Total Trivia

[Gaia_Lorraine]

You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling by the Righteous Brothers is the most played song on radio across the world. The equivalent of 45.6 continuous years' airplay.

 

[fire_breeze]

Whether humans sense pheromones is controversial. Unlike rats and pigs, people are not known to have a specialized pheromone de tector, or vomeronasal organ, between their nose and mouth, although it has been suggested that we can sense pheromones through our nose. Human pheromones could include an drostenol, a chemical component of male sweat that may boost sexual arousal in women, and female vaginal hormones called copulins that some researchers have found raise testosterone levels and increase sexual appetite in men.

If pheromones do play a role in human courtship and procreation, then kissing would be an extremely effective way to pass them from one person to another. The behavior may have evolved because it helps humans find a suitable mate—making love, or at least attraction, quite literally blind.

 

[fire_breeze]

Human lips enjoy the slimmest layer of skin on the human body, and the lips are among the most densely populated with sensory neurons of any body region. When we kiss, these neurons, along with those in the tongue and mouth, rocket messages to the brain and body, setting off delightful sensations, intense emotions and physical reactions.

 

[fire_breeze]

In 2005 anthropologist Helen Fisher of Rutgers University and her colleagues reported scanning the brains of 17 individuals as they gazed at pictures of people with whom they were deeply in love. The researchers found an unusual flurry of activity in two brain regions that govern pleasure, motivation and reward: the right ventral tegmental area and the right caudate nucleus. Addictive drugs such as cocaine similarly stimulate these reward centers, through the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine. Love, it seems, is a kind of drug for us humans.

 

[fire_breeze]

In a recent survey Gallup and his colleagues found that 59 percent of 58 men and 66 percent of 122 women admitted there had been times when they were attracted to some one only to find that their interest evaporated after their first kiss. The “bad” kisses had no particular flaws; they simply did not feel right—and they ended the romantic relationship then and there—a kiss of death for that coupling. The reason a kiss carries such weight, Gallup theorizes, is that it conveys subconscious information about the genetic compatibility of a prospective mate. His hypothesis is consistent with the idea that kissing evolved as a courtship strategy because it helps us rate potential partners.


Hmmm, all this could potentially make a very enjoyable activity much too clinical. Thank Gods that the thrill of a kiss far outweighs the science

 

[Daizie]

There are more than 7,000 newspapers published around the world, and about a quarter of them are American papers. Each day, Americans buy some 61 million copies of their favorite papers!

The largest-selling paper in the United States is the New York Daily News, which sells about two million copies each day. The Wall Street Journal is second, with about 1.5 million copies sold daily. The Los Angeles Times is third, and the New York Times is fourth.

But of all the newspapers in the world, a Russian paper called Pravda has the largest circulation. About ten million copies of this newspaper are printed each day!

Sixty years ago there were more papers in America than there are today — 2,461 compared to 1,759 today!

 

[skinneydip]

sorry for just barging in for the hell of it...but I have not seen this thread before...It's hilarious to me...just a bunch of trivia lol...

You ladies are funny!

 

[Daizie]

The most popular home cooked main dish in America is, by far, fried chicken. Roast beef is second, followed in order by spaghetti, turkey, and baked ham.

How about the second five most popular dishes? They are, in order: fried shrimp, beef stew, meat loaf, fish, and macaroni and cheese.

Of all foods, Americans consume more milk than anything else — 291 pounds a year for each person!

 

[Daizie]

sorry for just barging in for the hell of it...but I have not seen this thread before...It's hilarious to me...just a bunch of trivia lol...

You ladies are funny!

We like our useless information. Some of it is quite interesting and educational. We are Alex Trebeck-certified.

 

[skinneydip]

We like our useless information. Some of it is quite interesting and educational. We are Alex Trebeck-certified.

Well I will make a point to stop by...I had no idea of the diverse smorgasbord I didn't know. .

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

sorry for just barging in for the hell of it...but I have not seen this thread before...It's hilarious to me...just a bunch of trivia lol...

You ladies are funny!

