuktu is in Africa, on the edge of the Sahara Desert. For many centuries, the city was a center of the caravan trade because of its position between the desert to the north and the green lands and rivers to the south.

And so it was nicknamed the "meeting point of the camel and canoe." About 500 years ago, it was the center of the Songai empire, a thriving trade city and a center of learning.

Much of the city had fallen into ruin by the time the French occupied it late in the 19th century. People began to think of Timbuktu as the most far-off, isolated place on earth. Today, Timbuktu is in the nation of Mali. Only about 9,000 people live there.

 

[Daizie]

Ten of the 50 states were named after people.

They are:

Washington, named after George Washington;

Pennsylvania, named after Sir William Penn;

Louisiana, named after King Louis XIV of France;

Georgia, named after King George II of England;

Maryland, named after Henrietta Maria, the Queen of King Charles I of England;

New York, named after the English Duke of York;

North and South Carolina, named after Charles I of England;

and Virginia and West Virginia, named after Elizabeth I, the "Virgin Queen" of England.

Four state capitals were named after presidents: Lincoln, Nebraska; Jackson, Mississippi; Jefferson City, Missouri; and Madison, Wisconsin.

 

[Daizie]

The most popular sport in the world is....

Americans might guess that football, baseball, or basketball is the most popular sport in the world. But more people play and watch soccer than any other sport — it's played under the same rules in more than 140 nations!

Soccer matches draw the biggest crowds of any sport. In 1937, almost 150,000 people watched a match in England, and in 1950, 205,000 people witnessed a game in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.

Why is soccer so popular? It's an easy game to learn, and a soccer match can be played almost anywhere, on a field of almost any size. And unlike football or baseball, there's no equipment, other than the ball, needed to play a game of soccer.

The most prized of all sports trophies is the World Cup, which is given to the winner of an international soccer tournament held every four years. Since its beginnings in 1930, the tournament has been won three times by only one nation — Brazil.

In the soccer stadium in Rio de Janiero, the playing field is surrounded by a moat seven feet wide to keep fans away from the players and referees!

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

According to research published in 1996, women who drink coffee are less likely to commit suicide than those who do not.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

In the late 15th century, Turkey passed a law making it possible for a woman to divorce her husband if he did not keep the coffee pot full.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

At last I have found the answer to my own trivial conundrum!
Which came first, the fruit or the colour?

The name of the colour we now know as orange comes from the fruit. It was only identified as a colour in Isaac Newton’s time.

I can die happy

 

[smotherman]

20% of engaged couples call off their wedding.

 

[smotherman]

The Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS signal.

 

[smotherman]

Your tongue is germ free only if it is pink. If it is white there is a thin film of bacteria on it.

 

[Daizie]

The costliest film ever made comes, surprisingly, not from Hollywood, but from Russia! This film, a 1960s version of the novel "War and Peace", took five years to make, was over six hours long, and cost over 96 million dollars.

The most successful movie of all time, however, is "Star Wars", which earned over $350 million worldwide ($130 million in America alone) in its first year, and is still making money.

The second most successful film in history is "Jaws", followed by "The Godfather", "The Exorcist", and "The Sound of Music".

 

[mickyp123]

Sharks have to keep moving in order to breathe.

They also do not attack Estate Agents who fall in the water (professional etiquette)

 

[fire_breeze]

How about kissing at the gym? You never kissed while on the treadmill?

eyeroll again! Melting! lol

Oooh! Now why didn't I think of that? It will definitely make my workout pass faster!




You know I couldn't resist!

 

[fire_breeze]

The average human emits approximately 95 watts of energy as heat in the form of infrared light. A standard 100 watt incandescent light bulb emits only about 5% of its energy as visible light, the rest is given off as heat in the form of infrared light. This means the average human produces the same amount of heat as a 100 watt light bulb.

 

[fire_breeze]

Wellfleet, Massachusetts has the only town clock in the world that strikes ship's time. (Rings every half hour, to a maximum of 8 rings at the end of each four hour period.)

 

[fire_breeze]

On Dec. 17, 1997, an episode of "Pokemon" was aired on Japanese television that induced seizures in hundreds of people throughout the country of Japan. The ages of those affected ranged from 3 to 58 years old. Ironically, the TV news reports played the perpetrating scene excerpt of flashing red lights, causing even more people to be afflicted with epileptic-type symptoms, in case they had missed the first one.

 

[fire_breeze]

Scissors as we know them today (well, pretty much) were invented in Rome in about 100 CE

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

It was necessary to keep a good supply of cannon balls near the cannon on old war ships. But how to prevent them from rolling about the deck was the problem.

The best storage method devised was to stack them as a square based pyramid, with one ball on top, resting on four, resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon.

There was only one problem -- how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding/rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate with 16 round indentations, called, for reasons unknown, a Monkey.

But if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it.

The solution to the rusting problem was to make them of brass - hence, Brass Monkeys.

Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled.


Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would come right off the monkey.

Thus, it was quite literally, cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.


And all this time, you thought that was just a vulgar expression, didn't you?

 

[smotherman]

The attachment of the human skin to muscles is what causes dimples.

 

[smotherman]

Colgate faced big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking countries. Colgate translates into the command “go hang yourself.”

 

[smotherman]

German Shepherds bite humans more than any other breed of dog.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

A bottle of champagne contains around 50 million bubbles at three times the pressure of a car tyre.

Who counted them?

 

[Daizie]

In 1932, a man named Richard Hollingshead set up a screen in front of his garage in Riverton, New Jersey, and sat in his car to watch a movie.

He did this so that he could become the first person to watch a movie from a car, and thereby get a patent on the idea, which would prevent anyone else from using it.

Hollingshead set up the world's first drive-in theater a short time later in a vacant lot in Camden, New Jersey. The lot had room for 400 cars. But then the government declared that he didn't have a patent on the idea, and many other people began to set up their own drive-in theaters.

By 1948, there were 820 drive-ins in America, and in 1958, the total had soared to over 4,000. Today, there are about 3,500 drive-ins in the United States.

 

[smotherman]

The sensitivity ( number of nerve endings per unit area of skin ) of the lips is 200 times higher than that of the fingers.

 

[smotherman]

Smooching passionately for 90 seconds will elevate blood pressure and cause the pulse rate to go racing, equivalent of a short jog.

 

[fire_breeze]

When George Washington was elected President, there was a King in France, a Tsarina in Russia, an Emperor in China, and a Shogun in Japan.