Trivia Thread!

[Erestor Arcamen]

Kiefer Sutherland claimed in an interview that, in one of the locations of Stand By Me, a Renaissance Fair was being held and the cast and crew attended and bought some cookies. Unfortunately, the cookies turned out to be laced with pot and, two hours later, the crew found Jerry O'Connell high and crying somewhere in the park.

 

[Berzelmayr]

250 years ago, a then 17-years-old James Munroe participates in the storming of the Governor’s Palace at Williamsburg, Virginia, capturing several hundred muskets and swords.

 

[Vorondil]

Nancy, the springbok, is the only animal to have received full military honours, and be buried in an Allied cemetery during WW1. She was the mascot of the 4th South African Infantry Regiment (Scottish Transvaal).

Here she is at the Battle of Delville Wood:

The Regiment was nicknamed The Suicide Springboks, because of the massive casualties they suffered in most of their battles. Their motto was "Mors lucrum mihi" (Death is my reward), which was apt.

Nancy survived the slaughter of the Great War, but died of pneumonia on the 26th of November 1918.

 

[Berzelmayr]

At the siege of Faenza in 1240-41, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II did not have the money to pay his soldiers and gave them "coins" made from leather. He promised that he would later change them for gold.

 

[Glorfindel Goldtress]

Upon receiving them... I'm sure they had a cow. * Coughs*

 

[Berzelmayr]

The Godzilla suit built for this film was the biggest in terms of size and girth. This was done in order to give Godzilla a "paternal" appearance and to give a parent-like stature in contrast next to Minilla. Because of the size of the suit, seasoned Godzilla suit actor Haruo Nakajima was only hired to play Godzilla in two scenes because the suit was much too big for him to wear. The smaller suit he had worn for the films Ebirah, Horror of the Deep and Invasion of Astro-Monster was used for these sequences. The much larger Seji Onaka instead played Godzilla in the film, although he was replaced midway through filming by Hiroshi Sekita after he broke his fingers.

Minilla was designed to incorporate features of not only a baby Godzilla but a human baby was well. Minilla's face was patterned after the character Chibita from the popular manga Osomatsu-kun published by Shogakukan in Weekly Shonen Saturday at the time. "Marchan the Dwarf" was hired to play the character due to his ability to play-act and to give the character a childlike ambiance. He was also hired because of his ability to perform athletic rolls and flips inside the thick rubber suit.

Outside of the two monster suits, various marionettes and puppets were used to portray the Island's gigantic inhabitants. The various giant preying mantises known as Kamacuras and the huge spider Kumonga. Arikawa would usually have 20 puppeteers at a time working on the various marionettes. The massive Kumonga puppet needed 2 to 3 people at a time to operate each leg.

Styrofoam and paraffin were used for the snow falling on Solgell Island.

Son of Godzilla - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

 

[Eljorahir]

View attachment 43167

Don't leave me hanging. How far away is it? OK, so I looked it up:
From Earth, Voyager 1 is currently at a distance of 23 light-hours 7 light-minutes and 46 light-seconds.
AKA...approximately 15.6 billion miles.

Now I can continue with my day.

Where Are Voyager 1 and 2 Now? - NASA Science

Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have reached "interstellar space" and each continue their unique journey deeper into the cosmos.

science.nasa.gov

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

Don't leave me hanging. How far away is it? OK, so I looked it up:
From Earth, Voyager 1 is currently at a distance of 23 light-hours 7 light-minutes and 46 light-seconds.
AKA...approximately 15.6 billion miles.

Now I can continue with my day.

Where Are Voyager 1 and 2 Now? - NASA Science

Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have reached "interstellar space" and each continue their unique journey deeper into the cosmos.

science.nasa.gov

Should be 1 light day by 2027!

 

[Klaatu]

Zoomed past Voyager 1 on the way in. Still out there, bless it — just hurtling through space like a confused toaster with a mixtape. It offered me a gold disc and tried to high-five my ship. I think it’s looking for a party it left in 1977.

Our first intergalactic probe launched itself sideways, insulted a constellation, and accidentally proposed marriage to a pulsar. The ceremony was beautiful. The divorce ignited a jelly storm. It now runs a bakery on a rogue moon and refuses to answer our calls.

So honestly? Voyager’s crushing it. Keep flying, little legend. Keep being weird.

 

[Deimos]

Don't leave me hanging. How far away is it? OK, so I looked it up:
From Earth, Voyager 1 is currently at a distance of 23 light-hours 7 light-minutes and 46 light-seconds.
AKA...approximately 15.6 billion miles.

Now I can continue with my day.

Where Are Voyager 1 and 2 Now? - NASA Science

Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have reached "interstellar space" and each continue their unique journey deeper into the cosmos.

science.nasa.gov

To fully appreciate the numbers being tossed around hereabouts...
15.6 billion miles = 15,600,000,000.....
One Light Day = 16.156 billion miles = 16,156,000,000 which admittedly is not a whole lot more impressive than 15,600,000,000

But now we come to the Light Year (as in Buzz Light Year 😄) which is 5.9 trillion miles
So when Voyager 1 has gone a distance of one Light Year it will have traversed 5,880,000,000,000 miles (9,460,000,000,000 km)
If V1 won't hit a Light day until 2027, and it will have taken 50 years to get there, it won't reach a distance of one Light Year (LY) until about 17000 years hence.

