GregR
Footballguy
A collection of mostly useless but sometimes interesting things I've come across.
Links to previous Useless Trivia:
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1) In 2015, 49% of Americans said they had tried marijuana. What percent had tried marijuana in 1969?
a) 4%
b) 24%
c) 44%
d) 64%
2) True or False. George W Bush was almost assassinated by a thrown grenade, but it failed to detonate due to a handkerchief.
3) By percent of world population, this ancient empire was the largest empire in history.
4) True or False. The laborers who constructed the Egyptian pyramids were mostly slaves.
5) By mass, the largest known individual organisms on Earth belong to this species.
a) Aspens
b) Sperm Whales
c) Blue Whales
d) Giant Sequoias
e) Fungus
6) This US President reportedly pulled 77 people from the water during his time working as a lifeguard.
7) At one point, 55 percent of the cars in the world were this model, which is still a record.
8) This English word, which had an adjective form introduced in the 15th to 16th century, came from Latin roots with multiple meanings including "the three lower liberal arts: grammar, logic and rhetoric", "where a road forks into two other roads, or a public place", and "commonplace". The noun version of it dates back to 1902 when it was used as a title for a book of essays about commonplace moments. The modern use of the noun grew in the 1960s when college students used it in trading questions and answers about popular culture. The word also appears on this page. What word?
9) At $5,000 per pound, this is the world's most expensive spice/condiment. Probably the most expensive food, period.
10) What igneous rock can float on water?
Links to previous Useless Trivia:
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
#10
#11
#12
#13
#14
#15
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1) In 2015, 49% of Americans said they had tried marijuana. What percent had tried marijuana in 1969?
a) 4%
b) 24%
c) 44%
d) 64%
a) only 4% according to Gallup which first began polling on the subject in 1969.
2) True or False. George W Bush was almost assassinated by a thrown grenade, but it failed to detonate due to a handkerchief.
True. Vladimir Arutyunian was a Georgian national who attempted to assassinate President George W. Bush and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili by throwing a hand grenade at them on 10 May 2005 in Tbilisi. Arutyunian threw a Soviet-made RGD-5 hand grenade, wrapped in a red plaid handkerchief, toward the podium where Bush stood as he addressed the crowd. Arutyunian had pulled the pin on the live grenade, but the red handkerchief remained wrapped around the grenade, and it prevented the striker lever from releasing.
3) By percent of world population, this ancient empire was the largest empire in history.
The Persian Empire, also known as the Achaemenid Empire. It accounted for approximately 49.4 million of the world’s estimated 112.4 million people in around 480 BC – an astonishing 44%. Originating in modern-day Iran, the empire was first established by Cyrus the Great and included parts of Central Asia, the Mediterranean, North Africa, and even European territories such as ancient Thrace and Macedonia.
4) True or False. The laborers who constructed the Egyptian pyramids were mostly slaves.
False. The Greek historian Herodotus, some Judeo-Christian accounts, and of course Hollywood, have created the impression the pyramids were made by slave labor. But the archeological evidence shows they were paid, skilled laborers who were part of five teams with names like "Drunkards of Menkaure" and "Friends of Khufu" who rotated through the labor. A popular myth that Israelites created the pyramids was discounted by Amihai Mazar, professor at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who said Jews did not exist yet as a group, and if they built anything it would have been the later construction of the city of Ramses mentioned in the Exodus.
5) By mass, the largest known individual organisms on Earth belong to this species.
a) Aspens
b) Sperm Whales
c) Blue Whales
d) Giant Sequoias
e) Fungus
a) Aspens. While the blue whale is the largest animal and the giant sequoia is the largest single-stem tree, both are smaller than Aspen trees such as Quaking Aspen. These Aspen propagate by growing roots outwards and then growing colonies of clone trees from them, making them one organism grown from the shared root system. Such a colony can be as much as five miles long. There are also huge honey fungus measuring 2.4 miles across, living mostly below ground, but less mass than aspen groves. Some sites mention these fungus as the largest organism though that is probably either by area, or they just haven't heard of the aspens.
6) This US President reportedly pulled 77 people from the water during his time working as a lifeguard.
Ronald Reagan. According to the Chicago Tribune, locals near the Lowell Park beach where Reagan worked, joke that at least a few of those were young women who faked their distress to be rescued by the handsome lifeguard.
7) At one point, 55 percent of the cars in the world were this model, which is still a record.
The Model T Ford, in 1916.
8) This English word, which had an adjective form introduced in the 15th to 16th century, came from Latin roots with multiple meanings including "the three lower liberal arts: grammar, logic and rhetoric", "where a road forks into two other roads, or a public place", and "commonplace". The noun version of it dates back to 1902 when it was used as a title for a book of essays about commonplace moments. The modern use of the noun grew in the 1960s when college students used it in trading questions and answers about popular culture. The word also appears on this page. What word?
Trivia, or the adjective form, trivial.
9) At $5,000 per pound, this is the world's most expensive spice/condiment. Probably the most expensive food, period.
Saffron. Each flower produces only three threads, so it takes somewhere between 35,000 and 70,000 flowers to produce a pound, or about an acres worth of flowers.
10) What igneous rock can float on water?
Pumice. Pumice is created when super-heated, highly pressurized rock is violently ejected from a volcano. The unusual foamy configuration of pumice happens because of simultaneous rapid cooling and rapid depressurization. The depressurization creates gas bubbles (like the bubbles of CO2 that appear when a carbonated drink is opened). The simultaneous cooling and depressurization freezes the bubbles in a matrix. Scoria is another light rock, but not light enough to float.
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