dajarrel Posted July 27, 2005 Share Posted July 27, 2005 I'm sure some of these are BS, but I thought they were interesting enuf to put out for entertainment purposes. Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden" and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were: Fred and Wilma Flintstone. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Coca-Cola was originally green. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It is impossible to lick your elbow. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% (now get this...) The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38% ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The average number of people airborne over the U.S. in any given hour: 61,000 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The San Francisco Cable Cars are the only mobile National Monuments. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades - King David Hearts - Charlemagne Clubs -Alexander The Great Diamonds - Julius Caesar ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 Read the ANSWER real close; neat, eh? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776 : John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what? Their birthplace. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter "A"? One thousand. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What do bullet-proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common? All were invented by women. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What is the only food that doesn't spoil? Honey ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Which day are there more collect calls than any other day of the year? Father's Day ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase......... "Goodnight, sleep tight." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month which we know today as the honeymoon.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down." It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.. ~~~~~~~~~~~ AND FINALLY ~~~~~~~~~~~~ At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRD Posted July 27, 2005 Share Posted July 27, 2005 Coke was not green... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhunter Posted July 27, 2005 Share Posted July 27, 2005 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
short_round Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 I bet Gene Simmons could lick his elbow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dajarrel Posted July 28, 2005 Author Share Posted July 28, 2005 Coke was not green... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> OK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spook Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 Cool facts! But... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tightloop Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 Good stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 What do bullet-proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common? All were invented by women. The Laser Printer was invented by Gary Starkweather (HE is not a woman) at Xerox PARC in the 1970's http://www.sfu.ca/mediapr/sfu_news/archive...ws02060307.html -- Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3GunF1Guy Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 What do bullet-proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common? All were invented by women. The Laser Printer was invented by Gary Starkweather (HE is not a woman) at Xerox PARC in the 1970's http://www.sfu.ca/mediapr/sfu_news/archive...ws02060307.html -- Regards, <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I think he invented "postscript" the printer language used on most laser printers. I think laser imaging was invented by someone else. More research is needed just to be sure. Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted July 29, 2005 Share Posted July 29, 2005 (edited) Postscript was written at Xerox PARC also, but by Chuck Geshcke who went on to found Adobe Systems with John Warnock (also from Xerox PARC). Now Chuck was originally at Univ of Utah, but got wooed to PARC by Bob Taylor. Gary Starkweather did indeed invent the Laser Printer, oh yes he did! He left Webster labs in Connecticut (Xerox HQ) to come out to Xerox PARC in Palo Alto because the established research directions at Webster said his toying around with making copies with laser light had to stop because that's not what Xerox was all about, so he also got recruited to PARC. Lotsa stuff came outa there, but the Laser printer belongs entirely to Mr. Starkweather. Nobody even helped him with the construction other than a copier tech they assigned to him when he requesitioned a brand new Xerox copier and tore the head off it at PARC ;-) Read "Dealers of Lightning", it's the true story of Xerox PARC. It will enlighten you. More on this: A number of things were designed/built/invented in tandem there from 1970-1975. Bob Metcalfe and his team invented Ethernet to network the Alto computers Butler Lampson and Chuck Thatckery were building from scratch for everyone at the lab (PARC was Intels largest RAM customer in the early 70's). The main thrust of Ethernet was to allow all the custom built Alto personal computers (PC's didn't exist anywhere else in the world at the time) to share files and send jobs top one central Laser Printer. Charles Simonyi (now at Microsoft) was writing a WYSIWYG word processor for the Alto at the same time and Chuck Geschke was working to make font displayable on a bit-mapped display screen and sendable to the Laser Printer that Gary was building in another room. They all collaborated, they had to, but mostly so their individual designs would interact as required. they were designing the office of the future on their own without a specific planned result (well Bob Taylor kinda had a plan). At the same time these tasks were happening there, Alan Kay and his team were working out the first Object Oriented Programming concepts and designing the desktop Icon oriented GUI we all take for granted today. The first 4-5 years at Xerox PARC are responsible for most of the computer/internet world we live in today. Most of the radical developments that changed our world were begat in the fisrt 2 years there, the rest of the decade was spent just working out the details. By 1975 the magic was over and the world was just waiting for the secrets to get out. -- Regards, Edited July 29, 2005 by George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shred Posted July 29, 2005 Share Posted July 29, 2005 I always heard (from one of my profs that was a grad student at the time working on it) that Ethernet was invented at the University of Hawaii in order to network campuses on the different islands and was originally a radio protocol, hence the "Ether" part. The genius of Bob & co was realizing a coax wire could also be used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted July 29, 2005 Share Posted July 29, 2005 True, the idea of listen and send was taken from the "AlohaNet" by Metcalfe, but they used radio in Hawaii and it was a very simple system still using the huge IMP's of the Arpanet to handle protocol at each node. Metcalfe realizing the "Listen, Then Send" protocol from Alohanet would fix the problem of high speed networking he was working on was the nexus point of that discovery. It actually was Metcalfe and his team at PARC that named it "Ether"net. I forget what the reason for "Ether" was, but I will go and look it up. BTW, Metcalfe's co-inventor/partner at PARC was David Boggs. The work Metcalfe did in ironing out packet collision problems and getting the speed up while taking the chip count down was nothing short of remarkable. It was Xerox who patented it, but they published the specs and licensed it for $1000 to all takers to get it "out there" enough to sell Laser Printers and their network requirement/capability. It worked and in the end Xerox got all their PARC bucks back tenfold from just the Laser Printer biz alone. -- Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Hayden Posted July 29, 2005 Share Posted July 29, 2005 Xerox Parc is/was a case study of how not to profit from your ideas... Brilliant people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikW Posted July 29, 2005 Share Posted July 29, 2005 Well now I know how to find spook at the World Shoot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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