Did You Know? – Another Round Of Fabulous Facts!

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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Another random bunch of facts for you today.

I think I prefer the final one the best because of its irony and the fact that it illustrates that people can sometimes delude and convince themselves into believing they saw what the really didn’t.

Anyway, here they are, so choose your own favorite, but whatever you do….

Enjoy.

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facts 02

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The US Constitution contains many

spelling and grammatical errors.

american-constitution

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The term ‘Lunatic’ is derived from the Latin word ‘luna’ meaning ‘moon’.

It originated from the belief that insanity is caused by changes in the moon.

Lunatic

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Thirty-three light years away there is an

exoplanet completely covered in burning ice.

burning ice

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James Stephen “Steve” Fossett was an American businessman,

and a record-setting aviator, sailor, and adventurer

who, in 2002, became the first person to

fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon.

Steve Fossett

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At its peak the Roman Empire

stretched for 2.51 million square miles,

but it was only the 19th largest empire in history.

Roman_Empire_Map

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Throughout the 1800s people were buried alive so often

that coffins included mechanisms to allow those people

to ring a bell in the graveyard.

people were buried alive so often that coffins included mechanisms to allow those people to ring a bell in the graveyard

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Homer and Langley Collyer, two compulsive hoarders,

were found buried beneath a collapsed pile of

the things they had stored in their house over the years.

Homer and Langley Collyer house

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The last time a cavalry charge was used on the battlefield

was during WWII when a Mongolian cavalry division

charged a German infantry division.

Two thousand Mongolians were killed

and not a single German died.

Mongolian cavalry division

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In ancient Egypt some servants were covered in honey

to attract flies away from the pharaoh.

(I suppose it’s better than the alternative!)

servants were covered in honey to attract flies away from the pharaoh

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June 28, 2014 was the 100 year anniversary of the assassination

of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria,

heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne,

who was killed in Sarajevo along with his wife Duchess Sophie

by Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip.

This was the incident that led to the Great War,

also now known as World War I.

assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

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Although several notable people died on the toilet,

one of the most famous is probably Elvis Presley.

Doctors attributed his death to too many prescription drugs.

elvis-presley-s-toilet

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When pizza deliveryman Brian Wells

was stopped by the police in the middle of a bank robbery

no one believed his story that he had been forced to do it

by some people he had delivered pizza to.

He kept on pleading with the officers saying that

the necklace he was wearing was a bomb.

Unfortunately for him though,

the bomb squad didn’t show up early enough.

pizza deliveryman Brian Wells

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Almost one-seventh (840) of all the languages on Earth

are spoken in one country…

Papua New Guinea.

map_of_papua-new-guinea

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When it was first built,

Disney’s Tomorrowland

was supposed to represent

the far off future year of 1986.

Tomorrowland_Disneyland

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A famous proponent of healthy eating and organic farming,

Jerome Irving Rodale died of a heart attack

while being interviewed on the Dick Cavett Show in 1971.

Some of his last words were that [he] would

“live to 100, unless [he was] run down by a a sugar-crazy taxi driver”.

Appearing fast asleep during the show, Dick Cavett joked

“Are we boring you, Mr. Rodale?”

before discovering that his 72-year-old guest had indeed died.

Many people are convinced they saw this on TV

but the incident was never aired.

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Are You Up For A Challenge? – It’s The Monday Quiz.

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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Quite a mixture of questions today.

Some are easy, some are difficult, and some should be easy but I have a feeling they may turn out to be quite difficult too!

As usual the answers are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down below, but please, NO cheating.

Enjoy and good luck.

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Quiz 6

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Q.  1:  You’ve seen it hundreds if not thousands of times, so how many milk bottles are standing on the porch when Fred Flintstone puts out the cat?

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Q.  2:  Who was assassinated in Dallas on 24 November 1963?

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Q.  3:  Who was known as ‘The Serpent of the Nile’?

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Q.  4:  How many amendments have their been to the US Constitution?

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Q.  5:  For which event of 1872 is the name of Captain Briggs remembered?

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Q.  6:  What was abolished by France in 1981, The Netherlands in 1982, Australia in 1985 and New Zealand in 1989?

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Q.  7:  How many colored squares are on a Rubik cube?

