Total Trivia

[luv1]

Thanks - crossing that Site off of my useful links heeee!

That's alright dude. After making that statement I got called out by a few people as they DO eat shrimps as well as the algae. But then I had to point out that shrimps are not pink or red unless you cook them. Like prawns and lobsters. So unless they carry a little wok and fry the shrimp with a touch of olive oil and garlic, they don't get their colour from shrimps


Which brings me to another weird thing. Why is it if you ask someone to draw a lobster, they will always colour it red, beleiving them to be natrually red/pink in real life. Remember "Pinchy" from the Simpsons? Homers pet Lobster? What colour was he? Pink.

And another weird usumption. Why do people draw a christmess tree with it's branches pointing down when they point up?

http://www.clipartandcrafts.com/sample-graphics/christmas-tree.gif
http://www.freefoto.com/images/90/15/90_15_57---Christmas-Tree_web.jpg

 

[smotherman]

Albert Einstein never knew how to drive a car.

 

[desideratum]

That's alright dude. After making that statement I got called out by a few people as they DO eat shrimps as well as the algae. But then I had to point out that shrimps are not pink or red unless you cook them. Like prawns and lobsters. So unless they carry a little wok and fry the shrimp with a touch of olive oil and garlic, they don't get their colour from shrimps


Which brings me to another weird thing. Why is it if you ask someone to draw a lobster, they will always colour it red, beleiving them to be natrually red/pink in real life. Remember "Pinchy" from the Simpsons? Homers pet Lobster? What colour was he? Pink.

And another weird usumption. Why do people draw a christmess tree with it's branches pointing down when they point up?

http://www.clipartandcrafts.com/sample-graphics/christmas-tree.gif
http://www.freefoto.com/images/90/15/90_15_57---Christmas-Tree_web.jpg

dudette

 

[smotherman]

That's because we're batting our eyes at you!

With the eye rolls and batting your eyes at us, we're putty in your hands!

 

[desideratum]

I did read that there are more plastic flamingos in America than real ones! I don't think they eat anything lol

 

[smotherman]

Americans on the average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.

 

[fire_breeze]

With the eye rolls and batting your eyes at us, we're putty in your hands!

Excellent!

In 1940, James Wright, a GE engineer was commissioned by the United States War Production Board to find a cheap substitute for rubber, came upon the material by mixing silicone oil with boric acid. The compound, acted very much like rubber in its ability to rebound almost 25 percent higher than a normal rubber ball. Although first sold under the name "Nutty Putty", in 1949, the material was sold under the trade name of Silly Putty, selling faster than any other toy in history with over $6 million in sales for the year.

One of the unique characteristics of the material is the ability to copy the image of any printed material that it was pressed upon.

 

[Sienna]

Sea water is approximately 3.5 percent salt...

Seawater composition (percentage elementary mass)

Oxygen...... 85.84%
Sulphur...... 0.091%
Hydrogen.... 10.82%
Calcium...... 0.04%
Chlorine..... 1.94%
Potassium.... 0.04%
Sodium...... 1.08%
Bromine..... 0.0067%
Magnesium... 0.1292%
Carbon...... 0.0028%

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc256/bebevee20/ocean1.jpg

 

[Sienna]

The Empire State Building in New York City weighs approximately 365,000 tons...

http://blogs.newamericamedia.org/images/595.jpg

 

[Sienna]

There are approximately 9,000 taste buds on the human tongue...

The longest human tongue measured is 9.5 cm (3.74 in) from the tip to the centre of the closed top lip...


http://www.diwinetaste.com/html/dwt200502/images/Tongue.gifhttp://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n88/bizman_1/share/tongue_licking.gif

 

[Sienna]

Nasty work...

In the nineteenth century, bands of young English gallants would seek out virgins. The demand generated a shameful trade in young girls. One problem was that there were not enough "available" virgins to go around. So the answer was to "manufacture" virgins by selecting girls who had been previously deflowered and then sewing up the entrances of their vaginas so that their entrance would be as tight as a virgin maidenhead. Some poor young women were treated in this fashion repeatedly, their maidenheads being restored after each coitus with a new client. In some areas of London disreputable surgeons specialised in "revirginising" - and some girls were reported to have gone in for repairs as often as 50 times!

