It’s The Quiz Of The Week!

September 15, 2014September 12, 2014 fasab Questions, Tests animal, band, bird, bottle of Brandy, building, characters, color blind, colored part of the eye, colors, country, devil, education, element, English poet, Entertainment, ethnic group, famous, fart, first name, first US president, flower, food and drink, Geography, history, influential, informal version, laser beams, liquid inside a coconut, month, months, national flag, nature, October Revolution, Opera, orange blossom, Organic chemistry, poem, politics, Portuguese Man o' War, Prima Donna, prime numbers, questions, quiz, quizzes, railways, Random, Russia, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, science, symbol, test, tests, the Bible, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The Thompson Twins, the US West, Theologian, three dimensional image, Tin Tin cartoon series, VSOP, War, World Wildlife Fund

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

Welcome to another week and to another quiz.

The usual random selection of subjects and difficulties.

And if you get stuck you can find the answers waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down below, but please NO cheating!

Enjoy and good luck.

Q. 1: What does ‘VSOP’ stand for on a bottle of Brandy?

Q. 2: What country has not fought in a war since 1815?

Q. 3: What ethnic group was largely responsible for building most of the early railways in the U.S. West?

Q. 4: What animal is the symbol of the World Wildlife Fund?

Q. 5: Which is the only country in the world which has the Bible on its national flag?

Q. 6: What is the total if you add the number of months with thirty-one days to the number of months that have twenty-eight days?

Q. 7: What does the term ‘Prima Donna’ mean in Opera?

Q. 8: What is a ‘Portuguese Man o’ War’?

Q. 9: What color is orange blossom?

Q. 10: People who are ‘color blind’ cab detect some colors but have difficulty distinguishing between two in particular, what are they?

Q. 11: What is the three dimensional image created by laser beams called?

Q. 12: Who was the first U.S. President to adopt the informal version of his first name?

Q. 13: Organic chemistry is the study of materials that must contain which element?

Q. 14: What famous and influential Theologian claimed he could drive away the devil with a fart?

Q. 15: What is the liquid inside a coconut called?

Q. 16: In which month is the ‘October Revolution’ celebrated in Russia?

Q. 17: What are the next three prime numbers after 37?

Q. 18: This one is the name of a flower and the colored part of the eye, what is it?

Q. 19: What bird features in the poem, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge?

Q. 20: Named after the characters in the Tin Tin cartoon series, how many people were in the band The Thompson Twins?

ANSWERS

Q. 1: What does ‘VSOP’ stand for on a bottle of Brandy?

A. 1: Very Superior Old Pale.

Q. 2: What country has not fought in a war since 1815?

A. 2: Switzerland.

Q. 3: What ethnic group was largely responsible for building most of the early railways in the U.S. West?

A. 3: The Chinese.

Q. 4: What animal is the symbol of the World Wildlife Fund?

A. 4: Giant Panda.

Q. 5: Which is the only country in the world which has the Bible on its national flag?

A. 5: Dominican Republic.

Q. 6: What is the total if you add the number of months with thirty-one days to the number of months that have twenty-eight days?

A. 6: The answer is 19. Seven months have 31 days (January, March, May, July, August, October and December) and of course all twelve months have 28 days!

Q. 7: What does the term ‘Prima Donna’ mean in Opera?

A. 7: Leading Female Opera Singer.

Q. 8: What is a ‘Portuguese Man o’ War’?

A. 8: It is a sea-dwelling jellyfish-like invertebrate. Strangely though, the Portuguese never had a warship called a Man o’ War, and the Portuguese name for the jellyfish-like creature is Caravela Portuguesa, referring to an earlier Portuguese sailing ship design used for exploration in the 15-16th Centuries.

Q. 9: What color is orange blossom?

A. 9: White.

Q. 10: People who are ‘color blind’ cab detect some colors but have difficulty distinguishing between two in particular, what are they?

A. 10: They are the primary colors Red & Green.

Q. 11: What is the three dimensional image created by laser beams called?

A. 11: A Hologram.

Q. 12: Who was the first U.S. President to adopt the informal version of his first name?

A. 12: Jimmy Carter.

Q. 13: Organic chemistry is the study of materials that must contain which element?

A. 13: Carbon.

Q. 14: What famous and influential Theologian claimed he could drive away the devil with a fart?

A. 14: Martin Luther.

Q. 15: What is the liquid inside a coconut called?

A. 15: It is called Coconut water. (Coconut milk, popularly thought to be the liquid inside a coconut, is made from the flesh of the coconut.)

Q. 16: In which month is the ‘October Revolution’ celebrated in Russia?

A. 16: November. (Come on, it was never going to be that obvious!)

Q. 17: What are the next three prime numbers after 37?

A. 17: They are all in the forties 41, 43 and 47.

Q. 18: This one is the name of a flower and the colored part of the eye, what is it?

A. 18: Iris.

Q. 19: What bird features in the poem, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge?

A. 19: An Albatross.

Q. 20: Named after the characters in the Tin Tin cartoon series, how many people were in the band The Thompson Twins?

A. 20: Three. Here they are….

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It’s Monday, It’s May 12th, And It’s Quiz Day!

May 12, 2014May 12, 2014 fasab Questions, Tests $, alphabet, American president, angels, Arlington, bathrooms, bits, computer keyboard, cork-producing countries, Crete, Die Hard, dime, divide, dollar symbol, drain out, education, English language, Entertainment, first video ever played on MTV Europe, general knowledge, Geography, history, hole in the sink, John Wilkes Booth, largest water clock, Lesbos, letter, Lincoln's assassin, movies, multiply, music, nickels, North America, obscure, Panama hats, Pentagon, physician, politics, quarter, questions, quiz, quizzes, qwerty, Random, residents, southern most city, syllable, test, tests, the Bible, total, typewriter keyboard, United States, uu, Venetian blinds, Virginia, words, wounded in the Civil War

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

Welcome to another fasab quiz.

Some difficult ones, some easy ones, and one or two that you should know but might not.

As usual if you get stuck you can find the answers waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down below, but please, NO cheating!

Enjoy and good luck.

Q. 1: Take a quarter, multiply it by a dime, divide that total by 2 bits and add 3 nickles, and what have you got?

Q. 2: Name the top three cork-producing countries in the world. (And take a point for each correct answer.)

Q. 3: You’ve seen it thousands of times, but why was the dollar symbol ($) designed this way?

Q. 4: What was the name of the physician who set the leg of Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth? (A point for his last name, a bonus if you know his first name as well.)

Q. 5: Where in North America is the largest water clock?

Q. 6: What is the only letter in the alphabet that has more than one syllable?

Q. 7: There are six words in the English language with the letter combination “uu.” Two of them you have probably heard of, the rest are more obscure, but you get a point for each one you can name correctly.

Q. 8: Who are the only three angels mentioned by name in the Bible? (A point for each correct answer.)

Q. 9: What do you call the little hole in the sink that lets the water drain out, instead of flowing over the side?

Q. 10: Why has the Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, twice as many bathrooms as is necessary?

Q. 11: What are residents of the island of Crete called? (If you spell this wrong it will be very stupid.)

Q. 12: And, what are residents of the island of Lesbos called?

Q. 13: Who was the only American president to be wounded in the Civil War?

Q. 14: If you add up the numbers 1-100 consecutively (1+2+3+4+5 etc) what is the total?

Q. 15: Where were Venetian blinds invented?

Q. 16: What is the southern most city in the United States?

Q. 17: Everyone thinks that a ‘qwerty’ computer keyboard is just the same as a typewriter keyboard, but it isn’t. What is missing from the typewriter keyboard that is always on a computer keyboard?

Q. 18: Where do Panama hats come from?

Q. 19: How many ‘Die Hard’ movies have there been – so far? (Bonus points for each one you can name correctly. Double bonus if you know the years.)

Q. 20: What was the first video ever played on MTV Europe?

ANSWERS

Q. 1: Take a quarter, multiply it by a dime, divide that total by 2 bits and add 3 nickles, and what have you got?

A. 1: Answer = 25 (25 x 10) / (2 x 12.5) + (3 x 5) = 25

Q. 2: Name the top three cork-producing countries in the world. (And take a point for each correct answer.)

A. 2: The top three cork-producing countries are Spain, Portugal and Algeria.

Q. 3: You’ve seen it thousands of times, but why was the dollar symbol ($) designed this way?

A. 3: The dollar symbol ($) is a U combined with an S (U.S.)

Q. 4: What was the name of the physician who set the leg of Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth? (A point for his last name, a bonus if you know his first name as well.)

A. 4: Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was the physician who set the leg of Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth … and whose shame created the expression for ignominy, “His name is Mudd.”

Q. 5: Where in North America is the largest water clock?

A. 5: The largest water clock in North America is at the shopping mall in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada.

Q. 6: What is the only letter in the alphabet that has more than one syllable?

A. 6: ‘W’ is the only letter in the alphabet that has more than one syllable… it has three.

A. 7: The six words in the English language with the letter combination “uu” are: Muumuu, vacuum, continuum, duumvirate, duumvir and residuum.

Q. 8: Who are the only three angels mentioned by name in the Bible? (A point for each correct answer.)

A. 8: The three angels mentioned by name in the Bible are Gabriel, Michael, and Lucifer.

Q. 9: What do you call the little hole in the sink that lets the water drain out, instead of flowing over the side?

A. 9: The little hole in the sink that lets the water drain out, instead of flowing over the side, is called a “porcelator”.

Q. 10: Why has the Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, twice as many bathrooms as is necessary?

A. 10: The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary because when it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites.

Q. 11: What are residents of the island of Crete called? (If you spell this wrong it will be very stupid.)

A. 11: They are called Cretans. (Deduct a point if you said Cretins!)

Q. 12: And, what are residents of the island of Lesbos called?

A. 12: Residents of the island of Lesbos are Lesbosians, rather than Lesbians. (Of course, lesbians are called lesbians because Sappho was from Lesbos.)

Q. 13: Who was the only American president to be wounded in the Civil War?

A. 13: Rutherford B. Hayes was the only president to be wounded in the Civil War — not once, but four times. Four horses were shot out from beneath him.

Q. 14: If you add up the numbers 1-100 consecutively (1+2+3+4+5 etc) what is the total?

A. 14: If you add up the numbers 1-100 consecutively (1+2+3+4+5 etc) the total is 5050.

Q. 15: Where were Venetian blinds invented?

A. 15: You’d think it should be Venice, but Venetian blinds were invented in Japan.

Q. 16: What is the southern most city in the United States?

A. 16: The southern most city in the United States is Na’alehu, Hawaii.

A. 17: The back slash is missing. Before the age of computers, typewriters only had one type of slash, the forward slash (/). Even earlier versions hadn’t even got that! Bet you never even noticed.

Q. 18: Where do Panama hats come from?

A. 18: Panama hats are made in Equador.

Q. 19: How many ‘Die Hard’ movies have there been – so far? (Bonus points for each one you can name correctly. Double bonus if you know the years.)

A. 19: There have been five ‘Die Hard’ movies so far, ‘Die Hard’ (1988), ‘Die Hard 2’ (1990), ‘Die Hard with a Vengeance’ (1995), ‘Live Free or Die Hard’ (2007) and ‘A Good Day to Die Hard’ (2013).

Q. 20: What was the first video ever played on MTV Europe?

A. 20: The first video ever played on MTV Europe was “Money For Nothing” by Dire Straits.

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Significant Number Factoid Friday – Today The Number Is Twenty-Five 25

April 11, 2014April 11, 2014 fasab Factoids, Numbers 25, 25 Burgers, 25th Floor, 25th Hour, 25th President of the United States, a quarter, A&K SR-25, AG-25, Air Force One, aircraft impact, American Airlines Flight 11, American industry, American Thighs, assassination, atomic number, automotive, B-25 Mitchell, Baltimore Bullets, Barry Bonds, baseball, Bazooka, Betty Lou Oliver, Billboard Hot 100, Billy Mitchell, BMW R25, Boeing 707, Boeing 747, Boeing 767, Boeing VC-25, books, Boston Celtics, Brazilian Air Force, British slang, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, C Virgil Gheorghiu, C25, C25 Standard RV, Cantonese Chinese, car rental, Carlsson C25 Supercar, Charles Messier, China Air Force, Christmas Day, civil war, Cleveland Cavaliers, Colonel William Smith, constellation Sagittarius, Czech Republic, D-25, Dark Lady, dart board, David Brown, David Brown DB25 Tractor, DD-25, Donkervoort, Donkervoort Prototype J25, Dutch Air Force, Easter, education, educational, Egyptian Navy, elders, electrons, Empire State Building, Entertainment, Ezekiel, Ezekiel's Temple Vision, Facebook Notes, fact, factoid, factoids, facts, FFG-25, Florida electoral votes, France, franklin delano roosevelt, Free French, French department Doubs, Gail Goodrich, George Michael, German submarine, Glock 25, God's throne in heaven, gold standard, Gus Johnson, Henri Verneuil, HMS Medway, HMS Warwick, Illinois, In the Year 2525, Infiniti G25, information, internet, Islam, J25 Steam Engine, Jehoshaphat, K C Jones, K-25, Kingdom of Judah, Levites, London Orbital motorway, Los Angeles Lakers, LPD-25, LSD-25 molecule, M25, M25 "Three Shot Bazooka", Major League Baseball team, Manganese, Manhattan Project, Mario Kart Wii, Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award, Mark McGwire, Mark Price, Mark Teixeira, mathematics, McKinley, medium bomber, melee, Messier Object 25, MGM, MIG-25, Mikoyan-Gurevich, Militaria, military, military aircraft, minimum age, motorcycle, motorhome, movies, Municipal Okrug 25, music, Nashville, national board game of India, national card game of Ireland, NBA, New Mexico, NGC 25, NHL, North American Aviation, novel, nuclear powered, number, Number 25, numbers, Oak Ridge, Oak Ridge Reservation, ombre, Open Cluster M25, outer bullseye, Pachisi, PAL video standard, Patti Smith Group, percent, Philippe Loys de Chéseaux, Phoenix constellation, politics, pony, President, President of the United States, presidential yacht, prophets, protons, Pythagorean theorem, Qur'an, RAF, religion, Remington R-25, Revelation, rocket launcher, Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force, Russia, sacrifices, Saint Petersburg, science, September 11 2001, Serbia, silver wedding anniversary, SMTP, sniper rifle, song, South Africa, Soviet Air Force, space, Spanish-American War, sport, square number, succession to the Presidency, sun, Super Smash Bros, supersonic interceptor, T-25 Tank, T25 Medium Tank, TCP port, technology, Tennessee, the Bible, The Royal Air Force, Thomas Steen, transportation, tv, Twenty-fifth Amendment, twenty-five, United Airlines Flight 175, United States Air Force, United States Coast Guard, United States Constitution, United States House of Representatives, United States Interstate 25, United States Navy, uranium enrichment facility, US college football, USS Bainbridge, USS Copeland, USS Potomac, USS Salt Lake City, USS Somerset, USS Terry, Veruca Salt, volleyball, Washington Wizards, William McKinley, Winnipeg Jets, world trade center, World War I, world wide web, Wyoming, Yamaha R25, Zager and Evans, Zastava Arms, Zastava P25

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

It’s been a while since I did a number factoid.

