Trivia you've recently learned

[H3LL]

I think this falls well within learning trivia from the JREF.

1234567.89

1 234 567.89

1,234,567.89

1.234.567,89

1'234'567.89

1'234'567,89

123,4567.89

are some of the various ways numbers are written around the world.

Just so you know.

News at eleven ......



.

[kookbreaker]

Originally Posted by MG1962

No - Marooned premiered on Nov 10th 1969

Apollo 13 mission was April 11 - 17th 1970

Marooned would have been well out of the theaters by then - It was a really bad film... I mean really bad

I dunno, remember that in those days there were such things as 2nd and3rd run theaters - in the days before the VCR, and before huge numbers of movies were being released every week - movies could remain in theaters for months. Remember they used to mention 'in first run theaters now!' in the ads.

But even it they were in the 3rd run theaters, its a bit weak to say the movie and the 13 events coincided.

[Tim Harrod]

And if you'd like to watch Marooned, it was renamed "Space Travelers" for home video release, under which title it was lampooned by "Mystery Science Theater 3000." It's one of the better films MST3K has tackled, with name actors like Gene Hackman and Gregory Peck, and its Oscar for visual effects makes it the only MST3K film to win any Oscar.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...33921719333172

[Tim Harrod]

My trivia: Absolutely pure water, hydrogen and oxygen with no trace minerals, tastes terrible and is bad for you.

[lionking]

I've shared the "water is blue" piece of trivia with several people today. Fascinating.

[Modified]

Originally Posted by Tim Harrod

My trivia: Absolutely pure water, hydrogen and oxygen with no trace minerals, tastes terrible and is bad for you.

No it doesn't, and no it isn't.

[Tim Harrod]

Originally Posted by Modified

No it doesn't, and no it isn't.

Crap. I fell for something? I hate realizing that.

Seem to love falling for it though. There's the problem. Someone should start some kind of foundation...

Seriously, though, is this a common rumor or did I at least hit on a new one?

[MG1962]

Originally Posted by H3LL

I think this falls well within learning trivia from the JREF.

1234567.89

1 234 567.89

1,234,567.89

1.234.567,89

1'234'567.89

1'234'567,89

123,4567.89

are some of the various ways numbers are written around the world.

Just so you know.

News at eleven ......



.

I'd be really impressed if you did that in Roman numerals lol

[Marduk]

Originally Posted by Tim Harrod

Seriously, though, is this a common rumor or did I at least hit on a new one?

I think its a new one, everyone else calls it distilled water
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distill...ealth_concerns

[Modified]

Originally Posted by Tim Harrod

Crap. I fell for something? I hate realizing that.

You never tasted distilled water? It certainly doesn't taste "bad" - that would be like saying pure air "smells bad".

And pure water certainly isn't "bad for you". It may lack minerals that some well and tap water has, but it isn't in any way harmful, and it also lacks plenty of bad stuff that may be in well and tap water.

[Foolmewunz]

How's about settling a trivia argument with a new bit of trivia. Marooned.

MaGZ is quite likely correct. As is everyone else. The film was released in November(Premier) and December (First run) of 1969. By having its general release before the end of the year, it qualified for the 1969 Academy Awards and got a few lesser nominations (and I think won one).

Here's the answer:
The Academy Awards were held on April 7th 1970. The studios send out all nominated films for a second run with "Nominated for 3 Academy Awards" promotions. Ergo, Marooned was quite likely in a re-release in first run theaters during the week of Apollo 13.

@Kookbreaker. Marooned would've opened in the "Palaces" - the big downtown theaters with two or three thousand seats, and would've closed within two or three weeks. Second run would've been another couple of weeks, after which it would've gone to the big city "neighborhood" theaters and out to the boonies. By the end of January, it would've been shipped back to the distributor, holding on for Drive-In releases for the summer months, as it was the kind of tedious crap that Drive-Ins loved. I don't know when the nominations were that year, but probably sometime in February. At that point the studio/distributor would've jumped up the "Nominated" advertising and while it was nothing compared to the big name nominees that year, there would've been an audience and some of the chains would've definitely booked it.

So, .... everyone's right in the details they were providing or surmising, but no one knew why. I'm good. C'mon, admit it!

[BazBear]

Actors James Arness and Peter Graves were brothers.

[Yuri Nalyssus]

Originally Posted by xtifr

How about this: there is no singular for the plural noun "cattle". We can refer to a single female (cow) or a single male (bull), but we have no term for a single generic member of the species.

Oh yes we do - the collective term most people would use would be 'bovine' although the language police would point out that strictly speaking 'bovine' is an adjective and the technically correct term is the noun 'bovid'. The latin name is 'Bos'.

One of the excellent pieces of trivia I learned on JREF was that the book of Genesis is based in large part by the tale of Gilgamesh.

Yuri

[Tim Harrod]

Originally Posted by Modified

You never tasted distilled water? It certainly doesn't taste "bad" - that would be like saying pure air "smells bad".

