! Trivia Tribe !'s topics - tribe.net

Welcome Thread.... Number 4 !

Bloke72 — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:17:02 GMT

Well. The first welcome thread got very long and annoying to load and those that followed went the same way (how wonderful!) - so welcome to the Welcome Thread Number 4 !

For those of you who turned up early – I salute you and others can admire you at http://tribes.tribe.net/triviarocks/thread/c0e434ed-fb98-43a5-8d98-631a566f7408
For those of you who turned up after those pioneers - the second welcome thread is here http://tribes.tribe.net/triviarocks/thread/e7c8a132-d856-42af-ab3c-41a0a3e7e714#ce80cd06-e954-42e6-98a9-d6f5e9b83c3c
For the valuable members who joined the fun on the third intake - the thread is here.. http://tribes.tribe.net/triviarocks/thread/8d14994c-b742-459f-9f46-6e639c400bb3

For the new kids on the block – Welcome and post some Trivia ! I love it when members sight sources and also do not object to content being added to old old threads!

Please tell others about the Trivia Tribe .. please *Bloke on knees*

I love this tribe.. and the wonderful folks who add to it (or just read it.. ) !!!

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 52 replies

Mega-Challenge

Guy Montag — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:21:00 GMT

He said this:

http://www.borderline.tv/music/PM5.mp3

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 12 replies

Basic Bus Fare in your City.

Guy Montag — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 02:40:25 GMT

Los Angeles: 1.25$ (on MTA which includes one direction on light-rail and/or subway); .25c (DASH--Downtown bus); 1.00$ (on Foothill Transit).

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 25 replies

Polymaths through the ages...

Just_A_Simpleton — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:43:02 GMT

Lets see if we can avoid the extra super obvious ones.

I'll offer up Umberto Eco:
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ueco.htm

"Italian literary critic, novelist, semiotician, who gained international fame with his intellectual detective story IL NOME DELLA ROSA (1980, The Name of the Rose), a book about books. It extended the use of semiotics to fiction, and combined various genres, literary theory, mediaeval studies, mystery, and biblical exegesis. As a semiotician Eco is known for his contribution to the theoretical study of signs encompassing all cultural phenomena. Much of his study, including A Theory of Semiotics (1976), has been on the development of a methodology of communication."

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 5 replies

Richest Men in History, led by one of my personal heroes, John D. Rockefeller

Master_Victor — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:45:48 GMT

Current top 10 members
1.
Name: John D. Rockefeller
Age at Highest Earnings: 77

Age at Death: 97

Net Worth: ▬ 318.3 Billion $USD

Original Net Worth: US$1 Billion (September 29 1916)
US$900.0 Million (1913)[2]
Origin: United States

Main Source of Wealth: Standard Oil
Other Achievements: First Billionaire (Globally-USD)[3]

2.

* Name: Andrew Carnegie
Age at Highest Earnings: 68

Age at Death: 83

Net Worth: ▬ 298.3 Billion $USD

Original Net Worth: 479.9 Million $USD (1901)
Origin: Scotland then immigration to United States
Company: U.S. Steel

3.

Name: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov)
Age at Highest Earnings: 49

Age at Death: 50 (died July 17, 1918)

Net Worth: ▬ 253.5 Billion $USD

Original Net Worth: 1.3 Billion $USD (1916)
Origin: Empire of All the Russias

Company: Monarchy - the Caesar (Emperor) and Autocrat of All the Russias (from the House of Romanov).

4.

Name: William Henry Vanderbilt
Age at Highest Earnings: 64

Age at Death: 64 (died December 8, 1885)

Net Worth: ▬ 231.6 Billion $USD

Original Net Worth: 194 Million $USD (1885)
Origin: United States

Company: Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and other numerous train companies.

5.

Name: Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII
Age at Highest Earnings: 50

Age at Death: 80 (died February 24, 1967)

Net Worth: ▬ 210.8 Billion $USD

Original Net Worth: 1.4 Billion $USD (1937)
Origin: Hyderabad, India

Company: Monarchy - Nizam of Hyderabad

6.

Name: Andrew W. Mellon
Age at Highest Earnings: 80

Age at Death: 82 (died August 27, 1937)

Net Worth: ▬ 188.8 Billion $USD

Original Net Worth: 1.0 Billion $USD (1935)
Origin: United States

Company: Gulf Oil and other various Oil companies.

7.

Name: Henry Ford
Age at Highest Earnings: 57

Age at Death: 83 (died April 7, 1947)

Net Worth: ▬ 188.1 Billion $USD

Original Net Worth: 1.0 Billion $USD (1920)
Origin: United States

Company: Ford Motor Company

8.

Name: Marcus Licinius Crassus
Age at Highest Earnings: 62

Age at Death: 62 (died 53 B.C.)

Net Worth: ▬ 169.8 Billion $USD (100 B.C)

Original Net Worth: 170 Million sesterces[1]
Origin: Roman Republic

Company: First Triumvirate

9.

Name: Caesar Basil II of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire
Age at Highest Earnings: 67

Age at Death: 67 (died December 15, 1025)

Net Worth: ▬ 169.4 Billion $USD

Original Net Worth: 200,000 gold talents

Origin: Byzantine Empire

Company: Monarchy - Caesar of Constantinople (from the Macedonian dynasty)

10.

Name: Cornelius Vanderbilt
Age at Highest Earnings: 82

Age at Death: 82 (died January 4, 1877)

Net Worth: ▬ 167.4 Billion $USD

Original Net Worth: 100 Million $USD (1877)

Origin: United States

Company: New York and Harlem Railroad, and other shipping companies.

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 10 replies

who knew? part two

goatlisa — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:25:05 GMT

Charles Macintosh invented the waterproof coat, the Mackintosh, in 1823.

and I thought it was Mr. Gortex!

http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventions/a/elastic_2.htm

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 37 replies

The 10,000 Year Clock

Bloke72 — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 08:45:43 GMT

The idea to build a monument scale, multi-millennial, all mechanical clock as an icon to long term thinking came from computer scientist Danny Hillis and was published in the form of an email to friends. Later it was followed up with an essay published in the 01995 Wired magazine scenarios isssue. Danny reasoned that by actually building a remote monument, the discussions around long term thinking would be far more focused, and it would lend itself to good storytelling and myth. Two key requirements of anything lasting a long time.

In 01996 a group of these friends led by Stewart Brand incorporated a non profit around the idea of long term thinking and responsibility. This group became the founding board of The Long Now Foundation. One of the members, Peter Schwartz, suggested that 10,000 years be the time frame, as it was about how long humans have had a stable climate and technological progression.

In 01997 the Foundation held a design meeting around the 10,000 Year Clock idea where Danny presented his prototype of a binary mechanical computer. It was at this meeting the Foundation got its name from Brian Eno, and its first employee Alexander Rose.

With a sponsor for the first prototype and a new project manager, Danny Hillis began to design the first prototype of the 10,000 Year Clock. This prototype was completed in 01999 on new years eve where it bonged very slowly... twice. This prototype is now at the Science Museum in London in the Making of the Modern World exhibit.

The next project undertaken was an orrery, (a planet tracking display), using the same mechanical computer. This project is complete as of the summer of 2005.

The Foundation is now looking to scale up the designs with lessons learned from these first two efforts into a monument sized version. We have purchased high desert mountain top property in eastern Nevada as the site for the public 10,000 Year Clock. We are currently designing this experience and the mechanisms that would be used in this large scale version. There is no projected completion date, it is an ongoing program.

Documentation and images of all of these efforts, as well as several other efforts inspired by this project, are shown in the Clock menu to the left.

Source with links http://www.longnow.org/projects/clock/

(thanks Craig. Love ya blog :)

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 1 reply

Is it true?

Just_A_Simpleton — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:36:51 GMT

Do Australian folk really like beets in their hamburgers?

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 55 replies

The world's most expensive teddy bear ...

Bloke72 — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:37:22 GMT

The Teddy Bear got was named after Theodore Roosevelt and has been a popular toy ever since.

To celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Teddy Bear a German company created a limited edition of 125 bears of which the mouth is made of solid gold and the eyes of sapphires and diamonds.

The cost: £43,000.00 making it the world's most expensive available Teddy Bear.

The highest price ever paid for a single Teddy Bear was $193,000.00 USD

Source http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/expensive25.html

And here he is .. http://tribes.tribe.net/triviarocks/photos/e91ec704-9128-4938-ae32-2e09d523afce

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 1 reply

Trivia...

Guy Montag — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 18:16:22 GMT

... I find it difficult to keep up with this tribe's wonderful trivia!

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 9 replies

Japanese - from Asahi to Zen

Bloke72 — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:17:18 GMT

Wa
Social Harmony
Get things out in the open? Lay your cards on the table? Air your opinion? Not in Japan my friend. How do you expect to maintain Wa with a (Western) attitude like that?

Wa, the harmony of the group, is the binding principle of Japanee society, with roots stretching back to the first constitution in 604 AD, and even before that, in the co-operative teamwork needed to cultivate rice in difficult conditions. The Japanese value the maintainence of Wa way above any ideas of self-assertion, self-expression, individualism, argument or confrontation.

You're not an individual, you're a member of a group, and whenever you find yourself confused by the behaviour of the Japanese, I suggest that you try to think in terms of Wa and the Togethernes of the Group. The Group, the Group, the Group - write it on your hand, tatoo it inside your eyelids, do whatever you have to do to remember it. Remember wa, the harmony and togetherness of the group, and you'll fit right in. ;-)

Source http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~melmoth/japan/w.html

(I just thought it was interesting.. )

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 2 replies

The Gods

Bloke72 — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 09:45:43 GMT

Lots of Cultures have their Gods - this is a thread to put them in ..