My only excuse is the time it takes to compile these, which I haven’t managed to find for a few months, so if you missed them my apologies.

However, there is one today, so if you like this sort of thing I hope you enjoy.

The Number 25

In religion

In the Bible the number twenty-five is of cardinal importance in Ezekiel’s Temple Vision (Ezekiel 40-48).
Twenty-five is also seen near God’s throne in heaven. God’s throne, plus the thrones of the twenty-four elders, makes for 25 total. (Revelation 4:1-4)
Twenty-five pictures ‘grace upon grace.’ Redemption (20) plus grace (5) also equals 25. (John 1:14, 16-17)
Levites were to begin serving at age 25 in assisting with sacrifices — which were a physical type of forgiveness and redemption for the people.
Jehoshaphat, considered one of the best kings to rule the Kingdom of Judah, reigned for 25 years (872 – 848 B.C.).

In Islam, there are twenty-five prophets mentioned in the Quran.

In mathematics

25 is a square number, being 5² = 5 × 5.
25 is the smallest square that is also a sum of two squares: 25 = 3² + 4². Hence it often appears in demonstrations of the Pythagorean theorem.

25 percent is equal to 1/4.
Within base 10 one can readily test for divisibility by 25 by seeing if the last two digits of the number match 25, 50, 75 or 00.
In base 30, 25 is a 1-automorphic number (displayed as the numeral ‘P’ or ‘R’ dependant on the chosen digit set), and in base 10 a 2-automorphic number.

In science and technology

Atomic Number of Manganese (Mn) = 25 (25 protons & 25 electrons)
It is part of the name of LSD-25 molecule
25 is the usual TCP port for SMTP.
25 is the per-second frame rate of the PAL video standard
And probably most significant of all, the internet or world wide web turned 25 this year!

In space

Open Cluster M25 (also known as Messier Object 25 or IC 4725) is an open cluster in the constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745 and included in Charles Messier’s list in 1764.
NGC 25 is a lenticular galaxy situated in the Phoenix constellation
The Sun rotates once in 25 days near the poles and about 30 days near its equator.
25 is the number of days approximately that takes the sun to do a complete rotation on itself.

In politics

William McKinley (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) was the 25th President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1897, until his assassination in September 1901, six months into his second term. McKinley led the nation to victory in the Spanish–American War, raised protective tariffs to promote American industry, and maintained the nation on the gold standard in a rejection of inflationary proposals. He was also the last President to have served during the Civil War.

The Twenty-fifth Amendment (Amendment XXV) to the United States Constitution deals with succession to the Presidency and establishes procedures both for filling a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, as well as responding to Presidential disabilities. It supersedes the ambiguous wording of Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution, which does not expressly state whether the Vice President becomes the President, as opposed to an Acting President, if the President dies, resigns, is removed from office or is otherwise unable to discharge the powers of the presidency. The Twenty-fifth Amendment was adopted on February 23, 1967.
25 is the minimum age of candidates for election to the United States House of Representatives.
25 is the (critical) number of Florida electoral votes for the 2000 U.S. presidential election
25 is the number of the French department Doubs

In books, music, movies and TV

“25” is a song by Veruca Salt from their 1994 album American Thighs.
“25th Floor” is a song by Patti Smith Group from their 1978 album Easter.
Twenty Five is the name of a 2006 George Michael compilation celebrating 25 years in the music business (1981–2006).
“In the Year 2525 (Exordium et Terminus)” is a 1969 hit song by the American pop-rock duo of Zager and Evans. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
The 25th Hour is a MGM film (1967) with screen-play by Henri Verneuil based on C. Virgil Gheorghiu’s novel.
Not forgetting our old friend, “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century”

In sport

Twenty-five is the value of the outer bullseye on a dart board.
Twenty-five is the size of the full roster on a Major League Baseball team for most of the season, except for regular-season games on or after September 1, when teams may expand their roster to no more than 40 players.
In baseball, the number 25 is typically reserved for the best slugger on the team. Examples include Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, and Mark Teixeira.

The number of points needed to win a set in volleyball under rally scoring rules (except for the fifth set), so long as the losing team’s score is two less than the winning team’s score (i.e., if the winning team scores 25 points, the losing team can have no more than 23 points).
In U.S. college football, schools that are members of NCAA Division I FBS are allowed to provide athletic scholarships to a maximum of 25 new football players (i.e., players who were not previously receiving scholarships) each season.
In the NBA the number 25 jersey has been retired by the Boston Celtics for K. C. Jones; by the Cleveland Cavaliers for Mark Price; by the Los Angeles Lakers for Gail Goodrich; and by the Washington Wizards for Gus Johnson (the team was then known as the Baltimore Bullets).
In the NHL the number 25 jersey has been retired by the Winnipeg Jets for Thomas Steen.

In automotive and transportation

In the United States 25 is the designation of United States Interstate 25, a freeway that runs from New Mexico to Wyoming.
In Britain M25 is the designation of the London Orbital motorway.

And in Russia Municipal Okrug 25, until March, 2010, was the name of Knyazhevo Municipal Okrug in Kirovsky District of Saint Petersburg.

The Carlsson C25 Supercar
Carlsson’s first supercar, the C25, made its debut at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. With a limited run of 25 units, the C25 is powered by a twin-turbocharged V12 engine that generates 753 hp (562 kW) and 848 ft·lbf (1,150 N·m) of torque. Estimated acceleration from 0–100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.7 seconds and top speed is 219 mph. (355 km/h).

Donkervoort Prototype J25
Under the code name J25, Donkervoort developed – right before its 25 year jubilee – a completely new car. This model went a step further in its styling than its predecessors the S8 and D8. The, for that period, very modern lines and a number of details, such the little doors and nose used, were derived from the D20. The J25 was also the first Donkervoort to be produced with 270 bhp.

Infiniti G25
Infiniti debuted the G25 sedan at the 2010 Paris Auto Show. The G25 is powered by a 2.5 L V6 VQ25HR producing 218 hp (163 kW) and 187 lb·ft (254 N·m) of torque. The G25’s JDM relative, the Nissan Skyline 250 GT Sedan which features the same engine, had been on sale for several years already.

BMW R25
The 1951 the 250cc R25 single was BMW’s first postwar single-cylinder motorcycle with a rear suspension.

Yamaha R25
The Yamaha R25 is the first motorcycle by Yamaha in the 250cc segment. It is a 2-cylinder, liquid cooled motorcycle, using an advanced fuel injection system. It also has a tubular chassis with telescopic front suspension.

C25 Standard RV
The C25 is a traditional motorhome with the self-contained features you expect, including most with a power generator in the USA.

David Brown DB25 Tractor
David Brown developed the 25hp and 30hp engine, and so the DB25 and DB30 tractors came into existence, lasting from 1953-58. The petrol/TVO models were known as the David Brown 25C and 30C, while they called the diesel versions 25D and 30D. They are still collected and restored by enthusiasts today.

J25 Steam Engine

The NER Class P1 (LNER Class J25) was a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotives of the North Eastern Railway in Great Britain. Class P1 was a development of Class P, having a boiler four inches longer, and a firebox six inches longer. To accommodate these, the wheelbase was increased by nine inches. The cylinder stroke was also increased by two inches.

In militaria

B-25 Mitchell
Named in honor of General Billy Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation, the B-25 Mitchell was an American twin-engined medium bomber manufactured by North American Aviation that saw service over four decades. By the end of its production, nearly 10,000 B-25s in numerous models had been built.
It was used by many Allied air forces, in every theater of World War II, as well as many other air forces after the war ended, including The Royal Air Force (RAF), Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force, Dutch Air Force, Soviet Air Force, China Air Force, Brazilian Air Force, and by the Free French.

However, the incident for which the B-25 is perhaps best known is one that happened in America. At 9:40 on Saturday, 28 July 1945, a USAAF B-25D crashed in thick fog into the north side of the Empire State Building between the 79th and 80th floors.
Fourteen people died – eleven in the building and the three occupants of the aircraft including the pilot, Colonel William Smith.
Betty Lou Oliver, an elevator attendant, survived the impact and a subsequent uncontrolled descent in the elevator.
Partly as a result of this incident, Towers 1 and 2 of the World Trade Center were designed to withstand an aircraft impact. However, this design was based on an impact by a Boeing 707 aircraft in common use in the late 1960s and early 1970s, not the larger Boeing 767, two of which, (American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175), struck the towers on September 11, 2001, resulting in their eventual collapse.

Boeing VC-25
The Boeing VC-25 is the United States Air Force designation for a military version of the Boeing 747 airliner. The A-model (VC-25A) is the only variant of the VC-25.
The VC-25 is most famous for its role as Air Force One, the call sign of any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the President of the United States. The two aircraft currently in U.S. service are highly modified versions of Boeing’s 747-200B, with tail numbers 28000 and 29000.
Although the Air Force One designation technically applies to the aircraft only while the President is aboard, the term is commonly applied to the VC-25s more generally.
They often operate in conjunction with Marine One helicopters that ferry the President to airports in circumstances where a vehicle motorcade would be inappropriate.

MIG-25
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 is a supersonic interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft that was among the fastest military aircraft to enter service.
It was designed by the Soviet Union’s Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau. The first prototype flew in 1964, and the aircraft entered into service in 1970.
It has a top speed of Mach 2.83 (as high as Mach 3.2, but at risk of significant damage to the engines), and features a powerful radar and four air-to-air missiles.
When first seen in reconnaissance photography, the large wing planform suggested an enormous and highly maneuverable fighter. This was during a period of time when U.S. design theories were also evolving towards higher maneuverability due to combat performance in the Vietnam War.
The capabilities of the MiG-25 were better understood in 1976 when Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko defected in a MiG-25 to the United States via Japan. It turned out that the weight of the aircraft necessitated large wings.
Production of the MiG-25 series ended in 1984 after completion of 1,190 aircraft. A symbol of the Cold War, the MiG-25 flew with Soviet allies and former Soviet republics, remaining in limited service in Russia and several other nations.
It is the second fastest and second highest-flying military aircraft ever fielded after the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft.

USS Terry (DD-25)
Launched on 21 August 1909 and commissioned on 18 October 1910, the USS Terry (DD-25) was a modified Paulding-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I, and later in the United States Coast Guard, designated CG-19. She was the first ship named for Edward Terry.
During WWI USS Terry patrolled along the Atlantic coast escorting merchantmen bound for Europe. In January 1918, Terry put to sea for operations with the destroyer force based at Queenstown, Ireland where she escorted convoys through the submarine-infested waters surrounding the British Isles.
In December 1918, Terry returned to the United States, and after 11 months of extremely limited service, she was decommissioned at Philadelphia Navy Yard on 13 November 1919.
She remained there until she was transferred to the Coast Guard on 7 June 1924. Based in New York, she served as part of the Rum Patrol, until 18 October 1930, when she was returned to the Navy and restored on the Navy list in a decommissioned status, listed as a “vessel to be disposed of by sale or salvage.” On 2 May 1934, Terry was sold for scrapping. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 28 June 1934.

USS Salt Lake City (CL/CA-25)
Launched on 23 January 1929 and commissioned on 11 December 1929, the USS Salt Lake City (CL/CA-25) was a Pensacola-class heavy cruiser sometimes known as “Swayback Maru” or “Old Swayback”. She had the (unofficial) distinction of having taken part in more engagements than any other ship in the fleet. She was also the first ship to be named after Salt Lake City, Utah.
From August–October 1942, Salt Lake City was in the south Pacific to support the campaign to seize and hold Guadalcanal. She escorted Wasp during the landings of 7–8 August and subsequent operations.
Surviving two atomic bomb blasts, she was decommissioned on 29 August and laid up to await ultimate disposal. She was sunk as a target hull on 25 May 1948, 130 mi (110 nmi; 210 km) off the coast of southern California
Salt Lake City received 11 battle stars for her World War II service, and a Navy Unit Commendation for her actions during the Aleutian Campaign.

USS Potomac (AG-25)
The USS Potomac (AG-25), formerly USCGC Electra, was Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidential yacht from 1936 until his death in 1945.
On 3 August 1941, she played a decoy role while Roosevelt held a secret conference to develop the Atlantic Charter.
She is now preserved in Oakland, California, as a National Historic Landmark.

USS Copeland (FFG-25)
The USS Copeland (FFG-25), the first ship of that name in the US Navy, was the seventeenth ship of the Oliver Hazard Perry-class of guided-missile frigates. She was named for Rear Admiral Robert W. Copeland (1910–1973).
Copeland was launched on 26 July 1980, and commissioned on 7 August 1982.
Decommissioned and stricken on 18 September 1996, she was transferred to Egypt the same day as Mubarak (F911). After the 2011 revolution the ship was renamed to remove the former ruler’s name. The ship is currenty named Alexandria (F911) and remains in active service with the Egyptian Navy.

