Total Trivia

[Gaia_Lorraine]

nyassa o nyanja is the word used by the angoni hillmen (who speak a dialect of zulu) for any large body of water. so, lake nyassa's name means lake... or lake lake

Thank you liquen (nice cock btw)

The origin of the name Titicaca is unknown. It has been translated as "Rock Puma", allegedly because of its resemblance to the shape of a puma hunting a rabbit, combining words from the local languages Quechua and Aymara, and as well as translated as "Crag of Lead." Locally, the lake goes by several names. Because the southeast quarter of the lake is separate from the main body (connected only by the Strait of Tiquina), the Bolivians call it Lago Huiñaymarca (Quechua: Wiñay Marka) and the larger part Lago Chucuito. In Peru, these smaller and larger parts are referred to as Lago Pequeño and Lago Grande, respectively.

 

[liquen]

my pleasure, gaia (thank you)

the maya itzá, who inhabited petén, made a stone effigy of a horse left behind by the Spaniards, which they worshiped as the "thunder tapir", tzimin chac.

thunder (chac), due to the harquebus fireshots made by the conquerors on horseback; tapir (tzimin), since it was the animal known by them that most resembled a horse

Thank you liquen (nice cock btw)

The origin of the name Titicaca is unknown. It has been translated as "Rock Puma", allegedly because of its resemblance to the shape of a puma hunting a rabbit, combining words from the local languages Quechua and Aymara, and as well as translated as "Crag of Lead." Locally, the lake goes by several names. Because the southeast quarter of the lake is separate from the main body (connected only by the Strait of Tiquina), the Bolivians call it Lago Huiñaymarca (Quechua: Wiñay Marka) and the larger part Lago Chucuito. In Peru, these smaller and larger parts are referred to as Lago Pequeño and Lago Grande, respectively.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The partly-salt Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela is the only body of water in South America larger than Titicaca, at about 13,000 square kilometres (5,000 sq mi).

 

[liquen]

the name vladivostok (Владивосток) loosely translates from russian as "rule the east" a name based on that of vladikavkaz, at that time a russian fortress in the caucasus. the traditional chinese name for the city is hǎishēnwǎi (海參崴; literally "sea cucumber cliffs"). in mainland china, it is officially known under the transliteration of fúlādíwòsītuōkè (符拉迪沃斯托克).

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The first U.S. patent for an animal was issued to geneticists at Harvard University in 1988. The animal – called an "oncomouse" – is a genetically engineered mouse that is highly susceptible to breast cancer.

 

[water_side]

Englishman Peter Jackman, the four times World Gurning Champion, died from a freak golfing accident in Spain (2003).

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

If someone refers to your estimable rhinoplasty they are praising your nose job.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The colours of the rings on the official Olympic flag are blue, black, red, yellow and green.

 

[fire_breeze]

The symbol of the Olympic Games is composed of five interlocking rings, colored blue, yellow, black, green, and red on a white field. This was originally designed in 1912 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games. Upon its initial introduction, de Coubertin stated the following in the August, 1912 edition of Revue Olympique:

The emblem chosen to illustrate and represent the world Congress of 1914...: five
intertwined rings in different colors - blue, yellow, black, green, red - are placed on
the white field of the paper. These five rings represent the five parts of the world which
now are won over to Olympism and willing to accept healthy competition.

These five parts are generally taken to mean the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania.

 

[fire_breeze]

According to De Coubertin the ring colors with the white background stand for those colors that appeared on all the national flags of the world at that time.

 

[NattyBumppo]

Roughly once a month, the NBA cuts 31 checks to NBA teams as revenue from its multibillion-dollar national television contract.

There are only 30 NBA franchises, so who gets the extra check?

The money goes to brothers Ozzie and Dan Silna, co-owners of the long-forgotten ABA team, the Spirits of St. Louis.

Thirty years ago, Ozzie Silna, with attorney Donald Schupak, negotiated a deal that cleared the way for the ABA to merge with the NBA. It ranks as one of the best sports deals in modern times, one that has paid the Silnas about $168 million and continues to pay off.

Part of the Silnas' deal called for them to receive one-seventh of the annual TV revenue from each of the four ABA teams entering the NBA. The deal turned out to be so lucrative that several NBA teams have tried to break it, without success.