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 6 replies

Witches

Martinus — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 03:42:31 GMT

A Brief History of Witchcraft Persecutions before Salem

Exodus 22:18 Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. (KJV)

Leviticus 20:27 A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them. (KJV)

Exodus and Leviticus, two Old Testament books that make up part of the "Law of Moses" and the primary history of the Jewish people, were written in the sixth century B. C by a Jewish writer—whose name we do not know. The books, which include the passages quoted above that assume the existence of witches and urge that they be killed, were most likely written in what is present-day Iraq during the reign of Evil Merodach, a dark time of Jewish exile, around 560 B.C. The author was most likely a priest, and might have been assisted in his work by other priests and scribes.

The word "witch" in Exodus is a translation of the Hebrew word "kashaph," which comes from the root meaning "to whisper." The word as used in Exodus probably thus meant "one who whispers a spell." In context, the Exodus passage probably was intended to urge Jews to adhere to their own religious practices and not those of surrounding tribes.

Saint Augustine of Hippo, an influential theologian in the early Christian Church, argued in the early 400s that God alone could suspend the normal laws of the universe. In his view, neither Satan nor witches had supernatural powers or were capable of effectively invoking magic of any sort. It was the "error of the pagans" to believe in "some other divine power than the one God." Of course, if witches are indeed powerless, the Church need not overly concern itself with their spells or other attempts at mischief.

The late medieval Church accepted St. Augustine's view, and hence felt little need to bother itself with tracking down witches or investigating allegations of witchcraft.

In 1208, Pope Innocent III opened an attack on Cathar heretics who believed in a world in which God and Satan, both having supernatural powers, were at war. The Church attempted to discredit the Cathar belief by spreading stories that the heretics actually worshiped their evil deity in person. Propagandists for the Church depicted Cathars kissing the anus of Satan in a ceremonial show of loyalty to him. As a result of the Church's sustained attacks, the public's understanding of Satan moved from that of a mischievous spoiler to a deeply sinister force.

In 1273, in Summa Theologian, a Dominican monk named Thomas Aquinas made his case for the existence of God. In his work, much of which became adopted as the orthodoxy of the Church, Aquinas argued that the world was full of evil and dangerous demons. Among other things, Aquinas argued, these demons had the habit of reaping the sperm of men and spreading it among women. In Aquinas's mind, sex and witchcraft begin what will become a long association. Demons thus are seen as not merely seeking their own pleasure, but intent also on leading men into temptation.

In the mid-1400's many adherents of Catharism, fleeing a papal inquisition launched against their alleged heresies, had migrated into Germany and the Savoy. Torture inflicted on heretics suspected of magical pacts or demon-driven sexual misconduct led to alarming confessions. Defendants admitted to flying on poles and animals to attend assemblies presided over by Satan appearing in the form of a goat or other animal. Some defendants told investigators that they repeatedly kissed Satan's anus as a display of their loyalty. Others admitted to casting spells on neighbors, having sex with animals, or causing storms. The distinctive crime of witchcraft began to take shape.

It was 1484 when Pope Innocent announced that satanists in Germany were meeting with demons, casting spells that destroyed crops, and aborting infants. The pope asked two friars, Heinrich Kramer (a papal inquisitor of sorcerers from Innsbruck) and Jacob Sprenger, to publish a full report on the suspected witchcraft. Two years later, the friars published Malleus maleficarum ("Hammer of Witches") which put to rest the old orthodoxy that witches were powerless in the face of God to a new orthodoxy that held Christians had an obligation to hunt down and kill them. The Malleus told frightening tales of women who would have sex with any convenient demon, kill babies, and even steal penises. (The friars asked, "What is to be thought of those witches who collect...as many as twenty or thirty members together, and put them in a bird's nest or shut them up in a box, where they move themselves like living members and eat oats and corn?") Over the next forty years, the Malleus would be reprinted thirteen times and come to help define the crime of witchcraft. Much of the book offered hints to judges and prosecutors, such as the authors' suggestion to strip each suspect completely and inspect the body to see whether a mole was present that might be a telltale sign of consort with demons, and to have the defendants brought into court backwards to minimize their opportunities to cast dangerous spells on officials.

Outbreaks of witchcraft hysteria, with subsequent mass executions, began to appear in the early 1500s. Authorities in Geneva, Switzerland burned 500 acccused witches at the stake in 1515. Nine years later in Como, Italy, a spreading spiral of witchcraft charges led to as many as 1000 executions.

The Reformation divided Europe between Protestant regions and those loyal to the Pope, but Protestants took the crime of witchcraft no less seriously--and arguably even more so--than Catholics. Germany, rife with sectarian strife, saw Europe's greatest execution rates of witches--higher than those in the rest of the Continent combined. Witch hysteria swept France in 1571 after Trois-Echelles, a defendant accused of witchcraft from the court of Charles IX, announced to the court that he had over 100,000 fellow witches roaming the country. Judges responding to the ensuing panic by eliminating for those accused of witchcraft most of the protections that other defendants enjoyed. Jean Bodin in his 1580 book, On the Demon-Mania of Sorcerers, opened the door to use of testimony by children against parents, entrapment, and instruments of torture.

Over the 160 years from 1500 to 1660, Europe saw between 50,000 and 80,000 suspected witches executed. About 80% of those killed were women. Execution rates varied greatly by country, from a high of about 26,000 in Germany to about 10,000 in France, 1,000 in England, and only four in Ireland. The lower death tolls in England and Ireland owe in part to better procedural safeguards in those countries for defendants.

Scotland's witch-hunting had its origins in the marriage of King James to Princess Anne of Denmark. Anne's voyage to Scotland for the wedding met with a bad storm, and she ended up taking refuge in Norway. James traveled to Scandinavia and the wedding took place in at Kronborg Castle in Denmark. After a long honeymoon in Denmark, the royal newlyweds encountered terrible seas on the return voyage, which the ship's captain blamed on witches. When six Danish women confessed to having caused the storms that bedeviled King James, he began to take witchcraft seriously. Back in Scotland, the paranoid James authorized torture of suspected witches. Dozens of condemned witches in the North Berwick area were burned at the stake in what would be the largest witch-hunt in British history. By 1597, James began to address some of the worst prosecutorial abuses, and witch-hunting abated somewhat.

As an indication of the attention witch-hunting had begun to attract in England during the executions in the era of King James, in 1606 Shakespeare wrote a play, Macbeth, in which strange, bearded, hag-like witches play prominent roles.

A dark Cave. In the middle, a Cauldron boiling. Thunder. Enter the three witches.
1 WITCH. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
2 WITCH. Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin'd.
3 WITCH. Harpier cries:—'tis time! 'tis time!
1 WITCH. Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.—
Toad, that under cold stone,
Days and nights has thirty-one;
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!
ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

In 1643-1645, the largest witch-hunt in French history occurred. During those two years there were at least 650 arrests in Languedoc alone. The same time was one of intense witch-hunting in England, as the English civil war created an atmosphere of unrest that fueled the hunting, especially under Matthew Hopkins. The Thirty Years War, a conflict that raged in several European states from 1618-1648 following an attempted rebellion by Protestants in Bohemia from the Roman Catholic Hapsburg rulers, produced slaughter and suffering that sparked additional witch hunts.

The number of trials began to drop sharply, however, in the late 1640s. Holland, for example, was by 1648 a tolerant society that had done away with punishments for witchcraft.

In 1682, Temperance Lloyd, a senile woman from Bideford, became the last witch ever executed in England. Lord Chief Justice Sir Francis North, a passionate critic of witchcraft trials, investigated the Lloyd case and denounced the prosecution as deeply flawed. Sir Francis North wrote, "The evidence against them was very full and fanciful, but their own confessions exceeded it. They appeared not only weary of their own lives but to have a great deal of skill to convict themselves." North's criticism of the Lloyd case helped discourage additional prosecutions and witch-hunting shifted from one side of the Atlantic to the other, with the outbreak of hysteria in Salem in 1692.

The Enlightenment, beginning in the late 1680s, contributed to the end of witch-hunts throughout Europe. The Enlightenment brought empirical reason, skepticism, and humanitarianism, each of which helped defeat the superstitions of the earlier age. The Enlightenment suggested that there was no empirical evidence that alleged witches caused real harm, and taught that the use of torture to force confessions was inhumane.

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 45 replies

Lego .. Toy of the Century

Bloke72 — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:11:14 GMT

At the start of the new millennium the LEGO brick was acclaimed “Toy of the Century” – first by Fortune Magazine and later by the British Association of Toy Retailers. Carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen began making wooden toys in 1932. Since then the company has passed from father to son. Today the founder’s grandson, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen – with his children – owns the LEGO Group, which in terms of sales is the world’s fifth‑largest toy anufacturer:

1. Mattel

2. Hasbro

3. Bandai

4. MGA Entertainment

5. LEGO

Source http://cache.lego.com/downloads/aboutus/LEGO_company_profile_UK.pdf (Page 8)

It all began in 1932 ...

The founder, Ole Kirk Christiansen, hit upon the LEGO® name in 1934. He took the first two letters of the Danish words LEG GODT, meaning “play well”, and put them together – quite unaware that one meaning of the word in Latin is ... “I put together”. Today – many years later – LEGO is both the name and the idea behind the company. Play is a key element in children’s growth and development, and play stimulates the imagination, the emergence of ideas, and creative expression. It is LEGO philosophy that “good play” enriches a child’s life – and its subsequent adulthood. With this in mind, the LEGO group has developed and marketed a wide range of products, all founded on the same basic philosophy of learning
and developing – through play.

