HILLMAN WEB TRIVIA ZINE

Volume 1
A Fun Site created by
Professor William Hillman culled from a daily motivational series
compiled for his BU Education Classes 2000-2009
The daily tech news items have been omitted since many of the stories are now "old news."

An eclectic collection of oddities, humorous anecdotes, weird photos, funny headlines, cartoons, puzzles, inspirational items, jokes, and more. . .  gathered here as a reference repository for speakers, lecturers, teachers, students, writers, or Web travellers just looking for diversion and a bit of levity. 
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COLLAGE ARCHIVE: Click for full size

See the full Archive Webpage at:
www.hillmanweb.com/archive/rare/01.html




Your BU Workstation
Your Intrepid Prof

Ten signs you have a lousy class
By Todd Pettigrew ~ Macleans 2010
A good class isn't just about who teaches it.
 Recently our friends over at US News and World Report posted a list of the Ten Warning Signs of A Bad Professor. So in the spirit of turnabout and fair play and all that, I offer the following modest addendum.

Ten Warning Signs of a Bad Class

1. They don’t read. Now, I must confess that when I was an undergraduate, I did not read every single thing that was assigned. But I read most of it, and I always made sure I read enough to know what I was talking about on the exam and to make an informed comment once in a while in class. But first-year students, especially, really seem to hate reading. Once, on the first day of class, a first-year student of mine looked at the syllabus and noticed that they would have to read a novel for the third week of the semester. “But,” she cried aghast, “I can’t read a whole book!”

2. They don’t ask questions. I don’t think I’m a particularly scary fellow: I don’t yell at students; I make jokes now and again. But for some reasons, many students hate to ask questions. Whenever I talk about citation style, for instance, I always stop to see if there are questions — because it can be tricky (plus, it gets me out of the bad books of US News and World Report). No one asks questions. But they must have questions because when it comes time to use the citation styles in their papers, they don’t do it. If they didn’t get it when I explained it (and put it on the web), why didn’t they ask?

3. They try to hide the fact that they are texting in class behind a big book or clip board. My university does not permit the use of electronic devices in class unless specifically okayed by the instructor. Still, students try to get away with it. On the other hand, maybe I’m being too tough about this. Maybe the texts are things like, “OMG this prf is soooooo ahsum. Shake –> is cul. Malvolio and Olivia? Epic fail!”  Yeah. That must be it.

4. They don’t hand anything in. I’ve often wondered why students enroll in a course and then hand in no assignments at all. Or do only the first one and ignore the others. Maybe they get overwhelmed by all the work of university and sort of shut down. I can see that. But then, why not drop the course?

5. They are studying for another class in your class. Admittedly, there is something admirable about a student who is working so hard she doesn’t have time to study one thing at a time. But how can she be getting anything out of my class when she is studying her psychology notes? And how the hell does she have psych notes anyway? Isn’t she reading for English during that class?

6. They don’t take notes. Then of course, there are students who don’t take notes at all. Why not? Maybe the thought that they could ever forget anything I said just doesn’t occur to them. Yeah. That’s probably it.

7. They don’t bring their books to class. It’s English. You need to have the book in front of you. Is it too heavy? No. You’re eighteen. The whole Oxford English Dictionary is not too heavy. Look beside you. See the sixty-five year old retiree sitting next to you? He has his book.

8. At review time, they show no signs of having been in the class at all. The strangest experience I ever had in class was during a review period. I gave them a quotation from Donne’s “Valediction Forbidding Mourning” and asked the class to identify it. No one could. Well, okay, fair enough. Donne is tricky. But then I told them it was by Donne (we only did one poem by Donne). Blank looks all around. So I told them the name of the poem and they looked at me like I had two heads. “We did this poem,” I said. “Most of you were here. I remember. It was, like, five weeks ago.” Nothing. Didn’t even ring a big metaphysical bell.

9. They ask if you’re a hard marker. I can understand why students ask this question, but I never know how to answer it. Once, I half-jokingly replied that I was the second-hardest marker in the university. Then about half the class dropped the course. At least they didn’t stay in and not turn in any assignments. Maybe the book was too heavy.

10. They ask, “What do I have to do to pass this course? By the time a student is at the point where they have to ask this question, it’s probably too late. It’s also the question where I really have to bite my tongue.

Student says: What do I have to do to pass this course?
What I say is: Well, at this stage it’s going to be tough. Let’s look at the spreadsheet.
What I would like to say is: Have you by any chance invented a time machine?

