Saturday, November 7, 2015

Trivia Bits 07 November

 

Jurong Falls

Jurong Falls (pictured), located at Singapore's Jurong Bird Park and featuring the world's most numerous bird collection, is one of the tallest artificial waterfalls in the world standing at 30 metres (98 feet) high.

The jugular veins are veins that bring deoxygenated blood from the head back to the heart via the superior vena cava.

Porsche AG is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans with headquartered in Stuttgart, and owned by Volkswagen.

Vatican City and Monaco are two independent nations, both in Europe, that are smaller than Central Park in New York City with each being less than one square mile. The next three smallest countries are Bauru, eight square miles, in the western Pacific Ocean; Tuvalu, ten square miles, the Southwest Pacific; and San Marino, 24 square miles, in Europe.

Caribbean Queen was a 1984 hit for English recording artist Billy Ocean, climbed to number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Black Singles chart in the US and won Ocean the 1985 Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, making him the first British artist to win in that category.

Born in December 2003, Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange is the heir apparent to the throne of the Kingdom of the Netherlands consisting of the countries the Netherlands, Curaçao, Aruba, and Sint Maarten.

The anthem Blowin’ in the Wind was written by Bob Dylan in 1962 and released on his album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963 with the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1994

The Scottish city of Glasgow is on the River Clyde with around 72 bridges (rail, road, foot and other) that cross the Clyde, from estuary to source.

Well known businessman, philanthropist and civil servant of Kanpur, India, Peter de Noronha was the first Indian to become an envoy of the Legion of Mary and was later knighted by Pope Paul VI in 1965.

Recording the 1966 hit 19th Nervous Breakdown was English rock band The Rolling Stones and was recorded during the Aftermath sessions between 3 and 8 December 1965 at RCA Recording Studios in Hollywood, California, at the conclusion of their fourth North American tour.

Quotables 07 November

 

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Friday, November 6, 2015

Trivia Bits 06 November

 

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The Weeping Woman (pictured) is oil on canvas painted by Pablo Picasso in France in 1937.

There are parts of Canadian airspace where compasses are not useful because they are too close to the magnetic north pole.

One of Australia's most awarded plays set in the academic world of New York and dealing with the War on Terror, Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America (2003) was written by highly acclaimed Australian playwright, novelist and screenwriter Stephen Sewell.

Believed to have been written in 1610 – 11, William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest main character is Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan and a great sorcerer, has a daughter named Miranda who Prospero wants to restore to her rightful place using illusion and skilful manipulation.

The 2012 Wild West-themed third episode of the seventh series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, A Town Called Mercy, was mainly filmed around Almería, Spain, the same location used for many Westerns, including A Fistful of Dollars.

Established in 1980 for the Tidy Towns competition, Kalgoorlie-Boulder in Western Australia has The World's Tallest Bin that stands about 8m high.

Polydactyl cats, with extra toes as a genetic trait, were long considered good luck by many sailors, as the cats' extraordinary climbing and hunting skills were helpful in controlling shipboard rodents.

British celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal released the 2009 cookbook, Total Perfection : In Search of Total Perfection.

Queen frontman Freddie Mercury’s birth name was Farrokh Bulsara and was born on the British protectorate of Sultanate of Zanzibar, East Africa now part of Tanzania.

In the US there are four states where the first letter of the capital city is the same letter as the first letter of the state: Dover, Delaware; Honolulu, Hawaii; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Quotables 06 November

 

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Thursday, November 5, 2015

Trivia Bits 05 November

 

Arthur Ashe 

Former American World No. 1 professional tennis player Arthur Ashe was the winner of the Australian Open in 1970 and was the first black player to win a major men’s tennis tournament.

Former Australian rugby union footballer Nicholas Farr-Jones captained the 1990 Australian rugby union side for a successful third Test against the All Blacks and instructed his team to face out the All Blacks at the Haka.

The Swan Bells is an 82.5m belltower in Perth, Western Australia containing the largest set of 18 ringing bells in the world, several of which are 280 years old and with twelve of the set from St Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square in London.

In cards, singleton describes a card that is the only one of a suit in a particular hand.

Australian playwright Hannie Rayson’s 1990 play Hotel Sorento is about three Moynihan sisters, Meg, Pippa and Hilary who reunite in the sleepy Australian seaside town of Sorrento after a ten-year hiatus.