The key line in the Silnas' TV contract that makes NBA executives cringe reads: "The right to receive such revenues shall continue for as long as the NBA or its successors continues in its existence."

In other words, the deal lasts as long as the NBA does.

Another key component is that Silna, anticipating the NBA expanding, capped the brothers' portion of shared television revenue at a maximum of 28 teams. The other NBA teams share their revenue among all 30 teams.

In 1976 the ABA reached a merger deal with the NBA. The NBA agreed to take four of the six teams from the dismantling ABA. The Spirits and the Kentucky Colonels were not invited to join the league. However, the ABA owners needed to reach unanimous approval for the merger to take place.

John Y. Brown, owner of the Kentucky Colonels, quickly accepted a $3.3-million buyout as compensation. That deal was also offered to the Silnas.

As the NBA's popularity rose, so did the league's TV contract and the Silnas' cut. For the NBA's last contract, they averaged $15 million a year.

"The process never even entered our minds of how high it would get," Ozzie Silna said. "We just wanted a piece of the action."

They are due an even larger jackpot from the NBA's current contract, which began in 2002. That six-year, $4.6-billion deal with ABC/ESPN and TNT could earn them upward of $24 million annually, according to Silna.

Without having to dole out salaries or money on stadium leases, the Silnas earn more each season than most NBA teams.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Apologies for my long absence (my internet connection died)

The dog who played Toto in The Wizard of Oz was paid more than twice the amount that the actors who played the Munchkins were. Terry, a female Cairns Terrier, got $125 per week, while the short-statured actors playing the Munchkins only got $50 a week.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The 'Streisand Effect' is the name given to amusingly backfiring attempts to censor information - which attract so much notoriety that many more people become aware of the information than otherwise would. It's named after Barbra Streisand's efforts to suppress a picture of her house - which lead to hundreds of thousands of people looking at the offending photo online.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

On average the amount people can hold their breath is around one minute. The World record is 21 minutes 29 seconds by Hungarian escape artist David Merlini, who achieved it at the start of the Formula One race in Bahrain on April 26 2009 by holding his breath underwater.

 

[desideratum]

The 'Streisand Effect' is the name given to amusingly backfiring attempts to censor information - which attract so much notoriety that many more people become aware of the information than otherwise would. It's named after Barbra Streisand's efforts to suppress a picture of her house - which lead to hundreds of thousands of people looking at the offending photo online.

hmmmm interesting! I had not heard of that term before

my drive-by snippet for today is: In the first decade of the 1900's it became okay for a woman to apply lipstick at the table, during lunch at a restaurant. It was not okay to apply lipstick at the table during dinner.

(do women still do that? lol)

 

[PenforPrez]

Motown Records, known for their exquisitely crafted records by R&B and soul artists, actually boasted two subsidiaries in its past devoted to country music.

In the mid-60's, Motown took a label called Mel-o-dy Records (which had been a secondary R&B label) and transformed it into a country label, which folded not long after.

In the mid-70's, Motown established Melodyland Records, which was renamed Hitsville after a lawsuit. Most notable from that period was the first records by T.G. Sheppard, who under his real name of Bill Browder helped break Elvis' song Suspicious Minds as a record promoter. Sheppard hit #1 with his first single released on Melodyland/Hitsville, Devil in the Bottle, which was the first time a country artist hit #1 on their debut single since Connie Smith in 1964.

Hitsville folded in 1977. T.G. Sheppard went on to record for Warner Brothers, where he hit #1 on the country chart 11 times in 13 singles between 1979 and 1983.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Every day, over five billion gallons of water are flushed down toilets in the United States.

In a survey conducted in 2000 by Kimberly-Clark, it was found that men prefer to fold their toilet paper, and women like to wad it.

 

[call_me_Melody]

Halloween Trivia

"Phasmophobia" is the fear of ghosts.

A cup of candy corn has fewer calories than a cup of raisins.

It's illegal to sell a haunted house in New York without informing the buyer.

Eighty-two percent of children take part in Halloween festivities, as do 67% of adults.

The first jack-o'-lanterns were made of turnips.

"Samhainophobia" is the morbid fear of Halloween.

Halloween is the biggest holiday of the year when it comes to candy sales—estimated at $1.93 billion. One quarter of all the candy sold each year is purchased between September 15 and November 10.

The word witch comes from the Saxon word wicca, which means "wise one."

Pumpkins also come in white, blue and green.

