One Man's Blog

Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse!

November 18, 2010 By John P. 2 Comments

Today is Mickey Mouse’s birthday, or perhaps I should say the anniversary of the day Mickey was introduced to the world as Disney’s first synchronized sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie, which premiered at the Colony Theater in New York City in 1928. This is the day that Walt Disney recognizes as Mickey’s official anniversary at least.

Mickey actually first appeared six months prior in unofficial screenings of Plane Crazy on May 15th and The Gallopinâ€™ Gaucho on August 2nd. After Steamboat Willie, soundtracks were added to Gaucho and Crazy, and they were released on December 30, 1928 and March 17, 1929, respectively.
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Filed Under: Trivia, Videos Tagged With: Cartoon, Disney, History, Mickey Mouse, Videos

How the World Has Changed in 100 Years

October 30, 2007 By John P. 6 Comments

FarmerÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Almanac Ok. This info is old, but I came across it and thought it would be fun to resurrect it once again.

There have been all sorts of claims as to the year these stats originated, but generally I believe they are from 1903. I have not vetted any of the “facts” here, but they do seem to pass the “gut-check” for reliability. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Health & Fitness, Travel, Trivia Tagged With: , Drugs, Facts, Trivia, United States, Work

English Language Trivia

August 7, 2007 By John P. 21 Comments

In keeping with my fascination with completely useless trivia, here are a few facts you might not have known about the English language.

So, next time you are at lunch with the boys from work and start spouting out this crap to impress everyone just remember who loves ya…

Of all the words in the English language, the word ‘set’ has the most definitions!
What is called a “French kiss” in the English speaking world is known as an “English kiss” in France.
“Almost” is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.
“Rhythm” is the longest English word without a vowel.

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Filed Under: Trivia Tagged With: English, Trivia

Random Animal Trivia

June 2, 2007 By John P. 6 Comments

Here are a few fun / interesting facts about animals:

Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.
The placement of a donkey’s eyes in its’ heads enables it to see all four feet at all times.
On average a hedgehog’s heart beats 300 times a minute.
In 1386, a pig in France was executed by public hanging for the murder of a child.
Dolphins sleep with one eye open.

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Filed Under: Trivia Tagged With: Animals, Trivia

Professor Refutes DWI Testing Accuracy

February 1, 2007 By John P. 1 Comment

Dr. David J. Hanson, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the State University of New York at Potsdam has put together a vast amount of information related to the accuracy of current drunk driving testing methods based on his 30+ years of research.

I was surprised to learn that even non-drinkers could easily fail a sobriety test – including a breath alcohol test.
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Filed Under: Health & Fitness, Politics, Trivia Tagged With: DUI, DWI, Health-&-Fitness, Intoxication, Politics, Sobriety-Test, Trivia

Trivia: Forty Four Fantastic Food Facts

January 5, 2007 By John P. 2 Comments

How about that alliteration huh? :-) Seriously, cheesy though it may be, I found 44 pretty cool facts about food. Just be thankful I didn’t drag it out even longer (think Peter Piper picked a peck…).
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Filed Under: Food, Trivia Tagged With: Beer, Caffeine, Chicken, coke, Diet, drink_coffee, Farming, Fiber, Food, Health-&-Fitness, Restaurants, Trivia

Size Comparison of Stars and Planets

December 29, 2006 By John P. 10 Comments

As a follow up to my previous post of The Most Important Photo Ever Taken, here is a very interesting video illustrating the relative size of planets in our solar system as well as stars throughout the galaxy.

Keep in mind that the smallest body they show is Mercury and at an average height of 5.5′ it would take over 2.9 million humans standing head to toe just to stretch across that tiny planet.

The largest star illustrated is 753,320 times larger than Mercury. It would take 2.185 TRILLION humans standing head to toe to stretch across the diameter of that star, or 364 times the entire population of Earth.
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