And pure water certainly isn't "bad for you". It may lack minerals that some well and tap water has, but it isn't in any way harmful, and it also lacks plenty of bad stuff that may be in well and tap water.

I hadn't considered distillation. The water I read about had been filtered eleventy times. Supposedly tasted bad and if consumed, it actually leeched trace minerals from your body. I can't find the original page that told me this earlier in the year- fair chance it's been deleted out of embarrassment by now.

[marplots]

Originally Posted by Tim Harrod

I hadn't considered distillation. The water I read about had been filtered eleventy times. Supposedly tasted bad and if consumed, it actually leeched trace minerals from your body. I can't find the original page that told me this earlier in the year- fair chance it's been deleted out of embarrassment by now.

The "leeches minerals from your body" is an interesting idea. It's true, but would be just as true for any water whatsoever, unless that water contained, in a precise ratio, all the minerals your body does -- including phosphates, lead, iron, calcium and so on. It is one of the jobs of our kidneys and tissues to prevent this by re-absorption and by stashing minerals in hard to leech areas like bone. But certainly, cholera is a good way to kill someone by depleting water and dissolved substances, and even in the none disease state, some small percentage of the water you consume arrives at the other end having captured some minerals.

Since homeostasis is the goal, "leeching minerals" is good thing if you have too many. We can combat the leeching meme with the chelating meme I guess.

[Bell]

The World Trade Center wasn't constructed with explosives in the core.

[xtifr]

Originally Posted by xtifr

How about this: there is no singular for the plural noun "cattle". We can refer to a single female (cow) or a single male (bull), but we have no term for a single generic member of the species.

Originally Posted by Yuri Nalyssus

Oh yes we do - the collective term most people would use would be 'bovine' although the language police would point out that strictly speaking 'bovine' is an adjective and the technically correct term is the noun 'bovid'. The latin name is 'Bos'.

"Bovid" is much broader. It covers sheep and goats as well as individuals of the cattle family. You're right about "bovine", but that's a fairly recent back-formation from the adjective. It's also not exactly common--but I admit I didn't say anything about commonness.

What might be more accurate is to say that we have no traditional name for single generic members of the species, despite the fact that "cow" and "bull" come from Old English, and "cattle" from Middle English via French. Furthermore, the words "cow" and "bull" also work as sex-specifiers for many other species that do have names, e.g. "bull moose" or "hippopotamus cow". It's only when you drop the associated species name that the words refer to male or female cattle. It's almost like they're still modifying a word that isn't there: the zero-syllable name for the generic individual.

[Yuri Nalyssus]

Originally Posted by xtifr

"Bovid" is much broader. It covers sheep and goats as well as individuals of the cattle family.

Well actually sheep are ovid/ovine and goats are caprid/caprine.

Bovine comes from the latin so as words go it's got quite a bit of provenance though certainly it's not used in everyday speech, tends to be a bit of a technical term.

'Ox' on the other hand would seem to fulfill the requirements

Yuri

[Pulvinar]

Originally Posted by xtifr

How about this: there is no singular for the plural noun "cattle". We can refer to a single female (cow) or a single male (bull), but we have no term for a single generic member of the species.

"Head of cattle" is the rancher's term.

[Yuri Nalyssus]

Originally Posted by Pulvinar

"Head of cattle" is the rancher's term.

That's not really singular though - you wouldn't describe an individual cow as a 'head of cattle'.

Yuri

[Wretched1]

Researching Baked Beans (don’t ask), found out about the Great Molasses Flood of 1919.

Can't post link yet.

[kbm99]

Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, and savoy are all the same species: Brassica oleracea.

[Foolmewunz]

Originally Posted by Wretched1

Researching Baked Beans (don’t ask), found out about the Great Molasses Flood of 1919.

Can't post link yet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Molasses_Disaster

I'm the Vito Corleone of the forums. I have been known to perform favors for those in need and do not necessarily expect immediate recompense. There may come a time, however, when either I or one of my family may ask a favor of you in return, as a friend will ask of a friend.

[Marduk]

Originally Posted by Yuri Nalyssus

One of the excellent pieces of trivia I learned on JREF was that the book of Genesis is based in large part by the tale of Gilgamesh.

Yuri

lol, you didn't get that from me

[godless dave]

Originally Posted by JerryGarcia

"Super Dave" Osborne and Albert Brooks are brothers.

Whoa.

[godless dave]

Originally Posted by Tim Harrod

My trivia: Absolutely pure water, hydrogen and oxygen with no trace minerals, tastes terrible and is bad for you.

The Ontario Science Centre has (or had) a drinking fountain that dispensed pure H2O. It was tasteless and harmless.

I mean absolutely tasteless, unlike tap or bottled water.

[xtifr]

Originally Posted by Yuri Nalyssus

Well actually sheep are ovid/ovine and goats are caprid/caprine.

Bovine comes from the latin so as words go it's got quite a bit of provenance though certainly it's not used in everyday speech, tends to be a bit of a technical term.

