my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon   » Useless Fact's (Page 16)

This topic comprises 88 pages: 1  2  3  ...  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  ...  86  87  88

Author Topic: Useless Fact's Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 02-04-2003 11:04 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Are foods labeled "natural" really all natural? There are no federal guidelines governing the use of the word natural.Foods labeled as "natural" can contain artificial preservatives,coloring, flavoring, and other additives.One trick food processors use is to advertise a "natural American cheese" product.While the cheese part may be natural,the rest of the product can contain artificial anything. "Sugar free" products contain no sugar,but may contain other sweeteners that have calories, such as corn syrup, fructose, dextrose,or honey. "Reduced calories" means the product must contain one-third less calories than a comparable food product. "Low calorie" means the product cannot have more than forty calories per serving. "No preservatives" means there are no artificial preservatives,but artificial colors and flavors are allowed. "Fortified" and "enriched" indicate that some of the nutrients processed out of the food have been put back in,but not necessarily all of them.This is usually the case with "fortified and enriched" breads and flours. Most foods are required to list ingredients on the label.They are listed in order of their weight in the final product.If sugar is listed first,it is the main ingredient. Even "fresh" vegetables and fruits will contain pesticides, color enhancers, waxes,etc.Only hard-to-find "organically" grown produce is free of these nasties.Still,if you worry about what goes into your food,grow your own. ~source used: "Thoughts for the Throne" by Don Voorhees~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 02-05-2003 07:58 AM                        Rated G Useful fact - How did the shuttle Columbia get its name? It is said that the Columbia River is the most beautiful river in North America.It is the fourth largest river in North America and the largest that empties into the Pacific Ocean. It flows from the Canadian province of British Columbia into the United States.The first white explorer to see this river was an American named Robert Gray.He found the river in 1792 and named the river after his ship, the Columbia Rediviva (a 83 foot, 212 ton burden,15 foot draft,10 gun,3 masted sailing ship) The sailing ship Columbia was the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe and the first to carry the American flag on a voyage around the world. It is fitting that the first orbiter was named after this sloop. The Columbia continued the pioneering legacy of this great sailing ship when it became the first space shuttle to fly into Earth orbit in 1981. ~contributed by 'Lorraine'~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 02-06-2003 12:55 PM                        Rated G Useless Fact - How did each of the seven continents get its name? Did you know that all the continents except Europe begin with the letter "A"? Although no one knows for sure how Africa,Asia,and Europe got their names,most historians agree with the following explanations: Africa Some say the name comes from the Latin word "aprica", meaning "sunny," or the Greek word "aphrike", meaning "without cold." Others believe that it came from the Romans who ruled the North African coast at one time and referred to everything south of them as "Afriga" or "Land of the Afrigs." The Afrigs were a Berber colony south of Carthage. "Americas" The Americas consist of two continents,North America and South America.Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer and friend of Christopher Columbus.He wrote about his travels in letters to his friends and in 1504 (long after Columbus's discovery of the New World in 1492) one of his letters was read by Martin Waldseemuller, a German mapmaker. Waldseemuller wrote a book in which he said that another part of the world had been discovered by Amerigo Vespucci and should be called America in his honor. "Antarctica"This name comes from the Greek word "antarktikos", which means "opposite from the bear."Arktos,or the bear,refers to the Great Bear constellation above the North Pole.We usually call this constellation either Ursa Major (Latin for "big bear") or the Big Dipper.Antarktikos,or"opposite the bear," refers to an area opposite the north pole, or the south pole. A Polynesian legend tells the story of a traveler from Raratonga who "sailed south to a place of bitter cold where rocklike forms grew out of a frozen sea."If the legend is true,that Polynesian was the first human to see Antarctica. "Asia" Because this is an ancient name,there is no historical source of its origin.Some authorities believe that Greeks used the name to describe lands to the east.Others believe it came from "asu",an Assyrian word meaning "east." "Australia" The ancient Greeks believed that because the earth was a sphere, there had to be a large southern mass of land to balance the northern part of the known world. They called this the "unknown land to the south." Later mapmakers used the Latin name "Terra Australis Incognita" and the continent eventually became known simply as Australia. "Europe"Once again the ancient Greeks had a hand in naming a continent, in this case Europa.While it was once generally thought that Europa meant "sunset," it is now believed that the term meant "mainland" and referred to the unknown lands north of Greece. ~source used: "Do Fish Drink Water?" by Bill McLain~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 02-07-2003 04:01 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - What were Marie Antoinette's last words? Before Marie Antoinette's execution,she was paraded through the city in a wooden cart,where she was mocked and spat upon by the crowds for three hours.As she ascended the platform to the guillotine,she accidentally stepped on the executioner's foot. Her last words were"I am sorry,Monsieur.It was not intentional." ~source used: "Just Curious, Jeeves" by Erin Barrett & Jack Mingo~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 02-08-2003 03:14 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why do office buildings and department stores have revolving doors? Come on, don't you want a little variety in your life? Besides, revolving doors serve an important purpose — they're energy- saving devices. The air pressure inside a big building is often different from the air pressure outside.For example, in a tall building,warm air rises up the elevator shafts.Cool air is pulled in at ground level to replace the warm air. If you opened an ordinary door leading outside, you'd get a blast of wind blowing in. In other buildings,the wind blows in the opposite direction. Why? Who knows.The point is, the wind blowing in or out of the building might be enough to knock somebody over. Worse, it wastes energy. Say it's the middle of January.You open an ordinary door that leads outside. Cold air rushes in (or heated air rushes out), the furnace kicks in, and another 20 bucks' worth of energy goes up the chimney. Revolving doors prevent this by making certain there is never a clear path from the inside of the building to the outside.Air can't rush in or out, so no energy is lost. ~source used: "Know It All" by Ed Zotti~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 02-10-2003 06:38 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Time spent waiting for professors: Scarcely a college campus in the country is free of a myth firmly believed by many students that there is a fixed number of minutes a class is supposed to wait for a tardy teacher before dismissing itself. Typically,for a full professor one waits fifteen minutes;for an associate professor,twelve minutes;an assistant professor,ten minutes;an instructor,five.Presumably those lowest-ranking workers in the academic vineyard,graduate or teaching assistants,had better be on the dot.It is not impossible that such a "rule," complete with its implicit rank-conscious snobbism, may have existed on some campus somewhere at some time.If so,however,no one the knowledge of this writer, who has spent many years on many campuses,has ever discovered it. ~source used: "The Dictionary of MisInformation" by Tom Burnam~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 02-11-2003 07:04 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - How do Japanese celebrate St. Valentine's day? In a rather unique fashion.Women give the men gifts of chocolate as well as other gifts. These gifts of chocolate are divided into two types:giri choco(obligatory chocolate)and honmei choco(chocolate for the man the woman is serious about). Giri choco is given by women to their superiors at work as well as to other male co-workers.It is not unusual for a woman to buy 20 to 30 boxes of this type of chocolate for distribution around the office as well as to men that she has regular contact with. Needless to say,the approach of Valentine's Day is something that department stores and shops look forward to and promote with zeal because of its potential for increased sales. Large displays featuring chocolate usually with heart-shaped displays start to grace the floors of department stores from mid-January or so. A woman will normally purchase boxes of giri choco in the several hundred yen range and may purchase an expensive box of honmei choco and another gift such as a necktie for her "special someone". While all of this may seem quite one-sided,confectioners in Japan - never ones to miss an opportunity to sell more - took advantage of the Japanese feelings of obligation and created "White Day" in 1980 to help assuage the guilt feelings of those poor obligated males who received chocolate on Valentine's Day. On March 14th,exactly one month after Valentine's Day,men who were lucky enough to receive gifts of chocolate have the chance to return the favor by giving the women who gave them gifts of chocolate a more expensive box of chocolate or sweets (for some reason or other,these return gifts seem to be priced slightly higher than those the women purchase). Again,the stores provide plenty of reminders of the approach of this day so that even the most forgetful man cannot say that it slipped his mind. The gifts of chocolate that men buy are in white boxes(after all,it is "White Day")and come with separate shopping bags to put them in.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 02-12-2003 07:30 AM                        Rated G Useless fact: Why do clothes shrink? The answer has to do with the chemical and physical properties of fibers from natural sources, especially cotton, wool and linen. The Individual fibers in yarns are made of long polymer chains, or strands of giant molecules. In their natural state, the chains are scrolled up or crinkled. In preparing them for spinning and weaving, the first step Is usually a straightening of the fibers by processes like carding wool. However, the fibers try to go back to their natural state. Moving from one state to another requires crossing an energy barrier. It even takes energy to get back to the lowest-energy, most disordered state. Hot temperatures in laundering give the fibers the energy that allows them to change state so that the long polymer chains scroll back up again. There is little shrinkage in synthetic fibers, because