USS Bainbridge
The nuclear powered USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25/CGN-25) was initially classed as a guided missile destroyer leader in the United States Navy, and later re-designated as a guided missile cruiser in 1975.
In 1966–67, 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972–73, USS Bainbridge was involved Vietnam War combat operations, as well as voyages to Australia, the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea.
In 1982 she won the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award.
After receiving her final nuclear refueling overhaul in 1983–85, Bainbridge operations included counter-drug smuggling patrols in the Caribbean, several deployments to northern European waters and four Mediterranean cruises including combat operations off Libya.
During 1994 she was deployed to support UN resolutions that became part of Operation Sharp Guard, enforcing sanctions against the Former Republic of Yugoslavia and Bosnia.
Finally deactivated in October 1995, Bainbridge was decommissioned in September 1996 and towed to Bremerton, Washington in mid-1997 where she was put in dry dock to begin “recycling,” the process by which nuclear-powered warships are scrapped.

USS Somerset (LPD-25)
The USS Somerset (LPD-25), a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, is the fifth ship of the United States Navy of that name; in this case in honor of Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
The name honors the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 whose actions prevented terrorist hijackers from reaching their intended target, forcing the airplane to crash in Stonycreek Township in Somerset County, PA, on September 11, 2001. In the words of Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England, “The courage and heroism of the people aboard the flight will never be forgotten and USS Somerset will leave a legacy that will never be forgotten by those wishing to do harm to this country.”
Some 22 tons of steel from a crane that stood near Flight 93’s crash site have been used to construct Somerset’s stemhold.
She was launched on 14 April 2012, and was christened three months later, on 28 July.

HMS Medway
HMS Medway was the first purpose-built submarine depot ship constructed for the Royal Navy. She was built by Vickers Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness during the late 1920s. The ship served on the China Station before the Second World War and was transferred to Egypt in early 1940.
Ordered to evacuate Alexandria in the face of the German advance after the Battle of Gazala in May 1942, Medway sailed for Lebanon at the end of June, escorted by a light cruiser and seven destroyers.
Despite her strong escort, she was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine on 30 June.

HMS Warwick (D-25)
HMS Warwick (D-25) was an Admiralty ‘W’ class destroyer built in 1917.
She saw service in both the First and Second World Wars, before being torpedoed and sunk in February 1944.

T-25 Tank
The T25 Medium Tank was a prototype tank that was produced by the United States during World War II.
It had an armament consisting of a 90 mm anti-tank gun, two .30 MGs, one mounted coaxially and one in the bow, and a .50 Browning M2 mount on top of the turret. The vehicle had a crew of five, a weight of 35,100 kg, used the same 474 hp, GAN V8 engine as the earlier T23, and had a top speed of 48 km/h.
The T25 was developed with a variant which itself was virtually the same, the only difference was that the T25 was built with horizontal volute spring suspension, and the variant T25E1 had the torsion bar suspension later adopted for use in the M26. Only 40 T25 and T25E1 prototypes were built.

M25 “Three Shot Bazooka”
Bazooka is the common name for a man-portable recoilless antitank rocket launcher weapon, widely fielded by the United States Army. Also referred to as the “Stovepipe”, the innovative bazooka was among the first-generation of rocket propelled anti-tank weapons used in infantry combat.
Featuring a solid rocket motor for propulsion, it allowed for high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warheads to be delivered against armored vehicles, machine gun nests, and fortified bunkers at ranges beyond that of a standard thrown grenade or mine. The Bazooka also fired a HESH round, effective against buildings and tank armour.
The universally-applied nickname arose from the M1 variant’s vague resemblance to the musical instrument called a “bazooka” invented and popularized by 1930s U.S. comedian Bob Burns.
The M25 “Three Shot Bazooka” was an experimental tripod mounted rocket launcher with overhead magazine circa 1955.

Remington R-25
The Remington R-25 is a hi-tech hunting rifle that uses the direct-impingement gas system, where gas is ported down a tube into the action and the bolt carrier is cycled via the gas blowing the carrier off the tube.
The upper and lower receivers are made from aluminum forgings, and the handguard is turned aluminum, all impervious to the weather; climate changes will have no effect on accuracy or bedding.
Additionally, the R-25 has a Mossy Oak Treestand coating, so if you aren’t careful in the woods, you may spend some time hunting for the rifle you set down while doing something else.
The magazine holds four rounds, a prudent choice since the purpose of the R-25 is hunting.

Glock 25
The Glock 25 in low-recoil .380 AUTO was introduced in 1995 in Germany. This small-dimension firearm was developed for markets where civilian personnel are not allowed to possess handguns featuring military calibers.
In the USA, the G25 .380 AUTO is reserved for law enforcement agencies only.

Zastava P25
The Zastava P25, manufactured by Zastava Arms of Serbia and nicknamed the Dark Lady, is a blowback-operated, single-action, semi-automatic pocket pistol chambered in .25 ACP.
The pistol frame is made of aluminum alloy and the barrel is made of alloy steel, while the handgrips are usually made of walnut or polymer materials.
The P25 is aimed extensively at the civilian market as a self-defense weapon due to its concealability, but is somewhat less favorable compared to the M57, M88 and CZ 99 pistols due to its small caliber.

A&K SR-25
The A&K SR-25 Full Metal AEG is very accurate and a good range for this type of weapon It is semi and full auto capable and has a 300rd High Capacity magazine and fast rate of fire
This airsoft sniper rifle is built like a tank, with a full metal upper and lower receiver and a full metal rail system. The A&K SR-25 performs better than almost all other SR-25 AEGs on the market, and includes more accessories than any other SR-25 AEG.

K-25
K-25 is a former uranium enrichment facility of the Manhattan Project which used the gaseous diffusion method. The plant is located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on the southwestern end of the Oak Ridge Reservation.

In other stuff

Illinois is the 25th largest state in America.
Nashville, Tennessee is the 25th largest city in the United States by size of population.
South Africa is the 25th largest Country in the world by area.
France is the 25th richest country in the world, based on Gross Domestic Product (PPP) Per Capita 2009-2013.
There are 25 cents in a quarter.

A ‘Pony’ is British slang for £25.
Christmas Day is December 25
25 is the number of years of marriage marked in a silver wedding anniversary.
25 is the name of the national card game of Ireland related to the classic Spanish game of ombre. It was played under the name maw by the British King James I and was later called spoil five from one of its principal objectives. From it derives the Canadian game of forty-fives.
Pachisi, which is Hindi for 25, is the name of the national board game of India.

“twentyfive”, is a design studio in the Czech Republic
25 is the total number of playable characters in Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Bros. Melee.
“25 boy” (read as “two-five boy”), in Cantonese Chinese, is a slang term meaning “traitor” as used in the Chinese movie Over the Edge.
25 random things about me, an Internet meme utilizing Facebook’s Notes feature
25 is the usual minimum age for car rental in most countries.
“Under 25″ provides a common cut-off point for designating youth.
The year 25 BC was a leap year.
25 Burgers opened its first Location in Bound Brook NJI in the Spring of 2009, serving 25 Choices of Fresh Made to Order Gourmet Burgers in a Clean and Friendly Environment.

==================================================

Did You Know? – More Interesting Facts.

March 25, 2014March 25, 2014 fasab Factoids, Unusual 18th century wooden ship, 911, allergic reaction, antibabypille, artificial language, Australian man, automobile accidents, Bill Morgan, birth control pill, blood, boxer, Braxton Bragg, break into peoples' houses, car accident, celebrate, changed his name, child actor, company commander, Coogan's Bill, crime, cut their hair, declared dead, director, donate blood, doping, dream, driving, drugs, education, educational, Entertainment, Esperanto, fact, facts, father figure, feature films, fight, flying, forget wife’s birthday, German word, Ground Zero, hall of fame, honor, hospital, information, Jackie Coogan, James Harrison, Jimmy Doyle, kill, killed, Lance Armstrong, language, Latin, letters, Maewyn Succat, MaybeBaby, minister, Mississippi, money, most translated book, news team, next fastest finisher, Noah, not handsome, opponent, Patricius, Phantom Barber, Pinocchio, pregnancy test, priest, protect child actors, quartermaster, Random, rare antigen, re-enact, Rhesus disease, rubble, Ryan Gosling, Samoa, scratch card, spoken, St Patrick, St Patrick's Day, Sugar Ray Robinson, surgery, survival, switched travel plans, Switzerland, the Bible, The Notebook, the ring, Tour de France title, trivia, US Army officer, vending machines, won, workers, world trade center

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

More interesting facts today.

Hats definitely off to James Harrison, but my favorite is Bill Morgan.

Enjoy.

We’ll start with one in honor of the recently passed St Patrick’s Day.

St Patrick’s given name was Maewyn Succat.

After becoming a priest, he changed his name to Patricius,

from the Latin term meaning “father figure.”

Esperanto is an artificial language,

but is spoken by about 500,000 to 2,000,000 people,

and 2 feature films have been done in the language.

After the bible,

the most translated book in the world is

Pinocchio.

Hall of fame boxer Sugar Ray Robinson backed out of a fight

because he had a dream that he was going to kill his opponent in the ring.

After a priest and minister convinced him to fight, Robinson went into the ring

and killed his opponent Jimmy Doyle.

The German word for birth control pill is ‘antibabypille’

and in Switzerland they have pregnancy tests

called ‘MaybeBaby’ in vending machines.

After 9/11, 1600 people died in automobile accidents

after they switched travel plans from flying to driving.

If officials awarded Lance Armstrong’s Tour de France title

to the next fastest finisher who has never been linked to doping,

they would have to give it to the person who finished 23rd.

When US Army officer Braxton Bragg held both the job of

the company commander and the post’s quartermaster,

he made a request to the quartermaster (that is, himself)

and when he received the request as quartermaster he denied it.

He continued to argue back and forth with himself through letters.

In 2010 workers at Ground Zero found an 18th century wooden ship

underneath the World Trade Center rubble.

When child actor Jackie Coogan turned 18,

he found out all his money, $68 million,

had been spent by his mother, who argued

“No promises were ever made to give Jackie anything.

Every dollar a kid earns before he is 21 belongs to his parents.”

Coogan’s Bill was then passed to protect child actors.

In Samoa, it’s a crime to forget your own wife’s birthday.

(Isn’t that true for most places?)

Ryan Gosling was cast as Noah in The Notebook

because the director wanted someone “not handsome.”

After needing 13 liters of blood for a surgery at the age of 13,

a man named James Harrison, aka “The Man With The Golden Arm”,

pledged to donate blood once he turned 18.

It was discovered that his blood contained a rare antigen

which cured Rhesus disease.

He has donated blood a record 1000 times

and saved 2,000,000 lives.

In 1942 in Mississippi there was a man known as the Phantom Barber

who would break into peoples’ houses at night and cut their hair.

In 1999 an Australian man, named Bill Morgan

was declared dead for 14 minutes after an allergic reaction to drugs

given to him in hospital after a car accident.

To celebrate his survival he bought a scratch card

and won a $27,000 car.

A news team covering the story asked him to re-enact

the scratch card moment for their story,

so he went into the shop, bought another scratch card,

and won $250,000 jackpot.

Here he is….

===============================================

Did You Know? It’s Another Furious Fact Feast.

March 11, 2014March 9, 2014 fasab Factoids, Unusual ancient Rome, answering the phone, average lifetime, born with a crooked nose, brick, call, change for a dollar, clock tower, coins, commands, Concorde, deepest point, desserts, dimes, dutch, ebdangered languages, education, Empire State Building, Entertainment, equator, extinct language, fact, factoid, facts, Fiorello LaGuardia, flying, foreign language, german, Gulf of Mexico, hundred-dollar bill, Hungarian, Independence Hall, information, languages, Leo Tolstoy, London to New York, mayor, minus 40 degrees Celsius, minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit, Misc, Miscellaneous, money, names, New York Public Library, number please, operators, Patience and Fortitude, pennies, person, phrase, Police dogs, quarters, sign of leadership, stone lions, stressed, surface area, telephone, the Bible, time zones, trained, trivia, walk, War & Peace, Well are you there?

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

Another furious fact feast it is.

And I bet there are at least some of these you didn’t know.

So read on and….

Enjoy.

The bible is available

in 2454 languages.

There are 2,400 languages classified as being ‘endangered’.

231 languages are now completely extinct.

One language dies about every 14 days.

If you have 3 quarters, 4 dimes, and 4 pennies, you have $1.19.

You also have the largest amount of money in coins

without being able to make change for a dollar.

In the average lifetime, a person will walk

the equivalent of 5 times around the equator.

In the early days of the telephone,

operators would pick up a call and use the phrase,

“Well, are you there?”.

It wasn’t until 1895 that someone suggested

answering the phone with the phrase

“number please?”

The surface area of

an average-sized brick

is 79 cm squared.

It would take 11 Empire State Buildings,

stacked one on top of the other,

to measure the Gulf of Mexico at its deepest point.

It took Leo Tolstoy six years to write “War & Peace”.

(It took me longer to read it!)

The names of the two stone lions in front of the

New York Public Library are Patience and Fortitude.

They were named by then-mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.

When Concorde was flying from London to New York,

due to the time zones crossed,

you could arrive 2 hours before you departed.

Many Police dogs are trained to react to commands in a foreign language;

commonly German but more recently Dutch or Hungarian.

On the new hundred dollar bill the time

on the clock tower of Independence Hall is 4:10.

In ancient Rome,

it was considered a sign of leadership

to be born with a crooked nose.

Minus 40 degrees Celsius

is exactly the same as

minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Stressed

spelled backwards is

Desserts!

=====================================

Did You Know? It’s Another Fabulous Fasab Fact Day!

March 4, 2014March 4, 2014 fasab Factoids, Unusual 000 languages in the world, 57, 7, Adidas, Adolf Dassler, alligator, amusing, arrested, Australian, billionaire, Blue Star Line, canada, car accident, Clive Palmer, coma, Diet Coke, doctor, education, educational, empty orchestra, Entertainment, fact, factoid, facts, fall in love, founded, Ghengis Khan, hand bitten off, Heinz ketchup bottles, Holstein cow, imaginary languages, information, Japanese, Karaoke, King James Version, Lincoln Memorial, Lord of the Rings, Mel Blanc, Misc, Miscellaneous, Missy, most expensive cow, Nazi Party, Nishapur, Pandas, pickles, politicians, Psalm 46, Random, replica, RMS Titanic, Shakespeare, talk about a person, the Bible, Titanic II, trivia, unlawfully feeding of an alligator, US, US $5 dollar bill, varieties, voice of Bugs Bunny, Wallace Weatherholt

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

Yes folks, another fabulous fasab fact day.

