Trivia Today

[historylover]

RANDOM TIDBITS

There are close to 4,000 known species of frogs, including
toads. They range in size from less than half an inch to
nearly a foot long and come in a rainbow of colors and
patterns.

***

Adult frogs are carnivorous and will eat just about anything
smaller than themselves, including insects, worms and even
other frogs.

***

The earliest known frog (Vieraella herbsti) appeared during
the late Jurassic period, about 190 million years ago. The
specimens that have been found in Arizona shows that the
skeletal shape and body plan of the frog has remained
almost unchanged.

***

The biggest frog is the appropriately named Goliath frog
(Conraua goliath) of Cameroon. They reach nearly a foot and
weigh as much as 7 lbs. The smallest frog is the Gold frog
(Psyllophryne Didactyla) of Brazil. They grow to only 3/8
inch.

***

Equally small is the Eleutherodactylus iberia discovered
only in 1996 in Monte Iberia, Cuba. (It doesn't even have
a common name yet.) Other small frogs are poison frogs.
They measure less than 1/2 inch.

***

Recently scientists have noticed a marked decline in the
numbers of frogs and other amphibians around the world.
Some species are believed to have become extinct within
the past fifty years. Causes for the decline include ozone
depletion, pollution, habitat loss, introduction of new
predators, disease and even a fungus.

 

[historylover]

RANDOM TIDBITS

Beer has been a popular beverage for a long time. Babylonian
clay tablets show detailed recipes of beer making in 4300
BC. Beer was also brewed by the ancient Chinese, Assyrians
and Incas. An Egyptian text of 1600 BC gives 100 medical
prescriptions using beer. A few years ago, the New Castle
Brewery in England brewed 1,000 bottles of Tutankhamun Ale
from a 3,200-year old recipe found in the sun temple of
Queen Nefertiti.

***

Brewing is the process of changing water and grain into
beer through a yeast catalyst. The quality of the water is
extremely important. Hard water produce a bitter ale, soft
water produce bitter lager. Barley or hops, or a combination
of them, is used for the grain. Getting dry grain ready for
fermentation is called malting. The grain is steeped in
water until it sprouts. The sprouting or germination is not
allowed to end naturally but is interrupted either by drying
or roasting in kilns.

***

The best taste usually is acquired at an alcohol contents of
4.7% ethanol per volume. Less than that results in a beer
with a bland taste. More than that and the higher alcohols
(butanol, pentanol etc) become overpowering and spoils the
taste. The strongest beer type by alcohol content is
doppelbock, which is usually 8%-10% ethanol by its volume
content. The strongest beer brand in production is German
"Eisbock", with some 14% ethanol by volume.

***

The oldest brewery in Munich, the Augustiner brewery, was
founded in 1294, when, on the order of the bishop of
Freising, an Augustinian monastery was established at the
Haberfeld, just outside the gates of the city. Munich was
famous for its breweries operated by monks.

***

Ice beer is produced by freezing the brew and filtering the
ice crystals, increasing the alcohol content. This process
was already known in the Middle Ages to "cold-distil"
brandy from wine, and the ancient Chinese produced rice
hooch that way. The Canadians adopted the cold-distillation
method for ice beer.

***

Commercial beer making was established in 1200 AD in
present-day Germany. In 1506, the German Purity Law is
issued, specifying that beer ingredients must only be
water, barley, wheat and hops. Bottling of beer started
in 1605. Currently worldwide, 20,000 brands of beer are
brewed in 180 styles, from ales, lagers, pilsner and stouts
to bitters, cream ales and iced beer.

 

[flim_flam]

Here's something trivial: this is my 500th post on Freeones!

 

[historylover]

In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved: Franklin D. Roosevelt


RANDOM TIDBITS

Fireworks were made in China as early as the 11th century.
The Chinese used their pyrotechnic mixtures for war rockets
and explosives.

***

Uncle Sam was first popularized during the War of 1812,
when the term appeared on supply containers. Believe it or
not, the U. S. Congress didn't adopt him as a national
symbol until 1961.