Now before the two or three of you who read this get all upset by what a heartless instructor I am, please let me be clear: I’m not saying all students are like this. Or even most. And certainly, one bad student does not spoil the whole class. But there is a critical balance in any class and once you reach that point at which the no-book-no-assignment-no-memory students outweigh the others, the whole room gets dragged down.

So the next time you are in a bad class, consider this: what are you doing to make it better?
 


Take Your Laptop With You

Taking a trip? Don’t forget to pack your laptop. Seasoned travelers around the world are beginning to appreciate how valuable their computer can be when away from home. If planned properly, your laptop can store, inform and entertain:

Store Pictures – and videos from your digital camera/recorder when your memory card gets full. Just be sure to pack a memory card reader or the proper cable to connect your camera to your computer.

Create a Trip Diary – record the details of your vacation while still fresh in your memory; weather, sites, restaurants, activities, etc.

Store Important Information – emergency phone numbers, travel details, airline information, tourist attractions, etc.

Watch a Movie - most new laptops can play DVDs. Add one or two sets of headphones and you have all you need for a mobile cinema.

Listen to Music – familiar tunes can be soothing and relaxing. Include the kids’ favourites, too.

Play a Game - perhaps it’s raining, you feel unwell, or you’re waiting for your flight, you can enjoy favourite games like Solitaire, Minesweeper, Hearts and Pinball. Or you can buy a game that will help to kill some time (and maybe some aliens too).

Surf the Net – check the news, local conditions back home, or read e-mail. While many hotels offer internet connections, it’s a good idea to bring a wireless card so you can take advantage of hotspots if your hotel doesn’t offer this service.


Computer Tip: One Step Deletion 

Tired of the two-step process of deleting objects and then having to empty the Recycling Bin? Annoyed at having to delete unwanted e-mails, only to do it again from the Deleted Items section to be truly rid of it? Then this tip will make you smile and save you some time.

To delete items in just one step, highlight the item you want to get rid of and hit Shift + Delete. Done! But be careful, because it's really gone!


Email Scams – Stop the Madness 

News flash! Bill Gates isn’t planning to give you (or anyone else for that matter) $250 for each person you forward an email to. Fab Vacations isn’t giving away all-expense paid trips to exotic lands just because they feel like it. Finding that particular file on your computer doesn’t mean your system is compromised. And that guy trying to get his multi-million dollar savings out of that African country isn’t going to give you some of it if you help.

They’re email hoaxes – and they’re all fake!

E-mail scams and shams abound, promising money, gifts or good fortune to recipients who forward them to others. Some luck-based hoaxes, often called chain letters, play on people’s fear of bad luck. Money-based hoaxes offer incredibly quick cash for simply forwarding a message. ‘Malware’-related hoaxes give false information regarding certain malware threats. In most cases, malware-related hoaxes are warnings of fictional malware threats that create unnecessary panic. These hoaxes often prompt users into deleting integral files or performing unwanted actions on their systems.

Though you might think that participating in such pie-in-the-sky offers is perfectly harmless (“What have I got to lose?”), such participation only serves to clog-up already overtaxed resources. Plus, it gives the tech-morons who cooked up these frauds a big laugh at your expense.

You can help clean-up such unwanted e-mail server traffic by not forwarding these on, by telling whoever sends you these e-mails that you don’t want them, and by sending people this article with the following sites where they can see for themselves that the offer is a hoax:
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/inboxer.asp
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html
http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/hoaxes/default.asp


Word Oddities
Abcaree, Abchalazal, Abcoulomb, crabcake, and drabcloth
are among the only words in the English language that contain "abc" in order.
Hydroxyzine is the only word in the English language that contains "xyz."
You and ewe are pronounced the same but share no letters in common. Eye and I is another such pair. Oh and eau is yet another.
Strengths, nine letters long, is the longest word in the English language with only one vowel.
The word chincherinchee is the only English word which has one letter occurring once, two letters occurring twice, and three letters occurring three times.
Cimicic and Cimicid, each seven letters long, are the longest words that are exclusively made up of Roman Numerals.
Aegilops, eight letters long, is the longest word whose letters are arranged in alphabetical order.
Spoonfeed, nine letters long, is the longest word whose letters are arranged in reverse alphabetical order.
Io (an interjection in Chambers and one of the moons of Jupiter), Ai (the three-toed sloth), Eo, and Aa (rough volcanic rock) seem to be the shortest two-syllable words.
Of is apparently the only word in which an F is pronounced like a V.
Usher contains four personal pronouns (us, she, he, her)
The only word which can be typed using the bottom row of letters is Zzz (to indicate sleeping), which is found in at least one dictionary. There are no vowels in the bottom row.
 