Another random dive into the archives. I’m just as surprised as anyone else with what comes out.

I hope you enjoy.

In 2012 Wallace Weatherholt, a Florida airboat captain

whose hand was bitten off by a 9-foot alligator,

was arrested and charged

with unlawfully feeding an alligator!

The more you talk about a person to others,

the more you fall in love with that person.

Adidas was founded by a former member of the Nazi Party, Adolf Dassler.

Adi was a nickname and ‘das’ the first 3 letters of his last name.

There are about 7,000 languages in the world.

There are about 2,200 languages in Asia.

1/4 of the world’s population speaks at least some English.

There are 12 imaginary languages in Lord of The Rings.

The numbers ‘172’ can be found

on the back of the U.S. $5 dollar bill

in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial.

In 1221 Ghengis Khan killed 1,748,000

people at Nishapur in one hour.

(I think he had help!)

The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottles represents the

number of varieties of pickles the company once had.

There are more politicians in the US

than there are Pandas in the world.

(Were it the other way round I reckon

the country would be in a better condition!)

There is a Titanic II currently being built as a replica

and successor of the ill-fated Olympic-class RMS Titanic.

The project was announced by Australian billionaire Clive Palmer

in April 2012, as the flagship of his cruise company Blue Star Line,

with an intended launch date in 2016.

The ship’s inaugural voyage will be the same as that of the

original Titanic, from Southampton to New York.

Diet Coke was only invented in 1982.

The most expensive cow in the world is Missy,

a three year old black and white Holstein cow from Canada,

sold for $1.2 million dollars

at the Morsan Road to the Royal Sale in Uxbridge, Ontario.

It is believed that Shakespeare was 46 around the time

that the King James Version of the Bible was written.

In Psalms 46, the 46th word from the first word is shake

and the 46th word from the last word is spear.

“Karaoke” means “empty orchestra” in Japanese.

The man who provided the voice of cartoon legend Bugs Bunny,

Mel Blanc, was in a serious car accident and was in a coma.

After many unsuccessful attempts to get him to talk,

a doctor asked “Bugs can you her me?”

to which Mel responded in the voice of Bugs Bunny,

“What’s up doc?”

The doctors used this to lead him out of the coma.

======================================

The Monday Quiz Returns.

November 25, 2013November 16, 2013 fasab Questions, Tests banana, Bangles, Beethoven, Beijing Square, Bond movies, Boris Yelzin, boss, Buster Keaton, Canaan, capital, cheetah, China, codenames, conflict, crushed by tanks, Dallas, Daryl Hannah, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dustin Hoffman, education, educational, Entertainment, famous actor, fastest, first WBC heavyweight boxing champion, French underground movement, Frodo Baggins, fruit, gadgets, Galileo, Gary Burghoff, general knowledge, Geography, German Chancellor, Germans, Gort, government, Grizzly bear, Guava, handicap, Harold Lloyd, history, human, I coulda been a contender, I coulda been somebody, I coulda had class, India, James Bond, James Doohan, Japanese 'bullet' train, Jerry Garcia, Jesse James, King Richard III, knowledge, largest city, legend, literature, Lucy Ewing, M*A*S*H, Manic Monday, Misc, Miscellaneous, movie, movies, music, new country, New Zealand, Newfoundland, nickname, Nimitz class aircraft carrier, o'clock, Orange, Ostrich, Pakistan, peace symbol, Peregrin falcon, pig, port city, protests, question, questions, quiz, quizzes, race of giants, Radar O'Reilly, robot, secret recipe for Drambuie, semaphoric letters, slowest, song, sport, television, Telly Savalas, test, tests, the Bible, Tony Iommi, trivia, tv, TV series, Ugli, Vikings, world war ii

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

Yes, the Monday Quiz returns.

No surprises there, but maybe one or two in the questions.

Let’s see how you do this week.

If you get stuck the answers are, as usual, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down below – but please NO cheating!

Enjoy, and good luck!

Q. 1: What handicap did the composer Beethoven have?

Q. 2: According to legend, who rewarded a man for his loyalty by giving him the secret recipe for Drambuie?

Q. 3: Which two semaphoric letters are found on the famous anti war peace symbol from the 1960’s ?

Q. 4: In which movie would you find a robot called ‘Gort’?

Q. 5: What name did the Vikings give to Newfoundland?

Q. 6: What do all of the following have (or don’t have) in common?

Galileo, Jesse James, Jerry Garcia, Dustin Hoffman, James Doohan, Frodo Baggins, Tony Iommi, Telly Savalas, Boris Yelzin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Daryl Hannah and Gary Burghoff (‘Radar’ O’Reilly from M*A*S*H)

Q. 7: In literature, King Richard III was desperate and willing to pay a high price for what?

Q. 8: Which fruit is a port city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?

a) Orange

b) Banana

c) Ugli

d) Guava

Q. 9: In China in 1989 in which Beijing Square were the protests against the government crushed by tanks?

Q. 10: What is the name of the race of giants mentioned in the Bible who lived in Canaan?

Q. 11: “I coulda had class, I coulda been somebody, I coulda been a contender”. What famous actor said the words and in which famous movie?

Q. 12: Who was the first WBC heavyweight boxing champion in 1978?

Q. 13: What is the name of the current German Chancellor?

Q. 14: Put the following in the correct order starting with the fastest and ending with the slowest:

Human, Nimitz class aircraft carrier, Grizzly bear, A common pig, Cheetah, Japanese ‘bullet’ train, Ostrich, Peregrin falcon.

Q. 15: Which new country was formed in 1971 at the end of the Pakistan / India conflict?

Q. 16: Who played ‘Lucy Ewing’ in the hit TV Series ‘Dallas’ and what was her rather unkind nickname?

Q. 17: What was the name of the French underground movement that fought against the Germans in World War II?

Q. 18: Name the capital and the largest city in New Zealand (a point for each).

Q. 19: In the ‘Bond’ movies what were the codenames for James Bond’s boss and the person responsible for the gadgets he used?

Q. 20: What ‘o’clock’ is mentioned in the Bangles hit song ‘Manic Monday’?

ANSWERS

Q. 1: What handicap did the composer Beethoven have?

A. 1: He was hearing impaired.

Q. 2: According to legend, who rewarded a man for his loyalty by giving him the secret recipe for Drambuie?

A. 2: Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Q. 3: Which two semaphoric letters are found on the famous anti war peace symbol from the 1960’s ?

A. 3: N and D for Nuclear Disarmament.

Q. 4: In which movie would you find a robot called ‘Gort’?

A. 4: The Day The Earth Stood Still.

Q. 5: What name did the Vikings give to Newfoundland?

A. 5: Vinland.

Q. 6: What do all of the following have (or don’t have) in common?

A. 6: They are/were all missing a finger or fingers.

Q. 7: In literature, King Richard III was desperate and willing to pay a high price for what?

A. 7: “A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse.”

Q. 8: Which fruit is a port city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?

a) Orange

b) Banana

c) Ugli

d) Guava

A. 8: b) Banana

Q. 9: In China in 1989 in which Beijing Square were the protests against the government crushed by tanks?

A. 9: Tiananmen Square.

Q. 10: What is the name of the race of giants mentioned in the Bible who lived in Canaan?

A. 10: Nephilim.

Q. 11: “I coulda had class, I coulda been somebody, I coulda been a contender”. What famous actor said the words and in which famous movie?

A. 11: Marlon Brando in ‘On the Waterfront’.

Q. 12: Who was the first WBC heavyweight boxing champion in 1978?

A. 12: Ken Norton.

Q. 13: What is the name of the current German Chancellor?

A. 13: Angela Merkel.

Q. 14: Put the following in the correct order starting with the fastest and ending with the slowest:

Human, Nimitz class aircraft carrier, Grizzly bear, A common pig, Cheetah, Japanese ‘bullet’ train, Ostrich, Peregrin falcon.

A. 14: The correct order, fastest to slowest, is:

1) Japanese ‘bullet’ train (361 mph); 2) Peregrin falcon (200 mph); 3) Cheetah (70 mph); 4) Ostrich (40 mph); 5) Nimitz class aircraft carrier (34.5 plus mph); 6) grizzly bear (30 mph); 7. Human (28 mph); 8. Common pig (11 mph)

Q. 15: Which new country was formed in 1971 at the end of the Pakistan / India conflict?

A. 15: Bangladesh.

Q. 16: Who played ‘Lucy Ewing’ in the hit TV Series ‘Dallas’ and what was her rather unkind nickname?

A. 16: ‘Lucy Ewing’ was played by Charlene Tilton and her nickname because of her lack of height was the ‘Poison Dwarf’

Q. 17: What was the name of the French underground movement that fought against the Germans in World War II?

A. 17: The Maquis (If you are nice you can also claim a point for ‘French Resistance’)

Q. 18: Name the capital and the largest city in New Zealand (a point for each).

A. 18: Wellington is the capital; Auckland is the largest city.

Q. 19: In the ‘Bond’ movies what were the codenames for James Bond’s boss and the person responsible for the gadgets he used?

A. 19: They were known as ‘M’ and ‘Q’.

Q. 20: What ‘o’clock’ is mentioned in the Bangles hit song ‘Manic Monday’?

A. 20: 6 o’clock.

===========================================

Did You Know? More Fabulous Facts Folks!

October 15, 2013October 14, 2013 fasab Factoids $1 million, 1000, 50-star American flag, actor, airports, Amazon, AOL, Apple founder, attract animals, AZ, Barry Manilow, Beach Boy, bodyguard, British man, Bruce Johnston, California woman, Calvin Klein's Obsession for Men, cameras, Cap'n Crunch, CDs, changed his name, class project, Cocoon, Condoleezza Rice, counting, Crunch Berries, dachshunds, designed, Did You Know, disclaimer, Don Limpio, education, Entertainment, Excite, fabulous facts, facts, first A-bomb, Gaddafi, German measles, Google, Google's founders, hair grow, hippy, Hiroshima, hit, Howard Hughes, I Write the Songs, Kindle books, leaving office, letter "A", liberty hounds, liberty measles, Libyan rebels, Marie Curie's notebooks, McDonald's, Misc, Miscellaneous, Mr Clean, Nagasaki, numbers, Ohio high school student, Oregon, peed, photo album, Portland, President Lyndon B Johnson, pronounce, radioactive, red rock, researchers, reservoir, Ronald Wayne, Sedona, sell, spain, Steve Jobs biography, sue, teacher, telemarketers, the Bible, The China Syndrome, The Firm, The Hunger Games, The Thing, three-letter airport codes, Tim Pppppppppprice, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, turquoise arches, wilderness, Wilford Brimley, world, WWI, X

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

Not much else needs to be said about today’s post.

Another selection of fabulous facts.

Enjoy.

At one point in the 1990s,

50% of all CDs produced worldwide were for AOL.

A British man changed his name to Tim Pppppppppprice

to make it harder for telemarketers to pronounce.

Google’s founders were willing to sell to Excite

for under $1 million in 1999

—but Excite turned them down.

(Huge big dumb move, where is Excite today!)

Officials in Portland, Ore., drained 8 million gallons of water

from a reservoir in 2011 because a buzzed 21-year-old peed in it.

When three-letter airport codes became standard,

airports that had been using two letters simply added an X.

A California woman once tried to sue the makers of Cap’n Crunch

because Crunch Berries contained “no berries of any kind.”

Actor Wilford Brimley who has appeared in such films as

The China Syndrome, Cocoon, The Thing and The Firm,

was once Howard Hughes’s bodyguard.

According to Amazon, the most highlighted Kindle books are

the Bible, the Steve Jobs biography, and The Hunger Games.

During WWI, German measles were called “liberty measles”

and dachshunds became “liberty hounds.”

In Spain, Mr. Clean is known as Don Limpio.

After leaving office, President Lyndon B Johnson

went all hippy and let his hair grow out.

There was a third Apple founder. Ronald Wayne

he sold his 10% stake for $800 in 1976.

If you start counting at one and spell out the numbers as you go,

you won’t use the letter “A” until you reach 1,000.

In Gaddafi’s compound, Libyan rebels found a photo album

filled with pictures of Condoleezza Rice.

Calvin Klein’s Obsession for Men is used by researchers

to attract animals to cameras in the wilderness.

Only one McDonald’s in the world has turquoise arches.

Sedona, AZ thought yellow clashed with the natural red rock.

Marie Curie’s notebooks are still radioactive.

Researchers hoping to view them must sign a disclaimer.

The 50-star American flag was designed by an Ohio high school student

for a class project. His teacher originally gave him a B–.

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima for work

when the first A-bomb hit,

made it home to Nagasaki for the second,

and lived to be 93.

Barry Manilow did not write his hit “I Write the Songs.”

It was actually written by the former Beach Boy Bruce Johnston.

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Significant Number Factoid Friday – Today The Number Is Twelve 12 (Part 1)

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“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

Welcome to significant number factoid Friday.

Today the number is twelve and as usual it has a lot more associations that you might at first think. So many in fact that I have decided to split this post into two parts.

The second part (next Friday) will consist of the many entries in the ‘militaria’ section, while today’s will include the rest.

Even with the split it’s still a long post, but I hope those of you interested in numbers and their associations will enjoy reading it.

The Number Twelve 12

In religion

The number 12 is very important in many religions, mainly Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but also found in some other belief systems.
From the Bible we know that Jacob had 12 sons, (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin), who were the progenitors of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
The New Testament describes twelve apostles of Jesus; after Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus and hanged himself, a meeting was held (Acts) to add Matthias to complete the number twelve once more.
The Book of Revelation contains much numerical symbolism, and a lot of the numbers mentioned have 12 as a divisor.
Revelation 12:1 mentions a woman—interpreted as the people of Israel, the Church or the Virgin Mary—wearing a crown of twelve stars (representing each of the twelve tribes of Israel).
Also there are 12,000 people sealed from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, making a total of 144,000 (which is the square of 12 multiplied by a thousand).