***

Not all members of the Continental Congress supported a
formal Declaration of Independence, but those who did were
passionate about it. One representative rode 80 miles by
horseback to reach Philadelphia and break a tie in support
of independence.

***

The first two versions of the Liberty Bell were defective
and had to be melted down and recast. The third version
rang every Fourth of July from 1778 to 1835, when,
according to tradition, it cracked as it was being tolled
for the death of Chief Justice John Marshall.

***

The American national anthem, the "Star-Spangled Banner,"
is set to the tune of an English drinking song ("To
Anacreon in Heaven").

***

The iron framework of the Statue of Liberty was devised by
French engineer Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, who also built
the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

 

[historylover]

RANDOM TIDBITS

Kids ages 6 and under spend as much time in front of a TV
or computer screen as they do outside.

***

The average American child sees about 200,000 acts of
violence on TV by age 18.

***

On average, girls ages 12 to 17 watch 19 hours, 49 minutes
of TV each week. Boys watch 20 hours, 14 minutes.

***

The average household has 2.4 TV sets. 98% of all U.S.
households own at least one set. 79% have more than one TV
set.

***

56% of children ages 8 to 16 have a TV in their bedroom;
36% of kids ages 6 and under do.

***

40% of Americans always or often watch television while
eating dinner.

 

[historylover]

RANDOM TIDBITS

The celebration of the new year is the oldest of all
holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about
4000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian
New Year began with the first New Moon (actually the first
visible cresent) after the Vernal Equinox (first day of
spring).

***

The tradition of making New Year's resolutions dates back
to the early Babylonians. Their most popular resolution was
to return borrowed farm equipment.

***

The tradition of using a baby to signify the new year was
begun in Greece around 600 BC. It was their tradition at
that time to celebrate their god of wine, Dionysus, by
parading a baby in a basket, representing the annual
rebirth of that god as the spirit of fertility. Early
Egyptians also used a baby as a symbol of rebirth.

***

Traditionally, it was thought that one could affect the
luck they would have throughout the coming year by what
they did or ate on the first day of the year. For that
reason, it has become common for folks to celebrate the
first few minutes of a brand new year in the company of
family and friends.

***

Traditional New Year foods are also thought to bring luck.
Many cultures believe that anything in the shape of a ring
is good luck, because it symbolizes "coming full circle,"
completing a year's cycle. For that reason, the Dutch
believe that eating donuts on New Year's Day will bring
good fortune.

***

The old Scotch tune often sung at midnight, "Auld Lang
Syne," literally means "old long ago," or simply, "the
good old days. It was written by Robert Burns in the 1700's,
and was first published in 1796 after Burns' death. Early
variations of the song were sung prior to 1700 and inspired
Burns to produce the modern rendition.

 

[historylover]

RANDOM TIDBITS

The now famous tutu was first worn by Italian dancer
Virginie Zucchi in 1885 at the Imperial Theatre in St.
Petersburg, Russia. The tutu was actually designed several
years earlier by French painter Eugene Lami, in the form of
a mid-calf skirt.

***

The waltz is named for the German word "waltzen," meaning
"revolve." This dance consists of rotating, flowing motions
performed in triple time with smooth and even steps. The
variations are the rapid Viennese waltz and the slower,
dipping Boston waltz.

***

The earliest known dance marathon took place in England in
1364. These marathons, known as "derbies," reached their
height in the Depression era of the 1930s, when dancers
went to great lenghts to compete for monetary prizes. The
longest recorded marathon lasted 22 weeks, three days.

***

The fox-trot, which alternates long and short steps in
quadruple time, was developed in the US in 1912. It was
named in New York City in 1914 for music writer Harry Fox
(1882-1959).

***

Break-dancing, usually performed to rap or hip-hop music,
originated in the south Bronx, New York, in the late 1970s.
Moves such as head-spinning or moon-walking could be
performed individually or in competition.