THINGS TO LIVE BY

1. Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.

2. Some people are like Slinkies . . . not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.

3. I read recipes the same way I read science fiction. I get to the end and I think, "Well, that's not going to happen."

4. Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

5. The other night I ate at a real family restaurant. Every table had an argument going.

6. Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to.

7. According to a recent survey, men say the first thing they notice about a woman is their eyes, and women say the first thing they notice about men is they're a bunch of liars.

8. Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

9. All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.

10. Have you noticed that a slight tax increase costs you two hundred dollars and a substantial
tax cut saves you thirty cents?

11. In the '60s people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.

12. Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.

13. There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

14. How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire? (And I can't get anything happening in my hibachi with gasoline and a flame thrower)

15. You read about all these terrorists--most of them came here legally, but they hung around on these expired visas, some for as long as 10-15 years. Now, compare that to Blockbuster: you're two days late with a video and those people are all over you. Let's put Blockbuster in charge of immigration.


TRIVIA QUIZ

1) Basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and singer Frank Sinatra had what in common?
2) In what century does the 1979 film "Star Trek. The Motion Picture" take place?
3) What was Groucho Marx's real first name?
4) Who was the First black athlete to carry the American flag in the opening procession of the Olympics?
5) How many players are there on a men's lacrosse team?
6) What expensive fur do we get from an aquatic cat-sized rodent with orange teeth called the coypu?
7) What element is named after a state?
8) What part of the human body has the thinnest skin?
9) What temperature do honey bees maintain in their hives year-round?
10) What are the only two mammals that lay eggs rather than give birth to live offspring?

(Answers below)



VOCAL PUZZLES

Solve the puzzles by saying them out loud, over and over, faster and faster, repeating the phrase, until you "hear" the answer.
Example: LAWN SAND JEALOUS (place) Answer: Los Angeles

1. SHOCK CUSSED TOE (person)
2. SAND TACKLE LAWS (fictional character)
3. MY GULCH HOARD UN (person)
4. MOW BEAD HICK (book)
5. TALL MISCHIEF HER SUN (person)
6. CHICK HE TUB AN AN US (product)
7. THOUGH TIGHT AN HICK (thing)
8. AISLE OH VIEW (phrase)
9. TUB RAID HEAP HUNCH (TV show)
10. CARESS TROUGHER CLUMP US (person)
11. DOCKED HEARSE WHOSE (person)
12. THUMB ILL KEY WAKE OWL LICKS HE (place)
13. AGE ANT HUB BLOWS HEAVEN (fictional character)
14. THESE HOUND DOVE MOO SICK (movie)
15. BUCK SPUN HE (fictional character)
(answers below)

Extra hand needed for this course


FAMOUS LAST QUOTES

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."
~ Western Union internal memo, 1876.

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."
  ~ Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
~ Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy."
  ~ Drillers whom Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist in his project to drill for oil in 1859.

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial  value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
~ David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s

"No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris."
  ~ Orville Wright.

"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances."
    -- Dr. Lee DeForest, "Father of Radio & Grandfather of Television."

"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives."
     --Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project

"There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom."
     --Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1923

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
     -- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers ..."
     -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."
     -- The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

"But what is it good for?"
     -- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
     -- Bill Gates, 1981

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."
     --Western Union internal memo, 1876.

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
     -- David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible."
     --A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)

"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper."
     -- Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."

"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make."
     -- Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
     -- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
     -- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895..

"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this."
     -- Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads .

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy."
     -- Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."
     -- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."
    -- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre, France.

"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
    -- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899.

"The super computer is technologically impossible.. It would take all of the water that flows over Niagara Falls to cool the heat generated by the number of vacuum tubes required"
    -- Professor of Electrical Engineering, New York University

"I don't know what use any one could find for a machine that would make copies of documents. It certainly couldn't be a feasible business by itself."
    -- the head of IBM, refusing to back the idea, forcing the inventor to found Xerox.

"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction."
    -- Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon."
    -- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

And last but not least...

