Total Trivia

[RUlookingup]

Risse first conceived of the road in 1870, as a means of connecting the borough of Manhattan to the parkway in the northern Bronx. Construction began on the Grand Concourse in 1889 and it was opened to traffic in November 1909. Built during the height of the City Beautiful movement, it was modeled on the Champs-Élysées in Paris but was considerably larger, stretching four miles (6 km) in length, measuring 180 feet (55 m) across, and separated into three roadways by tree-lined dividers.

The cost of the project was $14 million, the equivalent to $310 million by today's standards. The road originally stretched from the Bronx Borough Hall at 161st Street north to Van Cortlandt Park, although it was later expanded southward to 138th street after Mott Avenue was widened to accommodate the boulevard.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Why men are better than women at trivia
Regis Philbin once lamented that all his contestants were men. Jeopardy has an affirmative action program so that half of all new contestants are women. But why is it that trivia seems to be a man's game?

The University of Ulster at Coleraine has wondered about that, as well. Located in the northern part of Ireland, the university gave 1500 university students a 182-question general knowledge test, balanced to eliminate gender bias. Surprisingly, the men beat the women in just about every category, even in fashion. (The source suggests women prevailed either in "family" or in "medicine" and "cookery," it's a little unclear.)

Interestingly, the psychologists designed the study to eliminate other possible explanations, such as gender differences in memory or in IQ. The main explanation left appears to be that men see general knowledge tests as a competition with other males.

Interestingly, in the online game we run here, at least half the top players are female, and other research suggest that women are very much drawn to online gaming, provided that they are competing only with themselves. It may be that most trivia environments are too cut-throat for women, who prefer not to be surrounded by men competing to see who has the biggest ... brains.

Interesting

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The name of the first airplane flown at Kitty Hawk by the Wright Brothers, on December 17, 1903, was "Flyer." The maiden flight of Flyer, however, was less than a flight — the plane stayed in the air only 12 seconds. The brothers flew three more times that day, with their final flight covering 852 feet in 59 seconds.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The nation of Chile’s name is from an Indian word, Tchili, meaning “the deepest point of the earth".

 

[fire_breeze]

The continent of Antarctica contains about 10 percent of all the land on earth.

Yet Antarctica is the most remote, hard-to-get-to place on our planet. Its possible to visit every continent except Antarctica without ever crossing more than about 100 miles (160 km) of sea. But Antarctica is everywhere at least 600 miles (960 km) from the nearest continent!

Antarctica is also the loneliest place on earth. In the Northern Hemisphere, large parts of Canada, Alaska, Russia, Greenland, and Scandinavia lie above the Arctic Circle.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Antarctica is pushed into the earth by the weight of its ice sheets. If they melted, it would "spring back" about 500m (1 625 ft). It would do this v...e...r...y s...l...o...w...l...y taking about 10000 years to do so.

Scotland and Scandinavia are still rebounding today after the last ice age - at the rate of half a meter a century in the Northern Baltic

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

One of the biggest icebergs ever (possibly the biggest iceberg ever) broke free from the Ross ice shelf in Antarctica in 2000.

It was 295km (183 miles) long and 37km (23 miles) wide, with a surface area of 11,000 sq km (4,250 square miles) above water - and 10 times bigger below. It's similar in size to The Gambia, Qatar, The Bahamas, or Connecticut.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

When the Antarctic sea-ice begins to expand at the beginning of winter, it advances by around 40,000 square miles (100,000 square kilometres) per day, and eventually doubles the size of Antarctica, adding up to an extra 20 million square kilometres of ice around the land mass.

That's one and a half USA's, two Australia's or 50 UK's worth of ice area that forms, then breaks up and melts each year.

 

[desideratum]

Antarctica was imagined by the ancient Greeks, but not even seen until 1820. The first time anyone set foot on Antarctica was in 1821.

About 4,000 people live on scientific bases in the short summer 1,000 total in winter, around 30,000 summer tourists - There are no permanent residents and never has been a native population.

Antarctica has 70% of all the world's freshwater frozen as ice - and 90% of all the world's ice.