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
In Orthodox Judaism, 12 signifies the age a girl matures (bat mitzvah)
There are 12 days of Christmas; the period of thirteen days including Epiphany is sometimes known as Christmastide, thus Twelfth Night is another name for the twelfth day of Christmas or January 5 (the eve of Epiphany).
Similarly, Eastern Orthodoxy observes 12 Great Feasts.
In Twelver (or Imami) Shi’a Islam, there are twelve Imams, successors of the prophet Muhammad. These twelve early leaders of Islam were—Ali, Hasan, Husayn, and nine of Husayn’s descendants. Imamah is the Shi‘ah doctrine of religious, spiritual and political leadership of the Ummah. The Shi‘ah believe that the A’immah (“Imams”) are the true Caliphs or rightful successors of Muhammad, and Twelver and Isma‘ili Shi‘ah further that Imams are possessed of supernatural knowledge, authority, and infallibility as well as being part of the Ahl al-Bayt, the family of Muhammad. Both beliefs distinguish the Shi‘ah from Sunnis.
In the Quran, the Sura number 12 is Sura Yusuf (Joseph), and it is located in Juz’a number 12. This Sura narrates the story of Prophet Yusuf and his 12 brothers.
In Hinduism, the sun god Surya has 12 names. Also, there are 12 Petals in Anahata (Heart Chakra. There are twelve “Jyotirlingas” in Hindu Shaivism. The Shaivites (orthodox devotees of God Shiva) treat them with great respect and they are visited by almost every pious Hindu at least once in a lifetime.

In antiquity there are numerous magical/religious uses of twelves.
Ancient Greek religion, the Twelve Olympians were the principal gods of the pantheon.
Greek mythology has the twelve labors of Hercules.
The chief Norse god, Odin, had 12 sons.
Several sets of twelve cities are identified in history as a dodecapolis, the most familiar being the Etruscan League.
In the King Arthur Legend, Arthur is said to have subdued 12 rebel princes and to have won 12 great battles against Saxon invaders.

In mathematics

Twelve is the smallest number with exactly six divisors, its divisors being 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12.
Twelve is a sublime number, a number that has a perfect number of divisors, and the sum of its divisors is also a perfect number.
Twelve is a superfactorial, being the product of the first three factorials.
The first four positive integers show up in the following equation 12 = 3 × 4, which can be continued with the equation 56 = 7 × 8.
A twelve-sided polygon is a dodecagon.
A twelve-faced polyhedron is a dodecahedron.

Regular cubes and octahedrons both have 12 edges, while regular icosahedrons have 12 vertices.
The duodecimal system (1210 [twelve] = 1012), which is the use of 12 as a division factor for many ancient and medieval weights and measures, including hours, probably originates from Mesopotamia.
In base thirteen and higher bases (such as hexadecimal), twelve is represented as C. In base 10, the number 12 is a Harshad number.

In science and technology

Twelve is the atomic number of magnesium in the periodic table.
The human body has twelve cranial nerves.
The duodenum (from Latin duodecim, “twelve”) is the first part of the small intestine, that is about twelve inches (30 cm) long. More precisely, this section of the intestine was measured not in inches but in fingerwidths. In fact, in German the name of the duodenum is Zwölffingerdarm and in Dutch the name is twaalfvingerige darm, both meaning “twelve-finger bowel”.
Vitamin B12, also called cobalamin, is a water-soluble vitamin with a key role in the normal functioning of the brain and nervous system, and for the formation of blood. It is one of the eight B vitamins. The vitamin is the largest and most structurally complicated vitamin and can be produced industrially only through bacterial fermentation-synthesis.
Dichlorodifluoromethane (R-12), a colorless gas usually sold under the brand name Freon-12, is a chlorofluorocarbon halomethane (CFC), used as a refrigerant and aerosol spray propellant. Complying with the Montreal Protocol, its manufacture was banned in the United States along with many other countries in 1996 due to concerns about damage to the ozone layer. It is soluble in many organic solvents. Dichlorodifluoromethane was also the main component of Silly String.

Force 12 on the Beaufort wind force scale corresponds to the maximum wind speed of a hurricane.
There are twelve function keys on most PC keyboards (F1 through F12)
There are twelve keys in any standard digital telephone (1 through 9, 0, * and #)
Microsoft’s Rich Text Format specification assigns numbers congruent to 12 mod 256 to variants of the French language.

In space

Messier object M12 is a magnitude 8.0 globular cluster in the constellation Ophiuchus.
The New General Catalogue object NGC 12 is a magnitude 13.1 spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces.
The 12th moon of Jupiter is Lysithea.
Twelve people have walked on Earth’s moon.
Telstar 12, is a commercial broadcast satellite used in telecommunications, operated by Loral Skynet. It is a Ku band satellite with coverage of North America as far West as Cleveland, Ohio, the majority of South America, Europe as far East as the United Arab Emirates and South Africa. Telstar 12 also has the capability to provide intercontinental connectivity including trans-Atlantic to the Mid-East.

Apollo 12
Apollo 12 was the sixth manned flight in the United States Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon (an H type mission).
It was launched on November 14, 1969 from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, four months after Apollo 11. Mission commander Charles “Pete” Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Alan L. Bean performed just over one day and seven hours of lunar surface activity while Command Module Pilot Richard F. Gordon remained in lunar orbit. The landing site for the mission was located in the southeastern portion of the Ocean of Storms.
Unlike the first landing by Apollo 11, Conrad and Bean achieved a precise landing at their expected location, the site of the Surveyor 3 unmanned probe, which had landed on April 20, 1967. They carried the first color television camera to the lunar surface on an Apollo flight, but transmission was lost after Bean accidentally destroyed the camera by pointing it at the Sun. On one of two moonwalks, they visited the Surveyor, and removed some parts for return to Earth.
The mission ended on November 24 with a successful splashdown.

STS-12
During the Space Shuttle program, several missions were cancelled. Many were cancelled as a result of the Challenger and the Columbia disasters. Many early missions were cancelled due to delays in the development of the shuttle. Others were cancelled because of changes in payload and missions requirements.
STS-12 was originally scheduled for launch on 30 January 1981. The crew of three were to place the satellites TDRS-C and Anik-C2 into orbit during the 2-day mission. An alternate mission was also planned which replaced the TDRS-C with an Intelsat-V satellite, and would last five days instead of two. TDRS-C was eventually made as the replacement for the destroyed TDRS-B and launched from Discovery on STS-26 in September 1988.
The crew of STS-12 were, Henry W. Hartsfield, Jr. (Commander); Michael L. Coats (Pilot); and Mission Specialists Richard M. Mullane, Steven A. Hawley and Judith A. Resnik.

Majestic 12
According to UFO conspiracy theory, Majestic 12 (or MJ-12) is the supposed code name of an alleged secret committee of scientists, military leaders, and government officials, formed in 1947 by an executive order by U.S. President Harry S. Truman. The purpose of the committee was to investigate the recovery of a UFO north of Roswell, New Mexico during July 1947.
Initial indications of such a group’s existence appeared in 1978 in declassified Canadian documents. Another reference to a classified group called “MJ-12” was discovered in 1980, but was later identified to be a hoax. In 1984 a set of documents was discovered in United States archives, which closely resemble real declassified documents, but which the FBI have declared to be “completely bogus”.
UFO conspiracy theories and the popular media based on them sometimes incorporate Majestic 12.

In politics

The 12th President of the United States of America (1849–1850) was Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850). An American military leader, his 40-year military career ended with far-reaching victories in the Mexican–American War. His status as a national hero won him election to the White House despite his vague political beliefs. His top priority as president was preserving the Union, but he died 16 months into his term, before making any progress on the status of slavery, which had been inflaming tensions in Congress.

The Twelfth Amendment (Amendment XII) to the United States Constitution provides the procedure for electing the President and Vice President. It replaced Article II, Section 1, Clause 3, which provided the original procedure by which the Electoral College functioned. Problems with the original procedure arose in the elections of 1796 and 1800. The Twelfth Amendment was proposed by the Congress on December 9, 1803, and was ratified by the required number of state legislatures on June 15, 1804.
The United States of America is divided into twelve Federal Reserve Districts (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas, and San Francisco); American paper currency has serial numbers beginning with one of twelve different letters, A through L, representing the Federal Reserve Bank from which the currency originated.

There are 12 stars are featured on the Flag of Europe

The French department Aveyron is number twelve.
In Northern Ireland the Twelfth of July is the main day of celebration and commemoration for the Protestant and Unionist community, and a public holiday.

In sport

The competition that was founded in 2001 as the Celtic League changed its name in 2011 to Pro12, reflecting its status as a 12-team league after it expanded in 2010 to include teams from Italy.
The Southern Hemisphere competition now known as Super Rugby was known from 1996 through 2005, an era in which it had 12 teams, as Super 12.
In both soccer and American football, the number 12 can be a symbolic reference to the fans because of the support they give to the 11 players on the field.
Texas A&M University reserves the number 12 jersey for a walk-on player who represents the original “12th Man”, a fan who was asked to play when the team’s reserves were low in a college American football game in 1922.
Bayern Munich, Hammarby, Feyenoord, Atlético Mineiro, Flamengo, Seattle Seahawks, Portsmouth and Cork City do not allow field players to wear the number 12 on their jersey because it is reserved for their supporters.
The jersey number 12 has been retired by several North American sports teams in honor of past playing greats (or, in one case, a team’s fans):
In Major League Baseball: the Tampa Bay Rays, for Hall of Famer Wade Boggs; the Toronto Blue Jays, for Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar.

In the NFL: the Buffalo Bills, for Hall of Famer Jim Kelly; the Miami Dolphins, for Hall of Famer Bob Griese; the New York Jets, for Hall of Famer Joe Namath; the San Francisco 49ers, for John Brodie; the Seattle Seahawks, for their fans (the “12th Man”); the Dallas Cowboys have a policy of not retiring numbers, however, the team has not issued #12 since the retirement of Hall of Famer Roger Staubach; the Pittsburgh Steelers currently have a policy of not retiring numbers, having retired only one number (70) in their earlier history, however, the Steelers have not issued #12 since the retirement of Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw.

In the NBA: the New York Knicks, for Dick Barnett; the Utah Jazz, for Hall of Famer John Stockton; the Cincinnati Royals, for Hall of Famer Maurice Stokes, who suffered a career-ending head injury in 1958, the team’s first season in Cincinnati and the franchise continues to honor the number in its current incarnation as the Sacramento Kings.

In the NHL: he Detroit Red Wings, for Hall of Famer Sid Abel; the Montreal Canadiens, for Hall of Famers Yvan Cournoyer and Dickie Moore; the Vancouver Canucks, for Stan Smyl; the jersey number 12 has also been retired by the men’s basketball program of the University of North Carolina for Phil Ford.

In Canadian football, 12 is the maximum number of players that can be on the field of play for each team at any time.
In ten-pin bowling, 12 is the number of strikes needed for a perfect game.
In curling, the House or the circular scoring area, is 12 feet in diameter.
In cricket, another sport with eleven players per team, teams may select a “12th man”, who may replace an injured player for the purpose of fielding (but not batting, bowling or keeping wicket).
In association football, 12 was also the number of teams in the finals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in its first two editions in 1991 and 1995.

In books, music, movies and TV

Books
‘Twelfth Night’ is a comedy by William Shakespeare.
‘Twelve Angry Men’ by Reginald Rose, was adapted from his own teleplay (see TV below).
‘The Twelve’ is a poem by Aleksandr Blok.
‘Twelve’ is a novel by Nick McDonell.
‘The Twelve Chairs’ is a satirical novel by the Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov.
‘Cheaper by the Dozen’ is a 1946 novel by Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey.
‘The Twelve Dancing Princesses’ is a folk tale.
‘The Aeneid’, an epic poem by Virgil is divided into two halves composed of twelve books.
‘Paradise Lost’, an epic poem by John Milton is divided into twelve books perhaps in imitation of the Aeneid.
In ‘The Hunger Games’, the fictional country of Panem is separated into twelve districts.

Music
Twelve is the number of pitch classes in an octave; the total number of major keys; and the total number of minor keys.
The twelfth is the interval of an octave and a fifth. Instruments such as the clarinet which behave as a stopped cylindrical pipe overblow at the twelfth.
The twelve-tone technique (also dodecaphony) is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg. Music using the technique is called twelve-tone music.
One of the most famous classical music pieces is the 1812 overture by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
The 12-inch single is a vinyl record format.
B12 are a British electronic music duo consisting of Mike Golding and Steve Rutter.
There is a group called ‘Twelve Girls Band’.
‘Twelfth Night’ is a progressive rock band.
‘12 Play’ is an R. Kelly album.
‘The Number 12 Looks Like You’ is a mathcore band.
‘Twelve’ is an album by Patti Smith.
‘Twelve Deadly Cyns…and Then Some’ is an album by Cyndi Lauper.
‘D12’ a rap group also known as the ‘Dirty Dozen’.
There is a musical group named ‘12 Stones’.
‘12’, a Song from Brave Murder Day by Katatonia.
‘12’ is a studio album by German singer Herbert Grönemeyer.
‘12’ is the 12th studio album by Keller Williams.
‘12 Hundred’ is a song by band Mushroomhead of their Savior Sorrow album.
‘12’ (“Dodeka” in Greek) is one of the most well-known hits by Anna Vissi.
‘Twelve drummers drumming’ is the gift on the twelfth day of Christmas in the carol ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’.
‘12:59 Lullaby’ by Bedouin Soundclash.
‘Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35’ by Bob Dylan.
‘Little 12 Toes’ by Chavez (band).
‘12 Hours’ by Davenport Cabinet.
‘12’ by Hot Chip.
‘Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses’ by Kathy Mattea.
‘Twelve Reasons Why’ by My Life Story.
‘Dozen Wicked Words’ by The Longpigs.
‘Prelude 12’ by Styx.
‘12:51’ by The Strokes.
‘12 Steps’ by Violent Femmes.
‘The 12th Of September’ by Xavier Rudd.
‘12 Fingers’ by Young the Giant.
‘12-Bar Original’ by The Beatles.
Twelve is the number of studio albums ‘The Beatles’ released.