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
    -- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977



Automobile Acronyms

AUDI
Accelerates Under Demonic Influence
Always Unsafe Designs Implemented

BMW
Beautiful Mechanical Wonder
Big Money Works
Bought My Wife
Brutal Money Waster

BUICK
Big Ugly Indestructable Car Killer

CHEVROLET
Can Hear Every Valve Rap On Long Extended Trips
Cheap, Hardly Efficient, Virtually Runs On Luck Every Time

DODGE
Damn Old Dirty Gas Eater
Drips Oil, Drops Grease Everywhere

FIAT
Failure in Italian Automotive Technology
Fix It All the Time
Fix it again, Tony!

FORD
backwards --> Driver Returns On Foot
First On Recall Day
First On Rust and Deterioration
First On Recall Day
First On Rust and Deterioration
Fix Or Repair Daily
Found On Road, Dead
Fault Of R&D
Fast Only Rolling Downhill
Features O.J. and Ron's DNA

GM
General Maintenance

GMC
Garage Man's Companion
Got A Mechanic Coming?

HONDA
Had One Never Did Again
Happy Owners Never Drive Anything else. (I added that one.)

HYUNDAI
Hope You Understand Nothing's Driveable And Inexpensive...

MAZDA
Most Always Zipping Dangerously Along

OLDSMOBILE
Old Ladies Driving Slowly Make Others Behind Infuriatingly Late Every day.
Overpriced, Leisurely Driven Sedan Made Of Buick's Irregular Leftover Equipment

SAAB
Send Another Automobile Back
Swedish Automobiles Always Breakdown.

TOYOTA
Too Often Yankees Overprice This Auto

VOLVO
Very Odd Looking Vehicular Object

VW
Virtually Worthless

SkoolMobile

TRIVIA QUIZ ANSWERS

1) Basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and singer Frank Sinatra had what in common?
   -  They both weighed 13 pounds when born. Yikes!!!

2) In what century does the 1979 film "Star Trek. The Motion Picture" take place?
  - the twenty-third century

3) What was Groucho Marx's real first name?
   - Julius

4) Who was the First black athlete to carry the American flag in the opening procession of the Olympics?
   - Decathlon champion Rafer Johnson, in Rome in 1960

5) How many players are there on a men's lacrosse team?
   - 10. 3 defensemen, 3 midfield players, 3 attackmen, and a goalkeeper.

6) What expensive fur do we get from an aquatic cat-sized rodent with orange teeth called the coypu?
   - Nutria

7) What element is named after a state?
   - Californium, first produced in 1950 by scientists at the University of California at Berkeley.

8) What part of the human body has the thinnest skin?
   - The eyelid - it is less than 1/500 inch thick

9) What temperature do honey bees maintain in their hives year-round?
   - An even 94 Degrees F

10) What are the only two mammals that lay eggs rather than give birth to live offspring?
   - The duck-billed platypus and the spiny anteater.


VOCAL PUZZLE ANSWERS

1. Jacques Cousteau
2. Santa Claus
3. Michael Jordan
4. Moby Dick
5. Thomas Jefferson
6. Chiquita Banana
7. The Titanic
8. I love you
9. The Brady Bunch
10. Christopher Columbus
11. Doctor Seuss
12. The Milky Way Galaxy
13. Agent 007
14. The Sound of Music
15. Bugs Bunny

Pet Support


Trivia Bits Section 1

US BOX OFFICE CHAMP
John Wayne was on the Top Ten Box Office List 25 times during his career, more often than any other film star in history. Between the years 1949 and 1974, there was only one year that Wayne did not appear on the list: 1956. Four times Wayne landed in the Number 1 Box Office spot - in 1950, 1951, 1954, and 1971.


WHO INVENTED THE PINK FLAMINGO LAWN ORNAMENT?
The father of the pink flamingo (the plastic lawn ornament) was Don Featherstone of Massachusetts. Featherstone graduated from art school and went to work as a designer for Union Products, a Leominster, Massachusetts company that manufactured flat plastic lawn ornaments. He designed the pink flamingo in 1957 as a follow-up project to his plastic duck. Today, Featherstone is president and part owner of the company that sells an average of 250,000 to 500,000 plastic pink flamingos a year.


WHAT WAS THE FIRST KODAK FILM LIKE?
The film for the first Kodak camera was 2¾ inches wide, or 70 millimeters. Kodak has been manufacturing 70-millimeter film continuously since 1888.


