Trivia Page of Wireclub. (Page 13)

chronology: In 1910 some folks were expecting doom and gloom, Halley's Comet was expected to fly through the Solar System again around mid April. But in January folks in the Transvaal in South Africa noticed something bright, very bright indeed on the horizon just before dawn. A few weeks later astronomers confirmed that the bright object was a Comet, and not just a regular Comet, it was spectacularly bright and previously unknown. for the next month or so the Comet was a spectacular sight in the night skies of the Northern Hemisphere. The Comet was given the name 'Daylight Comet' as it was bright enough to be seen during the day for a week or so.

When old Halley's Comet arrived in April it seemed pale in comparison to the brilliant visitor of January.

When will the Daylight Comet return? no one knows for sure. Maybe next week, maybe in a thousand years.

chronology: A gifted young pianist was traveling on the Queen Mary ship just before WW2. He leaned over the side to look out to sea and his spectacles fell off. He was in despair, he could not read sheet music without them and was due to play on the ship that night.

A friend suggested he try and see if the ship sold spectacles in it's shops and went below to check for him. No, spectacles were not sold on the ship, but she noticed a Porter pinning a notice to the Notice Board about a pair of lost spectacles being found. Incredibly they were the pianists spectacles. A passenger on a lower deck had reached his hand out of a Port Hole to see if it was raining and a pair of spectacles had fallen into his hand.

chronology: In North America there is only one Big Cat that roars, the Jaguar. Today there are a handful of Jaguar's in North America, a few in California and Arizona. Jaguar's proffer a home base that includes safe places to sunbath and lot's of water to swim and wash in.

chronology: 'Errol Flynn super spy or just friendly with the wrong people'? The accusations against Errol Flynn are probably the most serious ever levelled at a Hollywood Actor. If they are true, then he was guilty of not just spying against the U.S. but outright High Treason.

Among other accusations, Flynn is accused of providing the Japanese with information about U.S. Navy Bases in California, and worst of all, information about a British Carrier based attack on Italian Naval Bases that was later used by the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbour. Strong stuff, but are the allegations true?

'Absolutely not' protest Flynn's old home of Tasmania, Flynn's children in Australia and California also insist he is being slandered.

Flynn was raised in an Irish Catholic background in Australia which was said to be anti British and anti Jewish. He did make some pretty cruel comments about Jewish people, even wishing 'Adolph was here in America to take care of these slimey Jews here'. But the basis for the accusations of treason against him is his friendship with a German Spy working in Mexico. Flynn's daughters insist this is just 'guilt by association'.

chronology: Until YouTube TV could more or less predict which Shows would receive large numbers of viewers. The last episode of MASH broke all existing records, J.R. Ewing being shot, The Beatles singing 'All my Loving' on Ed Sullivan for the first time on U.S. TV, There were some surprises, Networks were amazed at the success of the 'Roots' mini TV series which had Black Teenagers across the U.S. often running through schools chanting 'Roots, Roots'. The 'Thriller in Manilla' fight owed much to Ali's skill as a Promoter and Public Personality.

But YouTube has astonished analysts at times with the shear volume of viewers and the subjects viewed Korean Pop Star Psy is the most viewed person in the history of the world (but his video is a cartoon) with nearly 2 Billion views, Justin Bieber is not far behind with 1.5 Billion, and Jennifer Lopez has the U.S. in the top 5 videos with 500.000.000. views. And the numbers increase by the second, literally, around 1 to 3 people every second around the world watch the videos sending their views and 'likes' rising every minute.

YouTubes most popular none music videos are completely unpredictable. An American Mom saw tens of millions of people watch her video of a fitness work out in her home. A family in England had the surprise of becoming the most viewed none music video in YouTube history when they posted a video of their son biting his brothers finger. They only placed the video on YouTube because it was too big to send to a relative in Canada via MMS. The family were astonished to find millions of people watching the video, then tens of millions, then hundreds of millions of people. 500.000.000. people and more have seen the video 'Charlie bit my finger'. The we have a short clip of a Panda sneezing, hundreds of millions of people have seen that video.

