Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Author Topic: Especially trivial trivia thread  (Read 2490 times)

Description:

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline KennyRTopic starter

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Mar 2002
  • Posts: 8081
    • Show only replies by KennyR
    • http://wrongpla.net
Especially trivial trivia thread
« on: August 20, 2004, 03:56:57 AM »
Feel free to drop interesting but utterly trivial facts into this thread. To my best knowledge all of these are true.

When US President James Garfield was shot in the abdomen on July 2, 1881, no less than 16 doctors, attendants and others probed the wound with unclean fingers, one of which perforated his liver. By the time he died on September 19, they had turned a three-inch-deep wound into a horribly infected twenty inch-long hole from ribs to groin. He died in great pain from a heart attack caused by the infection. If they had left  the bullet alone he would probably have lived.

To try to hide the awful inefficiency of his forced collective farming, Chairman Mao Tse-Tung increased grain exports from Communist China in the 1960s. When millions began to starve, he blamed sparrows for eating the grain and began a campaign to kill them all. By having the Chinese people clatter, shout, and make as much noise as they could, they prevented sparrows from landing until they died of starvation. This was not an unpopular move since fried sparrow is a Chinese delicacy. However without the sparrows to keep insect populations down, crops failed and up to 50 million people starved to death. Mao also never took or bath or brushed his teeth, on the rationale that "Tigers never brush their teeth." Mao is not generally used as a role model for modern democratic socialists, for some reason.

Early Christians feared aural sex and it was forbidden for women to show their naked ears in public.

The original British support for the Jewish national state of Israel in  Palestine goes back as far as 1917, when a Zionist chemist called Chaim Weizmann found out how to synthesise acetone from bacteria and grain. This invention secured Britain a constant supply of explosives and propellants. It was partly because of this that Britain signed the Balfour Agreement agreeing to the reestablishment of Israel, should the chance arise.

The Hunza of Northwest Kashmir are the only racial group of humans on Earth totally free of cancer, and are known for their long lives.

85% of planet Earth's chlorophyll can be found in the sea. Use of persistent herbicides which then reach the sea threatens to kill all animal life on the planet by starving them of oxygen.

The anthem "God save the King/Queen" came directly from a tune composed by French nuns to celebrate sucessful surgery performed on King Louis XIV, when heard by a travelling Englishman. The English national anthem was written to celebrate the removal of an anal fistula on a French king.

It was the fashion in Elizebethan England for unmarried ladies to wear their  breasts exposed. Queen Elizabeth I herself did so well into her 70s. This has never been recreated in movies.

When George Washington became president, average life expectancy for the new American people was 34.5 years for men and 36.5 years for women. The average woman gave birth to 13 children.

The United States Refuse Act of 1899 is a Federal statute that makes industrial discharges into bodies of water a crime. Every industrial discharge since then has been breaking the law. The statute has been ignored since.
 

Offline Cyberus

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Feb 2003
  • Posts: 5696
    • Show only replies by Cyberus
Re: Especially trivial trivia thread
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2004, 07:14:42 AM »
Quote
The English national anthem was written to celebrate the removal of an anal fistula on a French king.


You just couldn't resist that, could you? :-)
I like Amigas
 

Offline Fade

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Oct 2003
  • Posts: 1152
    • Show only replies by Fade
Re: Especially trivial trivia thread
« Reply #2 on: August 20, 2004, 07:48:30 AM »
@ KennyR
"The United States Refuse Act of 1899 is a Federal statute that makes industrial discharges into bodies of water a crime. Every industrial discharge since then has been breaking the law. The statute has been ignored since."
----------------

This one is almost correct. It doesn't say "bodies of water". It says "into any navigable water of the United States, or into any tributary of any navigable water"

This still sounds like a pretty good law; that is until you realize that it was still legal for industrial waste to be dumped onto dry ground or closed lakes.

But the real killer of this law was a portion that stated "the building of any wharfs, piers, jetties, and other structures is prohibited without Congressional approval"

The states looked at this and said, "we have never given away our rights and congress cannot assume the rights to regulate the building of these structures within the states.

A case of the states telling congress to go jump in the lake.
If you\\\'re still voting Democrat, you\\\'re stuck on stupid!
 

Offline T_Bone

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2002
  • Posts: 5124
    • Show only replies by T_Bone
    • http://www.amiga.org/userinfo.php?uid=1961
Re: Especially trivial trivia thread
« Reply #3 on: August 20, 2004, 12:33:53 PM »
In Memphis TN, it is illegal for a woman to drive by herself, unless a man is walking or running in front of the vehicle, waving a red flag in order to warn approaching pedestrians and motorists.

In Texas, A *recently passed* anti-crime law requires criminals to give their victims 24 hours notice, either orally or in writing, and explain to the nature of the crime about to be comitted.

Called "Silent Cal," President Coolidge was once challenged by a reporter, saying,  "I bet someone that I could get more than two words out of you."  Coolidge responded,  "You lose."

Missouri & Kansas had their own civil war, 5 years before the American Civil war.

A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.

The embryos of tiger sharks fight each other while in their mother's womb, the survivor being the baby shark that is born.

Only those dogs that have come into contact with humans or other domesticated dogs bark. Wolves, foxes, wild dogs and other canines' only howl, growl, snarl, yelp or whine, but do not bark. It's believed the barking sounds of domesticated dogs are an attempt to imitate human sounds

Canada has more automobiles per person than any other country.

this space for rent
 

Offline KennyRTopic starter

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Mar 2002
  • Posts: 8081
    • Show only replies by KennyR
    • http://wrongpla.net
Re: Especially trivial trivia thread
« Reply #4 on: August 21, 2004, 03:36:56 AM »
Hedgehogs and armadilloes need fleas to cater for the health of their skin. If de-loused, they don't live very long.