Welcome skinneydip
But (whispers in your ear) not everyone who contributes here is a lady

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

One tree makes, on average, a million matches.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

On Friday, April 13, 2029 an asteroid called 2004 MN4 will be within 19,000 miles of Earth that day, but it won't hit us.

 

[skinneydip]

Welcome skinneydip
But (whispers in your ear) not everyone who contributes here is a lady

Thanks Gaia_Lorraine...and (speaking in a hushed baritone voice) as I scan down the thread...see your point could have at least 2 meanings

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Thanks Gaia_Lorraine...and (speaking in a hushed baritone voice) as I scan down the thread...see your point could have at least 2 meanings

Two meanings indeed...

1 - Some are male, and...
2 - It's been a long time since I was a lady

We await your first trivial post with bated breath

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

How many ants could you fit in a Jumbo Jet and it could still take off?

The average ant weighs 3mg.
Taking account of aerodynamics, a jet containing 46,500,000,000 of them would still be able to take off - assuming one of them knew how to fly the plane

 

[jeff_is_smiling]

I posted this in a different thread, but it probably should be in this one...so here goes...

The ancients used a specialized date in spring to serve as the start of the new year....they used a portion of the constellation Taurus the Bull as their new year start date. When the Seven Sisters grouping of stars just starts to peek over the horizon at dawn, that used to mark the start of the new planting season...a new beginning to the year.

That is why the symbol of the Seven Sisters is used on Subaru automobiles as their symbol....Subaru means, "New Beginning"....

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Squid, oysters and octopus have three hearts, hagfish have five, earthworms have multiple hearts but only Dr Who has two

 

[Sienna]

A new and brilliant thread by Gaia_Lorraine...

Crazy PM's

 

[fire_breeze]

Different cultures put the creation of the world at different dates. Many historical calendars were based on these dates. Below, in no particular order, are some examples of proposed dates of creation, including for reference several modern views that are scientific in scope.

Maya civilization - August 11, 3114 BCE

Judaism - September 22 or March 29, 3760 BCE

James Ussher (1654) who took a literal approach to the Biblical Account - 23 October, 4004 BCE

Byzantine Church calculation - September 1, 5509 BCE

Maria de Agreda - 5199 BCE.

Big Bang theory - the age of the Universe is between 11-20 billion years, with the most widely quoted figure being 13.7 ± 0.2 billion years.

Radiometric dating - the planet Earth 4.55 (± 1%) billion years ago.

Puranic Hinduism, 155 trillion years ago (50 'years of Brahma')

 

[fire_breeze]

The Ussher chronology is a 17th-century chronology of the history of the world formulated from a literal reading of the Bible by James Ussher, the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh (in what is now Northern Ireland). The chronology is sometimes associated with Young Earth Creationism, which holds that the universe was created only a few millennia ago.

Ussher's chronology provides the following dates for key events in the Biblical history of the world:
4004 BCE - Creation
2348 BCE - Noah's Flood
1921 BCE - God's call to Abraham
1491 BCE - The Exodus from Egypt
1012 BCE - The founding of the Temple in Jerusalem
586 BCE - The destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon and the beginning of the Babylonian Captivity
4 BCE - The birth of Jesus

 

[fire_breeze]

The Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) is a deity created as a satirical protest to the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to require the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to biological evolution. The FSM is the deity of the parody religion. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, founded in 2005 by Bobby Henderson. Since the intelligent design movement used ambiguous references to an unspecified 'Intelligent Designer' to avoid court rulings prohibiting the teaching of creationism as a science, this presumably left open the possibility that any imaginable thing could fill that role.

According to the Pastafarian belief system, pirates are "absolute divine beings" and the original Pastafarians.[The inclusion of pirates in Pastafarianism was part of Henderson's original letter to the Kansas School Board. It illustrated that correlation does not imply causation. Henderson put forth the argument that "global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of pirates since the 1800s".

http://airstripone.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/flying-spaghetti-monster.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster_2.jpg

 

[fire_breeze]

The English "pirate" is derived from the Latin term pirata and that from Greek πειρατής (peirates) "brigand", ultimately from peira (πεῖρα) "attempt, experience", implicitly "to find luck on the sea".