***

The Samba is Brazil's national dance. The Carnival in Rio
de Janeiro made Samba famous throughout the world.

 

[historylover]

It isn't enough for your heart to break because everybody's heart is broken now: Allen Ginsberg

RANDOM TIDBITS

Poet and novelist Jack Kerouac coined the term "Beat" in
the late 1940s, but was not until the 1950s that it would
become a slang term symbolizing a literary movement by
writers such as Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William
Burroughs. The "Beat" movement rejected the social
constraints of the 1950s and reflected a growing
disillusionment with the "establishment" and traditional
American values.

***

Ben Jonson was named the first poet laureate of England in
1616. The title, however, did not become an official royal
office until 1668, when John Dryden assumed the honored
post. Since that time, the office has been awarded for
life. The poet laureate is responsible for composing poems
for court and national occasions.

***

Maxwell Anderson, one of the most important American
playwrights of the early 20th century, wrote his plays in
verse in an attempt to return tragic poetry to the American
stage. He said that he was tired of "plays in prose that
never lifted from the ground."

***

The very first Nobel Prize in Literature (1901) was awarded
to the French poet and philosopher Sully Prudhomme, author
of Stances et Poemes (1865).

***

Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and James Weldon Johnson
were all poets of the Harlem Renaissance, an unprecedented
outburst of creative activity among African Americans in
all fields of art which occurred in New York City between
1920 and 1930.

***

Eugene O'Neill wrote three Pulitzer Prize-winning plays
during the 1920s: Beyond the Horizon (1920), Anna Christie
(1922), and Strange Interlude (1928).

 

[historylover]

RANDOM TIDBITS

The first barbecuers may well have been prehistoric cavemen.
Anthropologists say they may have started roasting meat
some 1.4 million years ago.Language development didn't occur
until 200,000 B.C. or later.Other sources say this originated
in the Caribbean where the native Indians used wood gratings
over a slow fire to cook strips of meat.

***

Lexington, North Carolina is known as the Barbecue Capital
of the World. October is Barbecue Month there, with a month-
long Annual Barbecue Festival. The city's first barbecue
restaurant opened in 1919; there are currently over 20
barbecue restaurants.

***

People in the Northeast U.S. are the heaviest barbecuers in
the nation. The next most frequent barbecues are in the
North Central region of the U.S., followed by the South and
then the Western U.S.

***

The word "barbecue" may have come from the French phrase
"barbe a queue" (from whiskers to tail- The term refers to
the original method in which a whole animal was cooked on
a spit over an open fire), or the Taino Indian word for
their method of cooking fish over a pit of coals (barbacoa).
Another source says that roast mutton in Romanian
translates into "barbec."

***

Three out of four American households own a grill and they
use it on average of five times per month.

***

The word steak is derived from an old Saxon word, steik,
meaning meat on a stick. The Saxons and Jutes, who lived in
what is now Denmark, brought along their skills as cattlemen
when they conquered Great Britain. They favored beef cooked
on a pointed stick over a campfire.

 

[historylover]

Folks are looking at their closets as a source of revenue - LIZ PIERCE, a senior analyst with Roth Capital Partners, on resale and thrift stores profiting from the recession.


RANDOM TIDBITS - Railroads

In 1797, the steam locomotive is invented in England. Also
in England, in 1823, the first public railway in the world
opens.

***

In 1833, Andrew Jackson travels from Baltimore to Ellicott's
Mills, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to ride the
rails.

***

In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signs the Pacific
Railroad Act for the construction of the transcontinental
railroad that will ultimately link California with the rest
of the nation.

***

In 1865, the “golden age” of railroads begins. For nearly
half a century, no other mode of transportation challenges
railroads. During these years, the rail network grows from
35,000 to a peak of 254,000 miles in 1916.

***

In 1869, on May 10, at Promontory, in the Utah Territory,
the “Golden Spike” joins the Union Pacific and Central
Pacific railroads, marking completion of the first
transcontinental railroad.