In France, more than 30,000 werewolf cases were tried between 1520 and 1630.

Dracula is the most filmed story of all time.

The largest pumpkin ever grown weighed 1,469 pounds. It was weighed in on October 1, 2005 at the Pennsylvania Giant Pumpkin Growers Weigh-Off.

Trick-or-treating is an Irish tradition, based on a custom where wealthy landowners would give food to the poor on Halloween night, believing ghosts would look favorably on them for doing so and spare them from mischief.

In Romanian, Dracula means "Son of the Devil."

The Scots believed in "Samhanach," a goblin who came out only on Halloween and stole children.

Halloween costume sales are estimated at $1.5 billion.

Eighty percent of kids say their favorite Halloween candy is either chocolate or gum.

Pumpkins are fruits, not vegetables.

Pennslyvania was the first colony to legalize witchcraft.

There is a poisonous mushroom called a jack-o'-lantern. These mushrooms are a bright orange-yellow in color and on rainy nights they appears to glow in the dark.

Fifty-one percent of all American adults believe in ghosts. Nine percent of Americans claim to have been in the presence of a ghost during their lifetime.

Americans consume about 20 million pounds of candy corn each year.

The Count Dracula Society was founded in 1962.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, people in costumes and masks would go from house to house, singing and dancing to keep evil at bay. These people were known as "guisers."

Americans spend about $50 million on Halloween greetings.

According to studies, the smell of pumpkin pie is the most arousing to women, followed by lavender, cucumbers, baby powder and Good & Plenty candy.

At one time, there were public trials and convictions of animals for witchcraft.

In Lewis, Scotland, Halloween was once celebrated by designating one man to wade into the evening sea and offer a cup of ale to Shoney, a sea god.

In the North of England, Halloween was called "nut-crack" and "snap-apple night."

Ninety-nine percent of pumpkins sold in the U.S. are used to make jack-o'-lanterns.

The first Frankenstein film was produced by Thomas Edison in 1910.

The average U.S. household spends $44 on Halloween candy.

There is a Transylvania County in North Carolina.

According to superstition, you will see your future spouse over your left shoulder in the mirror at midnight on Halloween.

"Wiccaphobia" is the fear of witches and witchcraft.

October 30 is National Candy Corn Day.

A popular Halloween drink in 18th century Ireland was "lambs-wool," which consisted of roasted, crushed apples mixed into milk.

Dan Rather was born on Halloween, as was Jane Pauley.

Celts believed black cats were once people who had been turned into animals with evil magic.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

"Phasmophobia" is the fear of ghosts.

A cup of candy corn has fewer calories than a cup of raisins.

It's illegal to sell a haunted house in New York without informing the buyer.

Eighty-two percent of children take part in Halloween festivities, as do 67% of adults.

The first jack-o'-lanterns were made of turnips.

"Samhainophobia" is the morbid fear of Halloween.

Halloween is the biggest holiday of the year when it comes to candy sales—estimated at $1.93 billion. One quarter of all the candy sold each year is purchased between September 15 and November 10.

The word witch comes from the Saxon word wicca, which means "wise one."

Pumpkins also come in white, blue and green.

In France, more than 30,000 werewolf cases were tried between 1520 and 1630.

Dracula is the most filmed story of all time.

The largest pumpkin ever grown weighed 1,469 pounds. It was weighed in on October 1, 2005 at the Pennsylvania Giant Pumpkin Growers Weigh-Off.

Trick-or-treating is an Irish tradition, based on a custom where wealthy landowners would give food to the poor on Halloween night, believing ghosts would look favorably on them for doing so and spare them from mischief.

In Romanian, Dracula means "Son of the Devil."

The Scots believed in "Samhanach," a goblin who came out only on Halloween and stole children.

Halloween costume sales are estimated at $1.5 billion.

Eighty percent of kids say their favorite Halloween candy is either chocolate or gum.

Pumpkins are fruits, not vegetables.

Pennslyvania was the first colony to legalize witchcraft.

There is a poisonous mushroom called a jack-o'-lantern. These mushrooms are a bright orange-yellow in color and on rainy nights they appears to glow in the dark.

Fifty-one percent of all American adults believe in ghosts. Nine percent of Americans claim to have been in the presence of a ghost during their lifetime.

Americans consume about 20 million pounds of candy corn each year.