 

[desideratum]

Research has showed that computer keyboards may have nearly 70 times as many germs as the average toilet seat. The figure for telephones was even higher, over 500 times as many germs

The main culprits for growing bacteria on a keyboard are people who eat lunch at their desks, and let the crumbs fall between the keys; and those who do not wash their hands properly.

One study has found that 10-percent of people said they never cleaned their keyboard, with a further 20-percent admitting to never cleaning their mouse, and almost half cleaned their keyboard less than once a month.

I'm guessing the germ percentage may be higher if you're naughty at Lit. hehe

"Desks are really bacteria cafeterias." - Charles Gerba, microbiologist

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

A Jerusalem artichoke is not an artichoke, it is a sunflower.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Cattle branding was practiced 4,000 years ago. Old tomb paintings show Egyptians branding their fat, spotted cattle.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The African eagle, swooping at more than 100 miles per hour, can brake to a halt in 20 feet.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War, known today as World War I (WWI), at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351. Known as "Spanish Flu" or "La Grippe" the influenza of 1918-1919 was a global disaster.

 

[RUlookingup]

The Gaia hypothesis is an ecological hypothesis proposing that the biosphere and the physical components of the Earth (atmosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere) are closely integrated to form a complex interacting system that maintains the climatic and biogeochemical conditions on Earth in a preferred homeostasis.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Gaia (Gay-ah) or Gaea most commonly refers to Gamythology

Gaia is a Greek primordial god and chthonic deity in the Ancient Greek Pantheon and considered a Mother Goddess or Great Goddess, the primal Greek goddess of the earth. But it may also refer to:


Gaea: is an impact crater on Amalthea , one of the small natural satellites of Jupiter. The crater is 80 km wide and at least 15 km deep. Gaea is one of two named craters on Amalthea, the other being Pan ....

The Gaia hypothesis: is an ecology hypothesis proposing that the biosphere and the physical components of the Earth are closely integrated to form a complex system that maintains the climate and biogeochemistry conditions on Earth in a preferred homeostasis, an ecological hypothesis that considers the earth's ecosystem as a single organism

Gaia mission: a European space mission due for launch in 2011.

The Gaia Movement: is an international network of individuals and groups that share a concern for living more sustainably on the earth. The term "Gaia" comes from Greek mythology, where it is the name of the Gaia, an international network concerned for a more sustainable earth.

Gaia philosophy: is a broadly inclusive term for related concepts that living organisms on a planet will affect the nature of their environment in order to make the environment more suitable for life. A concept that living organisms on a planet will improve their environment .

Gaia_Lorraine: Everywhere I post on the internet my nick is Lorraine, but here on LIT the nick was already taken. I am a mother of 2 delinquents, but Mother_Lorraine as a nick sounded like I was a nun... hence my nick

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The world's two largest dams are both in Russia. They are the Inguri (988 feet high) and the Nurek (984 feet high).

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

A woman, Elizabeth Van Lew, was rated by General Grant as his most efficient secret agent during the U.S. Civil War. Known as "Crazy Bet," this supposedly demented daughter of a Richmond merchant passed information to Union commanders and arranged daring prison escapes for Union soldiers, hiding the fugitives in a secret room in her mansion overlooking the James River.

 

[fire_breeze]

Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born today in 1791.

 

[rbijon]

Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born today in 1791.

I fail to advance to the rank of Star in the Boy Scouts because i could not remember my Morse Code!

 

[fire_breeze]

Originally created for Morse's electric telegraph in the early 1840s, Morse code was also extensively used for early radio communication beginning in the 1890s.

For the first half of the twentieth century, the majority of high-speed international communication was conducted in Morse code, using telegraph lines, undersea cables, and radio circuits

 

[fire_breeze]

I fail to advance to the rank of Star in the Boy Scouts because i could not remember my Morse Code!

I learned it, and then two days later, forgot it all except for some random letters .

 

[rbijon]

I learned it, and then two days later, forgot it all except for some random letters .

Total trivia.....we may need to know Morse Code when we hitchhike across the Universe! Study up Girl!

 

[Inrhapsody]

Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born today in 1791.

How interesting.

 

[fire_breeze]

The term lingerie derives from the French word 'lin' which means linen.