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Did you know...

#1

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I thought it'd be fun to start a trivia thread.

For instance, did you know that Jim Varney, famous for playing Ernest P. Warrell, was actually a very talented actor, recognized in his early life for his stage acting, including his ability to memorize entire scripts in just a small amount of time? It's rather sad, I think. He was typecast into the redneck character despite his skill. I'm only speculating, but I guess that this professional disappointment probably contributed to his young death. Shortly before his death, he said that his lifelong dream was to play Hamlet.


#2

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Vern.


#3

doomdragon6

doomdragon6

I always liked him as Earnest.


#4

sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

And he did a great Jed Clampet, also he did a really good cover of Hot Rod Lincoln.


#5

Charlie Don't Surf

Charlie Don't Surf

He lived just two houses down from my cousin, who met him and talked to him a lot, and said he was a really cool and smart guy.


#6

ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Probably not a very secret piece of triva anymore, but:

James Avery, most known for Uncle Phil on Fresh Prince, also provided the voice of Shredder in the old Ninja Turtles cartoon.


#7

General Specific

General Specific

It's my birthday today, I have now completed 31 laps of the sun.


#8

TommiR

TommiR

Did you know,

that Erwin Rommel had initially been rejected for command of a panzer division and, when he was given command of one by Hitler in 1940, the german army high command objected vigorously on the grounds of Rommel's "inexperience with commanding armoured formations".


#9

North_Ranger

North_Ranger

Did you know,

that Herman Goering was a WWI flying ace? He developed his later portly shape as a result of an injury sustained at the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 and the subsequent addiction to morphine that was used as a painkiller.


#10

TommiR

TommiR

Well, at least I didn't. I knew he was a WWI flying ace, but before this, I had thought his morphine addiction had been the result of the treatment of his battlefield injuries during WWI. But at least wikipedia serves to confirm your point, so thank you for that tidbit :)

Did you know,

that the Rolls-Royce Merlin aircraft engine of Spitfire and Lancaster fame suffered from an early problem of loss of power in high negative-G maneuvers, and that the stopgap solution to the problem, developed by a female british engineer, was nicknamed "Miss Tilly's orifice"?


#11

Charlie Don't Surf

Charlie Don't Surf

that when it snows, my eyes become large and the light that you shine can be seen?


#12

North_Ranger

North_Ranger

Did you know,

that the term "blue-blooded" as an adjective for nobility or royalty originated from the lack of exposure to sunlight? Unlike their subjects, noblemen and royalty did not have to toil under the hot sun and thus remained pale - which in turn made their veins shine through their skin as blue. Hence the expression.


#13

TommiR

TommiR

Dd you know,

that the initial invention of dynamite by Alfred Nobel, who later went on to will the large property he got from his patent on the substance to the Nobel Foundation to be distributed for scientific and humanitarian achievements, was an accident?


#14



Koko

did u know the word "bed" looks like an actual bed


#15

Shakey

Shakey

Koko said:
did u know the word "bed" looks like an actual bed
Click to expand...
You just blew my mind. God damn.


#16

phil

phil

ThatNickGuy said:
Probably not a very secret piece of triva anymore, but:

James Avery, most known for Uncle Phil on Fresh Prince, also provided the voice of Shredder in the old Ninja Turtles cartoon.
Click to expand...
When my brother has a kid I will be Uncle Phil.

This pleases me.


#17

North_Ranger

North_Ranger

Did you know,

that the first manned spaceflight could have ended a disaster? Upon re-entry, Yuri Gagarin would land on land, instead of the ocean as US astronauts would later do. However, his ship's parachutes almost did not open. Had they not, Gagarin would have been turned into mush upon landing. But dispute the parachutes working, he landed in the wrong place - some 250 miles outside the designated landing zone. So the first thing he had to do was find a phone and report his location to mission control.


#18

Charlie Don't Surf

Charlie Don't Surf

also: check out the arrow in the Fedex logo. Go on. Look closer.


#19

General Specific

General Specific

The 4th largest navy in the world belongs to Disney


#20

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Koko said:
did u know the word "bed" looks like an actual bed
Click to expand...
Screen-shot-2011-03-07-at-9.37.10-PM.png


#21

drifter

drifter

A tumescent tortoise penis is a thing of nightmares.



#22



makare

drifter said:
A tumescent tortoise penis is a thing of nightmares.

Click to expand...
Good freakin god....


#23

Baerdog

Baerdog

Dear god, that turtle's got an alien parasite!