their polymers can be designed the way the makers want, and they start off in a straightened state. ~source used: "Book of Science Questions and Answers" by C. Claiborne Ray~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 02-12-2003 07:52 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Is it true that at one time the entire world consisted of a single continent? Scientists believe that millions of years ago the earth's entire land mass was concentrated in one supercontinent called Pangea, a Greek word that means "all earth." About 200 million years ago Pangea broke into two continents, Gondwanaland and Laurasia. These two continents eventually broke up into smaller pieces that drifted to different parts of the world around 50 million years ago to form the continents we see today. Some continents seem "pointed,"such as Africa and South America, while others do not. A good analogy is what happens when you drop a plate on the floor and break it. Some broken pieces are definitely pointed while others are more square. Over the years countless people,including many scientists,have noticed that if you take a paper map and cut out all the continents,they almost fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.Although the French scientist Antonio Snider-Pelligrini studied the idea in depth in 1858, it wasn't until the 1960s that scientists developed the theory of "plate tectonics." Simply put,this theory states that the outer shell of the earth consists of a number of rigid plates that are always moving. A plate can underlie both continents and oceans. The theory of the supercontinent of Pangea and plate tectonics is accepted by most of today's geologists because there is scientific evidence to back it up. However, some scientists theorize that continents break apart and recombine in a never- ending cycle,similar to clumps of soap bubbles in the dishwater. Although this theory is lacking in evidence and not widely held, you may also hear the names scientists have given these billion- year-old supercontinents that existed before Pangea. For example, the continents of Ur and Rodinia. ~source used: Do Fish Drink Water? by Bill McLain~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 02-14-2003 08:04 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why is root beer called "beer" when it isn't beer at all? The name is pretty much consumer fraud, pure and simple. In the early 1870s, Charles Hires was served a root and herb tea at a country inn on his honeymoon, and liked it so much he decided to market it as a soft drink. As an anti-alcohol prohibitionist, Hires hoped that drinkers would abandon demon rum in favor of his root tea. A friend, fellow prohibitionist and president of Temple University, Dr. Russell Conwell, convinced him that no hard- drinking Pennsylvania coal miner was going to abandon Jack Daniels for "Hires Herb Tea." Why not call it a "Root Beer" instead? The ploy worked well.In fact, too well.The success of the root "beer" brought down the well-organized wrath of the Women's Christian Temperance Union,which called for a boycott of the soft drink and deplored the fact that Hires was advertising it as safe and healthy for children: "Soothing to the nerves, vitalizing to the blood,refreshing to the brain, beneficial in every way," said one ad in those pre-Truth in Advertising times.Added another,"Hires Root Beer gives the children strength to resist the enervating effects of the heat,bridges the convalescent over the trying part of a hot day, and helps even a cynic see the brighter side of life." From 1895 to 1898,the war against root beer was waged in streets and newspapers,nearly destroying the Charles E. Hires Co. Finally,an independent lab decided to join the fray.It analyzed samples of the soft drink and concluded that root beer contained "less alcohol than a loaf of bread." The WCTU apologized and went off to find other dragons to slay, and sales of Hires Root Beer rebounded to past levels. ~source used: "Just Curious Jeeves" by Jack Mingo & Erin Barrett~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 02-16-2003 07:58 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - The origin of Valentine's Day: Valentines Day started in the time of the Roman Empire. Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II - Rome was involved in many bloody and unpopular military campaigns. Claudius the Cruel, as he was known at the time, was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. He believed that the reason was that roman men did not want to leave their loves or families. As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome. This was when a Christian priest named Valentine came to defend love in the empire. Valentine began to secretly marry couples despite the emperors orders. When Emperor Claudius was informed of these ceremonies Valentine was sent to prison where he remained until his death on February 14 in the year 270. It wasn't until a few hundred years later when Valentine's Day began to develop as we know it. At the time Christianity was beginning to take control of Europe. As part of this effort the Church sought to do away with pagan holidays. Valentine's Day came to replace a mid-February fertility festival called Lupercalia. In honor of his sacrifice for love Valentine was made a saint and Lupercalia renamed in his honor. Until today the tradition of honoring Valentine continues. The themes of love and fertility taken from the ancient meanings of the holiday have endured and evolved with our contemporary adaptations of its meanings.  