The Count Dracula Society was founded in 1962.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, people in costumes and masks would go from house to house, singing and dancing to keep evil at bay. These people were known as "guisers."

Americans spend about $50 million on Halloween greetings.

According to studies, the smell of pumpkin pie is the most arousing to women, followed by lavender, cucumbers, baby powder and Good & Plenty candy.

At one time, there were public trials and convictions of animals for witchcraft.

In Lewis, Scotland, Halloween was once celebrated by designating one man to wade into the evening sea and offer a cup of ale to Shoney, a sea god.

In the North of England, Halloween was called "nut-crack" and "snap-apple night."

Ninety-nine percent of pumpkins sold in the U.S. are used to make jack-o'-lanterns.

The first Frankenstein film was produced by Thomas Edison in 1910.

The average U.S. household spends $44 on Halloween candy.

There is a Transylvania County in North Carolina.

According to superstition, you will see your future spouse over your left shoulder in the mirror at midnight on Halloween.

"Wiccaphobia" is the fear of witches and witchcraft.

October 30 is National Candy Corn Day.

A popular Halloween drink in 18th century Ireland was "lambs-wool," which consisted of roasted, crushed apples mixed into milk.

Dan Rather was born on Halloween, as was Jane Pauley.

Celts believed black cats were once people who had been turned into animals with evil magic.

One story says that on Nov. 1 the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.

Naturally, the still living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.

 

[desideratum]

wow I loved reading those above trivias -- but oh boy all that candy! I bet parents loooove putting their kids to bed on *that* night! lol (we don't do Halloween here)

but *perk* I do have this... *innocent smile*

The first story of a vampire has been documented as coming from ancient Greek lore.

Bram Stoker had never been to central Europe when he penned his classic vampire novel Dracula

Early vampires of legend were not the suave, debonair vampires of the Anne Rice novels. They were more like the cast of “Night of the living Dead,” fresh out of the grave and still decaying.

The first popular vampire novel was not Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” but rather “The Vampyre” by John Polidori and based on writings by the poet, Lord Byron

also, vampires please note:
A vampire must sleep near his native soil. To get around this, many novels have their vampires carry coffins of soil with them when they travel.
A vampire is able to sail in or out of a port only at high or low tide, not in between.
A vampire casts no shadow and have no reflection.
A vampire sleeps without breathing and has no pulse.
A vampire cannot enter someone’s home unless he is invited.....

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

wow I loved reading those above trivias -- but oh boy all that candy! I bet parents loooove putting their kids to bed on *that* night! lol (we don't do Halloween here)

but *perk* I do have this... *innocent smile*

The first story of a vampire has been documented as coming from ancient Greek lore.

Bram Stoker had never been to central Europe when he penned his classic vampire novel Dracula

Early vampires of legend were not the suave, debonair vampires of the Anne Rice novels. They were more like the cast of “Night of the living Dead,” fresh out of the grave and still decaying.

The first popular vampire novel was not Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” but rather “The Vampyre” by John Polidori and based on writings by the poet, Lord Byron

also, vampires please note:
A vampire must sleep near his native soil. To get around this, many novels have their vampires carry coffins of soil with them when they travel.
A vampire is able to sail in or out of a port only at high or low tide, not in between.
A vampire casts no shadow and have no reflection.
A vampire sleeps without breathing and has no pulse.
A vampire cannot enter someone’s home unless he is invited.....

I'm happy about that last one

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The Case of Peter Stubbe
Germany, 1951: The villagers of Cologne and Bedburg, in Germany, suffered through gruesome wolf attacks for many years. In most cases, the victim's bodies were torn apart and partially eaten by the beast. In 1591, a group of villagers attacked by the huge wolf fought back with long, spear-like sticks. The wolf was revealed as villager Peter Stubbe. Under torture, he admitted to practicing sorcery and "making a pact with the devil". He reported murdering sixteen people, mostly children.