WHAT WAS THOMAS EDISON'S FIRST MAJOR INVENTION?
Thomas Edison’s first major invention was the quadruplex telegraph. Unlike other telegraphs at the time, it could send four messages at the same time over one wire.


WHAT WAS INVENTED BY STEVE MCQUEEN?
U.S. Patent #D219,584 was issued in 1970 to veteran movie actor Steve McQueen. He was famous not only for his movies but also for racing cars and working on engines off-camera as well. A byproduct of his racing hobby was the invention of a bucket seat.


WHAT'S THE STORY BEHIND DISPOSABLE DIAPERS?
After Marion Donovan was inundated by the wild success of her invention of waterproof diaper covers in 1946, she was surprised when her prototype for disposal paper diapers was met with disinterest and ridicule. She journeyed to all the major U.S. paper companies, and was laughed at for proposing such an "unnecessary and impractical" item to replace cotton diapers. After nearly ten years of pitching her revolutionary idea, Victor Mills had the foresight to capitalize on it, and he became the creator of Pampers.


 DID YOU KNOW...

Although it took less than a decade of space travel for man to get to the moon, 19th- and 20th-century engineers needed 22 years to design the zipper.

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were not permitted to dance together in public, according to their movie contracts.

In 1765, the sandwich was invented by John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, who gave the food its name. The Earl used to order roast beef between pieces of toast for a snack while he was at the gaming tables, it allowed him to keep one hand free to play while he ate.

Should there be a crash, Prince Charles and Prince William never travel on the same airplane as a precaution.

Since 1874 the mints of the United States have been making currency for foreign governments, whose combined orders have at times exceeded the volume of domestic requirements.

The kings in a deck of cards each represent a great king from history. The king of spades is King David, the king of clubs is Alexander the Great, the king of hearts is Charlemagne, and the king of diamonds is Julius Caesar.


WHAT WAS THE FIRST SELF-RISING FLOUR INVENTED?
In 1889, Aunt Jemima pancake flour, invented at St. Joseph, Missouri, was the first self-rising flour for pancakes and the first ready-mix food ever to be introduced commercially.


WHAT VEGETABLE HAS NEGATIVE CALORIES?
Celery; it takes more calories to eat and digest a piece of celery than the celery has in it initially.


WHAT IS NUTELLA?
A hazelnut spread made with skim milk and cocoa. It is virtually unknown in America, but European children have happily smeared it on breakfast croissants for decades.


HOW MUCH CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP IS PURCHASED ANUALLY IN THE US? WHEN IS MOST OF IT PURCHASED?
About 350 million cans of chicken noodle soup of all commercial brands sold annually in the United States, 60 percent is purchased during the cold and flu season. January is the top-selling month of the year.


MARRIAGE
A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.
An ideal marriage is one in which two people love, cherish, and encourage each other through all the trouble caused by their marriage.


HOW MANY GROOVES ARE ON THE EDGE OF A QUARTER?
119.


DO CANADIANS RECEIVE MAIL ON SATURDAY?
No, Saturday mail delivery in Canada was eliminated by Canada Post on February 1, 1969.


WHAT WAS MICHELANGELO'S FULL NAME?
The prolific Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect and poet was born Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni in March of 1475.


WHAT US THE KELVIN SCALE?
The Kelvin absolute temperature scale was proposed in 1848 by physician and mathematician William Thomson based on his studies of the theory of heat and thermodynamics. The Kelvin temperature scale has as its lower limit absolute zero, a hypothetical temperature characterized by a total absence of molecular motion and heat energy, so the scale has no negative values. The Kelvin degree is the same size as the Celsius degree, and the conversion from Kelvin to Celsius is done by adding 273 degrees to the Celsius value. When using the Kelvin scale, the degree symbol is omitted and the temperature is followed by a "K". The scale derived the name Kelvin from the title Baron Kelvin of Largs, bestowed upon Thomson in 1892. The Kelvin scale is widely used by scientists, engineers, and meteorologists.


The first magnets used were natural stones called lodestones. The word "lode" means lead and so the stone was used to magnetize compass needles and lead sailors home.


WHO INTRODUCED TOBACCO INTO ENGLAND IN THE EARLY 1600S?
Sir Walter Raleigh. 

WHAT QUIRK IS AUTHOR CHARLES DICKENS KNOWN FOR?
He always aligned his bed to face north. He also made it a point to face north when he wrote.


WHO FIRST SUGGESTED THE USE OF A SWINGING PENDULUM TO RUN A CLOCK?
Galileo, the famous astronomer. 

