Did you Know???

[gep]

I believe you mean father-in-law.

Ludwig Geyer was Wagner's step father, which is probably known by fewer people here.

There is some rumour that Geyer was possibly his biological father. Who knows....

Sherlock Holmes never said, "Elementary, my dead Watson."

Indeed....

[brianvds]

Darth Vader never said, "Luke, I am your father."
The evil queen never said, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall."
Sherlock Holmes never said, "Elementary, my dead Watson."
Captain Kirk never said, "Beam me up, Scotty."

And Carl Sagan never said "Billions and billions."

But all of them SHOULD have said those things. :-)

[timothy42b]

Since when did the general public's ability to pronounce "foreign" names say anything about the holder of that name's general level of recognition?

True, true, but the members of this forum should have slightly more musical knowledge than the general public, and should recognize a reference to Carnival of the Animals that has been famous for about 6 decades.

Here it is, courtesy of Ogden Nash:

INTRODUCTION
Camille Saint-Saens
Was wracked with pains,
When people addressed him,
As Saint-Saens.
He held the human race to blame,
Because it could not pronounce his name,
So, he turned with metronome and fife,
To glorify other kinds of life,
Be quiet please - for here begins
His salute to feathers, fur and fins.
    THE LION
The lion is the king of beasts,
And husband of the lioness.
Gazelles and things on which he feasts
Address him as your highoness.
There are those that admire that roar of his,
In the African jungles and velds,
But, I think that wherever the lion is,
I’d rather be somewhere else.
    COCKS AND HENS
The rooster is a roistering hoodlum,
His battle cry is cock- a- doodleum.
Hands in pockets, cap over eye,
He whistles at pullets, passing by.
    THE WILD JACKASS
Have ever you harked to the jackass wild,
Which scientists call the onager?
It sounds like the laugh of an idiot child,
Or a hepcat on a harmoniger,
But do not sneer at the jackass wild,
There is a method in his heehaw,
For with maidenly blush and accent mild
The jack-ass answers shee-haw.
    THE TORTOISE
Come crown my brow with leaves of myrtle,
I know the tortoise is a turtle,
Come carve my name in stone immortal,
I know the turtoise is a tortle.
I know to my profound despair,
I bet on one to beat a hare,
I also know I’m now a pauper,
Because of its tortley, turtley, torper.
    THE ELEPHANT
Elephants are useful friends,
Equipped with handles at both ends,
They have a wrinkled moth proof hide,
Their teeth are upside down, outside,
If you think the elephant preposterous,
You’ve probably never seen a rhinosterous.
    KANGAROOS
The kangaroo can jump incredible,
He has to jump because he is edible,
I could not eat a kangaroo,
But many fine Australians do,
Those with cookbooks as well as boomerangs,
Prefer him in tasty kangaroomeringues.
    THE AQUARIUM
Some fish are minnows,
Some are whales,
People like dimples,
Fish like scales,
Some fish are slim,
And some are round,
They don’t get cold,
They don’t get drowned,
But every fishwife
Fears for her fish,
What we call mermaids
They call merfish.
    MULES
In the world of mules
There are no rules.
(Laughing, In the world of mules
There are no rules)
    THE CUCKOO IN THE WILD
Cuckoos lead bohemian lives,
They fail as husbands and as wives,
Therefore, they cynically disparage
Everybody else’s marriage.
    BIRDS
Puccini was Latin, and Wagner Teutonic,
And birds are incurably philharmonic,
Suburban yards and rural vistas
Are filled with avian Andrew Sisters.
The skylark sings a roundelay,
The crow sings “The Road to Mandalay,”
The nightingale sings a lullaby,
And the sea gull sings a gullaby.
That’s what shepherds listened to in Arcadia
Before somebody invented the radia.
    PIANISTS
Some claim that pianists are human,
Heh, and quote the case of Mr. Truman.
Saint Saens on the other hand,
Considered them a scurvy band,
A blight they are he said, and simian,
Instead of normal men and wimian.
    FOSSILS
At midnight in the museum hall,
The fossils gathered for a ball,
There were no drums or saxophones,
But just the clatter of their bones,
Rolling, rattling carefree circus,
Of mammoth polkas and mazurkas,
Pterodactyls and brontosauruses
Sang ghostly prehistoric choruses,
Amid the mastodonic wassail
I caught the eye of one small fossil,
“Cheer up sad world,” he said and winked,
“It’s kind of fun to be extinct.”
    THE SWAN
The swan can swim while sitting down,
For pure conceit he takes the crown,
He looks in the mirror over and ovea,
And claims to have never heard of Pavlova.
    THE GRAND FINALE
Now we’ve reached the grand finale,
On an animalie, carnivalie,
Noises new to sea and land,
Issue from the skillful band,
All the strings contort their features,
Imitating crawly creatures,
All the brasses look like mumps
From blowing umpah, umpah, umps,
In outdoing Barnum and Bailey, and Ringling,
Saint Saens has done a miraculous thingling.