(http://cache.lego.com/downloads/aboutus/LEGO_company_profile_UK.pdf Page 3 )

Picture of the inventor http://tribes.tribe.net/triviarocks/photos/5c4e079e-9ea4-42ad-9ff2-125cd71c3704

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 10 replies

Instant Ramen

PaulN — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:11:48 GMT

From the June 2008 issue of Monocle
Dateline Osaka
Basic facts on instant Noodles
Invented 50 years ago in Japan by Momofuku Ando.
For the past 7 years instant noodle consumption has risen by 10% per year.
Projections show 100 billion servings sold this year....or 16 servings for every person on the planet.
Originally introduced as a luxury food, cost at the time was 6 times the cost of fresh noodles....but convenience and mass production has won out.
The price of the two main ingredients (wheat and palm oil) has sky-rocketed in the past year. this may possibly spell the end of instant Ramen's niche as a low cost food.
China, which consumes more than half the worlds instant noodles, used 10% of its annual wheat crop for instant ramen.
Top 5 noodle nations (by servings per year...In Billions)
1 China 50.1
2 indonesia 15
3 Japan 5.5
4 USA 4.2
5 Viet Nam 3.9

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 11 replies

Game - Zeno Tactic

Bloke72 — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 05:21:48 GMT

No trivia on it.. except I am addicted.. and cant make it to Mission 6

http://www.a123.com/games/2723/Xeno-Tactic

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 5 replies

MEN ! Mr Men that is..

Bloke72 — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:24:49 GMT

"Mr. Men is a series of 45 (only 43 published in English) children's books by Roger Hargreaves started in 1971. Little Miss was an accompanying series of 39 (only 30 published in English) books by the same author with female characters that started in 1981. After Hargreaves' death in 1988, his son, Adam Hargreaves, began writing and illustrating new stories involving the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters, including the creation of ten new characters, four of which were inspired by work Roger Hargreaves had produced before his death."

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Men

Who is your favourite Mr Men.. Or Little Miss..

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 1 reply

Critical Trivia... on Chocolate..

Bloke72 — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:37:12 GMT

We have threads on beer and coffee - but not chocolate... WTF ?

This is it. A thread on a substance very dear to my heart..

Let's being by taking the chocolate quizz at http://www.geocities.com/NapaValley/4908/trivia.htm

Who knew that "The Swiss lead the world in Chocolate consumption per capita. "

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 12 replies

Great Escapes…

Bloke72 — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 11:40:29 GMT

I love the movies "The Great Escape" and also the "Shawshank Redemption".......

Has anyone got a good escape story for the Tribe ???

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 16 replies

This is a bit cool :)

Bloke72 — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 11:36:46 GMT

http://www.semiconductorfilms.com/root/Magnetic_Movie/Magnetic.htm

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 9 replies

Coffee ... the mother load...

Bloke72 — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 09:48:02 GMT

Well.

I can't believe we have not covered Trivia about one of life’s most critical substances…
C O F F E E !!!!!!!!!!!!

Without Coffee – there would be no Trivia Tribe !

Did you know such critical trivia as that some say….
"The US Navy used to serve alcoholic beverages on board ships. When Admiral Josephus "Joe" Daniels became Chief of Naval Operations, he outlawed alcohol on board ships, except for very special occasions. Coffee then became the drink of choice, hence the term "Cup of Joe". http://www.perfectcoffees.com/coffee-trivia.html

But there is controversy on this (of course ) see http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/15444

Now……….. Look at the length of this post, 206 points !!!! … you will never guess what I have been drinking!
:)

(Various sighted Sources refer to the Trivia above the links..)

Coffee trivia
1. In December 2001 Brazil produced a scented postage stamp to promote its coffee - the smell was made to last for between three and five years

2. When shopping for perfume, beauty experts advise you to take some coffee beans with you in your bag and have a good sniff in between smelling each perfume to refresh your nose!

3. • Two of the world’s most powerful businesses, Lloyds of London and the New York Stock Exchange, started life as coffee houses

4. • Cappuccino is so named because of the drink's peak of foam which resembles the cowl of a Capuchin friar's habit

5. • Coffee was first known in Europe as Arabian Wine

6. • The heavy tax on tea imposed in 1773 on the colonies which led to the ‘Boston Tea Party’, resulted in America switching from mainly drinking tea to coffee. To drink coffee was an expression of freedom

7. • Normally, Italians do not drink coffee during meals. It is considered to be a separate event and is given its own time

8. • In Greece and Turkey it is tradition that the oldest person is almost always served their coffee first

9. • In the ancient Arab world, coffee became such a staple part of family life that one of the causes allowed by law for marital separation was a husband's refusal to produce coffee for his wife
http://www.britishcoffeeassociation.org/page.aspx?page=history&m_id=4

10. If you like your espresso coffee sweet, you should use granulated sugar, which dissolves more quickly, rather than sugar cubes; white sugar rather than brown sugar or candy; and real sugar rather than sweeteners which alter the taste of the coffee.

11. "Cowboy coffee"? It was said they made their coffee by putting ground coffee into a clean sock and immerse it in cold water and heated over campfire. When ready, they would pour the coffee into tin cups and drink it.

12. Caffeine is on the International Olympic Committee list of prohibited substances. Athletes who test positive for more than 12 micrograms of caffeine per milliliter of urine may be banned from the Olympic Games. This level may be reached after drinking about 5 cups of coffee. Ouch! Any coffee athletics out there?

13. The word "coffee" was at one time a term for wine, but was later used to describe a black drink made from berries of the coffee tree. This black drink replaced wine in many religious ceremonies because it kept the Mohammedans awake and alert during their nightly prayers, so they honored it with the name they had originally given to wine.

14. The word 'cappuccino' is the result of several derivations, the original of which began in 16th century. The Capuchin order of friars, established after 1525, played an important role in bringing Catholicism back to Reformation Europe. Its Italian name came from the long, pointed cowl, or cappuccino, derived from cappuccio, "hood," that was worn as part of the order's habit. The French version of cappuccino was capuchin, from which came English Capuchin. In Italian cappuccino went on to describe espresso coffee mixed or topped with steamed milk or cream, so called because the color of the coffee resembled the color of the habit of a Capuchin friar. The first use of cappuccino in English is recorded in 1948 in a work about San Francisco. There is also the story line that says that the term comes from the fact that the coffee is dark, like the monk's robe, and the cap is likened to the color of the monk's head.

15. Both the American Revolution and the infamous French Revolution were born in coffee houses. The American Revolution grew from roots planted by patriots in the Green Dragon (some say it was the Green Lion) Public House in the Lloyd's District of London. The infamous French Revolution happened in 1789 when the Parisians, spurred on by Camille Desmoulins's verbal campaign, took to the streets and two days later the Bastille fell, marking the overthrow of the French Government and changing France forever.

16. When the beans reaches the temperature of 400F during the roasting process, the beans "crack." The bean develop oils in a process called pyolysis. The outer part of the beans darkens. When the beans "crack" a second time, the hot beans are then dumped from the roaster and cooled immediately, usually with cold air. During the process of roasting coffee beans, coffee oil gathers in pockets throughout the bean. This substance is forced out to the surface of the beans of darker roasts, as moisture is lost. Hence the bean has this oily appearance.

17. Coffee beans are graded in various ways. Example: Kenya coffees are graded as A, B and C. AA is the best coffee. In Costa Rica, coffees are graded as Strictly Hard Bean, Good Hard Bean, Hard Bean, Medium Hard Bean, High Grown Atlantic, Medium Grown Atlantic, and Low Grown Atlantic. Those coffee beans from Colombia are labeled as "Supremo" "Excelso", "Extra" and the lowest grade, "Pasilla".

18. Turkish bridegrooms were once required to make a promise during their wedding ceremonies to always provide their new wives with coffee. If they failed to do so, it was grounds for divorce! (Ouch!)

19. The Italians drink their espresso with sugar, the Germans and Swiss - with equal parts of hot chocolate, the Mexicans - with cinnamon, the Belgians - with chocolate. Moroccans drink their coffee with peppercorns, the Ethiopians - with a pinch of salt. Coffee drinkers in the Middle East usually add cardamom and spices. Whipped cream is the favourite amongst Austrians. The Egyptians are extremely fond of pure and strong coffee. They seldom add sugar to it, nor milk nor cream. They serve unsweeteened coffee to mourners and sweetened coffee at weddings. The Italians are the unrivaled World Masters of Espresso.

20. Special studies conducted about the human body revealed it will usually absorb up to about 300 milligrams of caffeine at a given time. About 4 normal cups. Additional amounts are just cast off, providing no further stimulation. Also, the human body dissipates 20% of the caffeine in the system each hour.

21. In Yugoslavia, small coffee places are known as kafano, where the owners takes your order, brew and serve you coffee. It is usually served in a long-handled open pot known as devza (that should be cezva, pronounced "keffa." In Turkey it's called an Ibrik), and the coffee is poured into tiny demitasse-type cups. This is like an espresso, but it has the full impart of caffeine. Done right, it rewards the drinker with a remarkable coffee experience.

22. Espresso has 1/3 of the caffeine of a regular cup of coffee.
(do we believe this one ????)

23. One time in Germany, the government hired a special force known as Kaffee Schnufflers, to sniff out illicit coffee roasters and smugglers. It was an intense campaign brought about by King Frederick who did not believe that coffee-drinking soldiers can be depended upon. Fortunately he failed for he too loved coffee.

24. During the American Civil War the Union soldiers were issued eight pounds of ground roasted coffee as part of their personal ration of one hundred pounds of food. And they had another choice: ten pounds of green coffee beans.

25. Cafe Procope was the first true Paris coffeehouse. It was opened in 1689 by a former lemonade vendor, Francois Procope. The cafe faces the Theatre Francais, where it drew the artists and actors of the day.