So watch out Wireclubbers. It may not be your video of standing in front of the White House that goes viral, it may be a video of you dropping your ticket to enter the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant West Virginia.

chronology: 'A turning point in American History'. One question often brought up in American conversations is; 'what would have happened if...............? one such 'if' is what would have been American history if Richard Nixon had won the 1960 election?

The main issue would have been the Vietnam Crisis. JFKs response to the commitment America had taken to support the South Vietnamese Governments continued sovereignty from accepting the return to a unified Vietnam was to send ever increasing American land forces support and financial support. LBJ of course created the 'Vietnam War' with his massive troop movement into Vietnam of 500.000 men. But how would Mr Nixon had handled the crisis?
Mr Nixon was a shrewd and astute politician, he probably would have continued the military support for Vietnam but would almost have certainly seen American victory in Vietnam depending on successful Diplomacy with Hanoi and Peking. Few people believe Mr Nixon would have created the war that LBJ did. With Cuba Mr Nixon would almost certainly have been insistent that the Revolutionary Government be removed. While Fidel Castro did not begin as a communist, he was determined to see the Cuban Government have more say in it's own economic and political life, Mr Nixon simply wanted a return to the old relations with Cuba and had little inclination or interest in what Cubans wanted.

Another topic is 'would Nixon have been shot in Dallas'? The answer is 'certainly if circumstances had been the same'. Lee Oswald would have shot 'any' U.S. President, he was following his own crazy agenda.

chronology: 'An eerie visitor. In the 1950s not many Americans visited Norway apart from U.S. Military Officials connected with NATO. An American Businessman did make the journey to arrange some business with a Norwegian. He was surprised to find the Hotel staff welcome 'him back'. The American explained there must be some mistake, he had never been to that town before. During his stay in the small town other people said things like 'hello, good to see you again'. It seemed really strange to the U.S. visitor. Later, the American there was such a thing as a 'Vaardogger'. Vaardoggers are common in German Psy research as entities which impersonate a person and visit a place before they do. The name Vaardogger is German for 'forerunner' indicating how the entity precedes a person to some place. Vaardoggers are similar to 'Dopplegangers' but, as said, appear in a place before the person they are impersonating visits that place.

chronology: 'An Unlucky Spot'. It seems that the Rock Island Plow Company in Dallas was built on an unlucky location. In 1901 the Business was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. Developers tried their luck again and built a 7 story building on the Plot that would later house ................ The Texas School Book Depository.

chronology: Imagine this scene. You slowly awake on a seat in Town near your home and have no recollection at all how you got there. No this is not after a nights partying it is in the morning, and the last thing you remember was leaving your home to visit friends a few hours before.

You walk home and you meet a neighbour who asks you who your new 'friend' was. Friend? you ask, who do you mean? Your neighbour tells you you were talking to the man then together you got into your car and drove off your new friend driving. You cannot find your car anywhere and later when you check you find not only is your car missing, but you have emptied your Bank Account, driven to your business and emptied the safe of all it's cash. You remember nothing of any of these incidents.

You report this to your local Police Officer, who does some checking and sadly tells you that you have become another victim of 'Devils Breath'.

Devils breath is a drug that can be blown into the face of victims, it has no smell or taste and takes effect in minutes. When the drug starts working, the victim looses all memory of what happens during the drug period but will act like a zombie, doing whatever they are told to do. They do things like handing their car keys to a stranger, then driving to an ATM and emptying the Account, then driving to their business and emptying the safe handing over the cash to the person controlling them. And if you are a pretty woman, hopefully that will be all that happens to you.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Agencies have so far kept Devils Breath from becoming wide spread in the U.S.