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 02-17-2003 07:44 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - Why is breaking a mirror said to lead to seven years of bad luck? Centuries ago many believed that a person's image in a mirror was a reflection of that person's soul.That is why the legendary vampire, who had no soul,casts no reflection in a mirror. To the people who held this belief,breaking a mirror meant preventing a part of the soul from reuniting with its body.The absence of a portion of the soul,it was believed, would certainly lead to ill fortune. But why seven years? This goes back to a Roman belief that a person's health and fortune changed every seven years. ~source used: "Ever Wonder Why?" by Douglas B. Smith~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 02-17-2003 11:44 AM                        Rated G Useless fact - north pole discovery: For many years, explorers from around the world wanted to be the first to find the "other" north pole, and for years there was a debate about who finally discovered it. Frederick Albert Cook was an American physician and explorer who claimed he had discovered the north pole in 1908. Another American explorer,Robert E. Peary, claimed to have found the north pole a year later and denounced Cook's claim as fraudulent. Native American Alaskans,called Inuits,who were part of Cook's expedition later alleged that Cook had stopped hundreds of miles south of the pole. The controversy between Cook and Peary lasted until 1917. By then, most people believed that Peary had discovered the north pole and that Cook was no more than a con man. The public opinion of Cook was proved to be true in 1923 when Cook was convicted of using the U.S. mail for fraud and was sent to prison. He was paroled in 1929. President Franklin D.Roosevelt granted him a pardon in 1940. Six men first reached the north pole: Robert Peary, four Inuits, and Peary's black companion, Matthew Alexander Henson. Henson was an orphan who went to sea as a cabin boy at the age of 12. When Henson was 22,Peary hired him for an expedition to Nicaragua. Peary was so impressed with Henson's ability that he hired him on seven expeditions to the Arctic.Although Henson received a congressional medal, which was given to all members of Peary's expedition, not many people knew that Peary did not discover the north pole by himself. It was discovered by him, Henson, and the four Inuits. ~source used: "Do Fish Drink Water?" by Bill McLain~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 02-17-2003 02:22 PM                        Rated G Useless fact - Are baby snakes more poisonous than adults? Like Athena, a venomous snake springs from its mother's egg fully formed and ready for business—in this case,with an ample supply of toxins that,yes,are often more poisonous than those of their parents. Reptile experts haven't proved conclusively why this is so, but they do offer up several hypotheses. One theory is that because newborns haven't used their venom yet, and thus haven't been forced to regenerate it,the poison is more potent.Another suggests that infant venom contains a higher percentage of water,which might speed its absorption into the victim's blood. There is a bit of good news, however. Though the toxicity can be greater,the yield is always smaller, as tiny snake babies have proportionately tiny venom sacs. What's more,they're not very skilled at hurling themselves at prey or projecting their poison. Still,should a western diamondback not much bigger than a night crawler sink its miniature fangs into you, you're in for a very bad time. "You can expect necrosis of the tissue to set in," says Bill Haast,a venomologist at the Miami Serpentarium. "Your flesh will dissolve, your skin will slough off, and there may be permanent scarring." And that's not to mention the pain. "I can't describe the agony," recalls Christie Kroll, a Putnam Valley, New York, animal-rescue specialist who a few years ago was struck on her thumb by a baby copperhead that was only three inches long. "I didn't pay attention to it at first, but then the venom burned a hole down to the bone, and ended up costing me $15,000 in medical and plastic surgery bills." ~source used: "Why Moths Hate Thomas Edison" by Hampton Sides~  |  IP: Logged Bob Maar (Maar stands for Maartini) Posts: 28608 From: New York City & Newport, RI Registered: Feb 2001 posted 02-19-2003 11:56 AM                        Rated G useless fact - Coffee: Some authorities believe the word coffee comes from Caffaan Abyssinian province.Others believe it's derived from the old Arabic word "qahwah",which means wine.Coffee cherries were used to make wine long before the coffee bean was used to make coffee. Malays eat the leaves of the coffee plant because they contain more caffeine than the beans. Caffeine is found in chocolate,some sodas(such as Mountain Dew, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi)but not others (root beer,ginger ale, Fresca),some pain relievers (Vanquish, Excedrin, and Midol)but not others(aspirin and Tylenol) as well as in some diuretics and cold remedies. Coffee is the second most popular beverage in the world.Tea is the most popular. In 1732,there was a movement to prevent women from drinking coffee because people thought it would make them sterile.Johann Sebastian Bach poked fun at the movement by composing his"Coffee Cantata,"an ode to coffee.It included the aria "Ah! How sweet coffee tastes!Lovelier than a thousand kisses,sweeter far than muscatel wine!I must have my coffee." The flowers of the coffee plant grow in large bouquets and have a faint odor of jasmine. ~source used: "What Makes Flamingos Pink?" by Bill McLain~  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 88 pages: 1  2  3  ...  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  ...  86  87  88

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.