Showing posts with label Trivia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trivia. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 10, 2025

What If?

Just read What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe. Some more of the nuggets uncovered from the book include:

  • "I've never seen the Icarus story as a lesson about the limitations of humans. I see it as a lesson about the limitations of wax as an adhesive."
  • If you drop superglue on cotton thread - it will catch fire.
  • A version of the old joke about half-full glasses - "the engineer sees a glass that's twice as big as it needs to be, the surrealist sees a giraffe eating a necktie"
  • "As a rule of thumb, you start to notice compressive heating above about Mach 2 (which is why the Concorde had heat resistant material on the leading edge of its wings)."
  • "The ISS moves so quickly that if you fired a rifle bullet from one end of a football field, the International Space Station could cross the length of the field before the bullet traveled 10 yards."
  • Did not know this but most modern "passenger cars have some kind of artificial speed limits imposed by the engine computer."
  • "If you set out a cup of warn water on Mars, it'll try to boil, freeze, and sublimate, practically all at once. Water on Mars seems to be in any state except liquid."
  • "Which brings us to wingsuits - the halfway point between parachute pants and parachutes."
  • "GPS timing is incredibly precise; of all the problems in engineering, it's one of the only ones in which engineers have been forced to include both special and general relativity in their calculations."
Some of these are facts I did not know or simply just found interesting. Not sure if any of these facts will ever come into play in real life. To be honest some of the questions are so unrealistically ridiculous that sometimes it's tough to keep focused. However, having said that - it was very humorous and informative.  

Wednesday, December 09, 2015

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

[Shocked] Shelby Miller was worth all of that? [Scratching my head] Is Shelby Miller worth all that? This trade has a whiff of Doyle Alexander for John Smoltz to me except this is pre-season not during the season... Heh heh... The things you learn on the Internet: the difference between caramel and butterscotch is butterscotch contains brown sugar instead of white... This may be the only thing from Charles Schultz that actually made me chuckle (I'm a bad person)... How much money do you think it would take to get Peyton Manning to sing, "On the bench it feels so weird" in that State Farm jingle?... Neal Pert is retiring from drumming... Still not 100% convinced that the @realDonaldTrump Twitter feed isn't actually a parody account. It would explain so much... Holy shit! Wait for it!... Boston sports troll Dan Shaughnessy won the Spink Award which means he gets into the baseball Hall of Fame -  which means going to Cooperstown to rub my balls all over Shaughnessy's plaque just made my bucket list...

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Conspiracy theory - this year's Daytona 500 was a result of EA Sports combining the classic game Spyhunter with a new NASCAR game... "I don't like violence Mr. Selig. I'm a businessman and urine is a big expense." Dialog from the new movie The Braunfather... My favorite bit of Oscars trivia is the fact that the Oscar Jimmy Stewart won for The Philadelphia Story was displayed in the window of his dad's hardware store in Pennsylvania... I'm still a little fuzzy about the science behind Hot Tub Time Machine... Did you know that during Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hit streak - he hit .408 while during that same stretch of games Ted Williams hit .414? Isn't that a great stat?... In modern money - the ransoms paid to free King Richard the Lionheart would be worth a little over $2 billion in today's dollars (34 tons of gold)... Who knew? The first basketball game ever on TV was Fordham vs Pittsburgh on this day in 1940. The game was played at Madison Square Garden... Speaking of college basketball - happy 81st birthday to basketball coaching legend Dean Smith...