The Drug has a long history in Religion. People drugged with DB can be told to do anything, such as jump off a Cliff or set themselves on fire.

chronology: Scrap Metal Guys are a part of the culture of most American Cities. Usually living in the old part of towns, and usually with some pretty tough dogs defending their Junk Yards. Today, the Scrap Metal Guys are the heroes of the 'Green Recycle Culture'.

But alas, it is estimated by Historians that the scrap metal Guys of the Classical World virtually wiped out all the priceless beautiful statues of ancient Greece and Rome that were cast from Bronze and Iron and Copper. The few metal statues you see today from the ancient Classical world were mostly recovered from shipwrecks that could not be reached by the Scrap Metal Guys.

When the Colossus of Rhodes fell down after an earth quake the Scrap Metal boys did such a thorough job in removing all the metal parts of the statue that no one is sure even today just where the statue stood.

chronology: Scrap metal Guys across America would probably be trippy at the prospect of recovering the metal from one famous statue, the 'Golden Image of Nebuchadnezzar' mentioned in the Book of Daniel. The image was most likely an Obelisk it was around a hundred feet high and 9 feet wide, and made of .......... solid Gold. Sceptics say that would have been impossible, there was not enough Gold in Babylon, Egypt, and all the rest of the Middle East put together to make such a statue. Most likely the Obelisk was 'Gold Plated'. Even so, that much Gold Plate would make American Scrap Guys multi Millionaires. There is no mention of the Image anywhere outside Daniel, no Babylonian records have been found of the image construction.

chronology: Dinosaurs in the Congo? huh? American explorers are convinced there are live Dinosaurs living in the deep recesses of the Congo River. The mystery of the Congo River is that it is extremely hostile for human visitors. Insect bites average a thousand an hour in some places along the river, and tangled shoots and roots make walking along the river bank impossible in many places. Add to this the deep tree cover preventing Satellite observation and you have a big question mark as to what many hundreds of miles of the Congo does have living in the shady creeks and lagoons. There are still surprises in places like the Amazon River. A few years ago a Tribe of people were discovered who no one had known about before. They were spotted accidently by an aircraft Pilot who took some photographs of them.

chronology: 'Isolated community goes missing'. Deep in the Brazilian Rain Forest live around 3000 people who have never been contacted by the outside world. The Policy of the Brazilian Authorities is to leave the tiny communities, usually of around 200 men women and children, alone and not allow visitors to enter their territory. The Brazilian Government Department locates the whereabouts of the groups first by Satellite images showing cleared forest patches, then by light aircraft over flight of the groups so as not to disturb them with ground visits. But a party of wardens at the perimeter of one tribal land went missing last June, and Brazilian Police visits revealed the wardens were probably murdered by Drug Gangs passing through the district. Brazilian Authorities fear the tiny community of 80 indigenous people suffered the same fate as the Wardens.

chronology: 'Babylon The Great'. News Broadcaster visiting Iraq today often show images of violence and destruction, but if they had visited Iraq when the City of Babylon was there, they would have been staggered by the sheer greatness of the ancient City. Archaeology has revealed that Babylon had walls surrounding it 60 miles long in total and 300 feet high and 80 feet thick, and they went down 30 feet into the ground. Surrounding the City was a Moat, and in the walls were 100 Gates of solid Brass. The walls also had 250 watchtowers. Inside the City was the 'Tower of Babylon' or the ruins of anyway, the Tower is better known as 'The Tower of Babel'.
Religion was big business in Babylon, and the Temple of Marduk was the biggest Temple, a statue of Marduk stood inside the Temple which weighed 22 tons and was made of solid gold. If you wanted to cast a statue like that today it would cost around 1400. 000.000. U.S. dollars. So it was for good reason Babylon was called 'The Greatest City in the world'. Babylon was divided by the River Euphrates and a network of tunnels running beneath the river connected both sides of the City.

chronology: Explosions made by man have increased in power over the ages, both intended and none intentional. In 1917 in Halifax Canada the biggest explosion man made in world history up to that time killed 2000 people and devastated the town. It would remain the biggest man made explosion until Hiroshima, it was caused by exploding munitions on a cargo ship.