26. At one time in England, certain merchants were angered when coffee was introduced. Those selling ale and wine felt threatened when coffee became more popular. They even launched a campaign to persuade Charles II to issue an order to suppress coffeehouses. Fortunately, public outcry forced the order to be retracted. That was on January 8, 1675.

27. Kolschitzky, a Polish, opened Vienna's first coffeehouse, the Blue Bottle. He even saved the beans from the flames when the Turkish troops who left them were fleeing from the city.

28. In the homes of the Bedouins, coffee is generally served plain with ginger or cardamom. It gives off a yellow color and a very sweet taste. Sometimes ginger is added instead of cardamom. The Bedouins would greet the guest in honour with "Allah wa Sablan", meaning, "My home is your home".

29. Ugandans mix green beans with sweet grasses and various spices, dry them, and then wrap these in grass packets, which were then hung in their homes. It serves as talisman and as decoration.

30. Coffee most exacting rite of passage is known as "cupping" or cuptasting. It is the act of assessing the qualities of a particular batch of beans by freshly roasting, brewing, and tasting it. It is the work for serious and talented professionals.

31. Coffee berries start as green berries in early stage of growth, turns yellow, red, then dark crimson when it is finally ripe and yields the best coffee. In fact, according to the rule of "FIVE": Arabica coffee plant takes about "FIVE" years to mature and produce its first crop. A healthy coffee tree will produce only about "FIVE" pounds of green beans per year, but only about "ONE-FIFTH" of a pound meets the rigid sorting standards to be sold as "Specialty Coffee."

32. We say coffee beans although they are really berries.

33. Dorothy Jones of Boston was the first American coffee trader. It was in 1670 that she was granted a license to sell coffee.

34. Japan is now the third largest consumer of coffee. They even know to improve their skin, and reduce wrinkles, by bathing in coffee grounds that were fermented with pineapple pulp. Amazing! Beats mud-bathing.

35. Crema is a golden-browish foam that covers a freshly brewed cup of espresso. It is only made by a high-pressured method of extraction. An even thicker layer of crema also helps keep the heat and aroma of espresso. Enjoy!

36. "Expresso is not a word; it comes from the same root as "express" as in "The Express Train." The term is ESPRESSO. It comes from the Latinate root for "Press", or "Under Pressure". In many places if you order "expresso", you will be politely ignored.

37. Espresso macchiato is a cup of espresso "marked" with a spoonful of the foam from steamed milk, whereas latte macchiato is a cup of steamed milk "marked" with a small dash of espresso.

38. During the American Civil War, when coffee was scarce, the citizens of New Orleans used chicory as substitutes. Today, they would have their coffee with chicory, which is mixed with quantity of strong black coffee and hot, rich milk.

39. There is a difference between the strength and body of the coffee? The strength of the coffee refers to how much coffee is there in the brew, whereas the body is a measure of the richness (or heaviness) of the coffee taste.

40. In the coffee world, "excelso" or "supremo" do not indicate the quality of the beans, but rather, the size of the beans.

41. Vacuum pot brewer was invented by a Scottish engineer, Robert Napier, in about 1840. It has two glass or metal globes that fit together to make a seal. A plug, often attached to a spring seats in the upper globe.

42. In the old days in Constantinople, the first coffeehouses were called qahveh khaneh (schools of wisdom) because they were the meeting places of men of arts and literature.

43. A kahveci is a person who is skilled in preparing Turkish coffee.

44. In 1690 the Dutch founded the East India Coffee trade when they introduced coffee in Java (Indonesia).

45. At one time there was a group of women who formed Women's Petition Against Coffee (WPAC). That was in London in 1674. They complained that their men were always at the coffee houses, and not being at home as needed during domestic crises.

46. Turkish coffee is traditionally brewed in a circular brass pot known as an ibrik. It is used to brew a cup that is thicker and sweeter than the usual coffee that we are accustomed to.

47. Coffee was brought into Costa Rica from Cuba by a Spanish traveller, Navarro, in 1779. Hence it is not their native plant.

48. According to Scheha Beddin, an Arab author, Mufti of Aden were the first people to drink coffee (who lived during the beginning of 9th century.)

49. Will's in Covent Garden became a favourite meeting place for writers and poets. Many famous people, including Dr. Johnson, who compiled the first English Dictionary, visited the Turk's Head Coffee House.

50. The requirements for making of good espresso is summarized by the 4 "M"s: Macinazione (the correct griinding of coffee blend), Miscela (coffee blend), Macchina (the espresso machine) and of course, Mano (barista).

51. Beethoven who was a coffee lover, was so particular about his coffee that he always counted 60 beans each cup when he prepared his brew.

52. Luigi Goglio invented a one-way valve that could be laminated onto layered, oxygen-permeable packaging material.

53. Louis XV was rumoured to have spent USD15,000/- per year on coffee for his daughters. And Voltaire supposedly drank 50 cups a day.

54. The French was the first to innovate a crude espresso machine. The Italians then perfected this machine and became the first to manufacture it.

55. The first coffee advertisement was a handbill distributed in 1651. It read: "The Virtue of the coffee drink first publicly made and sold in England, by Pasqua Rosee...in St. Michael's Alley Cornhill...at the Signe of his own head." It is now housed in the British Museum.

56. In 1511, Khair Beg, Mecca's corrupt governor, attempted to ban the coffee drink, fearing that it might foster public opposition to his rule. He even summoned experts from every walk of life to testify against coffee.

57. It was a locksmith who, in 1665, first invented a coffee mill in London.

58. It was in 1530 that the first coffeehouse was opened in Damascus, Syria. Istanbul, Turkey opened its first coffeehouse in 1554.

59. Mr. Jacobs opened England's first coffee house in Oxford in 1650. It was two years later that another coffee house was opened in London by a Greek, Pasqua Rosee, in partnership with Daniel Edwards, an Englishman. By 1700 some two thousand such coffee shops were established.

60. The Turks brought coffee to Austria when their army surrounded Vienna in 1683, laying siege to the city.

61. In 1785, the coffee revolt broke out in Prussia because coffee consumption was restricted to the nobility, the clergy and high officials.

62. Before coffee was introduced as a stimulant, it had been a social custom in Aden to chew the fresh leaves of "qat", as it had a mild narcotic effect.

63. The three biggest coffee drinkers in the world are the Americans, the French and the Germans. They consume some 65% of the total world's consumption of coffee.

64. The coffee bean is called "bunnu" in Arabic.

65. It was the Dutch who literally brought the coffee plant to the rest of the world. They brought the first coffee plant from Mocha in Yemen to Holland in 1616. Their first cultivation was in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1658.

66. Nicaragua Margogipe is the largest of coffee beans.

67. Mr. G. Washington, an Englishman who lived in Guatemala, invented instant coffee. He discovered soluble coffee in 1906 and three years later was able to put his products on the market.

68. Dr. Satori Kato, a Japanese chemist, was among the first to develop an instant coffee powder.

69. Coffee in Kenya came from the Isle of Bourbon (Reunion) with the Roman Catholic missionaries as late as 1893.

70. 1 kilogram of roasted coffee requires 4,000 - 5,000 coffee beans.

71. The original Cappuccino machines were true works of art in the inimitable Italian style. Massive, ornate, and impressive steam machines designed to brew coffee and foam milk in a stimulating and entertaining ritual. Much of the enjoyment of this exotic Italian classic was watching the server make it in the elegant Cappuccino machine, with skill and showmanship.

72. The inventors of Cappuccino decided that it's preparation should be as dramatic as it's distinguished taste and appearance. So they designed an appropriately impressive Cappuccino machine.

73. Early in the history of revolutionary America, coffee played an important role, and today it has experienced an unprecedented and exponential rise in popularity and consumption, with Cappuccino setting the pace.

74. Infidels only consumed this delightful beverage until Pope Clement VIII found it to his taste and lifted the ban which had long denied Christians the enjoyment of this pleasurable and stimulating beverage.

75. Frederick the Great formed his own Gestapo-like organization to ferret out and punish anyone in his army who used coffee.

76. In the 17th century, for unknown reasons, an English king forbade his subjects to congregate anywhere coffee was sold.

77. Coffee has been around for over 11 centuries and is currently the most widely consumed beverage in the world. Cappuccino has become the popular choice of exotic coffee lovers everywhere. This was not always so however.

78. It is a well-known fact to coffee drinkers everywhere that Honoré de Balzac, famous nineteenth-century French writer (remember Père Goriot?), drank up to 40 cups of coffee per day!

79. When coffee supplies became scarce during the American Civil War, soldiers desperate for a cup of coffee used roasted sweet potato and Indian corn as a substitute!

80. Dark roasted coffees actually have LESS caffeine than medium roasts. The longer a coffee is roasted, the more caffeine burns off during the process.

81. The word "tip" dates back to the old London coffeehouses. Conspicuously placed brass boxes etched with the inscription, "To Insure Promptness," encouraged customers to pay for efficient service. The resulting acronym, TIP, has become a byword.

82. Until the tenth century, coffee was considered a food. Ethiopian tribesmen would mix the coffee berries with animal fat, roll them into balls, and eat them on their nomadic journeys
http://www.cocoajava.com/java_trivia.html

83. • Finland holds the per-capita title, with each person man woman and child consuming more than 22 pounds of coffee a year This means, that a family of four will make about 15 cups a day.

84. • The US Navy used to serve alcoholic beverages on board ships. When Admiral Josephus "Joe" Daniels became Chief of Naval Operations, he outlawed alcohol on board ships, except for very special occasions. Coffee then became the drink of choice, hence the term "Cup of Joe".

85. • Coffee berries do not ripen uniformly. The same branch may display ripe red berries, unripe green berries and overripe black berries. Conscientious pickers select only the ripe berries.