Flowing for about 668 km (415 mi) in New South Wales, the Gwydir River is formed by the confluence of the Georges and Bundarra rivers.

The River Nile flows into the Mediterranean Sea after a journey of 6,853 km/4,258 miles with the two tributaries the White Nile rising in the Great Lakes region of central Africa ,the and Blue Nile rising in the at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and both meeting near the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

Zebby the Zebra is a character from the British animated children's television series Raa Raa the Noisy Lion first broadcast in May 2011 and features a group of animal-based characters and their adventures and activities through the Jingly Jangly Jungle.

Vitamin D the skin synthesises from cholesterol when exposed to the sun and is often referred to as the sunshine vitamin.

The Pulitzer Prize, established in 1917 by provisions in the will of American (Hungarian-born) publisher Joseph Pulitzer, is awarded yearly in twenty-one categories, in twenty of the categories, each winner receives a certificate and a US$10,000 cash award but the winner in the public service category of the journalism competition is awarded a gold medal.

Quotables 05 November

 

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Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Trivia Bits 04 November

 

OVERLANDERS poster 

British film studio, Ealing Studios, produced the 1946 movie The Overlanders (poster pictured) , starring Chips Rafferty, set in outback Australia about drovers driving a large herd of cattle 1,600 miles overland from Wyndham in Western Australia through the Northern Territory outback of Australia to pastures north of Brisbane, Queensland during World War II.

The sport of shin-kicking originated in England in the early 17th century, and was one of the most popular events at the Cotswold Olimpick Games until the games ended in the 1850s.

Political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote the February 1848 publication The Communist Manifesto which contains Marx and Engels' theories about the nature of society and politics, that in their own words, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

Founded in 1908, The Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering of the Pennsylvania State University was the first industrial engineering department in the world.

Native to Australia and New Guinea, the term used for a young echidna is a puggle which is held in the pouch for two to three months before being expelled and will stay within their mother's den for up to a year before leaving.

Mather Tower, the headquarters building for Mather Stock Car Company built in 1928 in Chicago, Illinois, has the smallest floor size of any of Chicago's skyscrapers at only 100 by 65 feet at its base.

The Australia Council for the Arts recognised the outstanding contribution of writer Frank Moorhouse AM by awarding him the 2013 Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature.

Appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, Jay Garrick is the alias of the Flash who first appeared in the comic book Flash Comics #1 published in 1940 and was soon featured in All-Star Comics as part of the Justice Society of America.

The last James Bond movie to star Pierce Brosnan was the twentieth spy film in the James Bond series Die Another Day, released on 20 November 2002 and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

The Neo-Renaissance architectural style encompasses such dissimilar structures as the Opera Garnier and Hôtel de Ville in Paris, the National Theatre in Prague, the Reichstag in Berlin, Mentmore Towers near London, Vladimir Palace in Saint Petersburg, and the Public Library in Boston.

Quotables 04 November

 

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Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Trivia Bits 03 November

 

Sturt’s Desert Rose 

Sturt’s Desert Rose (pictured) is the floral emblem of the Northern Territory in Australia and appears in stylised form on the official flag with seven rather than five petals.

Australian writer, teacher and historian, Niall Brennan wrote the biographies of Irish-born Australian Catholic bishop Archbishop Daniel Mannix (1964) and Australian businessman and underworld figure John Wren (1971).

Chicago gangster Al Capone, leader of the South Side Italian gang, was the man behind the 1929 St Valentine’s Day massacre of seven mob associates of the North Side Irish gang led by Bugs Moran during the Prohibition Era.

The number of musical instruments accompanying an a capella piece of music is none as a capella is specifically group or solo singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way contrasting with cantata, which is accompanied singing.

Wilson Peak in Colorado has been used in numerous US national and local advertising campaigns because of its charismatic and characteristically rugged mountain appearance.

With her feast day on July 22, Mary Magdalene discovered that Jesus tomb was empty and is considered to be a saint by the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran churches and other Protestant churches honour her as a heroine in the faith.

Appearing to have been written in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s, What Pet Should I Get? is an illustrated, rhyming children’s book in the tradition of Green Eggs and Ham by Theodor Geisel aka Dr Seuss and is the first book by the German American author to be published since his death in 1991.

First reported by Polish astronomer Kazimierz Kordylewski in the 1960s, Kordylewski clouds are large concentrations of dust that orbit Earth at the distance of the Moon.