Movies
Movies with the number twelve or its variations in their titles include
12
12.01
12 Angry Men (1957 and 1997)
Cheaper by the Dozen
Ocean’s Twelve
12 Monkeys
The Dirty Dozen
12 Rounds
Twelve

Television
The number twelve plays a significant role in the television franchise Battlestar Galactica. The characters come from the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and worship the twelve lords of Kobol. In the re-imagined series, there are also twelve models of the humanoid version of Cylons.
Twelve Angry Men, the original 1954 live performance on the anthology television series Studio One.
‘Number 12 Looks Just Like You’ is an episode of the television show The Twilight Zone.
Schoolhouse Rock! portrayed an alien child using base-twelve arithmetic in the short ‘Little Twelvetoes’.
12 Oz Mouse was an animated television show on Adult Swim.

In transport

Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior
The Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior, more commonly known as the Lockheed 12 or L-12, is an eight-seat, six-passenger all-metal twin-engine transport aircraft of the late 1930s designed for use by small airlines, companies, and wealthy private individuals.
A scaled-down version of the Lockheed Model 10 Electra, the Lockheed 12 was not popular as an airliner but was widely used as a corporate and government transport. Several were also used for testing new aviation technologies.
Aviator Milo Burcham flew a Lockheed 12A in the 1937 Bendix Trophy Race from Burbank, California to Cleveland, Ohio. This 12A had been modified with extra fuel tanks in the cabin, allowing it to save time by making the entire 2,043-mile (3,288 km) trip non-stop. The 12A came in fifth at an average speed of 184 mph (296 km/h); this was an impressive performance, since the first and fourth-place winners were both privately owned Seversky P-35 fighters.
Another Lockheed 12A, owned by Republic Oil Company and named The Texan, was modified by aviator Jimmie Mattern for a round-the-world flight attempt. Mattern filled the 12A’s cabin with fuel tanks and removed the cabin windows and door; the crew would enter the aircraft via a cockpit hatch. The aircraft was denied a U.S. permit for the flight following the Earhart incident (she had been flying a Lockheed 10 Electra), however it was pressed into action September 1937 in a long range search effort for Sigizmund Levanevsky who crashed somewhere between the North pole and Barrow, Alaska. “The Texan” was outfitted as a luxury transport afterward, and lost in a hangar fire in January 1938.

Hispano-Suiza J12
The Hispano-Suiza J12 was a luxury automobile made by Hispano-Suiza from 1931 to 1938. It replaced the Hispano-Suiza H6. The J12 was powered by a V12 engine with pushrod-operated overhead valves.
Hispano-Suiza suspended automobile production in 1938 to concentrate on the manufacture of aircraft engines.

Renault 12
The Renault 12 is a family car produced by French automaker Renault between 1969 and 1980. Available as a saloon (Berline) and estate (Break), it was also produced under license in many countries across the globe into the early 21st century.
In its first few years the 12 received praise from the European press for its spacious, comfortable interior, its styling, its performance and its low fuel consumption. However it fared worse in the North American press: in a test of the 1974 model, Road & Track was critical of the engine’s “obtrusive” noise, and called the heavy, non-power steering “a serious design flaw”. They also gave it “very poor marks” for the ventilation system.
Renault 12 production and sales ended in western Europe in 1980, but the model continued to be produced and sold by Renault affiliates elsewhere. The last R12 was produced in 1999 in Turkey, whilst Romanian automaker Dacia continued producing the R12-based 1310 sedan and estate until 2004 and the R12-based Dacia Pick-Up until December 2006.
In terms of sales the Renault 12 was a successful car, selling 2.5 million units.

McLaren M12
The McLaren M12 was an open-cockpit racing car developed by Bruce McLaren Motor Racing in 1969, solely for the purpose of selling to customers in the Can-Am series.
The M12 combined elements from two of McLaren’s previous efforts, the M6 series and the M8 series.
One of the more notable owners of an M12 was Chaparral Cars, who used the McLaren in the early 1969 Can-Am season while their own model’s development had been delayed.

BMW E12
The BMW E12 BMW 5-Series was made between 1972 and 1981. The E12 was the first series to bear the 5 Series name: the ‘5’ denoting BMW’s fifth ‘New Class’ platform. Designed as a replacement for the popular BMW New Class mid-size sedan, the E12 5-Series models were smaller than the large BMW E3 sedan but larger than the two-door 2002 models.
The E12 was replaced by the BMW E28 5 Series in 1981, although production continued until 1984 in South Africa.

Volkswagen W12 Coupe
The Volkswagen W12 Coupe (also known as the Volkswagen Nardò, with reference to the Nardò Ring vehicle test track, near to the Italian city of Nardò) was a concept car created by Volkswagen Passenger Cars in 1997.
The car is portrayed in games such as Heat Online, Gran Turismo, and the Test Drive series.
This car also featured in an April Fools joke as the new Volkswagen 2015 LeVanto.

Vector M12
The Vector M12 was a vehicle designed by parent company Megatech LTD the Vector Motors Corporation, and was the first vehicle produced after the hostile takeover of the company from Jerry Wiegert by the Indonesian company Megatech.
The vehicle was a rebodied Lamborghini Diablo with a chopper gun fiberglass body set on a lengthened Diablo chassis. It was a loose copy of the Vector AWX-3, which was not released due to the Megatech hostile takeover.
The M12 was able to accelerate from zero to 60 mph (97 km/h) in 4.8 seconds and had a top speed of 189 mph (304 km/h) and was produced from 1995 to 1999, when production was halted, partly due to slow sales of the cars and alleged mismanagement of the company.
The average price of the vehicle was $184,000 (USD). Today you can purchase a M12 normally for $65,000 to an astounding $189,000 paid by a purchaser of a purple M12 at Barrett Jackson for a record sale price.

Noble M12
The Noble M12 is a two-door, two-seat model, originally planned both as a coupe and as a convertible.
All M12s have been powered by modified bi-turbocharged Ford Duratec V6 engines. The M12 has a full steel roll cage, steel frame, and G.R.P. (fibreglass) composite clam shell body parts.
These famed “Ferrari killers” are extremely lightweight and stiff. Although looking to be track derived, the M12 performs very well on both road and track, with surprisingly good ride quality, but a rigid feel. This is achieved by having no anti-roll bars on the car. This allows the suspension to be stiff yet comfortable.

Ferrari F12 Berlinetta
The Ferrari F12 berlinetta (also unofficially referred to as the F12 Berlinetta or the F12) is a front mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive grand tourer produced by Italian sports car manufacturer Ferrari. The F12 Berlinetta, introduced to the public at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, replaces the Ferrari 599 series grand tourers.
The F12berlinetta was named “The Supercar of the Year 2012” by car magazine Top Gear.

Spyker E12 Zagato
Spyker Cars shareholder and CEO, Victor Muller hinted at a Maserati Quattroporte, Porsche Panamera rival with an eight-cylinder (the E8) or a twelve-cylinder (the E12) engine, but due to problems getting the D8 into production, the idea was ignored until recently when Muller has said he “believes now could be the time to resurrect the saloon.”
Muller believes it will take about four years from time E8/E12 is revealed to the time it starts production. In March 2011, Muller stated that the production version of the Spyker E8/E12 will use a twelve-cylinder instead of the proposed eight-cylinder engine.

V12 engine
A V12 engine is a V engine with 12 cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of six cylinders, usually but not always at a 60° angle to each other, with all 12 pistons driving a common crankshaft.
Since each cylinder bank is essentially a straight-6, this configuration has perfect primary and secondary balance no matter which V angle is used and therefore needs no balance shafts. A V12 with two banks of six cylinders angled at 60°, 120° or 180° (with the latter configuration usually referred to as a flat-12) from each other has even firing with power pulses delivered twice as often per revolution as a straight-6.
This allows for great refinement in a luxury car. In a racing car, the rotating parts can be made much lighter and thus more responsive, since there is no need to use counterweights on the crankshaft as is needed in a 90° V8 and less need for the inertial mass in a flywheel to smooth out the power delivery. In a large displacement, heavy-duty engine, a V12 can run slower than smaller engines, prolonging engine life.

W12 engine
A W12 engine is a twelve cylinder piston internal combustion engine in a W configuration.
W12 engines are manufactured in two distinct configurations. One configuration uses four rows of three cylinders merged into two ‘cylinder banks’ (two narrow-angle VR6 engine blocks), coupled to a common crankshaft – as in the Volkswagen Group W12. Another uses three banks of four cylinders coupled to a common crankshaft – as in the Napier Lion.

Other stuff

There are twelve basic hues in the color wheel; 3 primary colors (red, yellow, blue), 3 secondary colors (orange, green & purple) and 6 tertiary colors (names for these vary, but are intermediates between the primaries and secondaries).
There are 12 ounces in a troy pound (used for precious metals)
There are 12 signs of the zodiac.
In English, twelve is the number of greatest magnitude that has just one syllable.
There are normally twelve pairs of ribs in the human body.
The Twelve Tables or Lex Duodecim Tabularum, more informally simply Duodecim Tabulae was the ancient legislation underlying Roman law.
In the United States, twelve people are appointed to sit on a jury for felony trials in all but four states, and in federal and Washington, D.C. courts. The number of jurors gave the title to the play (and subsequent films) Twelve Angry Men.
There are 12 inches in a foot.
Twelve shillings made up one British pound in pre decimal currency.
There are 12 face cards in a normal card deck.
Alcoholics Anonymous has 12 steps, 12 traditions and 12 concepts for world service.
Most calendar systems have twelve months in a year.
The Western zodiac has twelve signs, as does the Chinese zodiac.
The Chinese use a 12 year cycle for time-reckoning called Earthly Branches.
There are twenty-four hours in a day, the hours being numbered from one to twelve for both the ante meridiem (a.m.) half of the day and the post meridiem (p.m.) half of the day. The basic units of time (60 seconds, 60 minutes, 24 hours) can all perfectly divide by twelve.

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Significant Number Factoid Friday – Today The Number Is Five Hundred 500

July 19, 2013July 19, 2013 fasab Business, Computers, Factoids, Numbers, Politics, Sport 1 Chronicles 4:42, 1000 km Zeltweg, 400 Days Project, 500, 500 Days of Summer, 500 Days Program, 500 Degreez, 500 Dunam on the Moon, 500 Festival Open Invitation, 500 Miglia di Monza, 500 Miles, 500 Miles Away from Home, 500 Nations, 500 Rum, 500 teams, 500 Up, 500th, 500th Air Expeditionary Group, 500th Air Refueling Wing, 500th post, 500th SS-Parachute Battalion, A500, AAI Acquisition Inc, Aérospatiale N 500 Cadet, Adam A500, Adam Aircraft Industries, AKJV, Allison T63 turbines, Amiga 1000, Amiga 500, Anguilla, Atari 520ST, Authorized King James Version, Autodromo Nazionale Monza, automobile race, Ayn Hawd, Österreichring, Barrett XM500 long range sniper rifle, Barrett XM500 rifle, Basic Guidelines for Stabilization of the Economy and Transition to a Market Economy, Bell System, Bobby Bare, Boeing 747, books, Burlington, business jet, business jet aircraft, C-5 Galaxy, card games, CCITT, Colony-class frigate, commodore, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, computer networking standards, computing, construction projects, D R Kaprekar, Daihatsu Charade Centro, Daihatsu L500, Daytona 500, documentary, Dodge Power Wagon, Dodge W500 Power Wagon, Eclipse 500, Eclipse Aviation, Edgar P Smith, education, Eniwetok Atolls, Entertainment, Europe, F500, fact, factoid, Fe415, Fe500, Fiat 500, Five Hundred Years After, Fletcher-class destroyer, folk song, Forbes 500, Ford Five Hundred, Formula 500, Formula One, Formula One World Championship, Fortune 500, French company, French hovercraft, Friday, G-Wagen G 500, Galaxie 500, Galaxy 500, General Dynamics, Georgia, Greentree Country Club, Gregory Harrison, Grigory Yavlinsky, Gulfstream Aerospace unit, Gulfstream G500, Gur, Harshad number, Haskins M500 rifle, Haskins Rifle, HMS Anguilla (K500), Honda, HTTP status code, I'm Gonna Be, I-500, India, Indianapolis 500, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IndyCar Series, integer, Internal Server Error, Iron Dog in Alaska, Israeli, Israeli Armor Corps 500 Brigade, Italy, ITU-T, Jack Leustig, Jim Rathmann, Jimmy Bryan, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kawasaki Z500, Kevin Costner, Kfir, Khaavren Romances, Kwajalein, L-1011, L-500, L500 Mira, L500 Miras, Lebanon War, light truck, Lil Wayne, Lockheed, Lockheed L-500, Manitoba, Marc Webb, Marcus Island, Mark Waters, market economy, mathematician, mathematics, Mercedes Benz, Mercedes-Benz 500 E, Michael H Weber, Midwestern Council of Sports Car Clubs, Mikhail Gorbachev, milestones, Militaria, Minnesota, Misc, Miscellaneous, monkey, Monzanapolis, Mossberg 500, movies, music, N500 Naviplane, NASCAR, Native Americans of North and Central America, Nikolai Ryzhkov, Niven number, Nord, Nova Aquilae, novel, number, number 500, numbers, P-500 Bazalt, Palestinian village, Pauillac, PGA Tour, politics, Porsche, Race of Two Worlds, Rachel Leah Jones, Random, RCC, Red Lake Indian Reservation, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, Reinforced Cement Concrete, reinforcement steel bars, religion, Rock Lobster, Romach, Royal Navy, S&P 500, S-500 "Samoderzhets", S500, Savannah, science, Scott Neustadter, Scottish group, Se'ara, SEDAM, Seven Clans Casino, Siege of Beirut, Significant Number, Skagit Regional Airport, Sloan, Smith & Wesson Model 500, SMTP status code, snowmobile, Société d'Etude et de Développement des Aéroglisseurs Marins, Soviet economy, Soviet Union, space, Speedway, sport, Sports Car Club of America, St Paul, Standard & Poor's 500, Stanislav Shatalin, Steven Brust, submarine chaser, Suez, supersonic cruise missile, Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, syntax error, Tarawa, The 500 Festival, the Bible, the Gilberts, The Hooters, The Proclaimers, Thief River Falls, Transition to the Market, transportation, Triton Aerospace, tv, Twentieth Air Force, United States Army Air Forces 500th Bombardment Group, United States Auto Club, United States Navy, USA, USAC National Championship, USCC Racing Association, USS Ringgold, USS SC-500, V500 Aquilae, Very Light Jet, VTOL, Waffen-SS, Wake Island, Washington, Western Electric model 500 telephone, Winnipeg, Wordpress, World Sportscar Championship, world war ii, X.500, Yom Kippur War, Young Lion, Zeltweg Airfield, Zooey Deschanel

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

It’s significant number factoid Friday and that’s not all.