***

Between 1900–1940, by the eve of World War II, automobiles,
large buses, trucks, planes, and pipelines—supported by
government subsidies and less burdened by regulation than
railroads—have become full-fledged competitors to railroads.

 

[historylover]

RANDOM TIDBITS

In 1838, Boston, Massachusetts was the first city to
establish its own police department.

The oldest park in the U.S. is Boston Common.

***

On June 1, 1660, Mary Dyer was hanged on Boston Common for
repeatedly defying a law banning Quakers from the colony.
She is considered to be the last religious martyr in North
America.

***

The first medical school for women, The Boston Female
Medical School (which later merged with the Boston
University School of Medicine), opened in Boston on
November 1, 1848.

***

The Great Boston Fire of 1872 started on Lincoln Street on
November 9 and in two days destroyed about 65 acres of the
city, 776 buildings, much of the financial district and
caused $60 million in damage.

***

On September 1, 1897 the Boston subway opened as the first
underground metro in North America. Today it is
affectionately known as "The T" and is run by the
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

***

Boston played a key role in the American Revolutionary War.
The Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party and several of
the early battles of the revolutionary war (such as the
Battle of Lexington and Concord and the Siege of Boston)
occurred near the city. During this period, Paul Revere
made his famous ride. As a result Boston is known as the
Cradle of Liberty and historic sites remain a popular
tourist draw to this day.

 

[historylover]

RANDOM TIDBITS

The first vending machine was invented by Hero of Alexandria
around 215 BC. When a coin was dropped into a slot, its
weight would pull a cork out of a spigot and the machine
would dispense a trickle of water.

***

The very first projection of an image on a screen was made
by a German priest. In 1646, Athanasius Kircher used a
candle or oil lamp to project hand-painted images onto a
white screen.

***

Music was sent down a telephone line for the first time in
1876, the year the phone was invented.

***

One hour before Alexander Graham Bell registered his patent
for the telephone in 1876, Elisha Gray patented his design.
After years of litigation, the patent went to Bell.

***

During the 1860s, George Leclanche developed the dry-cell
battery, the basis for modern batteries.

***

The first electronic mail, or "email", was sent in 1972 by
Ray Tomlinson. It was also his idea to use the @ sign to
separate the name of the user from the name of the computer.

 

[historylover]

It is a measure of his willingness to put the nation first that he has removed himself as a candidate for the cabinet - BARACK OBAMA, after New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson stepped down as the President-elect's nominee for secretary of commerce due to a federal investigation into campaign donors

RANDOM TIDBITS

4,000 years ago the first shoes were made of a single piece
of rawhide that enveloped the foot for both warmth and
protection.

***

In the Middle East heels were added to shoes to lift the
foot from the burning sand. In Europe in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries heels on shoes were always colored
red.

***

Shoes all over the world were identical until the nineteenth
century, when left- and right-footed shoes were first made
in Philadelphia.

***

Six-inch-high heels were worn by the upper classes in
seventeenth-century Europe. Two servants, one on either
side, were needed to hold up the person wearing the high
heels.

***

Boots were first worn in cold, mountainous regions and hot,
sandy deserts where horse-riding communities lived. Heels
on boots kept feet secure in the stirrups.

***

The first lady's boot was designed for Queen Victoria in
1840.

 

[historylover]

The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook - William James


RANDOM TIDBITS - Sneakers

In the late 18th century, people wore rubber soled shoes
called plimsolls. Around 1892, the U.S. Rubber Company came
up with more comfortable rubber sneakers with canvas tops,
called Keds.

***

Sneakers earned their nickname because they were so quiet,
a person wearing them could sneak up on someone.

***

In 1924, a German man named Adi Dassler created a sneaker
that he named after himself: Adidas. This brand became the
most popular athletic shoe in the world.

***

In the 1950s, kids began wearing sneakers as fashion
statements. Even more teens followed the fad after seeing
James Dean in sneakers in the popular movie Rebel Without
a Cause.

