BS: Useless Trivia

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 11:59 PM

To get back on the trivia track: even though jade is intimately associated with Chinese culture, there are no notable jade deposits within Chine. None closer than the Amur river at the border.

Jadite, the good looking, colourful stuff, was only introduced in 1748, IIRC, and came primarily from Myanmar (Burma). It first appeared at the Imperial Jade Market in Peking and immediately put nephrite out of the running.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jan 05 - 12:15 AM

Well, that one was boring. But usually I'm interested!

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 19 Jan 05 - 04:30 PM

Australia has more deadly creatures than any other continent.

Bill Gates said spam will cease to be a problem by the end of this year.

There is one operating system that boasts of a perfect security record.

Roman soldiers were exempt from most battlefield diseases because they were forbidden to drink water. It was wine or vinegar.

For almost a century, the czar owned the rarest gemstones in the world, the only ones of their type.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST,Sidewinder
Date: 19 Jan 05 - 09:08 PM

Laurel & Hardy made almost a hundred films together but only won 1 Oscar for a comedy short titled "The Music Box" were they transport a piano up a flight of stairs with hilarious consequences.

Regards.

Sidewinder.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 19 Jan 05 - 10:01 PM

The scientific name for Yaupon Holly is Ilex vomitoria, so named because some American Indian tribes used it to brew a tea which was used to induce ritual vomitting. It has no known psychotropic effect. It just makes you puke.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Cluin
Date: 19 Jan 05 - 10:11 PM

Saliva causes cancer.

But only when swallowed in small amounts over a long period of time.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST,Sidewinder
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 07:59 AM

It took the Pharoah Snefaru three attempts to build his burial pyramid finally locating at Giza where his son and grandsons pyramids are located nearby.

Regards

Sidewinder.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: susu
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 09:44 AM

Cluin, where did you get that? Everyone swallows trace amounts of saliva several times a day most people are not even aware they are doing it, otherwise you would choke. Not only that but you have to swallow saliva when you eat or drink. Your saliva (along with chewing)is the first step to digestion. I am pretty sure that saliva is no match for the acid in your stomach that begins the next chemical step of digestion. I never heard that in nursing school, the only ting I remember about any link to saliva and cancer was that saliva may be used to detect oral cancer and that RNA from saliva ofter show biomarkers for head and neck cancer.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Torctgyd
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 10:43 AM

Shah also comes from Ceasar

Bananas growing on a banana tree have the fingers pointing upwards

10CC and The Lovin' Spoonfull got there names from the volume of ejaculate of a man at orgasm

Steam is invisible (what you see is condensed steam - water)

America is named after a Welsh born Bristolian called John Americk not Amerigo Vespucci (who else who wasn't a saint or a monarch had something named after their first name since surnames came into being - no one!!) controversial but true!!!

In the Wild West the Colt 45 was used more often as a hammer than anything else.

Father Christmas/Santa Claus now wears red rather than green thanks to Coke adverts from the 1920's

New York is further south than Rome

If George Washington hadn't been turned down for a commision in the British Armed Forces he would have fought on the Loyalist side.

Canadians really do like being called Americans

Having one great great great great grandparent from Ireland makes you Irish and eligible to play for their soccer team

London used to have a thoroughfare where prostitutes plied their trade as Grope C**t Lane, was this derived from the need to check the sex of the prostitute first?

Golf is definitely a good walk ruined

The swastika is a symbol of peace and good luck

Hurricanes shot down almost twice as many enemy aircraft as Spitfires in the Battle Of Britain

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST,Bill the Collie
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 10:59 AM

The medicinal-tasting throat-sweety thingy "Fishermens friends" used to contain chloroform.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Bert
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 11:34 AM

The Duke of Wellington was pro American so they didn't send him to fight in the war of 1812.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 12:22 PM

susu, I got the saliva fact from George Carlin.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: pdq
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 12:28 PM

The earth is not round. It is more acurately termed an 'oblate spheroid'.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: open mike
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 01:42 PM

those crushed insects said to have colored lipstick were most likely cochineal, which are a form of "scale" . Cochineal is ofen used in dyeing wool and other fibers. http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/economicbotany/Cochineal/
http://www.allfiberarts.com/library/howto/ht00/how_dye_cochineal.htm
http://www.bell.lib.umn.edu/Products/cochinea.html
oh by the way, " natural dye obtained from an extract of the bodies of the females of the cochineal bug (Dactylopius confusus)"

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Bert
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 01:49 PM

The earth is not round, around here in Colorado either, it's kinda bumpy.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 12:48 AM

The first notable use of a pre-fab structure was when Willie the Conqueror's boys landed in Pevensey. They assembled a wooden fort to protect the horses.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: ToulouseCruise
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 09:59 AM

Torctgyd -- No, Canadians do NOT like being called Americans. It is both because of our own pride in our own nation, along with SOME (not all) negative feelings on a global scale associated with the US.

okay, maybe I generalized... *I* am a Canadian who doesn't like being called an American.

Brian

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 10:50 AM

And I am an American who doesn't mind being called a Canadian. After all, they're nice people, eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Torctgyd
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 11:20 AM

Toulousecruise,

Couldn't resist putting that one in, a best friend at university was Canadian and she was so easy to wind up by being called American but as I used to point out to her she is, beyond dispute, American as I am European (boo hiss)

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: ToulouseCruise
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 11:42 AM

Explanation accepted... hell, it got the reaction you wanted too, so Cheers eh!

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 10:53 AM

Torctgyd:
Hurricanes shot down almost twice as many enemy aircraft as Spitfires in the Battle Of Britain

Please be a little more precise, how many spitfires did the hurricanes shoot down? and how many enemy aircraft?

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: RangerSteve
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 12:59 PM

There is an obsolete French word (I don't know what it is) for white squirrel fur that is very similar to the french word for glass. Charles Perrault (sp?) got the two words confused while writing down the tale of Cinderella, which explains how she ended up with those impossible slippers.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 01:40 PM

Ranger Steve:

Somewhat debunked at This Site
One reads on occasion that the slipper was mis-translated from Charles Perrault's original tale which formed part of his Mother Goose tales. (Contes de ma mere l'oye -1697). But Perrault writes clearly of a pantoufle de verre (glass slipper). So it appears that Perrault knew of what he wrote: Glass (verre) not fur (vair).

Rawson in his book Devious Derivations says that the word, vair, was not used when Perrault was spinning tales. So, he says, it is doubtful that it was a mis-translation from some oral account of the story. Which doesn't mean that Perrault didn't know of the fur connection. If he did he was having a grand time playing a word game.

CHEERS

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 05:21 AM

Pigs can orgasm for 40 minutes.

Lions can copulate up to 80 times a day.

Which would you rather be?

LTS



Oink

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Cluin
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 12:11 PM

Depends how lazy you are.

Me, I'd go for the workout.