#24

North_Ranger

North_Ranger

Did you know,

that the Icelandic Phallological Museum in Reykjavik houses 272 specimens of mammal penises from 92 species, and has the stated goal of acquiring a specimen from each species of mammal in Iceland. In April 2011 the Museum acquired a human specimen, a penis donated by a former tourism worker after his death in the age of 95.


#25

fade

fade

...from a Viagra OD.


#26

North_Ranger

North_Ranger

Did you know,

that Christina Hendricks, the buxom redhead who plays Joan Holloway in Mad Men...



...also played the role of Saffron in Firefly?


#27

Baerdog

Baerdog

We should all know that.

BUT, did you know she's a natural blonde? True fact.


#28

North_Ranger

North_Ranger

*BONK!*

Owowowowow.... Must... get... higher... table.

*falls off chair*


#29

PatrThom

PatrThom

Did you know...

...that the initials of the designers of American coinage appear on the coins they designed? (They're often really tiny. Good luck finding them all)
...that laws had to be passed to prevent the wholesale dumping of useless gasoline as a waste product before cars were invented? (Nobody knew what to do with the stuff at first)
...that the signatures of the designers of the original Macintosh computer signed their names in the molds used to make the enclosures? (This persisted up through the SE series)
...that there are actually more than a dozen forms of ice? (And that's just ice made from water)
...that brushing your gums is just as important as brushing your teeth? (Or at least the juncture)
...that Maryann is the only castaway still being paid for the series? (Her husband/agent insisted on residuals, none of the other cast did)
...that you can make ordinary salt water out of drain cleaner and pool chemicals? (HCl + NaOH = HOH + NaCl, and all that)
...that modern CPUs under load generate more heat per square millimeter than pretty much any other non-nuclear source? (We're talkin' really small scale, here)
...that it is possible to encode pictures within sound waves? (Handy linkage here)
...that fire behaves like a liquid? (A liquid lighter than air, but still a liquid)
...that the entire Human Race was (probably) almost entirely wiped out and had to practically rebuild itself from scratch? (The "Toba event")
...that cleanser and toothpaste can be used to restore your foggy acrylic headlights to full brightness? (Or you could buy one of those expensive kits instead, if you really want)
...that you can also start a fire with toothpaste (or chocolate!) and a soda can? (Handy if you're stranded on a desert island near Hansel & Gretel's witch house, I guess)
...that cobalt and nickel will stick to magnets? (Iron isn't the only magnetic metal)
...that I spend waaay too much time learning unconnected* facts? (I have a very large reference library, but this is all I could do from memory in 20min).

--Patrick
*Not useless. Never "useless."


#30

CrimsonSoul

CrimsonSoul

North_Ranger said:
Did you know,

that the first manned spaceflight could have ended a disaster? Upon re-entry, Yuri Gagarin would land on land, instead of the ocean as US astronauts would later do. However, his ship's parachutes almost did not open. Had they not, Gagarin would have been turned into mush upon landing. But dispute the parachutes working, he landed in the wrong place - some 250 miles outside the designated landing zone. So the first thing he had to do was find a phone and report his location to mission control.
Click to expand...
While Yuri was the first comfirmed person in space, did you know that there are a series of recordings from the same time period that are supposed cosmonauts that didn't make it, the Russian (USSR at the time) government is silent on these recordings.

http://www.lostcosmonauts.com/default.htm


#31

General Specific

General Specific

Van Halen had a rider in their contract specifying that they wanted a bowl of M&Ms backstage at every show, but with no brown M&Ms at all or they had the right to cancel the show and still be paid in full.

The reason for this is that it was a test to see if the promoters were reading the contract thoroughly. If they found brown M&Ms in the bowl, then they knew other, more important things might have been glossed over or ignored as well, thus leading to possible safety issues or technical glitches.


#32

Baerdog

Baerdog

That's pretty slick and it's good to know that there was an actual reason behind it instead of overblown rock star ego.


#33

Null

Null

Speaking of rock stars with overblown egos....

...Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler is actually proficient in over a dozen classical instruments, and he designs bikes for Dirico Motorcycles (the bikes are engineered by Mark Dirico).

...The song during the "house of healing" sequence in Return of the King, where Eowyn and Faramir meet was sung by Liv Tyler.

District 9 trivia:

...The motion capture for the Combat Walker in District 9 was performed by Sharlto Copley. This was so that the machine would have his body language on screen, since Wikus was supposed to be inside the Walker.