[j_menz]

Here it is, courtesy of Ogden Nash:

Haha, cool. My second favourite poet. 

** rushes off for some kangaroomeringues

[rachmaninoff_forever]

1 out of 3 families in Seattle own a boat.

They're soo rich!!!

76.3% of all statistics are made up on the spot.  I don't k ow if that's been said already.

[kittysoftpaws]

Did you know . . . In the United States, the Internal Revenue Service has an employees handbook for the collections division unit. Here’s the interesting part, in it are instructions which guide employees on how to collect taxes after a nuclear war.

Kinda scary!

[kittysoftpaws]

Nutmeg is extremely poisonous. If it is injected intravenously it will kill you.

[pianowolfi]

Did you know that Schubert, occasionally insolvent, was sometimes allowed to pay his restaurant bill with a song, written down on the spot?

[timothy42b]

Nutmeg is extremely poisonous. If it is injected intravenously it will kill you.

Nutmeg is a powder.

It is exceedingly difficult to inject.  I've never heard of anybody doing it. 

Back in the 60's it had a reputation as a hallucinogen.  A bunch of us tried eating a tablespoon of it, and there were no effects.  Zero. 

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Apples are toxic.

[lostinidlewonder]

Cyanide in their seeds I heard!

[lostinidlewonder]

- Did you know that people build such instruments?!

[williampiano]

Did you know that Erich Korngold had completed this ENTIRE sonata by the time he was 13 years old??

I'm baffled by this.... 

[j_menz]

Did you know that Erich Korngold had completed this ENTIRE sonata by the time he was 13 years old??

I'm baffled by this.... 

What baffles me is that he never got any better. 

[scherzo123]

Did you know that Schubert died early from tyhpoid fever? This is pretty lame, but...

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Did you know that Schubert died early from tyhpoid fever? This is pretty lame, but...

You think that's lame?

Scriabin died of Sepsis.  And he was a freaking Hypochondriac!  Oh the irony!

[lostinidlewonder]

- Did you know if you google 241543903 and press Images you get something quite wierd??! I wonder if there are other random things like that

[outin]

- Did you know if you google 241543903 and press Images you get something quite wierd??! I wonder if there are other random things like that

And I just had to try 

[j_menz]

if you google 241543903 and press Images

** wonders how people ever find these things 

[49410enrique]

Did you Know???...the pregnant turkey prank actually works?
poor amy must not realize that turkeys are not mammals....

amy is apparrently not alone, just look at the the sidebar 'feed' suggestions, people fall for this thing all the time!

[Bob]

https://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/82808288/

[lostinidlewonder]

- Did you know that giga pixel digital cameras will in five years or so be an affordable option for serious photographers? Here's a mind blowing example of how detailed they can get. Imagine in our lifetime we probably will be using them on our phones.

[Bob]

I think the British royals recently found out something like this.

Hey look. You can see the headlights on that car!  Haha.


I'd take a camera like that.  Followed by software to downsize the picture to a manageable size.

[49410enrique]

the original mario was way more violent than the version that was actually released. damn focus groups....
[ Invalid YouTube link ]

[Bob]

The second Mario game for NES wasn't actually a Mario game.  They just tacked Mario characters onto another game.  There's a youtube video about it somewhere.

[lostinidlewonder]

I'd take a camera like that.  Followed by software to downsize the picture to a manageable size.

Yeah I couldn't imagine printing it at full size . one picture can be like 20gigs, imagine our hard drive capacity then...... Mmmm someone do a future hard drive capacity did you know

[lostinidlewonder]

- Did you know that this is funny?

[49410enrique]

just having super powers isn't as great as it sounds at first. depends which super power
https://9gag.com/gag/5553992

[Bob]

https://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/82863284/

[rachmaninoff_forever]

The entire Internet weighs (electrons) about 50 grams, or about a strawberry. 








And 45 grams of that is porn.

[Bob]

https://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/82899427/

[lloyd_cdb]

https://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/82899427/

I giggle when I saw the stock market bar in NYC.  It was down the street from where I used to live.  It was run by an absolute @$$hole, which basically made the entire thing not work (he intimidated people OUT of the bar).  That, and it was located in a semi-obscure area that people don't even party in.  Talk about "playing the market" stupidly.  We'd just go in, have a couple rounds of the cheapest beer, and then walk down the street to a real bar.