1969 was a glorious year for U.S. Space explorers, but for the Soviets, July 1969 saw an immense explosion at a Rocket Launch pad that was among the biggest In world history as a Soviet Moon Rocket exploded during preparations for launch.

Russia has the most powerful none nuclear bombs today. one of Russia's awesome bombs is estimated as being ten times more powerful than Americas Fuel Air Bombs.

chronology: It was the Penguins that did more than anything to educate most folks about the Antarctic. The charming little birds became Movie Stars overnight across America in the Movie 'March of the Penguins'. But for the human race in general, and for every other creature, practically nothing was known of Antarctica up to about 60 years ago.

The first humans credited with seeing Antarctica were New Zealand Natives who sailed deep south in a War Canoe, they told of seeing 'a land of ice'. Their report became folklore among New Zealand Natives in 700 AD. There followed small expeditions to the shore of the Continent, but icebergs and treacherous seas were too severe to risk wooden hulled ships in.

Real knowledge was gained of the 'Ice Desert' in 1946 when U.S. Navy and U.S. Air force crews flew extensive flights over the continent taking 50.000 photographs and bringing back scientific data. There followed satellite scanning of the continent and eventually full time U.S. Installations. But it did not take long for the conspiracy theorists to make eccentric conclusions from all the U.S. Scientific data.

Yes folks, they see 'Pyramids' in American photographs, not mountains like the rest of us.

Who knows, maybe there are Pyramids down there in the ice. Until researchers can check out the structures we will just have to wait and see. Antarctica holds 90pc of all the ice on earth.

chronology: Hmmm, kind of disappointing, just as Sherlock Holmes never said 'elementary my dear Watson' Cpt Kirk never said 'Beam me up Scotty' in any Star Trek Show.

When standing in the Star Trek Transporter, Kirk would begin to shimmer, then vanish, only to reappear on a Planet or another Ship. If folks knew what was happening in theory, they may have winced every time Kirk shimmered away. In plain English, Kirk was being atomically 'shredded' his atoms read, then the data sent to another place and reassembled (Yuck). Kirk died every time he transported to another place.

Such is the theory of 'Teleportation'. You die every time you teleport. But is it possible? No computer in existence can perform such rapid calculations, and no computer even in the distant future is expected to be able to accomplish such feats. But what if such teleportations were possible. There are some odd choices available to people. Odd to say the least. If the future Angelina Jolie agreed to such an arrangement a woman could choose to have her destination body that of Angelina, with the woman's own consciousness of course. Men could choose to be Arnold Schwarzenegger, but again with their own mind in Big Arnie's recreated body.

Probably the closest people will ever come to teleportation is similar to the Movie 'Surrogates' where robots are used for human bodies while the human controlling the robots stays at home hooked up to a computer.

chronology: We know that Alexander the Great was stood in the Great Hall of Nebuchadnezzar the second in 323BC. He raised a large bowl of wine and drank deeply at the party with his friends, he then felt sick, took to his bed and died 12 days later, hell of a way to end a party.

It has always been a mystery just what killed Alexander, arguably the greatest soldier and leader who ever lived. Was it poison? was it alcoholic debilitation? was it some kind of food poison? An expert on toxicology was asked to review Alexander's death symptoms and see if he could discover just what killed one of histories greatest men.