 

[fire_breeze]

This day in history:

1460 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield.
1816 - The Treaty of St. Louis is proclaimed.
1853 - Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.
1853 - A dinner party is held inside a life-size model of an Iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London.
1862 - The USS Monitor sinks off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
1896 - José Rizal is executed by firing squad in Manila.
1897 - Natal annexes Zululand.
1903 - A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois kills 600.
1905 - Former Governor Frank Steunenberg is assassinated near his home in Caldwell, Idaho.
1906 - The All India Muslim League is founded in Dacca, East Bengal, British India Empire, which later laid down the foundations of Pakistan.
1919 - Lincoln's Inn in London admits its first female bar student.
1922 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed.
1924 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies.
1927 - The Ginza Line, the first subway line in Asia, opens in Tokyo, Japan.
1936 - The United Auto Workers union stages its first sit-down strike.
1940 - California opens its first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway.
1943 - Subhas Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair.
1944 - King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving the throne vacant.
1947 - King Michael of Romania is forced to abdicate by the Soviet-backed Communist government of Romania.
1948 - The Cole Porter Broadway musical, Kiss Me, Kate (1,077 performances), opens at the New Century Theatre and becomes the first show to win the Best Musical Tony Award.
1953 - The first ever NTSC color television sets go on sale for about USD at $1,175 each from RCA.
1965 - Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of the Philippines.
1972 - Vietnam War: The United States halts heavy bombing of North Vietnam.
1977 - For the second time, Ted Bundy escapes from his cell in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
1986 - The Swift Current Broncos' bus crashes during bad weather outside Swift Current, Saskatchewan, killing 4 players and injuring 1.
1993 - Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations.
1995 - The lowest ever United Kingdom temperature of -27.2°C was recorded at Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands. This equalled the record set at Braemar, Aberdeenshire on February 11, 1895 and January 10, 1982.
1996 - In the Indian state of Assam, a passenger train is bombed by Bodo separatists, killing 26.
1996 - Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel.
1997 - In the worst incident in Algeria's insurgency, the Wilaya of Relizane massacres, 400 people are killed from four villages.
2000 - Rizal Day Bombings: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila, Philippines within a period of a few hours, killing 22 and injuring about a hundred.
2003 - U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft recuses himself and his office from the Plame affair.
2004 - A fire in the República Cromagnon nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina kills 194.
2005 - Tropical Storm Zeta forms in the open Atlantic Ocean, tying the record for the latest tropical cyclone ever to form in the North Atlantic basin.
2006 - Madrid Barajas International Airport is bombed.
2006 - Deposed President of Iraq Saddam Hussein, convicted of the executions of 148 Iraqi Shiites, is executed by hanging.

Holidays and Observances:

The fifth day of Christmas in Western Christianity.
Roman Catholic Saints - Pope Felix I (optional memorial), Saint Sabinus, Anysia of Salonika, Anysius, Aphian, Donatus, Egwin of Worcester, Eugene of Milan, Eugenia Ravasco, Exuperantius, Holy Family (2007), Honorius, John Alcober, Liberius of Ravenna, Mansuetus, Marcellus, Margaret Colonna, Matthia dei Nazzarei, Our Lady of Bethlehem, Ralph of Vaucelles, Raynerius of Aquila, Ruggero of Canne, Severus, Venustian
Philippines - Rizal Day

 

[Daizie]

Did you know that many of the customs observed at weddings today date back to the days of the Roman Empire?

For example, the month of June, which is now the favorite month for marriages, was also the most popular month for weddings in ancient Rome. That's because June was the month of Juno, the goddess of marriage. A wedding celebrated in June was believed to please Juno, who would assure prosperity and happiness to the newlyweds.

The wearing of the bridal veil is also a custom that can be traced to ancient Rome. The Roman bride wore a veil to hide her face from evil spirits that might seek to mar her happiness. Wedding cake was part of a Roman wedding, too, though it was common earlier among the Greeks, who usually served cheesecake at their weddings.

But the Roman bride didn't dress all in white, as is the custom today. She wore a tunic with a wool girdle around her waist, saffron-colored sandals, a saffron robe, and an orange veil. She also wore a wreath on her head and a metal collar around her neck!