Now here is a bit of related trivia: If nothing impedes it V1 will encounter the Oort cloud in another 300-400 years.
The Oort cloud--way out beyond Pluto-- is where comets originate. It a sort of band of debris (hence all those comets) that from edge to [irregular] edge varies between 1 to 3 LY.
So before V1 can truly leave our solar system to journey to the closer star systems it has to get through the Oort cloud.
17000 years to travel 1 LY... to travel from earth to the Oort Cloud it takes, let's say, 350 years.
To get through the Oort Cloud is another 1 to 3 LY, another 17000 to 51000 years. Only then will it commence its true interstellar travels.
I wonder what will be happening on Earth at that time?.....

An added thought (for those who think about these things)... this is why interstellar travel is not feasible unless the ship can approach light speeds; the trip would take... ummm... 'way too long. And currently we have no propulsion systems that come anywhere near light speed.
c (lower case) is the symbol for the speed of light. c = 300,000 km/sec... ( NOTE: not km/hr... km per second). For us Yanks it's ~ 186,000 miles/sec.

 

[Eljorahir]

Hopefully, I did the math correctly:

If a spacecraft from Earth could maintain a comfortable 1g acceleration (32.2 ft/sec/sec) toward Voyager 1, it would reach it in just 26 days, zipping by at approximately 50 million miles per hour.

 

[Deimos]

Hopefully, I did the math correctly:

If a spacecraft from Earth could maintain a comfortable 1g acceleration (32.2 ft/sec/sec) toward Voyager 1, it would reach it in just 26 days, zipping by at approximately 50 million miles per hour.

Which is 14000 miles/sec, not bad (I didn't check your math)... got a mass converter, maybe, in your garage or basement? 😄

 

[Server Room Gremlin]

This frog looks like Kermit. (Hyalinobatrachium dianae, discovered in 2015)

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

 

[Klaatu]

Earth Fact #882: Octopuses have three hearts and their blood is blue. Why? Because they use copper-based hemocyanin to carry oxygen instead of iron.

I met one once. His name was Gerald. He played underwater oboe and solved puzzles for snacks. One heart beat for logic, one for jazz, and the third just vibrated ominously when he felt dramatic.

Never trust a being with backup hearts. They can hug with strategy.

 

[Berzelmayr]

"Tom's Diner", which was originally released as an a cappella recording on Suzanne Vega's second studio album, Solitude Standing (1987), was remixed in 1990 as a dance track by English electronic duo DNA with her vocals, and it became a Top 10 hit in five countries. The original a cappella recording of the song was used as a test during the creation of the MP3 format. The role of her song in the development of the MP3 compression prompted Vega to be given the title of "The Mother of the MP3".

Suzanne Vega - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Deimos]

NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS are clouds are composed of tiny crystals of ice and exist at a height of about 76 to 85 km (47-53 mi) higher than any other clouds in Earth's atmosphere.

Excerpted from Wikipedia and the NOAA:
Noctilucent clouds (NLCs), or night shining clouds, are tenuous cloud-like phenomena in the upper atmosphere. When viewed from space, they are called polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs), detectable as a diffuse scattering layer of water ice crystals near the summer polar mesopause. From the the ground are only visible during astronomical twilight.
Noctilucent (Latin) roughly means "night shining". They are most often observed during the summer months from latitudes between ±50° and ±70°. Too faint to be seen in daylight, they are visible only when the observer and the lower layers of the atmosphere are in Earth's shadow, but while these very high clouds are still in sunlight.

First pic, seen from high in the atmosphere. Other pics are ground observations.

 

[Deimos]

Earth Fact #882: Octopuses have three hearts and their blood is blue. Why? Because they use copper-based hemocyanin to carry oxygen instead of iron.

I met one once. His name was Gerald. He played underwater oboe and solved puzzles for snacks. One heart beat for logic, one for jazz, and the third just vibrated ominously when he felt dramatic.

Never trust a being with backup hearts. They can hug with strategy.

Star Trek Fact #1701 .... Vulcan blood is green because it is copper-based.
Myth: Vulcans are related to Octopi (they are not...consequently there are no Vulcans named Gerald.)

 

[Ent]

Because my curiosity was stirred:

Insecta vs. Arachnida: (People often include Spiders with the Insects)
Key Differences Beyond Legs and Body Segments​

Trait/Feature	Insecta (Insects)	Arachnida (Arachnids)
Legs	6 legs	8 legs
Body Segments	3 parts: head, thorax, abdomen	2 parts: cephalothorax, abdomen
Antennae	Present (usually one pair)	Absent
Wings	Often present in adults	Never present
Eyes	Usually compound eyes	Simple eyes (ocelli), multiple in number
Respiratory System	Tracheal tubes, spiracles	Book lungs, tracheae, or both
Mouthparts	Highly variable: chewing, sucking, piercing	Often chelicerae (pincers or fangs)
Excretion System	Malpighian tubules for waste	Coxal glands or Malpighian tubules
Development	Often undergo metamorphosis (complete or incomplete)	Mostly direct development (young resemble adults)
Silk Production	Rare, except some larval forms like caterpillars	Common in many species (spiders, some mites)
Sensory Hairs	Present, but less specialized	Many have highly specialized sensory hairs and slit sensilla
Venom	Rare in insects	Common in spiders, scorpions, some mites

Ecological and Evolutionary Notes

• Insects dominate in diversity, occupying nearly every ecosystem and niche, due to their adaptive body plan, flight, and reproductive strategies.
• Arachnids are more specialized as predators and scavengers, often adapted to ambush or stealth hunting, with less ecological breadth but high specialization.

Behavioral Distinctions

• Arachnids often rely on tactile and chemical cues, with keen sensitivity via leg hairs and body receptors.
• Insects often rely on vision and scent, especially through antennae and compound eyes.

---

So while the legs and segments are a quick way to tell them apart, the deeper divide is structural and functional — almost like two different design philosophies for small, exoskeleton-bearing creatures.