Completely useless trivia

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Walter Werzowa, composer of the 'Intel Pentium sound' jingle, was a member of novelty European one-hit-wonders Edelweiss who's ABBA sampling, disco / yodeling crossover single 'Bring Me Edelweiss' spent a large part of 1989 in the UK Top 40. He also did the soundtrack to Mimic 2.



Any completely useless trivia to share?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 134
    Please dont remind me



    Its amazing what people will dance too after emptying their wallets at the bar
  • Reply 2 of 134
    Polar Bear fur isn't white, it's actually clear.



    Refraction of sunlight in the transparent follicle diffracts underlying skin out as white

    but the fur itself has no colour.
  • Reply 3 of 134
    chu_bakkachu_bakka Posts: 1,793member
    Your eyeballs don't grow. They're as big as they're going to get at birth.
  • Reply 4 of 134
    Quote:

    Originally posted by curiousuburb

    Polar Bear fur isn't white, it's actually clear.



    Refraction of sunlight in the transparent follicle diffracts underlying skin out as white

    but the fur itself has no colour.




    polar bears don't show up on infared photography because they give off no heat.

    underneath the fur they are black.
  • Reply 5 of 134
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Vitamins were first identified (as Vital Amines) by a gentleman name of Kashmir Funk.
  • Reply 6 of 134
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by chu_bakka

    Your eyeballs don't grow. They're as big as they're going to get at birth.





    The size of a child's head is about the same as an adult's.







    edit to add



    That's actually useful.
  • Reply 7 of 134
    chu_bakkachu_bakka Posts: 1,793member
    And a disturbing fact to expecting mothers everywhere.



    ouch!
  • Reply 8 of 134
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Scott

    The size of a child's head is about the same as an adult's.







    edit to add



    That's actually useful.




    Uh oh... you have a plan for children's heads?
  • Reply 9 of 134
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Caramel is not created using the caramelization reaction. It's produced with the Mailliard reaction.
  • Reply 10 of 134
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    In Colorado and other rocky mountain states, there are often a lot of large, rounded and polished rocks stuck halfway in the ground on mountain paths. Some of the people there call them "baby heads" because they look like babies' heads stuck halfway in the ground.
  • Reply 11 of 134
    fangornfangorn Posts: 323member
    Aragorn and Arwen are actually related. Aragorn is descended from Elros, the brother of Elrond. Not only were Elrond and Elros "half-elven," they were also part Maia (what Gandalf really is).



    Hey, you said completely useless trivia.



    AND I think this pretty much marks me as a geek.



    Two threads in one and after not posting for what, three months? Heh! Heh! Heh!
  • Reply 12 of 134
    andersanders Posts: 6,523member
    If you only eat red food and orange juice you have a 5% chance of celebrating your 100th birthday. But you have to do it in every life up until your 86th rebirth and the orange juice must be eaten with sticks.
  • Reply 13 of 134
    aquafireaquafire Posts: 2,758member
    " Vulcanised" rubber was not invented by Spock.
  • Reply 14 of 134
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Fangorn



    AND I think this pretty much marks me as a geek.





    Your screenname already does that job. The fact that I recognize this marks me as a geek.
  • Reply 15 of 134
    johnrpjohnrp Posts: 357member
    Stolen from Luca Rescigno's post over in digital hub.

    Topic: McDonalds to give away 1 billion iTunes songs





    Quote:

    America: A billion = 1,000 million, 10^9

    Britain: A billion = A million million, 10^12



    No one defines a billion as 100 million, not even Canadians. Although I learned that the British call a thousand million (10^9) a "milliar



    j. (thanks Luca )
  • Reply 16 of 134
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by johnrp

    Stolen from Luca Rescigno's post over in digital hub.

    Topic: McDonalds to give away 1 billion iTunes songs



    Quote:

    America: A billion = 1,000 million, 10^9

    Britain: A billion = A million million, 10^12



    No one defines a billion as 100 million, not even Canadians. Although I learned that the British call a thousand million (10^9) a "milliard."





    j. (thanks Luca )



    Any time.



    Also, a trillion is defined in the US as a thousand billion (10^12) whereas in some other countries it's a million billion (10^18 ).



    Another one, this time Apple-related (so probably more than a few people know it):



    When the PowerMac 7100 was in development, it was code-named "Carl Sagan" for the "billions and billions" of dollars it would make (yeah, wishful thinking on the development team's part, but they were just having fun). Carl caught wind of this and sued, so Apple gladly changed the name to "BHA," or "Butt-head Astronomer." This didn't go over too well either, so it was changed again to "LAW," or "Lawyers Are Wimps." Why Carl Sagan was suing over an internal code-name that never would have seen the light of day until years later is beyond me.



    EDIT: I just double-checked this and apparently Sagan was irritated with their use of his name as a code-name, but he didn't sue until they changed the name to "BHA." LAW was adopted after that.



    Another code-name related one: When Newton OS 2.0 was under development, it was code-named Newton OS 3.0 to confuse rumor-mongers. In fact, Apple often uses confusing ones like this, or other tactics like fake code names, different ones given to different people, reusing old ones, and the like to find leaks.
  • Reply 17 of 134
    aquafireaquafire Posts: 2,758member
    Steve WOZ was responsible for " Woodstock "
  • Reply 18 of 134
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    Armadillos can get leprosy.



    Now THAT is useless.
  • Reply 19 of 134
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Aquafire

    Steve WOZ was responsible for " Woodstock "



    no he was responsible for the us festival. joel rosenman & john roberts did woodstock. woz was 18 when woodstock happened.
  • Reply 20 of 134
    mike nesmith's (the guy who wore the stocking cap in the monkees) mother invented white-out.
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