He pointed out that poison would not have taken 12 days to kill Alexander, he would have died in hours or even minutes, not nearly two weeks. Liver failure due to alcohol also has obvious symptoms that would have been noted, blood shot eyes, yellow skin, vomiting blood. Alexander had none of those symptoms. Food poisoning usually lasts only a few days, you recover or die in those days.
After reviewing Alexander's symptoms what he believed killed the great man was 'toxic wine'. The Greeks used to enjoy a flavoured wine made from a certain herb, if you use too much herb it can induce symptoms similar to those noted in Alexander, especially if you drink the herb often, which Alexander would have done.
'We cannot rule out the other possibilities, but the herb is the most likely' he summed up. It is likely Iraq's Coroner would agree; 'Food Poisoning' may finally be placed on Alexander's death papers.

chronology: 'Cold Case Review. Napoleon Bonaparte' To the conservative powers of Europe, Napoleon was a living nightmare. A dangerous radical who wanted to reshape Europe. Jewish people saw Napoleon as Messiah, some actually thought he 'was' the saviour of the Jewish people. But Napoleon lost his wars and wound up pacing the tiny cold wet island of St Helena in the south Atlantic until his death. But what killed him? The French hero was sick for four months before his death in 1821, bedridden he died slowly. His huge numbers of admirers even today suspect foul play, convinced he was murdered. But not so, according to a Canadian specialist who reviewed the autopsy report. The specialist insists there is no mystery to Napoleons killer, it was Cancer, and an advanced form of stomach cancer. So bad was Napoleons tumor, it had broken open the stomach and affected the liver.

'Even had he lived today there would still have been nothing we could have done to save him, the cancer was just too far gone' the expert concluded.

chronology: Cold Case Review, General George Armstrong Custer'. In some ways it seems dumb to ask 'how did Custer die', but given the mystery Americans shade Custer's last day in it is worth reviewing the facts. Right from the moment the News of the 7th Cavalries defeat reached 'Back East', the 'Ugly Truth' was shielded from most Americans. It was after all the 4th of July in posh Philadelphia when news was spread from house to house of the shocking calamity, and the nation was celebrating it's first 100 years 'of progress'. Americans wanted to hear of true American heroes who had died with the flag in their hand against heathen savages. Stories of British defeats at the hands of the Zulu had unnerved some in Washington, but no one dreamt such disasters would befall the U.S. Army, they did. The U.S. Army found that the 'Battle of the Little Big Horn', had been a total fiasco. General Custer was fighting with a fraction of his men, the rest were within sound of his rifle shots but never attempted to join him. Even worse, (American school children cover your eyes and do not read further a line or two) Major Reno was so drunk during the battle he could hardly sit on his horse, and after the battle quaffed over a gallon of whiskey in the week after. But worse was to come. Captain Banteen when he discovered Custer's body gloated in satisfaction, happy to see his commanding Officer dead.

So how did Custer die? Custer died of a bullet wound to the side of the head, he was also shot in the upper side but would have survived that injury. Custer suffered a severe blow to the head with an axe type object that sank deep into his ear. He was not wearing a U.S. Army Uniform when killed, he had buck skins on, and his hair was cut short. The blow to the head U.S. Army staff at the death scene judged happened after he was dead. It has been speculated that General Custer shot himself, but nothing would indicate that. The General had shown outstanding courage during the Civil War and would have stood by his men to the bitter end.

lori100: The maximum lifespan of bottlenose dolphins is between 40 and 50 years.

Dolphins have to be conscious to breath so they can't go into a full, deep sleep (they would suffocate). Dolphins let one half of their brain sleep at a time.

On average, an adult dolphin will eat 4-9% of its body weight in fish each day.

A dolphin's snout is called a rostrum.

All dolphins use echolocation (a series of rapid clicks) to locate objects, such as prey and obstacles.

Dolphins make a variety of very high-pitched squeals, whistles and whines.

These noises are used to communicate with each other.

A dolphin brain weighs 3.5 pounds. A human brain weighs about three pounds.

There are 79 different kinds of whales, dolphins and porpoises, of which there are 26 types of ocean dolphins and five river dolphins.

Gestation for dolphins is about 12 months.

Unlike humans, the outer layer of a dolphin's skin is made up entirely of live cells. Dolphins have no protection against bruises.

All river dolphins are in danger of extinction. The Baiji dolphin of the Yangtze River in China is the world's rarest cetacean.

