Trivia Page of Wireclub. (Page 4)

lori100: Just interesting info....

duncan124:
I have found a pic of the bucket machine gun post;-

http://i1098.photobucket.com/albums/g375/Stuka1939/Ju52Signature.jpg

The aircraft is a late Junkers JU52/3m G3E.

chronology: Roy Batty's Birthday. In the 1980s Ski Fi Movie 'Blade Runner' 2016 must have seemed a long time in the future. So giving the character Roy Batty an birthday in Feb 2016 seemed futuristic, but in under two years it will be current.

There are more versions in circulation of Blade Runner than any other Movie. It has been edited and re edited and released numerous times. The first version of Blade Runner had a voice over monologue by Harrison Ford through the entire Movie. Also Rutgr Hurer's classic line when asked by Tyrel 'what do want Roy'? Hure responded 'I want more life fu*ker', has been changed to 'Daddy' in some versions.

chronology: Hollywood itself probably could not create the natural dramatic scenes that have unfolded on it's own door step. Actors in Los Angeles probably do not give the 'Los Angeles Tar Pit's' a second glance as they drive to work in the Studios. But some epic moments in history have played out there worthy of any Hollywood adventure movie. Among them the unfortunate day a Sabre Toothed Tiger trotted into the Pits to make a snack of a trapped Bison, only to be mired in the sticky Tar itself. Both animals died and their bones preserved in the Pits.

The Tar Pits were so deadly to animals because they were invisible until animals became stuck in the super strong tar. Tar would seep to the surface and be covered in a thin layer of dust hiding it from unsuspecting animals.

Predators would become victims after walking up to a struggling prey only to become stuck themselves. It would be a slow death for all the animals as they died of thirst, unable to free themselves.

davidk14: .

Ahhhhh...is it possible that the homeless in LA are getting stuck in the tar pits too????

.

chronology: 'Back from the dead ..........' While scientists believe that the 'cloning' of Dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus Rex will never happen, there is a real possibility that animals like the Sabre Toothed Tiger and American Passenger Pigion will one day be 'dexticted' ie cloned back into life using DNA.

As one commentator observed; 'a Sabre Toothed Tiger would touch off the biggest bidding war ever seen in the history of Zoos'. Zoos like San Diego and Los Angeles in the U.S. and Chester and Berlin in Europe would be locked in full on competition to proved a home for the big cat never seen before in history.

The Passenger Pigion, the awesome bird that once flew in spectacular flocks across American skies may be returned to life in a few decades. But the bird will never flock as it used to as there is no longer the eco system to support them.

The Sabre Toothed Tiger is unlikely to be released into the wild for the same reason. The big cat was more of a scavenger than a hunter, and could just not pass up the chance of a tasty no frills meal, thus so many Tigers would up in Los Angeles Tar Pits.

davidk14: .

In the fifth grade, I did a report on the Passenger Pigeon, and if I remember correctly, I received a good grade not only for the story, put also for good penmanship.

.

.

valeriecummings3: gee no one wants to be friends with mr triva

chronology: davidk14 it was an awesome Bird. The flocks were mindblowing. On a bright sunny day in the late 19th century a flock would appear on the horizon in America. It would look like a cloud stretching across the horizon. Then the flock would begin passing overhead, it would shade out the Sun and make it as dark as dusk. Millions of Pigeons would slowly cross the sky like vast thunder cloud. But they were easy to kill and not unpleasant to eat, so folks killed and ate as many as they wanted.

Biologists reckon the Pigeons will be cloned back in a decade or so. Washington will probably regulate the Birds numbers, you just could not have American skies dominated by the Passenger Bird again, it would cause chaos to Air Traffic Radar and Jet Aircraft engines, not to mention farming. I remember as a kid reading about the herds of Buffalo in the West on the Great Plains. Some of those herds were as big as the Passenger Pigeons, but you just cannot have such vast herds today either, can you imagine what that would do to automobile traffic and railroads?

chronology: If you were an astronaut of the future how long would it take NASA radio signals to reach you if you were on the furthest Planet, or 'planatoid' in the solar system, Pluto? The answer differs according to Plutos orbit, but the average time would be 5 hours.

There was a story on the web some years ago of 'old radio and television programmes signals from 40 years ago bouncing back to earth and being recorded by radio astronomers'. But perhaps Wireclubbers should note the date of the news story 'April 1st'.

Old radio programmes 'were' picked up, apparently coming from space in the 1970s. But the general consensus among astronomers was that they were an alaborate practical joke.

chronology: When Rod Serling named his Cult Radio Show 'The Twilight Zone' he thought he had invented the term. In fact the term had been in use for years by American Pilots. It was used to describe the last possible moments for a daylight landing by Aircraft before official night time conditions. Serling probably heard Pilots use the term when he was a Paratrooper in WW2.