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I'm a fan of Mark Herzlich and had selfishly hoped he would have ended up with the Patriots. I wish him all the best with the New York Giants. I think anyone who knows his story is pulling for him. I do have to mention the fact that it is a little strange that an undrafted player is getting this much attention. Probably more attention than all the third round players put together... Harry Potter re-cut as a teen comedy... Who knew? Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts... It would be funny if it turns out that the Brett Favre to the Eagles rumors were started by The Onion... The Red Sox have four hitters on pace for 6 Wins Above Replacement. That would put them into the company of some of the most successful teams in baseball history... For the rest of my life if anyone says "This is all my fault" I'm going to say "Yes - yes it is"... A reminder of what's important. Best wishes to Dave Cameron of USS Mariner and Fangraphs on his fight against cancer.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Very funny - Perfectly Timed Photos... The Republican National Committee should try to label President Obama as "the Onceler." The Dr Seuss estate may have a problem with that but the name does fit... I think a one-man stage show of Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea starring Erik Estrada would be so bad it's good in a Springtime for Hitler type way... This site looks very intriguing - Byliner.com. I could spend a day just reading the content that is posted on the front page... Trivia Question: Who held the home run record before Babe Ruth came along? Answer- Roger Connor and his old record for home runs was just 138... Next season on Game of Thrones a great wizard and conjurer is introduced. Some call him Tim... 25 Unintentionally Inappropriate Statues... The phrase "Under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance because Communists couldn't obey both State and God at the same time whereas US citizens could (at least we used to be able to). The phrase was added to emphasize the difference. I may be over-reacting but the people who seem to get the most worked up about "Under God" are the same people who want a powerful central government running all aspects of a person's life... Very cool archaeology. Giant Roman palace unearthed in Upper Egypt... Did you know that Great Britain was once the world champion at ice hockey? They actually won the Gold Medal at the 1936 Winter Olympics. I bet there's a story there... How people view me... Roy Halladay's real name is Harry Leroy Halladay. Harry Halladay? Surprised that fans don't chant that like they chant "Larry" at Chipper Jones.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

The Yankees have to give CC Sabathia an extension or redo his 7-year $152 million contract. There are no aces available in the 2012 free agent class and CC would make a fortune. I am amused by the situation because it seems like the perfect storm of controversy and unmet expectations is brewing for New York this season... Am I a heretic for wanting to own this painting? I also have to note that a Christian can look at that an laugh while if it was Mohammed and not Christ - a fatwah would be issued for the artist's death... The things you learn on the Internet (via Mental Floss): "Replacement players used during the 1987 NFL strike included current Saints coach Sean Payton, UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel, and Suge Knight"... I am trying to think of a more despicable athlete from my lifetime than Art Schlichter and I can only think of Rae Carruth and OJ. Schlichter was just charged with felony for allegedly ripping off Columbus widow for more than $1 million... The Patriots will be retiring Drew Bledsoe's #11 in 2011 - kind of symmetrical if you think about it. Bledsoe is also eligible for the Football Hall of Fame starting this year. I think he deserves to be voted in... As a pretty much hard and fast rule - real men should wear neither Capri pants nor yoga pants. So let it be written, so let it be done... Congratulations to Bill Russell who is getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom today. It still bugs me that there is no statue to Russell in Boston...

Monday, November 29, 2010

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

The Cortland Finnegan vs Andre Johnson "fight" reminded me very much of Robert Parish's takedown of Bill Laimbeer back in the 80's. Parish had enough of Laimbeer's cheap play and just hammered him down. If I recall correctly Parish was fined $1,500 for his actions and had lots of players across the league volunteer to pay the fine. I'm guessing that Johnson will likewise have such volunteers... 5 Geniuses Who Renounced Their Work... Osmium is a member of the platinum family and is the densest element. The second densest element is sports talk radio discussions regarding Derek Jeter signing with the Red Sox... Who knew? Great Britain was once the world champion at ice hockey. They won the Gold Medal at the 1936 Winter Olympics... I'm not a big Sarah Palin fan but what I find amusing is that many of the anti-Palin people are the very same ones who supported John Edwards...

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Internet Trivia

Interesting bits of trivia I've learned from surfing the Internet.

- In the wilderness dusk with crickets chirping in harmony? Count their chirps in 15 seconds. Then add 40. That will give you the air temp in degrees Fahrenheit.

- Combined the 27 countries that make up the European Union still would cover only half of the USA

- In 1946, convenience store chain Tote'm changed its name to 7-Eleven to reflect new, extended hours—7am to 11pm.

- In the 3 yrs since Randy Moss left Oakland, he has 47 Rec TDs. In that same time, the Raiders as a team only have 40 passing TDs

- This was the most interesting factoid of all. It is funny because it is so true.