***

In 1984, Michael Jordan signed a contract to wear a Nike
shoe called Air Jordans—the most famous sneaker ever made.
Even after Jordan retired from the NBA, his shoes continued
to be best sellers.

***

New sneaker technologies increase performance. Nike’s Air
Force used little pockets of gas to create better cushioning,
while Reebok introduced The Pump—air pumped into shoes to
make them fit more snugly

 

[historylover]

Streaming video from the Internet and other means of direct digital delivery are going to put optical formats out of business entirely over the next few years - ROGER KAY, U.S consultant, predicting that the increasing availability of HD movies and TV programs online will make DVD and Blu-ray video discs obsolete.


RANDOM TIDBITS

China is the largest country with only one time zone (it
should span five). That would be like New York, Chicago,
Denver, and Los Angeles all being in the same time zone.
India is the second largest country with only one.

***

Russia adheres to its standard time zones except the entire
country is on permanent daylight saving time and so is an
hour ahead of their actual zones.

***

Australia uses three time zones; the eastern and western
zones adhere to their assigned time, but the central zone
is a half-hour ahead. In the Middle East and South Asia,
several countries also use half-hour time zones.

***

In South Asia, if you follow a straight line west along the
27º latitude you will move back and forth across time zones:
from Pakistan UTC +5 hours, India +5:30, Nepal +5:45, India
(Sikkim) +5:30, China +8, Bhutan +6, India (Arunachal
Pradesh) +5:30, Myanmar +6:30.

***

Russia has the most time zones (11), followed by the U.S.
with nine (six for states and three for territories), and
Canada with six.

***

You can actually be in three time zones at the same time,
at the spot where the borders of Norway/Finland, Norway/
Russia, and Russia/Finland meet.



 

[historylover]

Out of every 100 persons added to the population in the coming decade, 97 will live in developing countries." Hania Zlotnik, 2005


RANDOM TIDBITS - Origin of Athlete Nicknames

Thomas “Pepper” Johnson - This New York Giants football
player received his nickname from his grandmother. He loved
pepper so much, he put it on everything he ate.

***

Sonny “The Drummer Boy” Liston - As a boxer, Sonny beat his
opponents the same way a drummer beats a bongo.

***

Willie “The Say Hey Kid” Mays - Willie Mays was one of the
most famous baseball players of all time. As a rookie, he
would often shout “Say hey over there” to people whose names
he did not know.

***

George Herman “Babe” Ruth - The New York Yankees' Babe Ruth
is one of baseball's all-time legends. As a young boy, he
wanted to play baseball with the older neighborhood
children. When they wouldn't let him, he'd cry, and was
called a baby.

***

Eldrick“Tiger” Woods - This golf star is named after one of
his father's friends, who was a soldier in Vietnam.

***

Willie “Mookie” Wilson - His family gave this baseball
player his name because of the funny way he said “milk”
when he was a child.

 

[historylover]

These numbers, back-to-back, of more than a half-million a month suggest that the U.S. economy is in a freefall - NARIMAN BEHRAVESH, chief economist at IHS Global Insight, after unemployment rates hit 7.2% — a 16-year high


RANDOM TIDBITS

Odor Tester - Some chemist has to make sure that all of
those deodorants and anti-perspirants are operating properly
to keep their users free of funk!

***

Citrus Fruit Dyer - There are commercial farmers out there
who dye citrus fruit a more vibrant color to hide the ripe-
ness of the fruit.

***

IMAX Screen Cleaner - Someone has to make sure that huge
screen is crystal clear for our viewing pleasure.

***

Light Bender - Making neon lights seems like it would be a
relatively easy job, but it requires a lot of precision and
electrical work. If the lights don't have the proper thick-
ness and shaping, they will amount to nothing more than
broken glass.

***

Weed Farmer - Weed farmers actually grow weeds rather than
trying to get rid of them. They sell them to horticulture
schools and labs so various people can do research and
studies on them.