Serling's Radio Show changed the Dictionary definition of the 'Twilight Zone' which now refers to anything mysterious an eerie. The original meaning of the term has been completely lost to most dictionaries.

lori100: One billion seconds is about 32 years.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.

An average person uses the toilet 2500 times a year.

By age 20 we lose 20% of our sense of smell. By age 60 it is 60%.

31% of employees skip lunch entirely.

Annually Americans eat 45 million turkeys at Thanksgiving.

Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born on the very same day: February 12, 1809.

You lose 60 hairs a day.

If you eat enough carrots, your skin will eventually turn orange.

Every year the Pentagon survives approximately 50000 hacker attacks.

chronology: On a more cheerful note Lori. Thought of a great song that you and all the other L.A. folks could remember when visiting the Los Angele Tar Pits as kids, Cat Stevens 'The Old School Yard'. Must be curious to have played in the same place as Jodie Foster, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Angelina Jolie, and other Actresses who grew up in L.A. Jodie Foster probably did Cart Wheels in the Park, she was always an athletic girl, brainy as well. A Guy who used to visit the Tar Pits as a school kid said when he was 21 he used to drink in a Bar where Bruce Willis used to work before becoming famous, but hey, L.A. is that kind of Town.

chronology: Lonnie Zammora's 'UFO sighting'. People all over the world sometimes wonder if there really is extra terrestrial life, and if those aliens ever swing by earth. But alas practically every UFO landing has been examined and either explained or dismissed.

New Mexico Police Officer Lonnie Zammora reported a UFO landing that was probably the best documented and investigated to date. April 1964 was when Officer Zammora saw the UFO on the ground after hearing it's engines roaring over head while driving his Patrol Automobile.

About 4 other people also saw or heard the UFO flying low overhead in the vicinity of where Officer Zammora located the landed craft, but they were driving automobiles and never stopped to investigate what they heard.

Sceptics however have a more down to earth explanation. Officer Zammora saw his 'UFO' a few miles from a top secret USAF Base, the United States Space Agency at the time was known to be testing space craft similar to the Lunar Landing Module, space craft that looked identical to the craft seen in New Mexico. For sceptics this all adds up to the simple explanation that a test space craft had driffted off Base while being tested.

lori100: It was real...sceptics are often wrong...

chronology: 'Thumbs up' Wireclubbers in the Meditaranean countries probably smile when they see the thumbs up logo on Rods Web Site, the reason is, in their country it is an insult, not a sign of approval.

It is a myth that Thumbs up was a signal in the Roman Colosseum to call for a life to be spared, no such signal was given by the Roman Crowds, Romans would point with their thumbs and their fingers hidden if they wanted a Gladiator killed.

Italians in the 1960s were surprised people thought Thumbs up was a Roman Custom, Romans in the 1960s thought the gesture was an 'American OK sign' taken to Italy by GIs in the WW2 era. In Spain, even today, giving the Thumbs up in some districts of Spain is the same as 'giving the finger' to folks in the U.S. it could get you punched.

Hollywood is probably the origin of Thumbs up meaning 'OK'. In the massive Movie sets of the 1920s Roman Caesars were depicted giving Thumbs up or down to Gladiators.

chronology: 'Geronimo'! Older Wireclubber will remember when the name of the legendary Native American Leader would be called before diving into a pool or jumping across a ditch. This use of the Elder American's name began in Fort Benning Georgia in 1942. American Paratroopers, U.S. G.I.s were in intensive training trying to develop new Parachutes. It was a high risk task and to reduce nerves G.I.s would josh with each other before leaping out of an aircraft with a parachute that may or may not work.

At the Army Camp Movie Theatre a popular Movie at the time was a Western about Geronimo. The morning after watching the Movie, a U.S. G.I. who was testing a new style of Parachute stood at the door of his aircraft thousands of feet above the ground. He laughed and shouted 'Geronimoooooooooooo'! then leapt from the aircraft. He could never have known his expression would be used by millions of people around the world for years to come.

Among Geronimo's last words were 'I should never have surrendered'. The story that his skull was stolen from his grave by the Yale 'Skull and Bones' Society is true. U.S. Legal Authorities have attempted to return Geronimo's skull to his people, but so far with no success. Geronimo was a Prisoner of War of the United States when he was buried. Yale Skull and Bones use this argument to block Federal Government attempts to return his skull.

chronology: 'When you gotta go you gotta go'. And on Mt Everest there are few rest room stops. Human waist tends to linger a long time in the environment of the worlds highest mountain, so in 2009 some poor Guys got the job of going around collecting clods of human excrement and sanitary paper, a total of 400kg of human waist was collected.

Everest is also littered with thousands of discarded oxygen tanks and tents and all manner of small objects.