86. Coffee has been in use since about 900 A.D. It was first used as a stimulant, a wine, and as a medicine.

87. • Johann Sebastian Bach was so taken by the romance of the beverage, he wrote his "Coffee Cantata" and in it hailed coffee as "the most precious of blisses...."

88. • Irish cream and Hazelnut are the most popular whole bean coffee flavorings.

89. • Coffee is generally roasted between 400F and 425F. The longer it is roasted, the darker the roast. Roasting time is usually from ten to twenty minutes.

90. • Caffeine does contribute to a coffee's flavor. Caffeine content decreases as the darkness of the roast increases.

91. • We can recognize over 3,000 smells and can continue to notice the aroma of an espresso up to ten minutes after we have finished drinking it.

92. The prototype of the first espresso machine was created in France in 1822.

93. • Italy now has over 200,000 coffee bars, and still growing.

94. • Adding sugar to coffee is believed to have started in 1715, in the court of King Louis XIV, the French monarch.
Or is it…
95. In 1625, Sugar was first used to sweeten coffee.

96. • Roasted coffee beans start to lose small amounts of flavor within two weeks. Ground coffee begins to lose its flavor in one hour. Brewed coffee and espresso begins to lose flavor within minutes.

97. • The most widely accepted legend associated to the discovery of coffee is of the goatherder named Kaldi of Ethiopia. Around the year 800-850 A.D., Kaldi was amazed as he noticed his goats behaving in a frisky manner after eating the leaves and berries of a coffee shrub.

98. • A good coffee picker can pick 10 baskets of coffee cherries in a day. Roasted and brewed that translates to 2,400 cups.

99. • A pound of tea, on average, has nearly twice the caffeine of a pound of roasted coffee.

100. • Caffeine content is directly related to the altitude at which the coffee is grown. The higher the altitude, the less caffeine. Therefore; gourmet coffees are naturally lower in caffeine than typical supermarket canned coffee blends.

101. • Most coffee is transported by ships. Currently there are approximately 2,200 ships involved in transporting the beans each year.

102. • The first "coffee break" on the moon took place at 7:27pm, July 20, 1969. It was three hours after landing and four hours before the historic walk that an astronaut on the Eagle spacecraft radioed Houston control to say, "If you'll excuse me a minute, I'm going to have a cup of coffee."

103. In general, West Coast coffee drinkers prefer darker roasted coffees while East Coast coffee drinkers prefer a lighter roast.

104. • A scientific report from the University of California found that the steam rising from a cup of coffee contains the same amount of antioxidants as three oranges. The antioxidants are heterocyclic compounds which prevent cancer and heart disease.

105. • The modern day espresso street vending cart evolved from a Boeing Company shuttle cart, purchased from surplus. It was first utilized to serve people espresso at an arts and crafts fair in Edmonds, Washington.

106. • All coffee is grown within 1,000 miles of the equator, from the Tropic of Cancer in the north, to the Tropic of Capricorn in the south.

107. • When you travel you may notice differences in the taste of your coffee simply from the altitude at which you are located. Taste buds are less sensitive at higher altitudes than at sea level.

108. • Ever heard of "cowboy" coffee? In the 1800's, cowboys put their ground coffee into a clean sock and immersed it in hot water heated over the campfire.

109. • In the Caribbean, coconuts are more common than cows and many use coconut milk instead of cow's milk to add to morning coffee.

110. • There are over 1,200 chemical components in coffee and over half of these contribute to the unique flavor of coffee.

111. • The aroma and flavor derived from coffee is a result of the little beads of the oily substance called coffee essence, caffeol or coffee oil. This is not an actual oil since it dissolves in water.

112. • Coffee is bought and sold 4 to 6 times before it finally reaches the consumer who drinks it.
http://www.perfectcoffees.com/coffee-trivia.html

113. Robusta Coffee has twice as much caffeine in it than Arabica.

114. Coffee, if it were taxed like wine would be more expensive than it.

115. The principle psychological effects of coffee are due to caffeine, an alkaloid that acts as a mild stimulant.

116. An ordinary cup of coffee contains about 150 milligrams of caffeine - what most physicians call a "theraputic dose".

117. According to the speciality coffee association of America, the premium bean category of the industry has grown into a $1.5 billion annual industry.

118. Over 25 million people are employed in the coffee industry.

119. 'non-volatile' taste components in coffee include: caffeine, trigonelline, chlorogenic acid, phenolic acids, amino acids, carbohydrates and minerals.

120. 'volatile' aroma components in coffee include: organic acids, aldehydes, ketones, esters, amines and mercaptans.

121. The most important substitute for coffee is usually chicory, although it is often used as an extender as opposed to a substitute.

122. After brewing, espresso coffee contains 2.5% fat and filter coffee contains 0.6% fat.

123. Coffee grows in more than 50 countries and is the second largest export in the world after oil (in dollar value).

124. Coffee sacks are usually made of hemp and weigh approximately 132 pounds when they are full of green coffee beans. It takes over 600,000 beans to fill a coffee sack.

125. Commercially flavoured coffee beans are flavoured after they are roasted and partially cooled to around 100 degrees. It is then that the flavour is applied as the coffee beans' pores are open and therefore more receptive to flavour absorption.
http://www.realcoffee.co.uk/Article.asp?Cat=Trivia&Page=3

126. Milk as an additive to coffee became popular in the 1680's, when a French physician recommended that cafe au lait be used for medicinal purposes.

127. The first Parisian cafe opened in 1689 to serve coffee.

128. Bach wrote a coffee cantata in 1732

129. In the year 1763, there were over 200 coffee shops in Venice.

130. The heavy tea tax imposed on the colonies in 1773, which caused the "Boston Tea Party," resulted in America switching from tea to coffee. Drinking coffee was an expression of freedom.

131. The founding fathers of the U.S., during the revolution, formed their national strategies in coffeehouses.

132. In early America, coffee was usually taken between meals and after dinner.

133. In the year 1790, there were two firsts in the United States; the first wholesale coffee roasting company, and the first newspaper advertisement featuring coffee.

134. The prototype of the first espresso machine was created in France in 1822.

135. The first commercial espresso machine was manufactured in Italy in 1906.

136. By 1850, the manual coffee grinder found its way to most upper middle class kitchens of the U.S..

137. In 1900, coffee was often delivered door-to-door in the United States, by horse-pulled wagons.

138. The average age of an Italian barista is 48 years old. A barista is a respected job title in Italy.

139. Italians do not drink espresso during meals. It is considered to be a separate event and is given its own time.

140. In Italy, espresso is considered so essential to daily life that the price is regulated by the government.

141. Italy now has over 200,000 coffee bars, and still growing.

142. In Greece and Turkey, the oldest person is most always served their coffee first.

143. aw coffee beans, soaked in water and spices, are chewed like candy in many parts of Africa.

144. In the last three centuries, 90% of all people living in the Western world have switched from tea to coffee.

145. Coffee represents 75% of all the caffeine consumed in the United States.

http://www.koffeekorner.com/trivia.htm

146. The largest coffee importer center in the U.S. is located in the city of New Orleans, LA.

147. The coffee tree produces its first full crop when it is about 5 years old. Thereafter it produces consistently for 15 or 20 years.

148. A mature coffee tree will produce ONE POUND of coffee per growing season.

149. ONE POUND of ground beans makes about 50 cups of java.

150. It takes 2,000 hand-picked Arabica coffee cherries to make ONE roasted pound of coffee - or approximately 4,000 beans.

151. Coffee berries do not ripen uniformly. The same branch may display ripe red berries, unripe green berries, and overripe black berries. Conscientious growers select only the ripe berries.

152. Coffee grows in more than 50 countries and is the second largest export in the world after oil (in dollar value). Over 25 million people are employed in the coffee business world-wide.

153. Brazil, the world's largest producer, grows approximately 35% of the world's coffee.

154. Colombia is the world's second largest Arabica coffee producer.

155. Green coffee is a major import of the United States; about two-thirds of the total comes from Central and South America, with Brazil and Colombia the two largest suppliers.

156. Ground coffee loses its flavor immediately unless it is specially packaged or brewed, like those offered at Discount Coffee. Vacuum sealed and nitrogen filled foil plastic-and-paper combinations are used to protect freshly roasted and ground coffee and keep coffee fresh for up to 6 months.

157. Flavored coffees are created after the roasting process by applying flavoured oils specially created to use on coffee beans. Darker roasted coffees; ie. Espresso, contains Less Caffeine than any other roast because caffeine is lost during longer roast period.

158. Fine Mexican coffees now compare with those from Central America with a fine acidity, delicate body and pleasantly mellow flavor.

159. German immigrants in Guatemala developed a cultivation process to use in extreme weather conditions. They burn rubbish and pitch near the plantations during severe weather and the dense smoke protects the trees from frost and produces a smoky flavor in the beans.

160. "Coffee Arabica" is the species name assigned to the coffee tree by European botanist Linnaeus while categorizing the flora of the Arabian peninsula.

161. Arabica beans and fine wines both derive their flavors from the soil, altitude and microclimates in which they are grown.

162. Jamaica Blue Mountain is often regarded as the best coffee in the world.

163. In 215 B.C. the first vending machine was designed by Hero of Alexandria to vend sacrificial water.

164. In 1615, the first European coffee was sold in drugstores as a medicinal remedy.

165. In 1650, the Dutch carried the descendants of the seeds of Baba Budan stole to Java, where coffee growing subsequently flourished.

166. In 1715, Jesuits began coffee cultivation in Haiti. Due to unstable political problems, Haitian coffees are difficult to find.

167. Deep volcanic soil in combination with heavy rainfall produce coffee that is sweet, mellow, fair-bodied and rich in flavor.

