GregR
Footballguy
A collection of mostly useless but sometimes interesting things I've come across.
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#46
1) From 2005 to 2007, the number of baby girls given this name dropped by about 70%.
2) True or False. The horned Viking helmet of Eric the Red, discoverer of Greenland, was expected to fetch over a million dollars at auction. An intense bidding battle resulted, won by representatives of Bill Gates at a cost of just over $10 million. Gates then donated the helmet to Iceland, only to find out the Icelandic government had been the ones bidding against him the entire time.
3) A baby was born one day. The very next day, the baby was 2 years old. How was this possible?
4) In the movie "National Treasure", the back of the Declaration of Independence contains a treasure map on it. What is on the back of the document in reality?
a) "Monadnock Paper Mill, Bennington, New Hampshire"
b) "Original Declaration of Independence dated 4th July 1776"
c) "Don't Tread On Me"
d) nothing, it is blank
5) A group of geese are called a "gaggle". What type of animals do you have if you have a "bloat"?
a) sloths
b) hippopotamuses
c) seals
d) manatees
e) toads
6) True or False. The cries of babies coming out of the womb already have accents related to the languages spoken by their families.
7) What author has had the most films and television shows made from their work?
8) There is one organ in the human body capable of great levels of regeneration, enough to restore lost function. As little as 25% of it can regenerate to regain full function. Ancient Greeks may have known of this capacity for self-repair judging from one of their myths. Which organ?
9) About how many current nations gained independence at some point from the United Kingdom or the British Empire?
a) 10
b) 15
c) 30
d) 50
e) 65
10) True or False. NASA was once charged a $20 parking ticket for parking a spacecraft on an asteroid.
Links to previous Useless Trivia:
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5
#6 #7 #8 #9 #10
#11 #12 #13 #14 #15
#16 #17 #18 #19 #20
#21 #22 #23 #24 #25
#26 #27 #28 #29 #30
#31 #32 #33 #34 #35
#36 #37 #38 #39 #40
#41 #42 #43 #44 #45
#46
1) From 2005 to 2007, the number of baby girls given this name dropped by about 70%.
Katrina.
2) True or False. The horned Viking helmet of Eric the Red, discoverer of Greenland, was expected to fetch over a million dollars at auction. An intense bidding battle resulted, won by representatives of Bill Gates at a cost of just over $10 million. Gates then donated the helmet to Iceland, only to find out the Icelandic government had been the ones bidding against him the entire time.
False and completely made up. There is not even evidence that Vikings wore horned helmets. Only one Viking helmet has ever been found, and it is hornless. This mistaken belief on Viking fashion has been traced back to the costume decisions in the first-ever production of Richard Wagner's opera "Der Ring de Nibelungen" in 1876.
3) A baby was born one day. The very next day, the baby was 2 years old. How was this possible?
The baby was born in South Korea on the last day of December. In Korea, as soon as a baby is born the baby is considered to be 1 year old. Also, while in the US we consider people's age to increase on their birthday, in Korea everyone's age increases together on January first each year such that everyone born in the same year are always considered the same age. So a baby born on Dec 31 is considered 1 year old on his first day, and on the next day January 1 he turns 2.
4) In the movie "National Treasure", the back of the Declaration of Independence contains a treasure map on it. What is on the back of the document in reality?
a) "Monadnock Paper Mill, Bennington, New Hampshire"
b) "Original Declaration of Independence dated 4th July 1776"
c) "Don't Tread On Me"
d) nothing, it is blank
b) "Original Declaration of Independence dated 4th July 1776". No one knows who exactly wrote this or when, but during the Revolutionary War, the parchment was frequently rolled up for transport. It's thought that the text was added as a label. In 1941, both the Declaration and the Constitution were packed up in 150 pounds of protective gear and transported to Fort Knox to be kept safely, until the documents were returned to Washington DC in 1944. The paper mill used in answer a) is the oldest paper mill still in operation, though it wasn't built until 1819.
5) A group of geese are called a "gaggle". What type of animals do you have if you have a "bloat"?
a) sloths
b) hippopotamuses
c) seals
d) manatees
e) toads
b) Hippopotamuses. Groups of hippos can also be called pods, herds or dales.
6) True or False. The cries of babies coming out of the womb already have accents related to the languages spoken by their families.
True. A few different studies have shown that babies seem to hear well enough in the womb that their cries have accents that reflect the spoken language around them. For example, families speaking tonal languages like Mandarin or Lamnso (Cameroon) cry more melodically than German counterparts. Babies of French-speaking parents wail on a rising note while the Germans favor a falling sound.
7) What author has had the most films and television shows made from their work?
William Shakespeare.
8) There is one organ in the human body capable of great levels of regeneration, enough to restore lost function. As little as 25% of it can regenerate to regain full function. Ancient Greeks may have known of this capacity for self-repair judging from one of their myths. Which organ?
The liver. Perhaps this was the inspiration for Greek myths that tell of the Titan Prometheus, who as a punishment was chained to a rock where each day an eagle would eat his liver, only to have it grow back each night.
9) About how many current nations gained independence at some point from the United Kingdom or the British Empire?
a) 10
b) 15
c) 30
d) 50
e) 65
e) About 65 according to Wikipedia.
10) True or False. NASA was once charged a $20 parking ticket for parking a spacecraft on an asteroid.
True. About 11 months before NASA’s ‘NEAR Shoemaker’ spacecraft landed on the asteroid 433, Eros, a man named Gregory W. Nemitz claimed its ownership by filing a claim with the State of California. He somehow got it registered and waited for the NASA’s probe to land on the near earth asteroid. When NASA landed their spacecraft on Eros, Nemitz sent them an invoice of $20. According to him, the parking rates on his extra-terrestrial land were $ 0.20 per year and he had decided to charge them to cover the next 100 years of parking. NASA refused to pay and Nemitz took the case to court. The courts ruled Nemitz wasn't able to prove actual ownership.
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