...All of the shacks (save Christopher Johnson's shack) in District 9 were pre-existing. In an odd parallel to the movie, the residents of the shantytown on the edge of Johannesburg were being evicted and relocated by the government as filming proceeded. Even most of the mutilated animal carcasses were not props, but where already in place when filming began.

...The reason the alien Prauns love cat food is because the director wanted them to have a cheap junk food much like refugees he had seen had (apparently at one shantytown, cheese puffs were the in demand food). When trying to decide what it was, one of the producers mentioned using canned cat food as prawn bait while fishing in Vancouver.


#34

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PatrThom said:
Did you know...

...that it is possible to encode pictures within sound waves? (Handy linkage here)
Click to expand...
You can pretty much encode anything in sound waves. Or in any waves for that matter. You could probably modulate a signal onto ocean waves. One of the most interesting examples of modulation I've seen is the way petroleum engineers use the pulses in the drilling mud* due to drill rotation as a low bandwidth carrier signal.

*drilling mud is a lubricant for the drill, which as the name implies was once upon a time just mud. It forms a sheath around the drill bit that lubes and provides back pressure on formation fluids to help prevent blowback. Remember--those formation fluids are compressed a lot more than things we're used to on the surface. Ask BP for details.


#35

General Specific

General Specific



It's kinda annoying, but if you want the pertinent part, skip to 5:25

Edit: ah crap, I failed to check the first linkage. Dang.


#36

strawman

strawman

Bedbugs and a few other animals reproduce via traumatic insemination. And if you look that term of on wikipedia or elsewhere, you too will be tramatized.


#37

fade

fade

Also, I don't know Aphex Twin, but NiN has been encoding pictures in the static in his songs for decades. In fact, most of the album covers appear as static between or within songs.

For the nerdy, the picture is made in the frequency domain, and then inverse Fourier transformed back to the time domain, where it usually sounds like static of some sort. I actually used the NiN example in my seismic processing class.


#38



Biannoshufu

When hydrogen burns in the air, water is formed.


#39

North_Ranger

North_Ranger

Did you know, that according to Medieval Catholic dogma, having sex or even wanting sex was sinful...

...if you weren't married.
...if you did it with someone else than your spouse.
...if you had been married for less than three days.
...if she was on her period.
...if she was pregnant.
...if she was nursing.
...if it was lent.
...if it was Advent.
...if it was the week of the Pentecost.
...if it was the week of Easter.
...if it was a feastday.
...if it was a day meant for fasting.
...if it was Sunday,
...or Wednesday,
...or Friday,
...or Saturday.
...if you wanted to do it during daytime.
...if you were naked.
...f you did it in a church.
...if you didn't want to have a baby.

Also forbidden were
- hugging
- lewd kissing
- oral sex
- most sex positions
- doing it more than once
- and enjoying it.

Oh, and you should definitely wash afterwards.


#40

sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

I don't think that list has changed much besides the Weekdays.


#41

Emrys

Emrys

North_Ranger said:
Did you know, that according to Medieval Catholic dogma, having sex or even wanting sex was sinful...
Click to expand...
Thank goodness for confession, else the Catholic Church would have died out centuries ago.

And both sexes had to have an orgasm or there would be no pregnancy.


#42

LordRendar

LordRendar

And because of all those restrictions, Catholics just wanted to do it more.The Philippines is the biggest Catholic Country in Asia and we fuck like bunnies on Viagra over there.


#43



makare

The Pope- expert at reverse psychology


#44

HCGLNS

HCGLNS

Did you know that within one meter of you is a spider that you haven't noticed yet?

Did you know that 1 billionth of 1 percent of the mass in the solar system is actually alive?

Did you know that people stop paying attention after the third thing in a list?

Did you know that Lozapony is pronounced the same way that it sounds?


#45



makare

I have three spider-spotting super cats. There are no spiders.


#46

General Specific

General Specific

HCGLNS said:
Did you know that within one meter of you is a spider that you haven't noticed yet?

Did you know that 1 billionth of 1 percent of the mass in the solar system is actually alive?

Did you know that people stop paying attention after the third thing in a list?

Did you know that Lozapony is pronounced the same way that it sounds?
Click to expand...
That last thing can't be true, I can pay better attention than that.


#47



makare

This dot pattern


is called a quincunx.


#48

North_Ranger

North_Ranger

'Decimation' comes from a punishment in the Roman legions, where after a mutiny or a lost battle the general would punish the legion by having the troops draw lots. Of every ten men, one would be put to death - either executed or killed by the other nine men in the group.


#49

Gusto

Gusto

There are 7 more odd numbered days in a year than even numbered days, or 8 on a leap year.


#50

North_Ranger

North_Ranger

...that colours are culture-specific? If a given culture has no concept for, say, the colour 'orange', they do not perceive that colour as such, but as a shade of red or yellow.


#51

Covar

Covar

North_Ranger said:
Did you know,

that Christina Hendricks, the buxom redhead who plays Joan Holloway in Mad Men...



...also played the role of Saffron in Firefly?
Click to expand...
I KNEW I RECOGNIZED HER FROM SOMEWHERE!!!

Thank you NR, you just made my day.


#52

PatrThom

PatrThom

makare said:
This dot pattern [...] is called a quincunx.
Click to expand...
That explains where NVIDIA got the term for their anti-aliasing algorithm.

--Patrick


#53

North_Ranger

North_Ranger

Covar said:
I KNEW I RECOGNIZED HER FROM SOMEWHERE!!!

Thank you NR, you just made my day.
Click to expand...
My pleasure, mate ;)
Added at: 01:29
Did you know,

that part of the reason why King Louis XIV had his palace at Versailles built was to draw the noble courtiers away from Paris and into a world of their own, one where they would constantly have to compete for the king's favour (and, as an extension, lodgings at Versailles) instead of spending time plotting against the throne.

Another reason was that Louis saw that the chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte, built by the finance minister Nicolas Fouquet, was more grandiose than the king's present palace in Paris. Louis had Fouquet ousted for embezzlement from the royal treasury and actually had much of Vaux-le-Vicomte's furnishing transported to Versailles - as well as the architects who had designed the chateau for Fouquet.


#54

Baerdog

Baerdog

It's good to be the king.


#55

Wahad

Wahad

Alan Turing, as you may or may not know, was a world-famous mathematician/cryptoanalist/computer scientist. His works include code-breaking Nazi messages in World War II and creating the Turing test. He was also gay, and after this fact became public he was removed of all his functions and chemically castrated. He committed suicide by taking a bite from a self-poisoned apple.

Now let us find ourselves in a point in time around the second half of the 1970s. A new company appeared on the market and their product was computers. That company was Apple, Inc. and this was their logo:



I'm not claiming it's an actual homage or anything like it, but it's a really neat coincidence nonetheless.


#56

Dave

Dave

Emrys said:
Thank goodness for confession, else the Catholic Church would have died out centuries ago.

And both sexes had to have an orgasm or there would be no pregnancy.
Click to expand...
If you don't sin, then you want Jesus to have died for nothing!!


#57

Piotyr

Piotyr

Did you know...
...that Walt Disney's last words were allegedly "Kurt Russell", who at the time was a child star recently signed on by Disney (in 1966...yes, that Kurt Russell).
...that Christopher Lee was once a British spy that worked with Ian Fleming during what would inspire Fleming to create the James Bond books.
...that Mel Brooks was a WWII war hero whose job was to defuse bombs, and he used to pump Al Jolson over the speakers to counter the constant Nazi propaganda being projected from the other side.


#58

LittleSin

LittleSin

On the Christopher Lee spy thing...the division he was in was called something like 'The Division of Ungentlemanly Conduct" and the stuff he did will be classified for another 50 years.


#59

North_Ranger

North_Ranger

Did you know that of the cast and crew of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Christopher Lee was the only one to have actually met Tolkien.


#60

LittleSin

LittleSin

Christopher Lee is more bad ass than Chuck Norris.


#61

ncts_dodge_man

ncts_dodge_man

North_Ranger said:
Did you know that of the cast and crew of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Christopher Lee was the only one to have actually met Tolkien.
Click to expand...
Isn't he related to Tolkien?


#62

Just Me

Just Me

Christopher Lee lectured Peter Jackson on the set of Lord of the Rings about how a man stabbed in the back sounds!



#63

Chad Sexington

Chad Sexington

LittleSin said:
On the Christopher Lee spy thing...the division he was in was called something like 'The Division of Ungentlemanly Conduct" and the stuff he did will be classified for another 50 years.
Click to expand...
Officially the Special Operations Executive, it was known variously as Churchill's Private Army, the Baker Street Irregulars (my personal favourite), and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Lots of interesting stories about it.


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