Did you know... and other useless trivia

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FuiFui BradBrad
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Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by FuiFui BradBrad »

I'm a bit of a fan of useless trivia, so I thought I'd make a place to share mine, and to learn from others.

My first one

Did you know, the modern day firefighter was created by insurance companies?
Back in the day, if you were insured for fire damage, you would have a plaque to display on the front of your house. If you house was on fire, the insurance companies would all send over their firefighters, have a look at the plaque and see who you were insured with. If they got there and didn't see a plaque, they would leave and let the house burn.
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by FuiFui BradBrad »

One more before I log off and head home - One of my favourite sports stories, the Men's Marathon at the 1904 St Louis Summer Olympics

The first to arrive at the finish line was American runner, who dropped out of the race after nine miles and hitched a ride back to the stadium in a car, waving at spectators and runners during the ride. The car broke down at the 19th mile, so Lorz re-enters the race and jogs across the finish line. As he's about to be awarded the gold medal, he gets outted as a fraud. He admits what he did and said it was all a joke.

The runner who gets declared the winner was one of the earliest recorded drug cheats. Ten miles from the finish he led the race by a mile and a half, but his trainers had to hold him up and stop him from lying down. From then until the end of the race, he gets several doses of strychnine (AKA Rat poison) mixed with brandy. He continues to battle onwards, hallucinating, barely able to walk for most of the course. When he reached the stadium his trainers carry him over the line, holding him in the air while he shuffled his feet as if still running. The judges decided this was acceptable, and give him the gold medal. He has to be carried off the track, and might have died in the stadium had he not been treated by doctors.

Another runner was found lying in the road along the marathon course with severe internal injuries caused by breathing the clouds of dust kicked up by the race officials' cars.

A Cuban postman joined the marathon at the last minute. He lost all of his money in New Orleans, so he hitchhikes to St. Louis ran in street clothes, cutting his pants his legs to make them look like shorts. Along the marathon he would stop and talk to the on lookers. At one point, he notices a car full of people eating Peaches and asks for one, as he hadn't eaten in 40 hours. They tell him no. After that, he stops off in an orchard to eat some apples, which turned out to be rotten. He ends up having strong stomach cramps, and sleeps it off in the orchard. He finishes fourth

The marathon included the first two black Africans to compete in the Olympics. They finish ninth and twelfth. The runner who finished ninth was on for a medal, until he got chased a mile off course by aggressive dogs.

Just amazed at all the side stories that make this marathon. You'll never see anything like that again, probably for the better
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Re: Did you know... & other useless trivia

Post by simo »

Did you know?
Every single day, one person does the biggest **** in the world for that day and doesnt know theyve done it


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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by Archer »

simo wrote:Did you know?
Every single day, one person does the biggest **** in the world for that day and doesnt know theyve done it


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More lies from the lying media, I'm fully aware when i do the "king ****" of the day.
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by greeneyed »

Nine out of ten people hate ampersands.
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by RTW »

The Dutch developed the strain of orange carrots to stir up national pride in the 17th century. Before that the majority of carrots were purple.


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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by -PJ- »

Did you know....

If your having a birthday today you are sharing this day with 19mil other people around the world.
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by gangrenous »

Did you know if you're in a room with 23 people, it is more likely than not that 2 people share a birthday.
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by greeneyed »

-PJ- wrote:Did you know....

If your having a birthday today you are sharing this day with 19mil other people around the world.
with Jack Wighton.
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by -PJ- »

greeneyed wrote:
-PJ- wrote:Did you know....

If your having a birthday today you are sharing this day with 19mil other people around the world.
with Jack Wighton.
Well I did not know that...

HB Jack.
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by -PJ- »

gangrenous wrote:Did you know if you're in a room with 23 people, it is more likely than not that 2 people share a birthday.
That's a bit of pot luck there mate, there were 60 odd guests at a 50th I went to late last year and he was it....
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by -PJ- »

In Hawaii it's illegal to be a passenger in a car with an open container of alcohol.
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by -PJ- »

I slept well last night.

I'm a terrible sleeper usually but after last nights storm and temp drop I was in bed by 10 and slept thru till 5-30.

Useless trivia right there....
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by gangrenous »

-PJ- wrote:
gangrenous wrote:Did you know if you're in a room with 23 people, it is more likely than not that 2 people share a birthday.
That's a bit of pot luck there mate, there were 60 odd guests at a 50th I went to late last year and he was it....
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by gangrenous »

-PJ- wrote:In Hawaii it's illegal to be a passenger in a car with an open container of alcohol.
Pretty sure that's also illegal here...
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by Postman Pat »

gangrenous wrote:
-PJ- wrote:In Hawaii it's illegal to be a passenger in a car with an open container of alcohol.
Pretty sure that's also illegal here...
You are correct, It is illegal to have an open container of alcohol in a vehicle here.


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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by FuiFui BradBrad »

DID YOU KNOW...

It's always bothered me how Homing Pigeons worked. I mean, how do the pigeons know where the message is intended to go?
I've found it out. Pigeons are trained to head in one direction, home.

So back in the day, if the GH wanted to communicate with each other via Pigeons, I'd need a bunch of Pigeons from GE's castle, some Pigeons from Dubby's cottage, some pigeons from Pigmans marsh etc.

That way I would put a message on GE's Pigeon and he would just fly home.

How would I get the Pigeons in the first place? They would usually come via horse and carriage, or train once the steam engine was invented.
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by FuiFui BradBrad »

While thinking of trains, did you know: The Steam Engine was invented around 62AD by Heron of Alexandria, and the first railroad was invented 700 years earlier by Periander of Corinth. But it took them until 1804 to put them both together
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by FuiFui BradBrad »

DID YOU KNOW...

The reason why we drive on the Left hand side of the road dates back to Medieval times?
Since most people are right handed, swordsmen preferred to keep to the left, making their right arm nearer to an opponent.

The idea of driving on the right didn't come about until America was colonised. The American built wagons didn't have a seat for the driver. Right handed drivers would sit on the back-left horse, giving them room to use their right hand for a whip.
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by Sid »

That reminds me of this one

Stairwells were often very carefully designed in Medieval Castles. Stairwells that curved up to towers often curved very narrowly and in a clockwise direction. This meant that any attackers coming up the stairs had their sword hands (right hand) against the interior curve of the wall and this made it very difficult for them to swing their swords. Defenders had their sword hands on the outside wall, which meant they had more room to swing. Another ingenious design of stairs was that they were designed with very uneven steps. Some steps were tall and other steps were short. The inhabitants, being familiar with the uneven pattern of the stair heights could move quickly up and down the stairs but attackers, in a dimly lit stairwell, would easily fall and get bogged down in the stairwells. This made them vulnerable to attacks and slowed their attacks down significantly.

Qualification: I've been upstairs.
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by simo »

Sid wrote:That reminds me of this one

Stairwells were often very carefully designed in Medieval Castles. Stairwells that curved up to towers often curved very narrowly and in a clockwise direction. This meant that any attackers coming up the stairs had their sword hands (right hand) against the interior curve of the wall and this made it very difficult for them to swing their swords. Defenders had their sword hands on the outside wall, which meant they had more room to swing. Another ingenious design of stairs was that they were designed with very uneven steps. Some steps were tall and other steps were short. The inhabitants, being familiar with the uneven pattern of the stair heights could move quickly up and down the stairs but attackers, in a dimly lit stairwell, would easily fall and get bogged down in the stairwells. This made them vulnerable to attacks and slowed their attacks down significantly.

Qualification: I've been upstairs.
i enjoyed this. Sidenote: if a step is different in height to the others by 9.5 mm it will cause the majority of people to trip


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Post by FuiFui BradBrad »

That's a good one, I didn't know that.

Continuing on with the Medieval theme - It is thought that saluting originated from Medieval Europe, when knights would raise their visors to reveal their identity and that they were friendly. The correct salute technique is meant to mimic raising a visor
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Post by -PJ- »

gangrenous wrote:
-PJ- wrote:In Hawaii it's illegal to be a passenger in a car with an open container of alcohol.
Pretty sure that's also illegal here...
Research(asked a cop) tells me you are correct.

Why isn't it policed ?
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Post by Rick »

Not illegal everywhere in Australia Image


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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by FuiFui BradBrad »

When the telephone was getting rolled out across households, a referendum was held to find what would be the proper greeting to answer the telephone.

Hello won out, closely followed by Ahoy-hoy. Prior to the telephone, hello wasn't used as a greeting, but more as an expression of shock or surprise. Hello was Benjamin Franklin's preferred response and Ahoy-hoy was Bells.
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by Archer »

Where did "yeah" rank in terms of greetings?
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by gangrenous »

Just above YOLO
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by -TW- »

Archer wrote:Where did "yeah" rank in terms of greetings?
Just below "what"
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Post by FuiFui BradBrad »

Did you know - Tennis use to be scored using clocks, hence 15, 30, 40, game. Once the clock did a full rotation that was game.

When games went to deuce, they would move in 10 minute increments, so 50 then game. If the game went back to deuce, the clocks would move back to 40
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Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by simo »

Nice
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by FuiFui BradBrad »

Fun Fact:
Following on from the 1904 Olympics trivia, the 1904 Tour De France* was rife with cheating.
Riders were recorded trading in their bikes at certain points for cars and trains. All stage winners, and the eventual top four were caught doing this.
One French rider attacked a stage, got as much of a gap as he could, then encouraged the French bystanders to spill onto the road and block the other riders
Another rider got busted when he tied a piece of string to a car, with a cork tied to the other end. He then bit down on the cork and got towed along

In 1913, one rider broke his forks on a mountain stage, making him run down the mountain with his bike over his shoulder. When he got to the bottom, he found a blacksmith who let him use his tools to repair the bike. Because riders weren’t allowed to receive any sort of help at all, he made the repairs on his own fixed his bike.
When he finally crossed the line, he was handed a time penalty. Because the blacksmith’s young assistant helped work the bellows, it was deemed he received help, and cheated.

*1904 must have been the year for cheating
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by FuiFui BradBrad »

Did you know..
Scientifically speaking, there is no known reason as to why we sleep. In terms of evolution, it makes no sense to allow ourselves to be exposed to threats for 6 - 8 hours a night.

A common belief is that sleep helps us filter out old memories we don't require, and create space for new ones. Essentially a clean out of our brain
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by gangrenous »

That common belief sounds like utter bollocks to me

But the question of why we sleep is a super-interesting one! It must convey some huge advantage given its prevalence.
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Post by -PJ- »

I'm glad we sleep otherwise my boss would have me working 16-20hrs a day.

@and$? dat..
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Re: Did you know... and other useless trivia

Post by The Nickman »

-PJ- wrote:
gangrenous wrote:Did you know if you're in a room with 23 people, it is more likely than not that 2 people share a birthday.
That's a bit of pot luck there mate, there were 60 odd guests at a 50th I went to late last year and he was it....
Well, he's actually saying two people in the room share a birthday, not just that they share with the person whose perspective it is.

Just FYI, with 60 people in the one room, there's a 99.2% chance that two of them share a birthday, so I'd wager at least two people at your little shindig shared a birthday, Peej.
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