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Q.  8:  A famous Irish novelist and poet, he was born in 1882 and died in 1941, who was he?

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Q.  9:  Who directed the movie ‘Jurassic Park’?

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Q. 10:  What famous IT company launched a clothing line in 1986?

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Q. 11:  Which great Carthegian general crossed the Alps in 218?

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Q. 12:  For how many years did the famous ‘Pony Express’ operate in America?

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Q. 13:  On what date in 1883 did France officially present the Statue of Liberty to the US?

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Q. 14:  Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock had one of the most celebrated and successful collaborations of any actor/director pair in history. Name as many of their movies as you can (and you get a point for each correct answer).

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Q. 15:  Who had 7 members of a rival gang killed on St Valentines day 1929?

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Q. 16:  Who or what is the Presidential retreat ‘Camp David’ named after?

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Q. 17:  Who said “Read my lips, no new taxes”?

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Q. 18:  What was the name of the domestic videocassette tape recorder system introduced by Sony in 1975?

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Q. 19:  Which famous Arab / Israeli war took place in 1973?

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Q. 20:  In the long running hit television series ‘Magnum P.I.’, what was the character name of the ex-British Army Officer who looked after the estate in which Magnum lives?

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ANSWERS

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Q.  1:  You’ve seen it hundreds if not thousands of times, so how many milk bottles are standing on the porch when Fred Flintstone puts out the cat?

A.  1:  One. (You should have known that!)

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Q.  2:  Who was assassinated in Dallas on 24 November 1963?

A.  2:  Lee Harvey Oswald.

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Q.  3:  Who was known as ‘The Serpent of the Nile’?

A.  3:  Cleopatra.

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Q.  4:  How many amendments have their been to the US Constitution?

A.  4:  27.

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Q.  5:  For which event of 1872 is the name of Captain Briggs remembered?

A.  5:  He Was The Captain Of The Marie Celeste.

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Q.  6:  What was abolished by France in 1981, The Netherlands in 1982, Australia in 1985 and New Zealand in 1989?

A.  6:  The Death Penalty.

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Q.  7:  How many colored squares are on a Rubik cube?

A.  7:  54 (A cube has 6 sides and there are 9 colored squares per side.)

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Q.  8:  A famous Irish novelist and poet, he was born in 1882 and died in 1941, who was he?

A.  8:  James Joyce.

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Q.  9:  Who directed the movie ‘Jurassic Park’?

A.  9:  Steven Spielberg.

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Q. 10:  What famous IT company launched a clothing line in 1986?

A. 10:  Apple.

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Q. 11:  Which great Carthegian general crossed the Alps in 218?

A. 11:  Hannibal.

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Q. 12:  For how many years did the famous ‘Pony Express’ operate in America?

A. 12:  The ‘Pony Express’ only lasted a single year before the transcontinental telegraph made the route obsolete.

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Q. 13:  On what date in 1883 did France officially present the Statue of Liberty to the US?

A. 13:  4th July.

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Q. 14:  Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock had one of the most celebrated and successful collaborations of any actor/director pair in history. Name as many of their movies as you can (and you get a point for each correct answer).

A. 14:  Cary Grant appeared in 4 Hitchcock movies, ‘Suspicion’ in 1941; ‘Notorious’ in 1946; ‘To Catch A Thief’ in 1955; and ‘North By North-West’ in 1959.

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Q. 15:  Who had 7 members of a rival gang killed on St Valentines day 1929?

A. 15:  Al Capone.

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Q. 16:  Who or what is the Presidential retreat ‘Camp David’ named after?

A. 16:  Presidential retreat Camp David is named after Dwight Eisenhower’s grandson.

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Q. 17:  Who said “Read my lips, no new taxes”?

A. 17:  George Bush.

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Q. 18:  What was the name of the domestic videocassette tape recorder system introduced by Sony in 1975?

A. 18:  Betamax.

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Q. 19:  Which famous Arab / Israeli war took place in 1973?

A. 19:  The Yom Kippur war.

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Q. 20:  In the long running hit television series ‘Magnum P.I.’, what was the character name of the ex-British Army Officer who looked after the estate in which Magnum lived?

A. 20:  Jonathan Quayle Higgins III, but ‘Higgins’ will get you a point.

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