Total Trivia

[fire_breeze]

Remember the game, punch buggy, in which participants punch each other in the arm upon first sight of a Volkswagen Beetle while calling out "Slug bug!" or "Punch buggy!"?

While no one really knows for sure when it began, it's been around since the 1960s. A Volkswagen company marketing web page features video interviews with a man named Sluggy Patterson, whom it claims is "the guy who made a game out of seeing VWs and punching his friends." Accordingly, Sluggy was on a road trip with a buddy of his who could talk the ears off of a corn. Annoyed, he punch the guy in the face. The poor guy asked why did Sluggy punched him, so Sluggy, seeing a VW drive by, told him that there's a new game, that you punch someone every time you see a VW. The poor sucker bought it. Naturally the game evolved where you punch the arm, not the face.

Sluggy must have hit the guy harder than he originally thought.



Some people have quite a lot of time on their hands.

 

[smotherman]

Shakespeare invented the word "assassination" and "bump."

 

[smotherman]

Butterflies taste with their feet.

 

[smotherman]

The average secretary's left hand does 56% of the typing.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

MAMMOTH ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION
Order Proboscidea (includes all elephants)

Proboscideans evolved ~50 million years ago (mya)
Proboscis = long flexible snout
165 species
Mammoths are NOT closely related to mastodons.
Mastodons evolved ~25 mya and are quite different from mammoths in size, diet, structure, habitat
Mammoths are NOT the ancestors of the modern elephant.


Elephantids split into 3 main groups (making them like first cousins) ~3-5 mya

Mammuthus (mammoths - now extinct)

Loxodonta (L. africana = modern African elephant)

Elephas (E. maximus = modern Asian elephant)

Mammoths occurred originally in Africa
Then moved north into Europe and Asia
Steppe mammoth evolved into woolly mammoth
Woolly mammoth traveled into North America via the land bridge (Central Beringia) ~1.8 mya

From Mammoths by Dr. Larry D. Agenbroad and Lisa Nelson. Copyright 2002 Lerner Publications Company, a division of Lerner Publishing Group, 241First Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN 55401. Used by permission. All rights reserved

 

[smotherman]

Human tonsils can bounce higher than a rubber ball of similar weight and size, but only for the first 30 minutes after they've been removed.

 

[smotherman]

With the exception of a small 200-square-mile section of Antarctica, every single square kilometer of dry land on the planet has been walked on by at least one human being.

 

[fire_breeze]

Antarctica, on average, is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents. Antarctica is considered a desert, with annual precipitation of only 200 mm (8 inches) along the coast and far less inland.

 

[daus42]

Humans and porpoises share a common sexual practice--fellatio.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

It takes around 500 years for nature to create an inch of soil.

 

[fire_breeze]

Recycling has been a common practice for most of human history, with recorded advocates as far back as Plato in 400 BCE. During periods when resources were scarce, archaeological studies of ancient waste dumps show less household waste (such as ash, broken tools and pottery)—implying more waste was being recycled in the absence of new material.

Cool.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The first energy crisis occured in the 16th century and was a crisis of deforestation. Europe was literally running out of fuel.
The adoption of coal changed the economic history of Britain, then of the rest of
Europe and finally of the world. It led to the Industrial Revolution, which got un*der way in Britain in the last two dec*ades of the 18th century. The substitution of coal for wood led to new methods of manufac*turing, to the expansion of existing in*dustries and to the exploitation of un*tapped natural resources.

 

[Sidney_1]

. . .

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Bouncing tonsils? Can you state your resources, sir?

Fact 1: The average person falls asleep in 7 minutes.
Fact 2: I am not the average person.

LOL! nor me

 

[daus42]

During the Alaskan Klondike gold rush, (1897-1898) potatoes were practically worth their weight in gold. Potatoes were so valued for their vitamin C content that miners traded gold for potatoes.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Beginning in 1845 and lasting for six years, the potato famine killed over a million men, women and children in Ireland and caused another million to flee.

 

[daus42]

Beginning in 1845 and lasting for six years, the potato famine killed over a million men, women and children in Ireland and caused another million to flee.

I owe my existence to my ancestors who came to America and prospered. There are more people with Irish roots in America than Ireland now. Funny how the Irish tragedy contributed so much to America.

The original seven "Celtic Nations" are Brittany, Scotland, Ireland, Galicia, Wales, Isle of Man and Cornwall.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

There are close to 4000 different varieties of potato.

 

[desideratum]

gawds! I can't remember the last time I ate potato -- you are all making me hungry lol

One of the earliest references to British 'chips' (French Fries in the U.S.) is in Charles Dicken's 'Tale of Two Cities' (1859): "husky chips of potatoes, fried with some reluctant drops of oil."

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

gawds! I can't remember the last time I ate potato -- you are all making me hungry lol

One of the earliest references to British 'chips' (French Fries in the U.S.) is in Charles Dicken's 'Tale of Two Cities' (1859): "husky chips of potatoes, fried with some reluctant drops of oil."

Ever heard of the Irish balanced diet?
Roast potatoes, boiled potatoes, mashed potatoes and chips

 

[fire_breeze]

in late 16th century Europe, after the introduction of the potato on the continent, the potato was cultivated primarily as a curiosity by amateur botanists. Resistance was due to ingrained eating habits, the tuber's reputation as a food for the underprivileged and perhaps most importantly its relationship to poisonous plants.

 

[smotherman]

Bouncing tonsils? Can you state your resources, sir?

I sure can, but will have to kill you after.



http://www.chacha.com/question/can-tounsiles-bounce-higher-than-a-bouncy-ball

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Why is a potato called a spud? (Well it is in the UK is it also in US?)

While there are a few theories going around as to the origins of this nickname, the correct roots of nickname "spud" is that it comes from the action of digging of the soil/hole preceding the planting of the potatoes. The exact origins of the term are unknown, but traditionally (c. 1440) it was used to mean a short knife or dagger. This term was later used to refer to a range of digging tools. Finally, roughly around the year 1845 it was transferred over to refer to the tuber itself.

Today the word "spud" is a commonly used nickname in English-speaking countries, given to the potato.

The term spud is also given to a number of other things. For instance, even today a sharp spade-like tool that is used for rooting or in order to dig out weeds is called a spud. It is also the name of a small section of pipe or a short section of a threaded fitting which completes a connection.

 

[Kamadeva]

Lip stick was said to have been invented in the Eygptian times for women that specialized in oral sex. They wanted their lips to look more inviting.

 

[daus42]

Female orgasm is a powerfull painkiller (because of the release of endorfines), so headaches are in fact a bad excuse not to have sex.