Today also happens to be my 500th post – so the WordPress people tell me.

I usually let these milestones pass by unnoticed, but today rather than a randomly selected number what else can it be but post about the number 500.

So get some coffee and strap yourselves in, this might be a long one!

The number 500

In religion

500 only appears one time in the Bible, in 1 Chronicles 4:42, “And some of them, even of the sons of Simeon, five hundred men, went to mount Seir, having for their captains Pelatiah, and Neariah, and Rephaiah, and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi.” Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)

In mathematics & computing

500 is a Harshad number, also called a Niven number, which means that it is an integer that is divisible by the sum of it’s digits. Examples include 10, 21, 30, 42, 54, 63, 100 and, of course, 500. Harshad numbers were defined by D. R. Kaprekar, a mathematician from India.

500 is an HTTP status code for Internal Server Error
500 is also an SMTP status code meaning a syntax error has occurred due to unrecognized command

X.500
X.500 is a series of computer networking standards covering electronic directory services. The X.500 series was developed by ITU-T, formerly known as CCITT, and first approved in 1988. The directory services were developed in order to support the requirements of X.400 electronic mail exchange and name lookup. ISO was a partner in developing the standards, incorporating them into the Open Systems Interconnection suite of protocols. ISO/IEC 9594 is the corresponding ISO identification

Amiga 500
The Amiga 500 – also known as the A500 (or its code name “Rock Lobster”) – was the first “low-end” Commodore Amiga 16/32-bit multimedia home/personal computer designed to compete directly against the Atari 520ST.
The Amiga 500 represented a return to Commodore’s roots by being sold in the same mass retail outlets as the Commodore 64 – to which it was a spiritual successor – as opposed to the computer-store-only Amiga 1000.
The original Amiga 500 proved to be Commodore’s best-selling Amiga model, enjoying particular success in Europe. Although popular with hobbyists, arguably its most widespread use was as a gaming machine, where its advanced graphics and sound for the time were of significant benefit.

In science

Fe500 steel
The reinforcement steel bars used extensively in construction projects in RCC (Reinforced Cement Concrete) are designated as Fe415 or Fe500 depending on their Yield Strength.
Fe500 steel means the reinforcement steel rods (or bars) that can safely withstand an Yield Stress of 500 N/mm2.

In space

V500 Aquilae
The V500 Aquilae or Nova Aquilae 1943 was a nova which appeared in the constellation Aquila in 1943 and reached a brightness of 6.1 mag. Its brightness decreased in 30 days around 3 mag.

In politics

500 Days Program
The 500 Days Program was an ambitious program to overcome the economic crisis in the Soviet Union by means of transition into market economy.
The program was proposed by Grigory Yavlinsky and further developed by a work group under the direction of Stanislav Shatalin (an economic advisor to Mikhail Gorbachev). Before beginning work on the project, Shatalin had been assured by Gorbachev that he was serious about radically reforming the Soviet economy.
Therefore, in August 1990, the group issued a 400-page report titled “Transition to the Market”. It was based on the earlier “400 Days Project” prepared by Yavlinsky and became known colloquially as the “500 Days Program” as it intended to create the groundwork for a modern market economy in 500 days.
The report called for creation of a competitive market economy, mass privatization, prices determined by the market, integration with the world economic system, a large transfer of power from the Union government to the Republics, and many other radical reforms.
The 500 Days Program immediately gained the complete support of Boris Yeltsin and a more skeptical support from Mikhail Gorbachev; soon after, Nikolai Ryzhkov, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, openly repudiated it.
The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union delayed in adopting the program, eventually accepting a more moderate program for economic reform, titled: “Basic Guidelines for Stabilization of the Economy and Transition to a Market Economy”. The new program contained many measures from the 500-Days Program, but most notably lacked a timetable and didn’t mention the division of economic power between the Union and Republics.

In sport

NASCAR
Many NASCAR races often use the number 500 at the end of their race names, for example, the Daytona 500, to denote the length of the race (in miles, kilometers or laps).
The longest advertised distance (in miles) of the IndyCar Series and its premier race, is the Indianapolis 500.
The winning ‘per millage’ of a sports team with equal numbers of wins and losses. Such teams are often referred to as “500 teams”.

Race of Two Worlds
The Race of Two Worlds, also known as the 500 Miglia di Monza (500 Miles of Monza), was an automobile race held at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Italy in 1957 and again in 1958.
It was intended as an exhibition event, allowing American teams from the United States Auto Club (USAC) National Championship to compete directly against teams from the Formula One World Championship based in Europe. The two types of cars competed on the banked oval at Monza which had been completed in 1955. Due to the similarity to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the USAC teams ran the Indianapolis 500, the event earned the nickname Monzanapolis.
American drivers and teams won the event in both the years in which it was run, Jimmy Bryan in 1957 and Jim Rathmann swept in 1958.
Although some Formula One teams did participate and even build special cars specifically for the event, several withdrew over safety concerns. Continued concern over the speeds on the track and the cost of the event led to the race being canceled after the 1958 running.

1000 km Zeltweg
The 1000 km Zeltweg, originally known as the 500 km Zeltweg, was an endurance sports car event held near Zeltweg, Austria.
Originally based at the Zeltweg Airfield, the race moved to the Österreichring where it continued to be a regular event in the World Sportscar Championship.

Formula 500 (F500)
Formula 500 (F500) is a Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and Midwestern Council of Sports Car Clubs (MCSCC) open wheel road racing class.
Formula 500 was originally introduced in the early 1980s as Formula 440 (F440) and is a spec class in the sense that the engine, drivetrain, and shock absorbers are all tightly regulated, but the chassis, bodywork and other car parts are free for designers to experiment with within dimensional and structural limits. These regulations allow for very competitive racing at a relatively low cost which rewards driver and car set-up skill.

The 500 Festival Open Invitation
The 500 Festival Open Invitation was a PGA Tour event in Indianapolis, Indiana played in the 1960s.
It was sponsored by The 500 Festival, a not-for-profit volunteer organization that was created in 1957 to organize civic events to promote the Indianapolis 500.
The tournament was played at the Speedway Golf Course each year except in 1965 when it was played at Greentree Country Club while Speedway was undergoing renovations.

I-500
The I-500 is an American snowmobile 3 day event cross-country race (500 miles long, 170 miles a day) and is associated with the USCC Racing Association (USCC).
The race was first ran in 1966 from Winnipeg, Manitoba to St. Paul, Minnesota, but is now started at the Seven Clans Casino in Thief River Falls, Minnesotain Thief River Falls and is ran through the Red Lake Indian Reservation and finishes again at the starting line.
The I-500 has been known to be the most grueling snowmobile race of all time next to the Iron Dog in Alaska.

In transportation

Lockheed L-500
Lockheed planned a civilian version of the C-5 Galaxy, the L-500, in both passenger and cargo versions. The all-passenger version would have been able to carry up to 1,000 travelers, while the all-cargo version was predicted to be able to carry typical C-5 volume for as little as 2 cents per ton-mile (in 1967 dollars).
Although some interest was expressed by carriers, no orders were placed for either L-500 version, due to operational costs caused by low fuel efficiency, a significant concern for a profit-making carrier, even before the oil crisis of the 1970s.
Keen competition from Boeing’s 747, and high costs incurred by Lockheed in developing the C-5 and later, the L-1011, led to the governmental rescue of the company.

Gulfstream G500
The Gulfstream G500 and G550 are business jet aircraft produced by General Dynamics’ Gulfstream Aerospace unit, located in Savannah, Georgia, USA. They are variants of the Gulfstream V.

Adam A500
The Adam A500 is a six-seat civil utility aircraft that was produced by Adam Aircraft Industries. It is of pod-and-boom, push-pull configuration with its two Continental TSIO-550-E piston engines mounted to provide centerline thrust.
Adam Aircraft ceased operations on 11 February 2008, and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on 19 February 2008, having delivered seven A500s.
In April 2008 Adam Aircraft was purchased from bankruptcy by AAI Acquisition Inc. At the time of purchase this new company indicated that they would pursue certification of the A700 jet as a priority and that the A500 would not be produced due to the continuing poor market for piston-engined aircraft. AAI went out of business in April 2009 without producing any aircraft.
In April 2011 Triton Aerospace of Skagit Regional Airport in Burlington, Washington announced that they had acquired the assets of Adam Aircraft, including the aircraft type certificate and intend to return the A500 to production.

Eclipse 500
The Eclipse 500 is a small six-seat business jet aircraft manufactured by Eclipse Aviation. It was the first of a new class of Very Light Jet.
Production of the Eclipse 500 was halted in mid-2008 due to lack of funding and the company entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 25 November 2008. The company then entered Chapter 7 liquidation on 24 February 2009. After lengthy Chapter 7 procedure, Eclipse Aerospace was confirmed as the new owner of the assets of the former Eclipse Aviation on 20 August 2009 and opened for business on 1 September 2009.

Aérospatiale N 500 Cadet
The Aérospatiale N 500 Cadet was an experimental single-seat VTOL research aircraft developed and built by the French company Nord in the late 1960s.
The rather ugly-looking Nord 500 featured two 317-horsepower Allison T63 turbines which drove the large diameter propellers within the ducted shrouds. The ducts could be turned to the horizontal position for vertical lift during takeoff and landing, and then rotated to the vertical position for forward flight. Directional control of the Nord 500 during vertical flight was done by small winglets attached to the bottom of each duct. During forward flight the aircraft was controlled using a conventional rudder/elevator tail setup.

N500 Naviplane
The N500 Naviplane was a French hovercraft built by SEDAM (Société d’Etude et de Développement des Aéroglisseurs Marins) in Pauillac, Gironde for the cross channel route. Intended to have a large passenger and crew capacity, it was for a while the largest hovercraft.
However, only two were built. The first was destroyed by a fire before entering service, the second proved unreliable and was broken up at the end of its service.

Mercedes-Benz 500 E
From 1990 to 1994 (model years 1991–1994), Mercedes-Benz sold a high-performance version of the W124, the Mercedes-Benz 500 E (W124.036).
The 500 E was created in close cooperation with Porsche; each 500 E was hand-built by Porsche, being transported back and forth between the Mercedes plant and Porsche’s Rossle-Bau plant in Zuffenhausen, Germany during assembly — taking a full 18 days to complete each model.
Design began in 1989 and into 1991. Called ‘500 E’ through model year 1993, for model year 1994 it was face-lifted along with the rest of the range and renamed to ‘E 500’.

G-Wagen G 500
In 1989, for the 10th anniversary of the G Model, a new model variant with permanent 4-wheel drive, a wood-trimmed interior and optional Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) debuted at the Frankfurt International Motor Show. Production began the following April. In 1992 the 100,000th G Model was built in Graz.
For 1999 a limited run of V 8 powered “G 500 Classic” special editions marked the model’s 20th anniversary.
In Siberia in 2006, a documentary filmmaker was the first foreigner to reach the world’s coldest region with a passenger vehicle in winter, driving a stock G 500 nearly 19,000 km without a single breakdown, in temperatures as frigid as -63°F/-53°C.

Fiat 500
The Fiat 500 was a car produced by the Fiat company of Italy between 1957 and 1975.
It was a cheap and practical, but very small town car, measuring only 2.97 metres (9 feet 9 inches) long. It is considered one of the first city cars.
In 2007, the 50th anniversary of the 500’s launch, Fiat launched the new Fiat 500, stylistically inspired by the 500 but considerably heavier and larger, featuring a front-mounted engine and front-wheel drive.

Ford Five Hundred
The Ford Five Hundred (code name D258) is a full-size sedan that was produced by the Ford Motor Company during the 2005 to 2007 model years in North America. In North America, the name evoked the classic Fairlane 500 and Galaxie 500 models of the 1950s through 1970s.

Daihatsu L500 Mira
The L500 was Daihatsu’s first kei class vehicle to feature a four-cylinder engine, with the option of the new JB series engine.
In Australia the L500 Mira was sold as the Daihatsu Charade Centro. The model production was closed in 1995 only in Pakistan, as the Daihatsu Cuore. The L500 has rolled off the assembly line of Toyota Indus Motor Company since 2000, with the 847 cc carburetor engine (ED-10) which has been used in export models since 1986.

Honda S500
The S500 was the first production car from Honda, released in 1963, following the T360 truck into production by four months. It was a larger displacement variant of the S360 roadster which, though developed for sale in 1962, was never produced.
Like the S360, the S500 used a high-tech engine developed from Honda’s motorcycle expertise.
The car was priced at $1,275 in 1963. An optional fiberglass hardtop was also available. 1,363 S500s were produced from October 1963 through September 1964. Competitors included the Datsun Fairlady, the Toyota Sports 800, and the Daihatsu Compagno.