New York City's adminstrative code still enforces that there should be hitching posts in front of City Hall for tying horses.

More American servicemen died of accidental overdoses of morphine administered to them when wounded  than of battle injuries at Pearl Harbor, after Japanese forces attacked it and brought the US into World War II.

George Washington's Continental Army starved at Valley Forge because the Pennsylvania farmers preferred to sell their food to the British for cash rather than give it to the patriots.

England's crown jewels were lost during a tidal flood in 1216. Prince John was crossing a marshy area known as The Wash, in the east of England, when the tide took his travelling party by surprise. None of the gems have ever been found. The area has now fully flooded and is now part of the North Sea. (Check it out on a map.)

People have, for many generations, protected valuable clothes from moths by keeping them in cedar chests or in wardrobes lined with cedar. There is no evidence that cedar does or has ever repelled moths.

Eskimos use freezers to keep food from freezing.

Rain contains vitamin B12.

Beheaded cockroaches may live several weeks. If their head is taken off in such a way that prevents them bleeding to death, they continue to live until they starve to death.

During the Third Crusade, King Richard I (The Lionheart) dined on curried head of saracen. Despite being portrayed as the good king in all Robin Hood retellings, he was probably far nastier than his brother Prince John. He just didn't lose the jewels.

A Wyoming woman filed a lawsuit in July 1993 against the widow of a man she run over and killed with her pick-up truck. She demanded compensation from the bereaved widow for the "grave and crippling psychological injuries" she suffered while watching the 56 year old man die, after having mortally wounded him with her truck.
 

Offline Speelgoedmannetje

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Oct 2002
  • Posts: 9656
    • Show only replies by Speelgoedmannetje
Re: Especially trivial trivia thread
« Reply #5 on: August 21, 2004, 03:43:59 AM »
In avarage, ppl fart 16 times a day.
And the canary said: \'chirp\'
 

Offline Doobrey

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Oct 2002
  • Posts: 1876
    • Show only replies by Doobrey
    • http://www.doobreynet.co.uk
Re: Especially trivial trivia thread
« Reply #6 on: August 22, 2004, 01:59:10 AM »
The South American Oooh-ahh bird got it`s name because it lays square eggs. ;-)
On schedule, and suing
 

Offline T_Bone

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2002
  • Posts: 5124
    • Show only replies by T_Bone
    • http://www.amiga.org/userinfo.php?uid=1961
Re: Especially trivial trivia thread
« Reply #7 on: August 22, 2004, 08:40:54 AM »
The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.

Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

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

China has more English speakers than the United States.

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee. If you fart consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.

Two-thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.

In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

A recent study (2001) found that two-thirds of Russian men die drunk, and that more than half of that number die in extreme stage of alcoholic intoxication.

Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.

In the developed countries of the world, about 28 million pregnancies occur each year.  Half (50%) of them are unplanned, and 36% of them end in abortions.

A majority of American presidents have been 33rd degree Masons.

In Great Britain, the most dangerous sport is gardening!!  One in five of ALL accidents there occurs in the garden, and in 2002, almost 64,000 English citizens required hospital treatment because of gardening mishaps.

The male foreskin, removed during circumcision, is made of a very special kind of skin cell that can divide many more times than normal cells.  From one foreskin, enough new skin can be grown to cover 6 American sized football fields.

Adolf Hitler opened the Volkswagon factory.

Aaron Burr became the first vice president of the United States to be arrested; he was charged with treason for planning an expedition to invade Mexico for no valid reason.

A recent study found out that the scent of hot pumpkin pie was the #1 stimulator of blood flow to the penis in American men, followed by cinnamon buns fresh out of the oven with vanilla coming in a close third.  For women the effect of scent was less pronounced, but pickles combined with licorice seemed to do the trick for some - even when they weren't "with child"

Arctic squirrels can be frozen alive with no ill effecta.

Until the 16th century, carrots were black, green, red and purple - until a Dutch horticulturist discovered some mutant yellow seeds that produced a freaky orange color that caught on big, worldwide.

It is impossible to lick your elbow.

The annual harvest of an entire coffee tree is required to make one pound of ground coffee.

According to Aristotle, the brain's primary purpose was to cool the blood.

Robots in Japan pay union dues.

Nicaragua had 396 different rulers between 1839 and 1855, their average reign lasting less than 15 days.

Prior to World War II, when guards were posted at the fence, anyone could wander right up to the front door of the U.S. President's residence, the White House.

Mailing an entire building has been illegal in the U.S. since 1916 when a man mailed a 40,000 pound brick house across Utah to avoid high freight rates.

Payment for English trial lawyers is considered an honorarium -- so there is no legal obligation for clients to pay them.

The fastest temperature change on record is a rise of 49 degrees Fahrenheit in two minutes, from -4 degrees F to 45 degrees F. It happened in Spearfish, South Dakota, U.S.

The Egyptians trained baboons to wait on tables.  We now use unemployed actors for this task.

The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea, off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean.

If the world's total land area was divided equally among the world's people, each person would get 8.5 hectares, about 21 acres. [Yikes! I'm not taking up enough SPACE damnit, I need more land! :-)]



 


this space for rent
 

Offline X-ray

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jul 2004
  • Posts: 4370
    • Show only replies by X-ray
Re: Especially trivial trivia thread
« Reply #8 on: August 22, 2004, 12:04:54 PM »
Toy Man said:

"In avarage, ppl fart 16 times a day."

-------------------------------------------

That only applies to men. Girls don't fart, they just explode when they reach the age of 50.