WHO WAS THE YOUNGEST AMERICAN OFFICER TO EVER BECOME A GENERAL IN THE U.S ARMY?
George Custer. He made his rank at age twenty-three.
WHAT PERCENTAGE OF AMERICAN MALES DO NOT USE DEODORANT?

According to one U.S. study, about 25 percent of all adolescent and adult males never use deodorant. 

WHICH CELEBRITIES HAVE BECOME VICTIMS OF IDENTITY THEFT?
Celebrities whose identity has been stolen are: Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods, and Steven Spielberg.

WHAT IS COPYLEFT?
Copyleft is a method for making a program free software and requiring all modified and extended versions of the program to be free software as well. Copyleft says that anyone who redistributes the software, with or without changes, must pass along the freedom to further copy and change it, and guarantees that every user has freedom. The British magazine New Scientist published an article under copyleft, which allows anyone to copy or redistribute the article without violating a copyright.  It highlights an article about "open sourcing," a trend among computer programmers to share programs without worrying about payments or ownership. The weekly science magazine says the movement "is all about free circulation of knowledge--an emerging alternative to growing corporate power and restrictive property rights."

WHAT IS THE BEST-SELLING CAR OF ALL TIME?
The Toyota Corolla.

WHAT ANIMAL'S EYE IS BIGGER THAN ITS BRAIN?
The Ostrich. 

HOW MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF CHESS PIECES ARE THERE?
6: Pawn, Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen, King.

IN MUSIC, WHAT NUMBER NOTE IS A HEMIDEMISEMIQUAVER?
64th.

WHAT WAS THE PROFESSION OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, AUTHOR OF THE SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES?
He was an ophthalmologist (a physician who specializes in the medical and surgical care of the eyes).


HOW MANY LITTLE PIGS WERE USED IN THE TITLE ROLE DURING THE FILMING OF THE 1995 MOVIE HIT "BABE"?
Because baby pigs grow so quickly, 48 different pigs were used.

HOW DOES A TOUCAN EAT?
Because its tongue is too short for its beak, the toucan must juggle its food before swallowing it.


WITH WHAT ORGAN DO BUTTERFLIES TASTE?
Their feet. 

GOLD COMES IN HOW MANY COLORS?
Four: Yellow, white, rose, and green. 

WHO INVENTED THE LIE DETECTOR AND WHAT COMIC BOOK HEROINE DID HE ALSO INVENT?
Dr. William Moulton Marston invented the polygraph and he also invented Wonder Woman (who just so happens to carry a golden lasso that forces people to tell the truth!) Marston was convinced that women were more honest and reliable than men.

CALIFORNIA SMOG TEST
Can UCLA
QUOTATIONS

"What luck for the rulers that men do not think."
ANSWER: Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), Master-orator, psychopath, political genius, prototypical dictator, mass murderer.

"Drama is life with the dull bits cut out."
ANSWER: Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980), film director.

"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die."
ANSWER: Mel Brooks, Writer/Director/Actor

"Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her."
Ephesians 5:24-25

"What luck for the rulers that men do not think."
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Justice of the United States Supreme Court, U.S. legal historian and philosopher.

"Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind."
ANSWER: Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Italian painter, architect, engineer, mathematician and philosopher.

"My father always used to say that when you die, if you've got five real friends, then you've had a great life."
Lee Iacocca

 "You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself."
-Galileo

"Ignorance is always swift to speak."
 - Unknown

"Patience is the ability to count down before blasting off."
- Unknown

"Plain women know more about men than beautiful ones do.  But beautiful women don't need to know about men. It's the men who have to know about beautiful women."
ANSWER: Katharine Hepburn (1907-), American actress and writer. Winner of four Oscars


THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW YOU DIDN'T KNOW!

 Did you know...
  •  It is impossible to lick your elbow.
  •  A crocodile can't stick its tongue out.
  •  A shrimp's heart is in its head.
  •  In a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80 years, no one reported a  single case where an ostrich buried its head in the sand.
  •  It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
  •  A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
  •  More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a  telephone call.
  •  Horses can't vomit.
  •  The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.
  •  If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib.
  •  If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die, they can pop out.
  •  Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a  million descendants.
  •  Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
  •  In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
  •  A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
  •  23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on them and photocopying their butts.
  •  Most lipstick contains fish scales.
  •  Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.
  •  Over 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow.




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