Every dolphin has its own distinct whistle to distinguish it from other dolphins, akin to a human fingerprint.

A dolphin's forehead is called a "melon" due to its distinctive shape.

Some dolphins can hold their breath for up to 30 minutes at a time.

The closest land relatives to dolphins are thought to be cows, pigs and deer.

chronology: Ecuador to become worlds first country to issue 'electronic money' similar to Bitcoin. Electronic money, usually dependant on Cell Phone ownership has been tried with success in some African countries, but Ecuador is the first country to give E money state backing.

chronology: Cold Case Review' Atlantis. Ignatius Donnelly wrote the definitive book on Atlantis. While Donnelly makes a convincing case that there 'was' some Island State in the Atlantic, he is less convincing at attributing to Atlantis the 'Superpower' status that the U.S.A. has today. Donnelly's efforts to use nations customs, foods, national dress, national cultures as examples of the influence of Atlantis are at times bewildering to say the least, but he sets forth a pretty reliable set of evidence, granted very circumstantial, that there was such a State.

But we must first clear up the notion that Atlantis was some kind of cross between Nevada's Area 51 and Silicon Valley, no where does history suggest this 'New Age' image of Atlantis. Atlantis was simply described as a wealthy, cultured highly influential political State resting on an island somewhere in the Atlantic. Atlantis was destroyed at the same time as other nations were devastated by the global flood mentioned in Genesis, but it did not 'drop' into the ocean during that catastrophe. While everyone on the island was killed during the flood, the island itself still remained visible as a kind of vast Swamp which made navigation impossible in that region for decades after the flood. Later, some huge earthquakes sealed the islands fate dropping it deep into the Atlantic.

The only relevance Atlantis has today is Donnelly's speculation that both Egypt and Babylon were established by survivors of Atlantis. Archaeologists are puzzled by early Egypt, they point out that Egypt never 'developed' as a civilisation, it simply began instantly as a fully established culture, so Donnelly may be correct in his speculation. Donnelly also suggests both Egypt and Babylonian Astronomers were using data for their complex star charts on data originating in Atlantis. The Egyptian and Babylonian Star records have exact charts detailing star cycles of thousands of years in length.

And if you live in Tennessee you may be living in an old political outpost of Atlantis, Donnelly claims the State was once a political territory of Atlantis. But most folks in Tennessee would probably just comment 'interesting if true'.

chronology: 'It's all in the Stars'. Wireclubbers may read in their newspaper that 'a Lunar Eclipse is expected next month'. How do Astronomers know there will be a Lunar eclipse? It all began in Babylon and Egypt, you can thank the Astronomers there who spent long nights lying down in stone circles watching the night sky and taking notes. After decades of doing this the noticed that the Moon had a set pattern of movement across the sky, the 'cycle' is 18 years 11 days and 6 hours, that is how long it takes for the Moon to return to the same relative position to the Sun and Earth, then the cycle of eclipses begin again as the Moon and Earth move around the Sun. Solar eclipses also fall into this cycle of Lunar 'Saros Orbit'. The Egyptian and Babylonian Astronomers had an even more definite and refined chart systems stretching for over a thousand years each. But they each used slightly different calculations until Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and Babylon. Alexander encouraged the two schools of Astronomers to join together and eventually they made their headquarters in Alexandria.

NASA today uses powerful computers to calculate the movement of the Moon and Planets.

chronology: Christa MaCauliffe may still give her lesson from Space. It will soon be 30 years since the tragic Challenger disaster, but American Hero Christa MaCauliffe may still give her lesson from Space.

A NASA Employee found video tape of the heroic teacher practicing her lessons for her school class demonstrating Zero Gravity. The American Hero is perky and cheerful as she reads her words and holds objects she planned to use in her lessons.

Who knows, her fellow Astronauts may broadcast the lessons down to her former school children, now in their 40s from the I.S.S. on the anniversary of the tragedy.