168. In 1721, the first coffee house opened in Berlin.

169. In 1773, Americans revolted against King George's Tea Tax and the Continental Congress declared coffee the official national beverage. If it had not been for the Boston Tea Party, we may have had a cup of "Folgers Tea" this morning. :-)

170. In 1825, Coffee was taken to Hawaii.

http://www.discountcoffee.com/CoffeeTriviaFun.htm

COFFEE CONSUMPTION TRIVIA
171. Coffee is the most popular drink worldwide with over 400 billion cups consumed each year.

172. It takes 42 coffee beans to make an espresso.

173. Over half of the espresso consumed in the UK is drunk in the South East of the country.

174. On average, men drink more coffee than women (1.7 cups per day vs 1.5 cups)

175. 37% of coffee drinkers drink their coffee black; while 63% add a sweetener such as sugar.

176. Instant coffee accounts for 13% of all coffee drunk.

177. 57% of coffee is drunk at breakfast; 34% between meals and 13% at other meals.

178. It is estimated that more than 100 million Americans drink a total of 350 million cups of coffee a day.

179. About half of all American adults have a cup of coffee to start their day.

180. The USA is the world's largest consumer of coffee, importing 16 to 20 million bags annually (2.5 million pounds), representing 1/3 of all coffee exported. More than half of the United States population consumes coffee typically drinking 3.4 cups of coffee a day.

181. The first European coffee was sold in pharmacies in 1615 as a medicinal remedy.

182. cappuccino is so named because of the drink's peak of foam which resembles the cowl of a Capuchin friar's habit.

183. Flavoured coffees are created after the roasting process by applying flavoured oils specially created to use on coffee beans.

184. Espresso contains less caffeine than any other roast.

185. Coffee was first known in Europe as Arabian Wine.

186. Bach wrote a coffee cantata in 1732.

187. The US Navy used to serve alcoholic beverages on board ships. However when Admiral Josephus "Joe" Daniels became Chief of Naval Operations, he outlawed alcohol on board ships, except for very special occasions. Coffee then became the drink of choice, hence the term "Cup of Joe".

188. The heavy tax on tea imposed in 1773 on the colonies that resulted in the "Boston Tea Party" resulted in America switching from mainly drinking tea to coffee. To drink coffee was an expression of freedom.

189. Italians do not drink espresso during meals. It is considered to be a separate event and is given its own time.

190. In the ancient Arab world, coffee became such a staple part of family life that one of the causes allowed by law for marital separation was a husband's refusal to produce coffee for his wife.

191. Raw coffee beans, soaked in water and spices, are chewed like candy in many parts of Africa.

192. Coffee represents three-quarters of all the caffeine consumed in the USA.

193. For reducing wrinkes and improving their skin, the Japanese have been known to bathe in coffee grounds fermented with pineapple pulp.

194. Citrus flavours have been added to coffee for several hundred years.

195. The Europeans first added chocolate to their coffee in the 1600's.

196. Our sense of smell, more than any of our other senses makes our final judgement on coffee.

197. The French philosopher, Voltaire, reportedly drank fifty cups of coffee a day.

198. Decaffeinated coffee sales are at their highest in January due to people's New Year resolutions.

199. Scandinavia has the world's highest per capita annual coffee consumption, 26.4 pounds.

200. The Arabs flavoured their coffee with spices during the brewing process.

201. Iced coffee in a can has been popular in Japan since 1945.

202. The human body will absorb just 300 milligrams of caffeine at a given time. Additional amounts are cast off and provide no additional stimulation. The human body dissipates 20% of the caffeine in it's system per hour.

203. Wild medical contraptions used to exist to administer a mixture of coffee and an assortment of heated butter, honey and oil to treat the sick.

204. Regular coffee drinkers have about 1/3 less asthma symptoms than those of non-coffee drinkers according to a Harvard researcher who studied 20,000 people.

205. Australians consume 60% more coffee than tea, a sixfold increase since 1940.

206. Turkish law makes it legal for a woman to divorce her husband if he fails to provide her with her daily quota of coffee.
http://www.realcoffee.co.uk/Article.asp?Cat=Trivia&Page=1

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 9 replies

A belated Birthday to..

Bloke72 — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:08:33 GMT

SLICED BREAD !!

Otto Frederick Rohwedder has been called the father of sliced bread. He worked for many years on developing a bread slicer, starting in 1912. His first efforts met with resistance from bakers, who informed him that the sliced bread would quickly go stale. By 1928, Rohwedder had finally designed a slicer that would also wrap the bread.

For many years, Battle Creek, Michigan has claimed to be the first place Rohwedder’s bread slicing machine was used, and the first the first place where sliced bread was sold. However, there is no evidence to back up this claim.

New documented evidence, has come to light recently, which refutes the Battle Creek claim.

Karen L. Hicklin, the Director of the Livingston County Library in Missouri was kind enough to give me the following information.

The Chillicothe, Missouri Constitution-Tribune of July 7, 1928 carried a story of the new machines first use at M.F. Bench's Chillicothe Baking Company, 100 Elm Street in Chillicothe, Missouri. According to the story, Mr. Bench assisted Rohwedder in the fine tuning the new bread slicing machine.

So - Sliced bread was born in Chillicothe, Missouri, on July 7, 1928.

Source http://www.foodreference.com/html/fslicedbread.html

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 5 replies

Bloke needs a new appendage...

Bloke72 — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:47:41 GMT

Okay - you trivia fiends, oh, I mean trivia friends, you're special (keep googling you bastards!)...

I often tack something topical onto the end of "Bloke"....

Currently I am "Bloke. Honourary Girl" and was recently "Bloke. Red Tent Refugee"
(In jokes - but these in jokes are getting a bit old...)

I think we need to come up with something new...

And in honour of my minions, I mean members of this tribe...... I am taking suggestions from you mutants.. I mean members.. MEMBERS! ...

So - what suggestions have yea got ?

(I would not mind if my appendage was bigger by the way - but tribe may not be able to handle it.. )

What should I be - "Bloke,_________" ?

What should we put in the "_______" bit ?

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 69 replies

Utah goes to 4-day workweek to save energy

Bloke72 — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:12:44 GMT

Starting next month, thousands of government employees will only work 4 days per week, in an effort aimed at reducing energy costs and commuters' gasoline expenses.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Starting next month, it will be "TGIT" for Utah state employees. As in: "Thank God It's Thursday."

In a yearlong experiment aimed at reducing the state's energy costs and commuters' gasoline expenses, Utah is about to become the first state to switch to a four-day workweek for thousands of government employees.

They will put in 10-hour days, Monday through Thursday, and have Fridays off, freeing them to golf, shop, spend time with the kids or do anything else that strikes their fancy. They will get paid the same as before.

"One of the jokes is that one of the biggest benefits will be for golf courses," said Ryan Walker, 49, an information technology director. He said he is looking forward to tackling items on his long-neglected "honey-do" list (As in: "Honey, do this" and "Honey, do that"); camping; and traveling more around the state.

The order issued by Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman will affect about 17,000 out of 24,000 executive-branch employees. It will not cover state police officers, prison guards or employees of the courts or Utah's public universities. Also, state-run liquor stores will stay open on Fridays.

The compressed workweek in Utah - whose motto is "Industry" and whose official symbol is the beehive, representing thrift and perseverance - could prove inconvenient to those who need to use state services and find certain offices closed on Fridays.

Also, some parents may have to rearrange their child care to accommodate their longer hours, and bus and commuter train schedules might have to be adjusted.

But many are excited about the idea.

"I'm thrilled," said Rose Kenworthy, 58, an executive secretary at the Utah Department of Environmental Quality. "Now I can do anything I want. I can have lunch with my friends, spend time with my grandchildren or just chill out."

Sheldon Wood, 48, who writes property tax software, plans on using his three-day weekends to go into the mountains to hike and bike with his wife, also a state employee.

Turning off the lights, the heat and the air conditioning on Fridays in 1,000 of 3,000 government buildings will save about $3 million a year out of a state budget of $11 billion, according to the governor's spokeswoman, Lisa Roskelley. The state will also save on gasoline used by official vehicles, but authorities have not figured out how much.

The Department of Environmental Quality estimated employees in six buildings alone will save themselves more than $300,000 spent on gas to commute to work.

The four-day workweek could also be good for the environment.

"We feel like we can reduce the CO2 or the ozone by around over 3,000 metric tons, as well as have an impact on our air pollution," said Kim Hood, executive director of the Department of Administrative Services.

In addition, the governor said the new schedule could help recruit younger workers who prefer a three-day weekend.

State officials will evaluate the program after a year and decide whether to extend it.

Because of the downturn in the economy and $4-a-gallon gasoline, many states are looking at cost-saving measures, including expanded telecommuting, compressed workweeks and more flexible schedules.

"Everyone's going to keep a close eye on it and see what happens in Utah and whether they can demonstrate employee effectiveness and the energy savings, too," said Leslie Scott, executive director of the National Association of State Personnel Executives, based in Lexington, Ky.

Many Utah state offices will extend their hours and stay open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. so people can use government services before or after work. And residents are being encouraged to use the Internet for hundreds of ordinary services, such as automobile registration renewals.

As for such things as hazardous spills and calls from Medicaid recipients who need approval for medical procedures, "certainly there are people who are on call 24-7 now, and those people will continue to be on call 24-7," the governor's spokeswoman said.

Natalie Smith, 38, who works on a state arthritis program, supports the governor's push to make government more environmentally friendly, but said the change will mean juggling schedules with her husband to take care of their two young children.

"We're not exactly sure how we're going to do it," she said. But she added that it will be nice to have Fridays to visit the library or the zoo or run errands.