 

[Sienna]

In ancient Rome the laws against incest, like many Roman laws, were harsh. In the early years of the Republic, people who had committed incest were forced to kill themselves (death by honour). And in the first century B.C., offenders were thrown from the cliffs at Tarpei. Constantine's sons also imposed the death penalty, and Theodosius (A.D. 379-395), who made Christianity the state religion, used death by burning.

Perhaps the most famous unpunished case of incest in ancient Rome is that of Caligula (A.D. 37-47), who married his sister Agrippina, who, as the wife of Claudius and Dowager Empress also had sexual relations with her own son by an earlier marriage, the future Emperor Nero.

Those Roman patricians were certainly strange people...

 

[Sienna]

Iron knickers...

Tales of chastity belts are often surrounded by myths and folklore. The most common of all these "rumours" is that they were first used by crusading knights on their wives. Historically unproven. There is no evidence of the existence of chastity belts until the 15th century during the Renaissance, more than one hundred years after the last Holy Crusade. However, those belts used during the 15th century have been brought into question over their use and purpose.

In 1889, a leather-and-iron belt was found by a German collector of antiquities in Austria, found in a grave on a skeleton of a young woman. The woman was buried sometime in the 16th century. The belt, along with most of the collectors items of have since been lost.

One question is, why would anyone want to design such a contraption?

From the 1700s through the 1930s, masturbation was widely regarded as harmful in Western medicine. Numerous mentions can be found in medical journals of the time of the use of chastity belt-like devices to prevent masturbation in children and adolescents. Many designs for anti-masturbation devices were filed in the US Patent Office until the change of attitude regarding masturbation was established in the early 1930's.

So it seems that such devises were most likely to have been "medical" restraints against sexual self-abuse.

Today of course, they are worn as items of erotic pleasure-wear...



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/Chastity_belt.jpg/607px-Chastity_belt.jpg

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

In ancient Rome the laws against incest, like many Roman laws, were harsh. In the early years of the Republic, people who had committed incest were forced to kill themselves (death by honour). And in the first century B.C., offenders were thrown from the cliffs at Tarpei. Constantine's sons also imposed the death penalty, and Theodosius (A.D. 379-395), who made Christianity the state religion, used death by burning.

Perhaps the most famous unpunished case of incest in ancient Rome is that of Caligula (A.D. 37-47), who married his sister Agrippina, who, as the wife of Claudius and Dowager Empress also had sexual relations with her own son by an earlier marriage, the future Emperor Nero.

Those Roman patricians were certainly strange people...

Incest is OK as long as you keep it in the family,
Or, as they say, vice is nice but incest is best

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The Great Wall of China was built over 2,000 years ago, by Qin Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of China during the Qin (Ch'in) Dynasty (221 B.C - 206 B.C.). In Chinese the wall is called "Wan-Li Qang-Qeng" which means 10,000-Li Long Wall (10,000 Li = about 5,000 km).

After subjugating and uniting China from seven Warring States, the emperor connected and extended four old fortification walls along the north of China that originated about 700 B.C. (over 2500 years ago). Armies were stationed along the wall as a first line of defense against the invading nomadic Hsiung Nu tribes north of China (the Huns). Signal fires from the Wall provided early warning of an attack.

The Great Wall is one of the largest building construction projects ever completed. It stretches across the mountains of northern China, winding north and northwest of Beijing. It is constructed of masonry, rocks and packed-earth. It was over 5,000 km (=10,000 Li) long. Its thickness ranged from about 4.5 to 9 meters (15 to 30 feet) and was up to 7.5 meters (25 feet) tall.

During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the Great Wall was enlarged to 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles) and renovated over a 200 year period, with watch-towers and cannons added.

The Great Wall can be seen from Earth orbit, but, contrary to legend, is not visible from the moon, according to astronauts Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell, and Jim Irwin.

 

[smotherman]

The leading cause of on-the-job deaths in workplaces in America is homicide.

 

[smotherman]

In 2002, women earned 742,000 bachelor's degrees. Men earned only 550,000 during the same year. The difference is growing so large that many colleges now practice (quietly) affirmative action for male applicants.

 

[smotherman]

100% of all lottery winners gain weight.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The Pufferfish is also known as the blowfish, fugu, swellfish, and globefish. It is called the pufferfish because when it is threatened, it puffs up to about twice its normal size by gulping water. In this engorged state, the pufferfish can swim at only about half its normal speed.

There are about 100 species of pufferfish. Most pufferfish are found in sub-tropical and tropical marine waters (including coral reefs) in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Some puffers live in brackish and fresh water.

Poison: Many parts of the blowfish (including the liver, muscles, skin, and ovaries) contain an extremely strong, paralyzing poison called tetrodoxin. This poison is about a thousand times deadlier than cyanide. There is no known antidote for this poison. Fugu (torafugu or fugu rubripes, Japanese pufferfish) is eaten in Japan, but is only cooked by specially-trained chefs who can minimize the amount of poison. Even so, many Japanese diners have died from eating this poisonous delicacy.

 

[smotherman]

Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.

 

[smotherman]

Each day, there are over 120 million sexual intercourse taking place all over the world.

 

[smotherman]

85% of men who die of heartattacks during intercourse, are found to have been cheating on their wives.

 

[desideratum]

Flamingos, Spoonbills and the Pink Ibis get their pink color from the shrimp they eat. The more shrimp they eat, the deeper pink they become.

from newscientist.com - The pink colour is due to a carotenoid pigment, similar to astaxanthin, which is derived from the birds' diet. Flamingos feed on small crustaceans, which they sieve through their specially adapted bills. Large expanses of shallow water often become salty through evaporation in saltings by the sea, as in the Camargue in the south of France, or at high altitudes in the Andes, and in Africa. These expanses of water support brine shrimps (artemia), which can make astaxanthin from the simpler carotenoids contained in the algae on which they feed. In flamingos these pigments dissolve in fats and are deposited in the growing feathers. The amount of pigment laid down depends on the quantity in the food. When the birds moult they lose the pigment, and become quite pale if deprived of a carotenoid-rich diet when new feathers are forming. In zoos, flamingos are fed a carotenoid-rich diet to maintain their colour. Carotenoids also occur in molluscs and worms, as well as in crustaceans,!so flamingos may be fed shrimp and clams. The pink colour of some other birds, such as spoonbills and the pink ibis, is also due to carotenoids.

Many crustaceans link the carotenoids from their food to proteins. These "carotenoproteins" are often blue or green. When the protein is metabolised, the fat-soluble carotenoids pass into the fat and turn it pink or orange. The same effect is achieved when a crab or shrimp is boiled; the protein is denatured by the heat and the carotenoid is released. This is why cooked shrimps are pink. When a diet contains very large amounts of carotenoid, the excess pigment is sequestered: in the feathers of birds and the skin of mammals.

from San Diego Zoo - they feed the Scarlet Ibis the same food as Flamingos - They get the pink, orange, and reddish color from the rich source of pigments in the algae and small crustaceans that they eat. Their legs and feet are also pink in color. Along with their scarlet coloring, adult birds have dark blue tips on four of their outer primary feathers. At the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park the scarlet ibis are fed a dry diet that is made for flamingos. The diet has balanced nutritional content to supply the pigments they need to keep their beautiful scarlet color.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Each day, there are over 120 million sexual intercourse taking place all over the world.

Then where the f**k is mine?

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Qin Shi Huangdi, First Emperor of China.

A ruler from the western state of Qin united and subjugated the Warring States and formed China in 221 B.C. He declared himself the first emperor of China and named himself Shi Huangdi (meaning First Emperor).

During the Qin (Ch'in) Dynasty (221 B.C. - 206 B.C.), the emperor connected and extended the old fortification walls along the north of China that originated about 700 B.C. forming the Great Wall of China to stop invading barbarians from the north.

The Emperor standardized Chinese writing, bureaucracy, scholarship, law, currency, weights and measures. He expanded the Chinese empire, built a capital in Xian, a system of roads, and massive fortifications and palaces.

Shi Huangdi (259-210 B.C.) was a cruel ruler who readily killed or banished those who opposed him or his ideas. He is notorious for burning virtually all the books that remained from previous regimes. He even banned scholarly discussions of the past.

The Qin dynasty ended soon after his death, but a unified China remained for over 2,000 years. China's name is derived from his short but seminal dynasty, Qin (pronounced Chin).

In 1974, thousands of life-sized terra cotta warriors and horses from the Emperor's extravagant tomb were unearthed in Xian.