'Ox' on the other hand would seem to fulfill the requirements

Bovid refers to Bovidae, which includes sheep and goats: see http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Bovid?p

Bovine refers to Bos, which is more-or-less what we're looking for, but doesn't really qualify for the reasons I mentioned earlier. It's more of a technical term than a name. Like referring to a cat as a feline.

Ox already has its own plural (oxen), so I don't think it can reasonably be called the singular of cattle. Anyway, its primary meaning is an adult male of the species used as a draft animal.

I think the interesting thing is that for centuries we've never really felt the lack of a singular generic form of the word cattle. The distinction between cows and bulls is important enough that the matter almost never comes up in common parlance.

[Beelzebuddy]

Originally Posted by truethat

Ha that reminds me of this one, that I didn't learn on here but seems like many people don't know.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/locktab.asp


http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/graphics/locktab2.jpg

Oh. My. Happenstance.

You done just changed my whole worldview, stranger.

[Lucian]

Originally Posted by xtifr

How about this: there is no singular for the plural noun "cattle". We can refer to a single female (cow) or a single male (bull), but we have no term for a single generic member of the species.

"Cattle" originally meant "property," so it could be considered singular, though it's a collective noun. Middle English "catel" came from Old French "c(h)atel." It goes back to Latin "capitalis," head, principal. Originally "cattle" was the same word as "chattel," and it is distantly related to "capital."

Old English "feoh," from which we get "fee," also meant both cattle and property or goods.

[Wretched1]

Originally Posted by Foolmewunz

I'm the Vito Corleone of the forums. I have been known to perform favors for those in need and do not necessarily expect immediate recompense. There may come a time, however, when either I or one of my family may ask a favor of you in return, as a friend will ask of a friend.

Now it is thrice! I am in your debt.

[Yuri Nalyssus]

Originally Posted by xtifr

Bovid refers to Bovidae, which includes sheep and goats: see http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Bovid?p.

... ahem...

One of the most interesting pieces of trivia I've learned in JREF is that Bovid refers to Bovidae, which includes sheep and goats - http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dic.../english/bovid



Wait til I get my hands on my "language police" friend...

Yuri

[Yuri Nalyssus]

Originally Posted by Marduk

lol, you didn't get that from me

Mum's the word!

Yuri

[Jeff Corey]

Originally Posted by xtifr

I haven't looked at the video, but I already know how to count up to 31 with one hand, and over a thousand with both. It's a simple technique I use fairly regularly.

(Hint: it's related to the solution to the Tower of Hanoi puzzle, and it's the reason computer programmers use "four" as an insult.)

Years ago, my daughter reported that a teacher called her class stupid for having trouble learning binary, so I taught her that trick. I told her the four thing for people who called her stupid.
By over a thousand, you mean 1023.

[catsmate1]

Jamie Hyneman has a degree in Russian literature.

[I am Bigfoot]

That Lyndon Johnson called his penis "Jumbo" and would take it out and shake it at people to either impress or intimidate them (with its size and the sheer awkwardness of the situation).

[fleabeetle]

Lovely one which recently came my way: the international nautical mile is the same as the old Genoese land mile. This came about, thanks to the big part played by the people of Genoa, in ocean-based trade and exploration some centuries ago.

[Manger Douse]

Gary Numan is two weeks older that Gary Oldman

[arthwollipot]

Originally Posted by fleabeetle

Lovely one which recently came my way: the international nautical mile is the same as the old Genoese land mile. This came about, thanks to the big part played by the people of Genoa, in ocean-based trade and exploration some centuries ago.

Did you know that the nautical mile is the distance subtended by an angle of one minute of arc at the earth's centre?

[Marduk]

Originally Posted by fleabeetle

Lovely one which recently came my way: the international nautical mile is the same as the old Genoese land mile. This came about, thanks to the big part played by the people of Genoa, in ocean-based trade and exploration some centuries ago.

is this something that turned up in an email
cos its wrong
as arthwollipot said a nautical mile is derived from the distance subtended by an angle of one minute of arc at the earth's centre, the specific distance used today originated in 1929
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical_mile#History

[fleabeetle]

Originally Posted by fleabeetle

Lovely one which recently came my way: the international nautical mile is the same as the old Genoese land mile. This came about, thanks to the big part played by the people of Genoa, in ocean-based trade and exploration some centuries ago.

Originally Posted by Marduk

is this something that turned up in an email
cos its wrong
as arthwollipot said a nautical mile is derived from the distance subtended by an angle of one minute of arc at the earth's centre, the specific distance used today originated in 1929
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical_mile#History

I didn't get it from an e-mail: my source for misinformed tripe is, whatever else, pre-Internet -- this "factoid" comes from the book "Railway Holiday in Italy" by P.M. Kalla-Bishop, published 1967.

I'm very ready to bow to the more scientific explanation, as against the "fuzzy-poetical" one. Would try to take the matter up with the book's author; except that he is probably now dead -- if still alive, he'll be in his nineties, most likely with his marbles totally gone.