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) What was the first creature intentionally sent into space?
2) During the 1700s, there was societal concern about a seemingly addictive activity that the young were heavily engaging in. Behaviors associated with it included sensation-seeking, morally dissolute and promiscuous behavior, and even acts of self-destruction. It was referred to by terms such as _____ rage, _____ fever and ____ lust. What activity fills in the blanks?
3) This beverage-making method was an accidental discovery, a packaging method for samples which customers misunderstood and tried to use directly to make beverages.
4) Some female dragonflies go to this extreme length to ward off unwanted advances by amorous male dragonflies.
5) True or False. Mount Massive was listed as the tallest mountain in Colorado, until a new survey found Mount Elbert was 12 feet taller. Climbers responded by stacking rocks atop Mount Massive until it was again the tallest.
6) Santa Claus has a number of different names he is known by. Which one is named for a bishop of a Turkish city?
7) Research shows that 30 years ago, you had about 17 minutes to escape a house fire before the home would be engulfed. How much time is there today?
a) 3 minutes
b) 10 minutes
c) 17 minutes
d) 24 minutes
e) 30 minutes
8) What is Brazilian Carlos Kaiser's claim to fame?
a) 10 year career as pretend professional soccer player
b) married to world record 23 different women at once
c) the fashion designer credited with introducing the modern thong
d) climbed Brazil's highest peak but fell from the summit, surviving a 1500 tumble
9) This world leader once humiliated Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev by holding formal talks in a swimming pool with Khrushchev, who could not swim.
10) In the immediate wake of the 9/11 attacks, civilian air traffic was grounded for two days. What civilian flight was the exception?
11) Bonus question: Who was Rudi Gernreich?
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
1) What was the first creature intentionally sent into space?
While Laika the dog was the first animal to complete an orbit of the Earth in 1957, he was not the first animal to reach space. That honor belongs to fruit flies on a US-launched V2 rocket in 1947. The fruit flies were recovered afterwards alive. A monkey named Albert 1 also was launched into space by the US in 1948.
2) During the 1700s, there was societal concern about a seemingly addictive activity that the young were heavily engaging in. Behaviors associated with it included sensation-seeking, morally dissolute and promiscuous behavior, and even acts of self-destruction. It was referred to by terms such as _____ rage, _____ fever and ____ lust. What activity fills in the blanks?
Reading. The emergence of this new phenomenon was largely due to the growing popularity of a new literary genre: the novel. The emergence of commercial publishing in the 18th century and the growth of an ever-widening constituency of readers was not welcomed by everyone. Many cultural commentators were apprehensive about the impact of this new medium on individual behavior and on society’s moral order.
3) This beverage-making method was an accidental discovery, a packaging method for samples which customers misunderstood and tried to use directly to make beverages.
Tea bags. Around 1908, Thomas Sullivan, a New York tea merchant, started to send samples of tea to his customers in small silken bags. Some assumed that these were supposed to be used in the same way as metal infusers by putting the entire bag into the pot, rather than emptying out the contents. Responding to the comments from his customers that the mesh on the silk was too fine, Sullivan developed sachets made of gauze - the first purpose-made tea bags.
4) Some female dragonflies go to this extreme length to ward off unwanted advances by amorous male dragonflies.
Fake their deaths. Rassim Khelifa from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, witnessed the behavior for the first time in the moorland hawker dragonfly, and later observed 27 out of 31 females plummeting and playing dead to avoid males, with 21 of these ploys successful. Few animals have been caught feigning death to trick suitors. The behavior has been seen in a species of spider (the males use it to improve their chances of mating), two species of robber fly and a type of mantis.
5) True or False. Mount Massive was listed as the tallest mountain in Colorado, until a new survey found Mount Elbert was 12 feet taller. Climbers responded by stacking rocks atop Mount Massive until it was again the tallest.
True. Supporters of Mount Massive piled up rocks to make it the tallest mountain again. Their attempt failed though, as supporters of Mount Elbert then demolished the pile.
6) Santa Claus has a number of different names he is known by. Which one is named for a bishop of a Turkish city?
Saint Nick. Saint Nicholas was a 4th century bishop in what is today Demre, Turkey, who was known for his generous gifts to the poor.
7) Research shows that 30 years ago, you had about 17 minutes to escape a house fire before the home would be engulfed. How much time is there today?
a) 3 minutes
b) 10 minutes
c) 17 minutes
d) 24 minutes
e) 30 minutes
a) 3-4 minutes. Newer homes burn faster than older homes. Materials used for furnishings today often burn hotter and faster than materials that were previously used.
8) What is Brazilian Carlos Kaiser's claim to fame?
a) 10 year career as pretend professional soccer player
b) married to world record 23 different women at once
c) the fashion designer credited with introducing the modern thong
d) climbed Brazil's highest peak but fell from the summit, surviving a 1500 tumble
a) Pretend soccer player. He managed 10 contracts over a 24-year span in the 70s through 90s as a professional soccer player. Kaiser befriended players and journalists to get them to recommend teams sign him. With a physical shape similar to professional players, but lacking actual skills, his fraud consisted of signing contracts and stating that he was lacking match fitness so that he would spend the first weeks only with physical training where he could shine. When it came time to train with other players, he would feign various injuries like hamstrings which were hard to confirm with medical technology of the time, so his lack of soccer skills would not be uncovered. He would have pretend phone conversations from supposedly foreign clubs interested in acquiring him to make him seem in demand. He was on the roster for 10 different clubs without ever playing an actual game. The only time he was set to play, he picked a fight with a fan to be disqualified so his lack of ability would not be uncovered.
9) This world leader once humiliated Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev by holding formal talks in a swimming pool with Khrushchev, who could not swim.
Mao Zedong of China. Mao himself had been enraged by Soviet treatment under Stalin, and by dealing with the Soviets on issues around the Korean War. When Krushchev visited China, Mao wanted revenge. Krushchev was portly and had never learned to swim. Mao showed up for a meeting wearing a bathrobe and slippers, and with swim trunks for Krushchev, and insisted they conduct the meeting in the pool. Mao swam laps in the deep end, interpreters jogging alongside to keep up. Khrushchev, meanwhile, stood uncomfortably in the children’s end of the pool until Mao, with more than a touch of malice, suggested that he join him in the deeper water. A flotation device was suddenly produced—Lorenz Lüthi describes it as a “life belt,” while Henry Kissinger prefers “water wings.” Either way, the result was scarcely dignified. Khrushchev struggled to stay afloat. After considerable exertion, the Soviet leader was able to get moving, “paddling like a dog” in a desperate attempt to keep up. Soviet-Sino relations went downhill from there with both sides intentionally snubbing the other during future visits.
10) In the immediate wake of the 9/11 attacks, civilian air traffic was grounded for two days. What civilian flight was the exception?
Count it correct if you said anything along the lines of delivering emergency medical supplies. A flight from San Diego to Miami carrying antivenin to save a zoo snake-hander bitten by a deadly Taipan snake is often mentioned as the exception. There was also an organ donor flight of a human heart that had FAA clearance but was still forced down by military fighters 80 miles short of its Seattle destination. The human heart completed its journey aboard a helicopter.
11) Bonus question: Who was Rudi Gernreich?
He was a fashion designer. The one credited with introducing the modern thong, in 1974. God bless you, sir.
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