***

Cow Hoof Trimmer - Just like horseshoes, cows need some
hoof maintenance too. Cows can have poor milk production,
lameness, and decreased fertility if not properly groomed.

 

[historylover]

RANDOM TIDBITS - How food dishes got their names


Beef Wellington - A national hero for defeating Napoleon
at Waterloo in 1815, Arthur Wellesley was made the first
Duke of Wellington. He loved a dish of beef, mushrooms,
truffles, Madeira wine, and pate cooked in pastry, which
has been named in his honor.

***

Peach Melba - Chef Auguste Escoffier created a dessert of
poached peach halves, vanilla ice cream, and raspberry
sauce in honor of Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba.
A Frenchman, Escoffier worked at the Ritz Hotel in London
in the early 1900s, the period when Melba performed
regularly at the Covent Garden opera house. Escoffier also
created Melba toast in her honor.

***

Waldorf Salad - In 1896, Oscar Tschirky, the maitre d'hotel
of the famed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, created
a salad of apples, celery, and mayonnaise. Immediately
popular, the new dish was called Waldorf Salad. Chopped
walnuts later became an ingredient.

***

Chicken Marengo - On June 14, 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte
defeated the Austro-Hungarian army at the village of
Marengo, in northern Italy. After a ferocious battle, the
victorious French were ravenous. Chicken Marengo was made
from whatever ingredients they were able to take from the
village.


***

Caesar Salad - In the 1920s, Caesar Cardini, owner of an
Italian restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico, and his brother,
Alex, invented a salad of romaine lettuce, anchovies,
coddled egg, lemon juice, grated Parmesan cheese, and
garlic-flavored croutons tossed with a garlic vinaigrette
flavored with Worcestershire sauce. At first it was called
Aviator's Salad, but later Cardini named the dish after
himself.

***

Beef Stroganoff - A combination of beef, mushrooms, and
sour cream, Beef Stroganoff was the prize-winning recipe
created for a cooking competition held in the 1890s in St.
Petersburg, Russia. The chef who devised the recipe worked
for the Russian diplomat Count Pavel Alexandrovich
Stroganov, a member of one of Russia's grandest noble
families.

 

[historylover]

America cannot solve the most pressing problems on our own, and the world cannot solve them without America - HILLARY CLINTON, Secretary of State–designate, in remarks at her Senate confirmation hearings on the need for strong U.S. partnerships around the globe




RANDOM TIDBITS - Figure Control

The iron corset was devised in 1579 and was worn by women
for about 10 years. The first modern corset was made in
Britain in the 1700s. A short and light corset was made in
America in 1911 for women to have the freedom of movement
to dance the tango.

***

Statues dating from 2500 BC have been found on the Greek
island of Crete that show women wearing bra-like corsets
that lifted their breasts out of their clothing. It was
called a mastoeides (“shaped like a breast”).

***

American Marie Tucek patented the first bra, which she
called a "breast supporter," in 1893. It had two supportive
cups and shoulder straps. In 1913, New Yorker Marie Phelps
Jacob fashioned a flattening bra from two handkerchiefs and
some ribbon. The following year she patented her invention.

***

In the 1920s, a Russian immigrant named Ida Rosenthal
founded the Maidenform lingerie company with her husband
William. They made bras for women of every size and
introduced the cup system (A, B, C, D).

***

Strapless bras were introduced in 1938. They were popularized
in the 1950s. The sweater girl bra was made in the 1950s. Its
cups were shaped to points and looked a lot like cones.

***

Today, the average American woman owns six bras. White is
the best-selling color for bras.

 

[gunslingingbird]

Beef Stroganoff - A combination of beef, mushrooms, and
sour cream, Beef Stroganoff was the prize-winning recipe
created for a cooking competition held in the 1890s in St.
Petersburg, Russia. The chef who devised the recipe worked
for the Russian diplomat Count Pavel Alexandrovich
Stroganov, a member of one of Russia's grandest noble
families.

What do you call a bull masturbating? Beef Stroganoff! :rofl: