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Useless Trivia

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 4:07 pm
by The Weird One
Today is the anniversary of the first machine gun's patenting.

On May 15, 1718, a London lawyer named James Puckle patented the first machine gun.

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 4:27 pm
by t-o-m
japanese prime minister Inukai Tsuyoshi died on this day 76 years ago!

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 6:18 pm
by Dancing Mustard
Japan is the only nation on Earth to hold a national 'penis sports' festival.

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 6:19 pm
by Incandenza
The residents of Newcastle are called "Novocastrians".

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 6:59 pm
by rhoges6
Ostriches have no gall-bladders.

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 7:13 pm
by V.I.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's diary revealed the famous author to be a practicing arbophiliac.

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 7:37 pm
by bspride
on this spot im typing from in 1867...Nothing Happened

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 8:52 pm
by jonesthecurl
According to his birth certificate, Mozart's middle name was "Theodorus", the Greek equivalent of the Latin "Amadeus" which we are more familiar with.

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 10:03 pm
by suggs
Rabbits were exported to australia by the French, in their ships called "Rabe de la Bit", hence the term "rabbit". Its also where we get the modern day term "Rabies" from.

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 10:06 pm
by muy_thaiguy
George Washington, though the father of the US, never actually had any kids.

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 10:07 pm
by suggs
That is true. On the same theme, Benjamin Franklin was also his nephews brother.

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 10:10 pm
by suggs
James town was originally called Buckinghamtown, before the new settlers voted to name the town after the King, and not his palace.

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 10:15 pm
by muy_thaiguy
Due to the Han China's great legacy, many Chinese people still refer to themselves as people of the Han, though, how well this goes over with their current government is a mystery to me.

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 10:17 pm
by suggs
The Great Wall of China took precisely 378 years to build, and bizzarrely, 378,000 elephants are beleived to have died in the building of it.

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 11:06 pm
by The Weird One
Only 2 category 5 hurricanes have been reported to make landfall as a category 5 along the gulf coast.

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 11:20 pm
by muy_thaiguy
Some chimps in Africa have begun using actual, if primitive, weapons in order to hunt.


Planet of the Apes ALL over again.

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 6:07 am
by suggs
In, the USA women over the age of thirty are more likely to be elected to some form of political office than to get married.

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 7:02 am
by heavycola
'St Johns Wood' is the only London underground station that contains none of the letters from the word 'mackerel' in it.

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 7:33 am
by Bertros Bertros
heavycola wrote:'St Johns Wood' is the only London underground station that contains none of the letters from the word 'mackerel' in it.
Sadly there is a station opening at Hoxton (though techincally this will be part of the London Overground its still part of the same network?) which will render this wonderful piece of trivia (arguably) out dated so in preparation for that day be aware that on average the air temperature inside the London Underground is 10 degrees higher than above ground.

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 7:44 am
by Pedronicus
Thr River Amazon is over 4000 miles long and has no bridges over it.

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 8:30 am
by jonesthecurl
heavycola wrote:'St Johns Wood' is the only London underground station that contains none of the letters from the word 'mackerel' in it.
Only if you accept the contraction of "St" for "Saint".

- and who had time to work that out?

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 8:39 am
by Bertros Bertros
jonesthecurl wrote:
heavycola wrote:'St Johns Wood' is the only London underground station that contains none of the letters from the word 'mackerel' in it.
Only if you accept the contraction of "St" for "Saint".

- and who had time to work that out?
No. The name of the station is simply "St. Johns Wood" regardless of any implied contraction.

Image

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 8:55 am
by Ntetos
23% of defunctions of photocopiers are caused by people sitting on them and try to copy their ass.
The average man eats 8 spiders during his lifetime while sleeping.
Snails have 25.000 teeth.

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 9:04 am
by V.I.
In 2005, more Americans were killed by vending machines (2) than by wolves (0).

Re: Useless Trivia

Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 9:38 am
by jonesthecurl
Bertros Bertros wrote:
jonesthecurl wrote:
heavycola wrote:'St Johns Wood' is the only London underground station that contains none of the letters from the word 'mackerel' in it.
Only if you accept the contraction of "St" for "Saint".

- and who had time to work that out?
No. The name of the station is simply "St. Johns Wood" regardless of any implied contraction.

Image
I think it's written "St", but the name is "Saint" (hence the full stop after the contraction). Pedantically, you could say that the sign has none of the letters of the word "mackerel" in it. The name, however, does.

It is still a fascnating fact, and one of the most magnificently useless I've ever seen.