Total Trivia

[CCaprice]

71% of office workers stopped on the street for a survey agreed to give up their computer passwords in exchange for a chocolate bar.

Talk about chocolate fixation lol...sheesh

So much for security!!!!

I'm an admitted chocoholic, but I'm not a DUMB chocoholic

 

[mrtnmoon]

the people of milwaukee, san francisco and minneapolis eat more jello per capita than anywhere else in the country. (saw that on "unwrapped" on the food network.)

I think this is my first actual piece of trivia in this thread!

I just remembered the other tidbit that I had wanted to post from that segment: strawberry is the most popular flavor of jello, at least as fae back as the data goes.

 

[smotherman]

OUCH!!!!

You could say that again! I'm in pain just thinking about it!

 

[CCaprice]

You could say that again! I'm in pain just thinking about it!

I wonder if there's reconstructive surgery for that

 

[smotherman]

So much for security!!!!

I'm an admitted chocoholic, but I'm not a DUMB chocoholic

That must be why so many people have their accounts hacked in to. dumb chocoholics.

I wonder if there's reconstructive surgery for that

Oh I'm sure they do have reconstructive surgery.

 

[smotherman]

Seven percent of Americans claim they never bathe at all.

 

[smotherman]

A snowflake can take up to a hour to fall from the cloud to the surface of the Earth.

 

[smotherman]

We forget 80 percent of what we learn everyday.

 

[Daizie]

Ladies & Gentlemen, Nero has left the building.

For decades after Emperor Nero's death, people all over the Roman empire claimed to have spotted him. Several men even claimed to be him, and started popular movements to be reinstated as emperor. Because of his notoriety and the questionable circumstances under which he died (he purportedly stabbed himself to death in hiding outside of Rome), Nero was the Elvis Presley of ancient Rome.

 

[smotherman]

An average of 100 people choke to death on ball point pens each year

 

[smotherman]

Wearing headphones for an hour increases the bacteria in your ear 700 times.

 

[fire_breeze]

Caligula, an Emperor of Rome, once decided to go to war with the Roman God of the sea, Poseidon, and ordered his soldiers to throw their spears into the water at random.

He was also known as the Mad Emperor.

 

[fire_breeze]

Caligula also made his horse a senator.

 

[fire_breeze]

Napoleon was terrified of cats.

 

[Daizie]

Fourteenth century physicians didn't know what caused the plague, but they knew it was contagious. As a result they wore an early kind of bioprotective suit which included a large beaked head piece, which was filled with vinegar, sweet oils and other strong smelling compounds to counteract the stench of the dead and dying plague victims. This beaked headpiece made them look like large birds, which is how doctors came to be called "quacks".

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

thank you.
I'm not much on researching things, unless I'm looking for something in particular. I have heard or read things before that I wanted to post here, but I always forget them before I get to a computer.

luckily the jello fact was pretty uncomplicated. lol.

Everyone is welcome to post any trivial fact; guaranteed someone somewhere will find it informative

There are more germs to be found on a kitchen floor cloth than a toilet seat.

 

[fire_breeze]

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobiacs is the term for people who fear the number 666.

 

[fire_breeze]

"Speak of the Devil" is short for "Speak of the Devil and he shall come". It was believed that if you spoke about the Devil it would attract his attention. That's why when you're talking about someone and they show up people say "Speak of the Devil"

 

[MSH2]

The custom of saying "Bless you" after someone sneezes dates back to the Black Plague. Sneezing is one of the first symptoms of the disease, and it became customary to bless someone just in case.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

In a pickle, meaning in a sticky situation, has been used by the Dutch since the 16th century with no known origin. But the first instance of its recorded use in English was in William Shakespeare's The Tempest where the character Alonso says in a drunken Trinculo: "How camest thou in this pickle?"

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Song Titles with female names

--------- E ----------

Come On Eileen : Dexy's Midnight Runners : 1982
Dear Elaine : Roy Wood : 1973
Mad Elaine : Ian Gillan Band : 1977
Eleanor Rigby : The Beatles : 1966
Eleanor Rigby : Ray Charles : 1968
Eleanor Rigby : Aretha Franklin : 1969
Eleanor Rigby : Stanley Jordan : 1984
Lady Eleanor : Lindisfarne : 1971
Ella James : The Move : 1972
Eloise : Barry Ryan : 1968
Eloise : Damned : 1986
Walking In The Park With Eloise : The Country Hams : 1974
Lazy Elsie Molly : Chubby Checker : 1964
See Emily Play : Pink Floyd : 1967
Emma My Dear : The Bolland Project : 1991
Emmaretta : Deep Purple : 1969
Evita : Musical : 1976

 

[luv1]

The custom of saying "Bless you" after someone sneezes dates back to the Black Plague. Sneezing is one of the first symptoms of the disease, and it became customary to bless someone just in case.

I think I'll add some more information on this subject

Though the practice is supposed to be started by pope Gregory I to save people from the plague back in 600's, the custom of "blessing" someone was recorded as far back as 77ad. BUT even then thought to be older. There are thought to be many different origins for the blessing. One was thought that your heart stopped when you sneezed so you basicly died for that moment so to save your soul you got blessed. Another was that coz you spasm so hard when you sneeze that your spirit was forced out and you have to be blessed so your spirit can return and not the devil. So basicly no one really knows where it started.

Also some plague based facts. You know that poem Ring a ring of rosie? Contrast to general belif, it has nothing to do with the plague. The very earlist record of the poem dates from 1790 from Massachusetts and went as follows.

Ring a ring of rosie. A bottle full of posie. All the girls in out town. Ring for little Josie.

But again no one knows how old the poem really is.

To help clear up this mess some things have to be pointed out about the plague like you didn't get red lesions on your body, no one used to carry bunches of flowers to ward off the plague, they used aromatic oils soaked hankies or burnt strong incense, they even rang church bells or shot cannons to "scare off" the plague and no one sneezed to death. Infact these are the symptoms.

The Bubonic plague affects the lymph nodes (another part of the lymph system). Within 3 to 7 days of exposure to plague bacteria, you will develop flu-like symptoms such as fever, headache, chills, weakness, and swollen, tender lymph glands (called buboes—hence the name bubonic). You may also have vomiting, sensitivity to bright light and finally your swollen lymph nodes will turn black burst and start oozing bloody and pus......But no sneezing.

Oo and a lovely grizzly fact. When you vist London and you see a rised graveyard above the level of the surrounding streets, that's a plague pit. Coz there was so many plague victoms they stopped digging down and started just to cover up the bodies instead

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

And just to add my tuppence worth...

In 1347 a Genoese ship from Caffa, on the Black Sea, came ashore at Messina, Sicily. The crew of the ship, what few were left alive, carried with them a deadly cargo, a disease so virulent that it could kill in a matter of hours. It is thought that the disease originated in the Far East, and was spread along major trade routes to Caffa, where Genoa had an established trading post. When it became clear that ships from the East carried the plague, Messina closed its port. The ships were forced to seek safe harbour elsewhere around the Mediterranean, and the disease was able to spread quickly.

During the Medieval period the plague went by several names, the most common being "the Pestilence" and "The Great Mortality ". Theories about the cause of the disease were numerous, ranging from a punishment from God to planetary alignment to evil stares. Not surprisingly, many people believed that the horrors of the Black Death signaled the Apocalypse, or end of time. Others believed that the disease was a plot by Jews to poison all of the Christian world, and many Jews were killed by panicked mobs.

The truth. The Black Death is a bacteria-born disease; the bacteria in question being Yersinia pestis, which was carried in the blood of wild black rats and the fleas that lived off the rats. Normally there is no contact between these fleas and human beings, but when their rat hosts die, these fleas are forced to seek alternatives - including humans!

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

And a few figures...

In 2 years the disease killed between 30-40% of the entire population of England. Given that the pre-plague population was in the range of 5-6 million people, fatalities may have reached as high as 2 million dead.

 

[luv1]

How do you get your head around such figures. Nearly half the country dead with in 24 months.