Oh, and that susan komen thing surprised me. They effectively bully people into volunteering for them.  My father works in oncology and treats male cancers.  They tried to get him to volunteer for them.  He said he treats male cancers, but wished them luck in their fund raising.  Their response was "so you hate women?".  I thought they had the lowest overhead of any non-for profit.  Maybe it's a different women's cancer organization though.

[slane]

In Queen Victoria's time rich people had their clothes washed once or twice a year and looked down at poor people, who couldn't afford so many clothes, who washed their clothes weekly.
I now feel entirely justified in buying sqillions of underpants in order to avoid washing. Now I just need a washer woman to do them for me.

[timothy42b]

Did you know the largest genocide in the history of the planet occurred in the Americas?

The numbers are speculative, based on archaeological evidence some of which is disputed.

But there may have been 100 million people living in North and South America prior to 1492. 

95% of them did not survive contact with the Europeans, most due to old world diseases they had no immunity for. 

No other war or dictator has ever killed 95 million people. 

[goldentone]

Did you know the largest genocide in the history of the planet occurred in the Americas?

The numbers are speculative, based on archaeological evidence some of which is disputed.

But there may have been 100 million people living in North and South America prior to 1492.  

95% of them did not survive contact with the Europeans, most due to old world diseases they had no immunity for.  

No other war or dictator has ever killed 95 million people.  

There is a difference between dying from disease and genocide, the intentional murdering of an ethnicity or segment of society.  It would have been genocide if the Europeans had cultured European disease(s) and deliberately infected the native Americans.

[lostinidlewonder]

I believe they did, Smallpox and blankets was one famous example, although this is argued, of course it would be. Although it is well documented that when Europeans came in contact with native tribes common colds and other diseases which never existed in the native history caused a huge amount of problems and deaths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_disease_and_epidemics
https://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=5100

[Bob]

https://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/82915942/

[vsrinivasa]

Did you know that the full official ceremonial Thai name for Bangkok is:

Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit. (in Thai script of course.)

You can look it up; it's true.

[timothy42b]

I believe they did, Smallpox and blankets was one famous example, although this is argued, of course it would be.

While there was some intentional spread, there is no way anybody at the time had the medical knowledge to understand what would happen.

The entire population of the world was only about 500 million at the time, so basically 20% died.  Today that would be equivalent to nearly 2 billion deaths.  Imagine what the impact on any kind of organized civilization would be. 

[Bob]

Speaking of yawning...

https://www.livescience.com/24980-fetuses-yawn-womb.html

Yes, yawning fetuses.  Brain development though? Really?  Or could it be staying in one place for nine months is boring the heck out of them?

[49410enrique]

https://thedoghousediaries.com/1690

[lostinidlewonder]

- Did you know that although there is an "h" in front of the word "herbs" Americans tend to drop the h and say "erbs"? And although there is no letter "a" sound at the end of the word "water" Australians almost universally say "wortah".

[j_menz]

And although there is no letter "a" sound at the end of the word "water" Australians almost universally say "wortah".

It only sounds like that to Americans. Most US dialects a rhotic, whereas Australian is not.  Rhotic basically means you pronounce the "r" at the end of words like water, fibre, centre, burner etc.

[Bob]

- Did you know that although there is an "h" in front of the word "herbs" Americans tend to drop the h and say "erbs"? And although there is no letter "a" sound at the end of the word "water" Australians almost universally say "wortah".

I was taught to pronounce the H.  I had a teacher who made a big deal of it.  If you pronounce the H, then you're talking about a person, Herbert!  And you'll look so stupid if you talk about cooking with Herbert.  Oh noes...  *Bob doesn't ever recall actually using the word herb.  Ever.*

[Bob]

[rachmaninoff_forever]

My school is the No. 1 most sued school in the united states.

Or at least within the past 10 years, it was for at least one of those years.

[49410enrique]

i thought i knew sleeping beauty, apparently the first versions were much more interesting!

"The earlier versions of our classic fairy tales included stories of murder, cannibalism, incest, rape, and various other despicable acts."

https://altereddimensions.net/strange/SleepingBeauty.aspx



A charcoal piece based on the original tale of sleeping beauty. In the original, sleeping beauty is impregenated by the prince while she is unconcious. She ends up giving birth to a set of twins as she lays there in a coma. The old tale was raw and a tad gruesome. Its safe to say she woke up pretty confused.

[lostinidlewonder]

Holy moly, I could imagine Disney doing that.

[lloyd_cdb]

Holy moly, I could imagine Disney doing that.

Not very surprising, considering they have topless women in the background of some of their films:

[lostinidlewonder]

- Did you know that there is an underground town in Australia called Coober Pedy?

https://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/travel/news-australia%E2%80%99s-underground-town
https://acidcow.com/pics/20709-underground-town-in-south-australia-33-pics.html