Trivia and useless knowledge

[Moshe]

The world "testify" had a more dire consequence in ancient Rome.  A man was actually swearing upon his testicles, and the punishment for perjury was removal of the organ.

[Huaco Kid]

11 hours ago, geeorge said:

But how many does Oprah personally eat?

She gets all the brown ones from Van Halen.

[Citra47]

8 hours ago, Paul53 said:

and this proves officers get more action!

and, a super heavy trigger. ?

[Citra47]

On ‎1‎/‎25‎/‎2019 at 3:24 PM, Steelharp said:

The phrase "... try and..." is grammatically incorrect. "... try to..." is correct.

But the phrase "who gives a ****" seems to be correct too.

[Maccabeus]

5 hours ago, Moshe said:

The world "testify" had a more dire consequence in ancient Rome.  A man was actually swearing upon his testicles, and the punishment for perjury was removal of the organ.

This is often repeated and the two English words do derive from the same Latin root; however...

There is no primary source evidence I'm aware of (or anybody else, it seems) in any Latin writings, despite many references (and some descriptions) of oaths being made.

This etymological assumption is unfounded and should be rejected as an argument from silence.

But, to maintain the spirit of the thread, here's a replacement Roman/Latin bit of trivia. Behold, The Rotas Magic Square:

 

[Dric902]

97.6% of the statistics cited on the internet are made up on the spot

- Thomas Jefferson 

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[NPTim]

6 hours ago, PNWguy said:

M&Ms actually don't have "M&M" printed on them.  Only "M"...

It’s my lie, I’ll tell it the way I want. ? ?

[Paul53]

Until the civil war, surgeons paid little attention to cleanliness. A surgeon named Dr Lister, washed his hands between patients. It was noticed that his patients had a much higher survival rate, and the push for cleanliness began. A common everyday product is named after the good doctor. Listerine mouthwash.

[Paul53]

General Santa Ana, the Mexican commander who took the Alamo away from The Great Republic of Texan, habitually chewed the sap of a pine tree, chicle. But that's not his only contribution to history. In short, he became Presidente of Mexico, was overthrown, and with the help of US Intelligence agents, moved to New York City. He befriended a gentleman who wanted to introduce chewing gum to the world, but the product needed some help. When combined with Santa Ana's chicle, the gum last much longer and was shortly marketed as "Chiclets."

Edited January 27, 2019 by Paul53

[Borg warner]

23 hours ago, TechPyle said:

Florida has the lowest, highest point of any United States, State.

You are factually correct but your wording is wrong,  Florida has the lowest high elevation of any state.  Britton Hill, in the Florida Panhandle, is the highest elevation in Florida, at 345 feet above sea level. It's the lowest high point (Not the lowest, highest point) of all the state high points. Britton Hill is located in Walton County, about 1/2 mile south of the Alabama border and about 68 miles northeast of Pensacola.

At one time, California had both the lowest AND highest elevations of any state until Alaska was admitted to the union in 1959. Mount Whitney has an elevation of 14,505 feet and Death Valley at 282 feet below sea level is still the lowest point in the US and is only 84.6 miles away from the summit of Mount Whitney, But Mount McKinley in Alaska is 20,310 feet and is now the highest elevation in the United States.

Edited January 28, 2019 by Borg warner

[Valmet]

The automated prop that was Jaws was named “Bruce,” after S Spielberg’s attorney. 

[SC Tiger]

16 hours ago, Paul53 said:

Until the civil war, surgeons paid little attention to cleanliness. A surgeon named Dr Lister, washed his hands between patients. It was noticed that his patients had a much higher survival rate, and the push for cleanliness began. A common everyday product is named after the good doctor. Listerine mouthwash.

Supposedly, before the concept of germs was understood, surgeons were judged by how much blood was on their surgical gown.  More blood meant more experience.

The 'best' surgeons had gowns that would almost stand up on their own.

[PNWguy]

23 hours ago, Borg warner said:

You are factually correct but your wording is wrong,  Florida has the lowest high elevation of any state.  Britton Hill, in the Florida Panhandle, is the highest elevation in Florida, at 345 feet above sea level. It's the lowest high point (Not the lowest, highest point) of all the state high points. Britton Hill is located in Walton County, about 1/2 mile south of the Alabama border and about 68 miles northeast of Pensacola.

At one time, California had both the lowest AND highest elevations of any state until Alaska was admitted to the union in 1959. Mount Whitney has an elevation of 14,505 feet and Death Valley at 282 feet below sea level is still the lowest point in the US and is only 84.6 miles away from the summit of Mount Whitney, But Mount McKinley in Alaska is 20,310 feet and is now the highest elevation in the United States.

Actually...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_elevation

 California contains the Badwater Basin in Death Valley, at 279 feet (85 m) below sea level, the lowest point in the United States;^[2] while Florida has the lowest high point, and Delaware has the lowest mean elevation. Florida is also the flattest state, with the smallest difference between its highest and lowest points.

[Dric902]

[Dric902]

[Dric902]

These are Not tanks

[Borg warner]

1 hour ago, PNWguy said:

Actually...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_elevation

 California contains the Badwater Basin in Death Valley, at 279 feet (85 m) below sea level, the lowest point in the United States;^[2] while Florida has the lowest high point, and Delaware has the lowest mean elevation. Florida is also the flattest state, with the smallest difference between its highest and lowest points.

You forgot to mention that while Florida has the lowest high point of any state, Colorado has the highest low point of any state. And while Delaware has the lowest mean elevation of any state, Colorado has the highest.

[Borg warner]

5 minutes ago, Dric902 said:

These are Not tanks

Tanks but no tanks.

[Brown Hawk]

15 minutes ago, Borg warner said:

Tanks but no tanks.

Self propelled arilllery.  

Hawk

[Dric902]

[janice6]

38 minutes ago, Dric902 said:

These are Not tanks

South Korean army K-55 self-propelled artillery vehicles during a military exercise on Sunday (AP)

[gwalchmai]

Both the Navy and the Air Force flew the F-4, but only the Air Force had F-4 pilots.

[Borg warner]

And then there was the dyslexic agnostic who wasn't sure if there really was a dog.

[Dric902]

Would it surprise you to know that the timeshare exit companies are owned and subsidiaries of the timeshare companies?

 

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[SC Tiger]

1 hour ago, Dric902 said:

Would it surprise you to know that the timeshare exit companies are owned and subsidiaries of the timeshare companies?

 

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That I didn't know.  I figured it was the same bunch that fixes your credit by either calling everything fraud or changing your social security number.

 

Brother in law got caught up in that timeshare scam with Wyndham - or actually his dumbass ex wife got them into it.  Now he pays $300/month or so and has "points" he can use at any Wyndham location.  It's a real burden on him financially.

The other problem is booking the locations.  They fill up and if you take the number of points-having people, multiply it x 4, you have a lot more than the number of available "slots".  And lots of them are at places in the middle of nowhere or that he has no interest in.

I told him he should just stop paying and tell them to go **** themselves.  Good credit is valuable but only to a point.  Or find one of those timeshare exit companies.

On the good side - we bought points from him one year to go to Myrtle Beach.  It was a nice place.  But you gotta book in like January for July/August timeframe.