Debra McBride, a Medicaid specialist who has been working four 10-hour shifts a week for about 20 years, said it is harder to make doctor's appointments and do other errands Monday through Thursday, and working longer hours can be rough.

"After working 10 hours in a day," she said, "I don't do anything after I get home

Source http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/03/news/economy/utah_work.ap/index.htm

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 6 replies

Go Mary !

Bloke72 — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:57:52 GMT

With over a quarter of a million kilometers behind her, Mary Taylor has decided to set off on her 17th trip and possibly last lap around Australia in her yellow Honda Jazz.

Mary’s first trip was in a 1987 Honda Accord at the ripe young age of 75. At 90, there are no signs she’s slowing down.

“I’m addicted to solo driving. I love being by myself. I like to make my own decisions. Passengers always want to stop.” Mary says she doesn’t have a favourite place; she enjoys the journey. “It’s the road. I love the car; it does what you want it to.

Mary’s journey will take her along the Australian coastline for six weeks covering between 16,000 to 18,000 kilometers. With precision planning, Mary travels anti-clockwise in order to save petrol and reduce her impact on the environment. “The wind pushes you along. I’ve also done the trip twice in the Civic Hybrid.”

So what was her motivation for the first trip? “I’ve always wanted to do it. It was a deliberate decision. You can’t lead the same life, this was something altogether different.”

The folk at Peninsula Honda take care of servicing the Jazz and arrange for other Honda dealers around Australia to attend to any issues – not that there has been a single incident. “I’ve been driving a Honda for 20 years. They’re very safe, I don’t even think of the car.”

Mary documents her journey with a dash-mounted video camera and her laptop, complete with voice-recognition software. She also takes photographs of her Jazz at various locations she visits. From her point of view she prefers to drive for 600 kilometers per day without seeing a sign of human habitation.

In anticipation of her 90th birthday and ongoing love of driving, Mary booked herself in for a professional driving assessment. The assessor’s report card read as follows: Mary Taylor’s driving ability is of a very high standard.

Mary prefers to stay in middle-of-the-range accommodation around the country because of the people she meets. “People are intrigued and they always come and talk to you.”

Mary will complete her journey in early July.

http://www.pressportal.com.au/news/311/ARTICLE/2233/2008-05-26.html

~~

I saw her interviewed - such an lively and likable lady - and at 90 she jokes to the people she meets "See you next year, if I am still alive".

And the clever old fox has got Honda to sponser her - and has also made the trip in a hybrid.

Good on ya Mary !

http://tribes.tribe.net/triviarocks/photos/73f0e553-0e12-47e4-8785-abd7fadcd7f0

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 6 replies

Origins of Sayings and Phrases

cptpegleg — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:35:33 GMT

In another tribe we were discussing the saying "as useless as tits on a boar" and it made me think of this tribe and here is a link for the origins of sayings. I cannot find the discussed saying on this site, but, I guess it is pretty self explanatory.

http://members.aol.com/MorelandC/HaveOrigins.htm

I say "chock full" all the time, and now I know what it means!!

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 10 replies

Quick note from Bloke

Bloke72 — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:24:14 GMT

Sorry I have not been around much - but been busy and where ever i have a bit of time for tribe (like now) the servers are doing funny things and they take ages to register my posts and all the messages I reply to - keep looking like new ones and posts I have already read stay marked as unread..

It is all very frustrating and sad - but as soon as tribe gets its act together I will hopefully be back in action

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 23 replies

Ossi di Morto o Ossa dei Morti

Just_A_Simpleton — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 17:43:37 GMT

Bones of the Dead: an Italian Cookie/ Biscuit prepared for the day of the dead, November 2.

I can't seem to post in the photo album, so thought I'd just start a thread instead.

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 3 replies

eccentrics

ravenshadow — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:19:01 GMT

Hetty Green

"In 1998, American Heritage Magazine compiled a list of the 40 richest Americans in history, based on 1998 dollars. There were 39 men and one woman on the list. The richest American woman who ever lived was Hetty Green, whose fortune when she died in 1916 was estimated at more than $100 million (over $17 billion in today's dollars). Hetty Green was famous in her day, not as much for her great wealth as for her great parsimony.

Hetty Green made her money the old-fashioned way - she inherited it. Born into a prosperous whaling family in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1834, Hetty Howland Robinson began a life-long love affair with numbers and money at the age of 6 when she tagged along with her father reading him financial newspapers. When she turned 13 she began working as a bookkeeper in the family business. She invested her earnings in the bonds market and established a pattern of conservative investing which was to serve her the rest of her days."

http://www.essortment.com/all/whowashettygr_ricf.htm

pic
http://www.mises.org/images4/green.gif

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 6 replies

Bad boys really do get the most girls...

crarko — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:21:10 GMT

"NICE guys knew it, now two studies have confirmed it: bad boys get the most girls. The finding may help explain why a nasty suite of antisocial personality traits known as the "dark triad" persists in the human population, despite their potentially grave cultural costs.

The traits are the self-obsession of narcissism; the impulsive, thrill-seeking and callous behaviour of psychopaths; and the deceitful and exploitative nature of Machiavellianism. At their extreme, these traits would be highly detrimental for life in traditional human societies. People with these personalities risk being shunned by others and shut out of relationships, leaving them without a mate, hungry and vulnerable to predators.

But being just slightly evil could have an upside: a prolific sex life, says Peter Jonason at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. "We have some evidence that the three traits are really the same thing and may represent a successful evolutionary strategy."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19826614.100-bad-guys-really-do-get-the-most-girls.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news4_head_mg19826614.100

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 21 replies

aunt bea loves you...

aunt bea says yee haww! — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:33:04 GMT

bloke. really.

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 2 replies

Strange facts

Bloke72 — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:24:23 GMT

Porcupines float in water!

The placement of a donkey's eyes in its head enables it to see all four feet at all times!

Saturday mail delivery in Canada was eliminated by Canada Post on February 1, 1969!

In Tokyo, a bicycle is faster than a car for most trips of less than 50 minutes!

There are 18 different animal shapes in the Animal Crackers cookie zoo!

Should there be a crash, Prince Charles and Prince William never travel on the same airplane as a precaution!

Your body is creating and killing 15 million red blood cells per second!

The king of hearts is the only king without a moustache on a standard playing card!

There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos!

There is one slot machine in Las Vegas for every eight inhabitants!

The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. It was the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off!

Every day 20 banks are robbed. The average take is $2,500!

The most popular first name in the world is Muhammad!

Tablecloths were originally meant to be served as towels with which dinner guests could wipe their hands and faces after eating!

Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is considered an insult!

One car out of every 230 made was stolen last year!

The names of Popeye's four nephews are Pipeye, Peepeye, Pupeye, and Poopeye!

Until the nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia!

The Nobel Peace Prize medal depicts three naked men with their hands on each other's shoulders!

When glass breaks, the cracks move faster than 3,000 miles per hour. To photograph the event, a camera must shoot at a millionth of a second!

A Boeing 747 airliner holds 57,285 gallons of fuel!

A car uses 1.6 ounces of gas idling for one minute. Half an ounce is used to start the average automobile!

The Philadelphia mint produces 26 million pennies per day!

A lightning bolt generates temperatures five times hotter than those found at the sun's surface!

A violin contains about 70 separate pieces of wood!

It is estimated that 4 million "junk" telephone calls, phone solicitations by persons or programmed machine are made every day in the United States!

It takes glass one million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an infinite amount of times!

Forest fires move faster uphill than downhill!

Almost half the newspapers in the world are published in the United States and Canada!

The two-foot long bird called a Kea that lives in New Zealand likes to eat the strips of rubber around car windows!

Skepticisms is the longest word that alternates hands when typing!

One ragweed plant can release as many as one billion grains of pollen!

It's illegal to drink beer out of a bucket while you're sitting on a curb in St. Louis!

The first product to have a bar code was Wrigleys gum!

No piece of square dry paper can be folded more than 7 times in half!

A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle, a group of geese in the air is a skein!

Over 2500 left handed people a year are killed from using products made for right handed people!

There are more than 10 million bricks in the Empire State Building!

If you counted 24 hours a day, it would take 31,688 years to reach one trillion!

Taphephobia is the fear of being buried alive!

A crocodile always grows new teeth to replace the old teeth!

The sun is 330,330 times larger than the earth!

Clinophobia is the fear of beds!

A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second!

Pinocchio is Italian for "pine eye"!

The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog." uses every letter of the alphabet!

The average life span of a major league baseball is 5-7 pitches!

The Mint once considered producing doughnut-shaped coins!

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable"!

The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds!

The sloth (a mammal) moves so slowly that green algae can grow undisturbed on its fur!

Cat urine glows under a black-light!

The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1!

The electric chair was invented by a dentist!

Windmills always turn counter-clockwise. Except for the windmills in Ireland!

A hedgehog's heart beats 300 times a minute on average!
Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand!

Human teeth are almost as hard as rocks!

A mole can dig a tunnel 300 feet long in just one night!

Ancient Egyptians slept on pillows made of stone!

A hippo can open its mouth wide enough to fit a 4 foot tall child inside!

A quarter has 119 grooves on its edge, a dime has one less groove!

Hummingbirds can weigh less than a penny!!

Until 1796, there was a state in the United States called Franklin. Today it's known as Tennessee!

The Earth weighs around 6,600,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons (5,940 billion billion metric tons)!

A cockroach can live several weeks with its head cut off - it dies from starvation!

Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie!

The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year!

It's against the law to pawn your dentures in Las Vegas!

One in every 4 Americans has appeared on television!

The average American/Canadian will eat about 11.9 pounds of cereal per year!

It's against the law to burp, or sneeze in a certain church in Omaha, Nebraska!

you're born with 300 bones, but when you get to be an adult, you only have 206!

Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete!

Over 10,000 birds a year die from smashing into windows!

The state of Florida is bigger than England!

There are more than one million animal species on Earth!

In Natoma, Kansas, it's illegal to throw knives at men wearing striped suits

It was once against the law to have a pet dog in a city in Iceland!

Your heart beats over 100,000 times a day!

Thomas Edison, lightbulb inventor, was afraid of the dark!

Source http://www.strangefacts.com/ where there is a hell of a lot more !

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 21 replies

Mark Morford, Sagacious or Senseless?

Bloke72 — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:13:23 GMT

I had never heard of Mark Morford until I found a tribe for him. It has gone through a series of Moderators (including me) but the current mod has it back on track.

The tribe description is
"The place to devour, discuss, dissect, dissent, delight in, or demonize the words of SF Chronicle columnist, Mark Morford. Debate is celebrated, but outright meanies will be removed. Let's play, but let's play nice : ).

Here's MM's own Writer's Statement, in case you don't know who he is and just joined this Tribe because all of the cool kids were doing it ;-P:

Mark Morford is a columnist for sfgate.com and the San Francisco Chronicle. He also teaches yoga, subscribes to magazines, admires trees, detests shrill alarmism (including his own), sleeps naked. He has not seen your blog, but is sure it's amazing. He never wears sneakers. He writes about politics, pop culture, sex, music, design, a wry and punch-drunk universe, vibrators, scotch, media, spirituality and small European cars. And sometimes, genital grooming. "

You might like to give the tribe a go.. Morford sometimes writes a real little gem.

http://morford.tribe.net/

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 2 replies

Listings, Ads and Promotions..

Bloke72 — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 05:19:24 GMT

This is not a trivia thread..

I thought I had a thread for listings - with the theory we should promote events and such of members - especially as the listing function is a bit dodgy..

I remember doing this in the past - but bugger if I can find the thread..

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 4 replies

War Paint

Just_A_Simpleton — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 06:09:10 GMT

"Nail polish can be traced back to at least 3000 BC when it originated in China. The Chinese found ways to use gum arabic, egg whites, gelatin, and bees wax to create varnishes and lacquers for the nails. The Egyptians would use henna to stain their fingernails. In China, as well as in Egypt, color represented social class. During the Chou Dynasty, circa 600 BC, gold and silver were the royal colors. Later, royalty starting wearing black or red nail color. Lower ranking women were only permitted to wear pale tones. Wearing royal colors without being royalty was punished by death. Modern nail polish is a actually a variation of car paint."

So sayeth this site: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blbeauty.htm

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 7 replies

the mermaid returns from the abyss ....

Eurynome — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:53:13 GMT

i'm back and i'm so ready to be hip to be square ....

let the games begin!

erm .... ok.

My question ... who do you think *i* was in a past life?

~

and for y'all ... who do you think *you* were in a past life?

go on ... roll the dice ... and no cheatin!

i already have a facebook answer who was SOOOOOOOOO spot on ... but i shall not reveal the answer!

ready, steady .....

GO!

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 0 replies

Games... Tetris

Bloke72 — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:54:22 GMT

Tetris (Russian: Тетрис) is a video puzzle game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in June 1985, while working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow.[1] He derived its name from the Greek numerical prefix "tetra-", as all of the pieces contain four segments, and tennis, Pajitnov's favorite sport.[2][3]

The game (or one of its many variants) is available for nearly every video game console and computer operating system, as well as on devices such as graphing calculators, mobile phones, portable media players, and PDAs. It has even been played on the sides of various buildings,[4][5] with the record holder for the world's largest fully functional game of Tetris being an effort by Dutch students in 1995 that lit up all 15 floors of the Electrical Engineering department at Delft University of Technology.[6][7][8]

While versions of Tetris were sold for a range of 1980s home computer platforms, it was the hugely successful handheld version for the Game Boy launched in 1989 that established the reputation of the game as one of the most popular ever. EGM's 100th issue had Tetris in first place as greatest game of all time. In 2007, Tetris came in second place in IGN's 100 Greatest Video Games of All Time.[9]

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris

PLAY http://www.freetetris.org/welcome.html

THE TETRIS EFFECT..

The Tetris effect is the ability of any activity to which people devote sufficient time and attention to begin to dominate their thoughts, mental images, and dreams. It is named after the video game Tetris.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_effect

The history of Tetris on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=helswqzTlX4 (interesting - but lots of swearing.. but if you have played (and who has't) - you can understand !!!!!)

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 7 replies

Games - Pac Man

Bloke72 — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:43:39 GMT

Pac-Man (, Pakku man) is a Japanese arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the U.S. by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980.[1][2] Immensely popular in the United States from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is universally considered as one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and an icon of 1980s popular culture. Upon its release, the game became a social phenomenon[4] that sold a bevy of merchandise and also inspired, among other things, an animated television series. It also inspired the Buckner & Garcia single "Pac-Man Fever," which, in the first half of 1982, became a #9, million-selling pop single.[5]

When Pac-Man was released, most arcade video games in North America were primarily space shooters such as Space Invaders, Defender, or Asteroids. The most visible minority were sports games that were mostly derivative of Pong. Pac-Man succeeded by creating a new genre and appealing to both males and females.[6] Pac-Man is often credited with being a landmark in video game history, and is among the most famous arcade games of all time.[7] The character also appears in more than 30 officially licensed game spin-offs,[8] as well as in numerous unauthorized clones and bootlegs.[9] According to the Davie Brown Index,[10] Pac Man is still the most recognized video game character in the United States, even more famous than Mario.

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man

PLAY ! http://www.learn4good.com/games/pacman/flashman.htm
(thanks Rodan76!)

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 2 replies

Games -- Zork

crarko — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:13:33 GMT

Ever since my first trip into "a maze of twisty little passages, all alike" and slaying a dragon with my bare hands, I've been hooked on text adventures.

There have been many published, and most of the best were associate with the name Infocom. The best known of them was called Zork... :)

"Zork was one of the first interactive fiction computer games and an early descendant of Colossal Cave Adventure. The first version of Zork was written in 1977–1979 on a DEC PDP-10 computer by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling, and implemented in the MDL programming language. All four were members of the MIT Dynamic Modelling Group.

"Zork" was originally MIT hacker jargon for an unfinished program. The implementors named the completed game Dungeon, but by that time the name Zork had already stuck. Zork has also been adapted to a widely panned book series."

"Zork is set in a sprawling underground labyrinth which occupies a portion of the "Great Underground Empire". The player is a nameless adventurer whose goal is to find the treasures hidden in the caves and return alive with them. The dungeons are stocked with many novel creatures, objects and locations, among them grues, zorkmids, and Flood Control Dam #3 -- all of which are referenced by subsequent Infocom text adventures.
Zork and its relatives are works of interactive fiction. Zork distinguished itself in its genre as an especially rich game, in terms of both the quality of the storytelling and the sophistication of its text parser, which was not limited to simple verb-noun commands ("hit grue"), but some prepositions and conjunctions ("hit the grue with the Elvish sword")."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zork

And a free, downloadable version, for multiple platforms:

http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Infocom/download.html

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 2 replies

Games.. Space Invaders

Bloke72 — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:40:18 GMT

"Space Invaders is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado in 1978. It was originally manufactured by Taito and licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders was one of the earliest shooting games and featured two-dimensional graphics. The aim is to defeat waves of aliens with a laser cannon. In designing the game, Nishikado drew inspiration from popular media; Breakout, The War of the Worlds, and Star Wars. Though simplistic by today's standards, it was one of the forerunners of modern video gaming."

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Invaders

PLAY ! http://www.spaceinvaders.de/
(Thanks Ravenshadow!)

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 0 replies

Cognitive Stuff

Bloke72 — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:06:50 GMT

Cognitive distortion

Cognitive therapy and its variants traditionally identify ten cognitive distortions that maintain negative thinking and help to maintain negative emotions. These were proposed by David D. Burns, MD. Eliminating these distortions and negative thought is said to improve mood and discourage maladies such as depression and chronic anxiety. The process of learning to refute these distortions is called "cognitive restructuring".

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_distortion

~

COGNITIVE BIAS
A cognitive bias is a pattern of deviation in judgement occurring in particular situations.

Implicit in the concept of a "pattern of deviation" is a standard of comparison; this may be the judgment of people outside those particular situations, or may be a set of independently verifiable facts. The existence of some of these cognitive biases has been verified empirically in the field of psychology, others are widespread beliefs, and may themselves be a consequence of cognitive bias.

Cognitive biases are instances of learned mental behaviour. Some are presumably adaptive, for example, because they lead to more effective actions or enable faster decisions. Others presumably result from a lack of appropriate mental mechanisms, or from the misapplication of a mechanism that is adaptive under different circumstances.

Source and check the really interesting list of Cognitive biases at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

~~

Cognitive restructuring in cognitive therapy is the process of learning to refute cognitive distortions, or fundamental "faulty thinking," with the goal of replacing one's irrational, counter-factual beliefs with more accurate and beneficial ones.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_restructuring

~~

All interesting stuff..

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 4 replies

On the 60th Anniversary of the Atomic Bomb

Bloke72 — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 07:43:45 GMT

Trinity Site: 1945-1995, A National Historic Landmark, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico

By White Sands Missile Range Public Affairs Office

On July 16, 1945 the world changed with the explosion of the first atomic bomb. The explosion took place at Trinity Site which is on what is now White Sands Missile Range. Trinity Site is a national historic landmark which is open to the public twice a year. atomicarchive.com has taken the Project Gutenberg text, and enhanced the information.

Lots of information http://www.trinityremembered.com/history/index.html

posted in ! Trivia Tribe ! - 1 reply