Dodge W500 Power Wagon
The Dodge Power Wagon was a four wheel drive light truck produced from 1945 through 1980. The early version was based on the WC series of Dodge 3/4 ton Military trucks produced during World War II. The Power Wagon, as a Civilian vehicle, continued the lineage of Dodge four wheel drive Dodge trucks from the 1930’s, proving basic four wheel drive design concepts and representing a significant predecessor to the many four wheel drive trucks in modern use today.
The two-ton W500 Power Wagon (only a chassis cab was built) was introduced in 1956 as the C3-HW, and lasted through the 1971 model year. This was replaced in 1972 with the W600 (also cab and chassis only), which was produced until 1977, when all Dodge medium-duty models were discontinued. To compensate for the loss of the medium-duty W600 a new W400 chassis cab was introduced in 1977.

Kawasaki Z500/Z550 series
The Kawasaki Z500/Z550 series began with the 1979 Z500, a scaled-down version of the Kawasaki Z1R. Early Z550 models (1980-1981) had a double disk brake in the front (The US model KZ550 had a single disc brake) and a drum brake in the rear, with a conventional swingarm using twin shock absorbers. Later models (1982-1983) had improved brakes (twin discs in the front, with a single disc in the rear). The original Z500 (1979-1980) differed from the early Z400/Z550 models in having twin front and single rear discs.

In books, music, movies and TV

“Five Hundred Years After” is the second novel in the Khaavren Romances fantasy series by Steven Brust. It is set in the fantasy world of Dragaera. The novel is heavily influenced by the d’Artagnan Romances written by Alexandre Dumas, and Brust considers the series an homage to that author. The book’s title corresponds with the second Musketeer novel, ” Twenty Years After”.

An American alternative rock band is named Galaxie 500. A Canadian rock band now Galaxie, formerly used the name Galaxie 500.
North Carolina rock band Fetchin Bones released an album in 1987 called Galaxy 500.
“500 Miles” is a folk song made popular in the world during the 1960s.
“500 Miles Away from Home” by Bobby Bare
“500 (Shake, Baby, Shake)” by Lush
“500 Miles” by The Hooters
“500 Up” is a song by Canadian rock band Sloan.
“500 Degreez” is the third studio album by American rapper Lil Wayne, released July 23, 2002 on Cash Money Records.
“I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” is a song written and performed by a Scottish group called ‘The Proclaimers’. It was released on their 1988 “Sunshine on Leith” album, and subsequently as a single. It has become one of their most popular songs, reaching No. 11 in the UK charts and No. 1 on the Australian ARIA Charts in 1989, and No. 3 in the United States Billboard Hot 100 in 1993 when the song appeared in the film Benny and Joon.

“500 Dunam on the Moon” is a 2002 documentary film directed by Israeli director Rachel Leah Jones, about Ayn Hawd a Palestinian village that was captured and depopulated by Israeli forces in the 1948 war.
“(500) Days of Summer” is a 2009 American comedy-drama film written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, directed by Marc Webb, produced by Mark Waters, and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. The film employs a nonlinear narrative structure, with the story based upon its male protagonist and his memories of a failed relationship. It was an unexpected ‘hit’ and lauded by the critics.

“500 Nations” is an eight-part documentary on the Native Americans of North and Central America, from pre-Columbian to the end of the 19th century. The series was hosted by Kevin Costner, narrated by Gregory Harrison, and directed by Jack Leustig.

In militaria

HMS Anguilla (K500)
HMS Anguilla (K500) was a Royal Navy Colony-class frigate in commission from 1943 to 1946, serving during World War II.
Originally ordered by the United States Navy as the Tacoma-class patrol frigate USS Hallowell (PF-72), later renamed USS Machias (PF-72), she was transferred to the United Kingdom under Lend-Lease on 15 October 1943, as HMS Anguilla (K500).
On 29 April 1945, while escorting Convoy RA-66 outbound from the Soviet port of Murmansk, she joined the frigates HMS Loch Insh (K433) and HMS Cotton (K510) in sinking the German submarine U-286 in the Barents Sea north of Murmansk. The following day, Anguilla was forced to sink with gunfire the British frigate HMS Goodall (K479), which U-286 had heavily damaged.
The United Kingdom returned Anguilla to the United States on 31 May 1946. She was sold to Pro-Industry Products of New York City on 13 June 1947 for scrapping.

USS Ringgold (DD-500)
The USS Ringgold (DD-500), a Fletcher-class destroyer, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Rear Admiral Cadwalader Ringgold (1802–1867).
Ringgold was part of a fast carrier task force built around USS Yorktown (CV-10), USS Essex (CV-9), and USS Independence (CVL-22) and was used at Marcus Island, a raid in the Gilberts, Wake Island, and Tarawa,
Ringgold also took part in the assault and capture of Kwajalein and of Eniwetok Atolls, the assault and capture of Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea, the invasion of Guam and Morotai Island, in the Northern Moluccas, and the landings on Panaon Island off southern Leyte in the Philippines. In February 1945, Ringgold was part of the first carrier strikes against the Japanese mainland and Okinawa in support of the Iwo Jima operation.
Ringgold was decommissioned on 23 March 1946, and placed in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Charleston, South Carolina, where she remained into 1959. Designated for transfer to the Federal Republic of Germany under the military assistance program, she underwent modernization and outfitting at the Charleston Naval Shipyard.

USS SC-500
The USS SC-500 was a United States Navy SC-497 class submarine chaser in commission from 1942 to 1945.
After World War II service in the U.S Navy, SC-500 was selected for transfer to the Soviet Navy in Project Hula – a secret program for the transfer of U.S. Navy ships to the Soviet Navy at Cold Bay, Territory of Alaska, in anticipation of the Soviet Union joining the war against Japan. Following the completion of training for her Soviet crew, SC-500 was decommissioned on 10 June 1945 at Cold Bay and transferred to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease immediately. Also commissioned into the Soviet Navy immediately, she was designated as a bolshiye okhotniki za povodnimi lodkami (“large submarine hunter”) and renamed BO-319 in Soviet service. She soon departed Cold Bay and, after a stop at Adak to refuel and re-provision, proceeded to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Soviet Union, where she served as a patrol vessel in the Soviet Far East.
In February 1946, the United States began negotiations for the return of ships loaned to the Soviet Union for use during World War II, and on 8 May 1947, United States Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal informed the United States Department of State that the United States Department of the Navy wanted 480 of the 585 combatant ships it had transferred to the Soviet Union for World War II use returned. However, deteriorating relations between the two countries as the Cold War broke out led to protracted negotiations over the ships, and by the mid-1950s the U.S. Navy found it too expensive to bring home ships that had become worthless to it anyway. Many ex-American ships were merely administratively “returned” to the United States and instead sold for scrap in the Soviet Union, while others, at the suggestion of the Soviets, were destroyed off the Soviet coast under the observation of American naval authorities. In 1956, BO-319 was destroyed, probably off Nakhodka, under the latter arrangement.

The 500th Air Expeditionary Group
The 500th Air Expeditionary Group is a provisional United States Air Force unit. Its last known assignment was at Christchurch, New Zealand, where it was activated for the summer 2005-2006 season.
The unit’s origins lie with its predecessor unit, the United States Army Air Forces 500th Bombardment Group, which was part of Twentieth Air Force during World War II. The 500th engaged in very heavy bombardment operations against Japan, using the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. It was awarded two Distinguished Unit Citations for actions in 1945.
The 500th Air Refueling Wing replaced the 4045th Air Refueling Wing as a Strategic Air Command tanker unit at Selfridge Air Force Base, Michigan on 1 January 1963. The two units were consolidated in 1984.
In 2002, the consolidated unit was converted to provisional status as the 500th Air Expeditionary Group. It has been activated several times to support operations in Antarctica.

500th SS-Parachute Battalion
The 500th SS-Parachute Battalion was the parachute unit of the Waffen-SS.
The idea to form a paratrooper unit within the Waffen-SS allegedly came directly from Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler.

Israeli Armor Corps 500 Brigade
The Israeli Armor Corps 500 Brigade, also known as the Kfir (Young Lion), was formed out of a regular-service tank brigade which existed from 1972 to 2003 and was originally composed of three battalions: the Romach (429), Se’ara (430), and Gur (433) battalions.
During the Yom Kippur War, it fought in the battle over the city of Suez under the 162nd Division, and was led by Colonel Aryeh Keren. Primarily relying on the Magach tank, it was situated in the Sinai border, until the beginning of the withdrawal following the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty, when it was moved to the Jordan valley.
During the 1982 Lebanon War, it fought in the central front (again under the 162nd Division), where it took part in the Siege of Beirut.

P-500 Bazalt
The P-500 Bazalt is a liquid-fueled, rocket-powered, supersonic cruise missile used by the Soviet and Russian navies. It was developed by OKB-52 MAP (later NPO Mashinostroyeniye), and entered service in 1973 to replace the SS-N-3 Shaddock. The P-500 Bazalt was first deployed in 1975 on the Soviet aircraft carrier Kiev, and was later added to both the Echo II class submarine and the Juliett class submarine. A version of the P-500 Bazalt with improved guidance and engines is used on the Slava class cruiser. The sixteen launchers dominate the decks of the class.

S-500 “Samoderzhets” (“Autocrat”)
The S-500 “Samoderzhets” (“Autocrat”), also known as 55R6M “Triumfator-M”, is a new generation Russian surface-to-air missile system, designed for intercepting intercontinental ballistic missiles and for defense against Airborne Early Warning and Control, Airborne Warning and Control System, and jamming aircraft. It is being developed by the Almaz-Antey company.
It has a planned range of 600 km (373 mi), and would be able to detect and simultaneously engage up to 10 ballistic supersonic targets flying at a speed of 5 km/s.
Under the State Armament Programme 2020 (GPV-2020), it is planned to purchase 10 S-500 battalions for the Russian Aerospace Defense (VKO).

Smith & Wesson Model 500
The Smith & Wesson Model 500 is a five-shot, single action/double-action large caliber revolver produced by Smith & Wesson, firing the .500 S&W Magnum cartridge, a .50 caliber bullet.
It is built on S&W’s largest frame, the X-Frame, which was developed because none of S&W’s existing double-action frame designs could handle the muzzle energy and pressures generated by the .500 S&W cartridge.
It is the most powerful production revolver in the world today, and it is being marketed as being “the world’s most powerful handgun” by the manufacturer. Its primary design purpose was as a hunting handgun cartridge capable of taking all North American game species.
There are a few other larger revolvers like for instance the Pfeifer Zeliska .600 Nitro Express revolver, however none of them are a “production” revolver.

Haskins M500 rifle
The Haskins Rifle, also known as the RAI 300 (Research Armament Model 300) or Haskins M500 rifle was a bolt-action weapon designed by Jerry Haskins between 1981 and 1982 for snipers in the US Military. Unlike most military sniper rifles, the Haskins was purpose-built for the military, not reworked from an existing civilian firearm – another such sniper rifle was the Soviet SVD.
Several experimental cartridges were produced, culminating in a convertible lightweight bolt-action rifle able to use .50 caliber machine-gun cartridges, or a lighter, faster, than-wildcat cartridge optimized for antipersonnel use, with some antimaterial ability.
The US Army declined to purchase the lighter rifle, but purchased a small number of the .50 caliber rifles. They are now used by some United States Army Special Forces snipers. The Haskins m500 sniper rifle fires a .50 caliber round as far as 2 km and can still hit a target the size of a garbage bin.

Barrett XM500 long range sniper rifle
The Barrett XM500 rifle is the most recent creation of famous American Barrett Firearms Company. It was first shown in 2006, is intended to provide lighter and more compact alternative to popular Barrett M82 “Light fifty” rifle, which is widely used by military and law enforcement forces around the world.
The new weapon provides better accuracy (because of stationary, non-recoiling barrel) and same range as Light Fifty, while being lighter and significantly shorter, thanks to its bullpup layout.
According to available information, this rifle is developed primarily for US Armed forces, and is still in development / prototype stage.

Mossberg 500 Series
The Mossberg 500 is the name of a series of shotguns manufactured by O.F. Mossberg & Sons. The 500 series comprises widely varying models of hammerless, pump action repeaters, all of which share the same basic receiver and action, but differ in bore size, barrel length, choke options, magazine capacity, and “furniture” (stock and forearm) materials. Model numbers included in the 500 series are the 500, 505, 510, 535, and 590.

In other stuff

‘500’ is the name of two different card games. ‘500’ or ‘Five Hundred’ is a trick taking game based on Euchre and devised in America shortly before 1900 and promoted by the United States Playing Card Company, who copyrighted and marketed the rules in 1904. ‘500 Rum’ is the name for a rummy type game.
A ‘Monkey’ is a UK slang for £500 and a USA slang for $500.

Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies incur. The list includes publicly and privately held companies for which revenues are publicly available. The first Fortune 500 list was published in 1955.
The concept of the Fortune 500 was created by Edgar P. Smith, a Fortune editor.

Forbes 500
The Forbes 500 was an annual listing of the top 500 American companies produced by Forbes Magazine. The list was calculated by combining five factors: sales, profits, assets, market value, and employees. The list was last issued in March 2003 (based on 2002 data for the companies); it is no longer calculated each year and has been replaced by the Forbes Global 2000, which includes non-U.S. companies but is calculated on a similar basis as the old Forbes 500 (although it does not include employees).

S&P 500
The S&P 500, or the Standard & Poor’s 500, is a stock market index based on the market capitalizations of 500 leading companies publicly traded in the U.S. stock market, as determined by Standard & Poor’s. It differs from other U.S. stock market indices such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq due to its diverse constituency and weighting methodology. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices and many consider it the best representation of the market as well as a bellwether for the U.S. economy. The National Bureau of Economic Research has classified common stocks as a leading indicator of business cycles.

Western Electric model 500 telephone
The Western Electric model 500 telephone series was the standard desk-style domestic telephone set issued by the Bell System in North America from 1950 through the 1984 Bell System divestiture.
Millions of model 500-series phones were produced and were present in almost every home in North America. Many are still in use today because to their durability and ample availability.
Its modular construction simplified manufacture and repair, and facilitated a large number of variants with added features.
Touch-Tone service was introduced to residential customers in 1963 with the model 1500 telephone, which had a push-button dial for the ten digits. The model 2500 telephone, introduced in 1968, added the * and # keys, and is still in production today by several manufacturers.

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