In 1999 the body of British climber George Mallory was discovered high in the snows of Everest after dieing there in 1924. It is not known if Mallory reached the summit.

In 2005 a French Helicopter Pilot made the trip to the top of Everest in the comfort of his flight seat. The Pilot covered the distance in minutes that took climbers gruelling months of slugging through ice and snow.

chronology: A macabre sight to climbers ascending Mount Everest is the dozens of dead bodies lieing in the open on the side of the mountain. Above 25000 feet is known as the 'Dead Zone' because of the number of fatalities, but the bodies of fallen climbers can lie in the open for decades before being recovered if they ever are. A body may seem easy to collect, as they are often only a few hundred feet from a climbing trail, but expeditions are not duty bound to recover bodies and carrying a body down Everest is a time consuming and burdensome job few climbing parties volunteer for. It is also illegal to bury a body on Everest without the explicit approval being given by the Nepal Authorities, Again, few climbing parties want the hassle. Strenuous efforts were made to recover the body of an American woman whose body lay in the view of climbers, but it still took two years to recover her body.

chronology: February 2014 saw the Official Opening of the worlds biggest ever Solar Powered Station at Invanpah Nevada. 300.000 computer controlled mirrors, each around the size of a garage door, direct sunlight to 3 Towers, each over 400 feet tall which heat water to drive specially adapted turbines to drive generators supplying home owners in San Francisco with enough electricity to supply 140.000 homes. Around 80 people are employed at the Invanpah Plant, which is good news in these hard employment times. Even better is that the power from the Plant 'piggy backs' on existing Power lines to California, saving construction costs. Another plus is that Invanplah supplies energy during 'high drain' daytime periods when home owners are cooking and using other appliances.

chronology: 'A man steps aside to allow an old lady to buy a Lottery Ticket, and misses out on nearly 400.000.000. dollars'

Gloria McKenzie of Florida who won nearly 400.000.000. dollars in the Powerball Lottery in 2013 recalled how, as she was waiting in line at a Publix Store a man in front of her stepped aside to let her buy what would become the winning ticket.

'No good deed goes unpunished' is an old American saying.

chronology: A Minnesota man began knocking down some walls in a home he had purchased for 10.000 dollars. As is not uncommon, he found old newspapers stuffed in between some walls for insulation. Among the newspapers was a well preserved 1938 comic book which introduced American readers to a new Hero, 'Superman'. The Minnesota man auctioned the Comic and was surprised to receive 175.000 dollars for the Comic. 'I guessed it was worth something, but not 'that' much' he reflected.

chronology: And the richest man in America is ............ still Bill Gates. Mr Gates wealth of 71 Billion dollars keeps him at the top of the 'Top Table', but some people still suspect Families like the Rockefeller's are not short of a cent or two. If their wealth was combined, the Walton Family who own WalMart are way richer than Mr Gates, with a combined wealth of around 110 Billion dollars.

A curious point about many American Billionairs is that they actually 'own' absolutely nothing. A man once approached his Lawyer and said he had lost patience with a certain rich person he was in dispute with and was planning to sue him. His Lawyer told him he was wasting his time; 'you will not get a Nickel, he may be among the richest men on earth, but in law and on paper he is worth practically nothing'.

lori100: listverse--------Paleontologists were called to a construction site in Seattle in February 2014 when workers found a fossilized mammoth tusk beneath the site they were working on. The tusk has been identified as belonging to a Mammuthus columbi, and is about 2.6 meters (8.5 ft) in length.

Carbon dating will be used to figure out the exact age of the tusk, but paleontologists estimate that it might be up to 60,000 years old. Mammoths became extinct about 10,000 years ago, making this an incredibly valuable find. The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, where the tusk is currently on display, is calling it a very rare opportunity to learn and understand more about the prehistoric era of Seattle.

One of the vice presidents of the construction project has confirmed that the planned building schedule will be pushed back. He added that the significance of the discovery is more important than the building project at the moment.

chronology: Pope John Paul II favourite Movie was 'The Silence of the Lambs'. But His Holiness would have been dismayed to know Ms Jodie Foster is an Agnostic. It is not known if His Holiness ever met Ms Foster, but He may have discreetly asked her for her autograph. Sadam Hussain was a fan of 'The Godfather' he also collected American Science Fiction Movie Posters of American Actresses in scantily clad costumes, he probably worshipped Ms Anne Francis. Idi Amin had a huge stash of 'Here's Lucy' shows, along with Tom and Jerry Cartoons. Joseph Stalin loved Spencer Tracy Movies, and Clark Gable Movies.

Hollywood Actresses tend to be diplomatic and avoid any comment on their often very powerful fans, but Dr Condoleezer Rice said she found Col Kaddafi's obsession with her 'creepy'. Col Kaddafi had a stash of photographs of Dr Rice in his home.