 

[fire_breeze]

Some facts about the world's most famous vampire: Dracula

Nationality: Romanian

Family connections : He was the son of Prince Vlad Dracul (Vlad the Devil) and a Moldavian princess named Cneajna

Origin of the name Dracula: Named for Vlad Dracul (Vlad the Devil) therefore also called Dracula or Son of the Devil

Also Known the Titles:

Dracula or Son of the Devil

Prince of Walachia

Prince Vlad IV

Vlad the Impaler or Tepes, Tepesh or Tzepes ( which also mean Impaler)

Dracula was called by the nickname Vlad the Impaler after impaling his enemies on stakes as a cruel and vicious form of torture and execution

Lifespan: 1431 - 1476

Time Reference: Lived during the reign of King Henry VI of England

Date of Birth: He was born on 4th of November

Early Life and Education:

Career and Timeline of Vlad Dracula:

The son of Prince Vlad III he seized the throne temporarily in 1448 and permanently in 1456

Fought against the Ottoman Turks

1459: Dracula lived in the Transylvanian city of Braşov where he had 30,000 people impaled

1460: Dracula lived in the Transylvanian city of Sibiu when 10,000 people were impaled by Vlad Dracula

1462: Dracula was deposed by the Ottoman Sultan Muhammad II

Vlad Dracula was betrayed by his ally the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus

He was imprisoned in Hungary for 12 years where he adopted the Catholic Religion

1476: Vlad Dracula regained the throne

1476: Vlad Dracula was killed by the Ottoman ally Laiota Basarab

Date of Death: Vlad Dracula died in 1476

The head of Vlad Dracula was preserved in honey. It was sent to Istanbul where the sultan had it displayed on a stake as visual proof that the Impaler was dead

He is believed to be buried at a monastery located at Snagov, near Bucharest.

Why Vlad Dracula was famous: As someone who murdered over 40,000 people by impalement.

Bram Stoker wrote the book he called Dracula inspired by the Middle Ages prince from Transylvania who had a lust for blood. However, the book is largely fiction.

 

[fire_breeze]

And the name of Transylvania (I spent Hallowe'en there actually ), the supposed home of our darling, Vlad the Impaler.

Transylvania was first referred to in a Medieval Latin document in 1075 as ultra silvam, meaning "beyond the forest" (ultra (+accusative) meaning "beyond" or "on the far side of" and the accusative case of sylva (sylvam) meaning "wood or forest"). Transylvania, with an alternative Latin prepositional prefix, means "on the other side of the woods". Hungarian historians claim that the Medieval Latin form Ultrasylvania, later Transylvania, was a direct translation from the Hungarian form Erdő-elve (not the Hungarian was derived from the Latin).
The German name Siebenbürgen means "seven fortresses", after the seven (ethnic German) Transylvanian Saxons' cities in the region (Kronstadt, Schäßburg, Mediasch, Hermannstadt, Mühlbach, Bistritz and Klausenburg). This is also the origin of many other languages' names for the region, such as the Polish Siedmiogród.
The Hungarian form Erdély was first mentioned in the 12th century Gesta Hungarorum as "Erdeuleu".
The first known occurrence of the Romanian name Ardeal appeared in a document in 1432 as Ardeliu.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Lycanthropy from Greek lykoi, "wolf" anthropos, "man", a psychiatric state in which the patient believes he is a wolf or some other nonhuman animal. Undoubtedly stimulated by the once widespread superstition that lycanthropy is a supernatural condition in which men actually assume the physical form of other animals, the delusion has been most likely to occur among people who believe in reincarnation and the transmigration of souls.

Rarely does this condition surface. Examples of lycanthropy are only now being linked to schizophrenia - having very few cases to study in our present institutions makes this disease difficult to study in-depth.

Stories of men turning into beasts go back to antiquity. In parts of ancient Greece, werewolf myths, stemming from prehistoric times (based on new evidence), became linked with the Olympian religion. In Arcadia, a region plagued by wolves, there was a cult of the Wolf-Zeus. Mt. Lycaeus was the scene of a yearly gathering at which the priests were said to prepare a sacrificial feast that included meat mixed with human parts. According to legend, whoever tasted it became a wolf and could not turn into a man unless he abstained from human flesh for nine years.

The Romans also knew this superstition. Anyone who was supposed to have been turned into a wolf by means of magic spells or herbs was called versipellis "turnskin" by the Romans.

Stories about the werewolf were widely believed in Europe during the Middle Ages. Outlaws and bandits played on these superstitions by sometimes wearing wolfskins over their armour. At that time people were unusually prone to develop the delusion that they themselves were wolves; suspected lycanthropists were burned alive if convicted. Only rarely was their condition recognized as a psychological disturbance. Although the superstition is no longer common, traces still linger in some primitive and isolated areas.