José Plácido Domingo Embil, known as Plácido Domingo, was born in Madrid in 1941, studied piano at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City and made his opera debut performing in Manuel Fernández Caballero's zarzuela, Gigantes y cabezudos, singing a baritone role.

The yo-yo was introduced to the US in 1929 by Donald F. Duncan and was based on a weapon used by 16th-century Filipino hunters.

Quotables 03 November

 

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Monday, November 2, 2015

Trivia Bits 02 November

 

 Woolf Barnato

British diamond magnate Woolf Barnato (pictured) won the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times in consecutive years, and in 1930 won a race across France in his Bentley against Le Train Bleu.

In Chilean cuisine, coliza, hullulla and marraqueta are all types of bread.

Johnny Depp played English playwright J M Barrie in the 2004 American semi-biographical film Finding Neverland which was nominated for several Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for Johnny Depp and won the 2004 Academy Award for Jan A. P. Kaczmarek's musical score.

Gustav Klimt was an Austrian symbolist painter whose 1907–08 painting The Kiss, oil on canvas, now displayed at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna.

Simeon is a name shared by the last Bulgarian Tsar, Simeon II, and a musician with the American psychedelic electronic music group from New York Silver Apples, Simeon – born Simeon Oliver Coxe III.

Sometimes obscene with humorous intent, a Limerick has five lines with the first two lines rhyme with the last line and the third and fourth line rhyme with the form be found in England as of the early years of the 18th century but was popularized by Edward Lear in the 19th century.

French painter Édouard Manet painted the 1863 painting The Luncheon on the Green with the juxtaposition of fully dressed men and a nude woman controversial as was its abbreviated, sketch-like handling, an innovation that distinguished Manet.

Amber is fossilized tree resin which has been appreciated for its colour and natural beauty since Neolithic times as a gemstone is found on the beaches of the Baltic.

Columbo is an American detective mystery television film series first airing in 1968 starring Peter Falk as Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department with almost every episode begins by showing the commission of the crime and its perpetrator; the series therefore has no "whodunit" element and the plot revolves mainly around how the perpetrator, whose identity is already known to the audience, will finally be caught and exposed.

American physicist, political scientist and sinologist Stuart R. Schram, biographer of Chairman Mao, started his career as a nuclear physicist working on the Manhattan Project

Quotables 02 November

 

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Sunday, November 1, 2015

Trivia Bits 01 November

 

  Town of 1770

In the Australian state of Queensland is the town known as Town of 1770  (sign pictured), the officially gazetted name of the town is Seventeen Seventy, is built on the site of the second landing by James Cook and the crew of HM Bark Endeavour in May 1770 which was Cook's first landing in what is now the state of Queensland.

The chemical element with the symbol Ga is Gallium is a soft, silvery metal which is used predominantly used in electronics.

American improvised comedy 2000 television series Curb Your Enthusiasm was created by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, who stars as a fictionalized version of himself and follows Larry in his life as a semi-retired television writer and producer in Los Angeles and later New York City also starring Cheryl Hines as his wife Cheryl.

The Gobi Desert covers the countries of China and Mongolia and is most notable in history as part of the great Mongol Empire, and as the location of several important cities along the Silk Road.

The OECD or Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an international economic organisation of 34 countries founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade with its headquarters at the Château de la Muette in Paris, France.

Reverend Robert Pierce is best known in relation to the charitable organisation World Vision which he founded in 1950 and is active in more than 90 countries with total revenue including grants, product and foreign donations of $2.79 billion in 2011.

New Orleans is situated on the famous Mississippi River and is named after the Duke of Orleans, who reigned as Regent for Louis XV from 1715 to 1723, as it was established by French colonists and strongly influenced by their and African cultures.

The three main ingredients of traditional Central American curtido are cabbage, carrots and onions and sometimes lime juice and is a type of lightly fermented cabbage relish.

Sergeant Charles Ewart of the Scots Greys, in a famous engagement at the Battle of Waterloo on Sunday, 18 June 1815, captured the regimental eagle of the 45e Régiment de Ligne.

Based on the 2012 children's book The Chicken Problem by Jennifer Oxley and Billy Aronson, Peg + Cat is an American animated children's television series in which Peg wears a red hat and a blue dress.

Quotables 01 November

 

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