Saturday, June 28, 2014
Trivia Bits 28 June
The first vessel to complete a submerged transit to the North Pole was the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) who completed transit on 3 August 1958. The USS Nautilus (SSN-571) the world’s first operational nuclear-powered submarine.
Choux pastry is used to make éclairs in which the pastry is filled with a vanilla-, coffee- or chocolate-flavoured custard (crème pâtissière), or with whipped cream and then iced with fondant icing.
Titan is the largest satellite of the planet Saturn, is known to have a dense atmosphere and is the sixth ellipsoidal moon from Saturn.
Shards of the Throne is the second expansion to the board game Twilight Imperium. a strategy board game first released in 1998 and is in its third edition, released in 2005, with two expansions - Shattered Empire released on December 12, 2006, and Shards of the Throne released on May 27, 2011.
A zither is a stringed instrument most commonly found in mid Europe, the southern regions of Germany, alpine Europe and East Asian cultures, including China. It is also often known as a sitar.
The South American seaport of Valparaiso is in Chile.
The Siege of Malta was a military campaign in the Mediterranean Theatre of the Second World War from 1940 to 1942 resulting in the loss of 1,493 civilian lives 5,524 private dwellings destroyed, 9,925 damaged but repairable, and 14,225 damaged by bomb blast. In addition 111 churches, 50 hospitals, institutions or colleges, 36 theatres, clubs, government offices, banks, factories, flour mills and other commercial buildings suffered destruction or damage — a total of 30,000 buildings in all.
Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean and is the most recent of the 50 U.S. states having joined the Union on August 21, 1959.
2013 British-American historical drama film and an adaptation of the 1853 memoir Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup was directed by Steve McQueen and starred Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northu with Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Lupita Nyong'o, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt and Alfre Woodard featured in supporting roles.
The largest desert in Australia is The Great Victoria Desert which covers an area of 348,750 square kilometres (134,650 sq mi) from the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia to the Gawler Ranges in South Australia.
Friday, June 27, 2014
Trivia Bits 27 June
The sport of murderball is also known as rugby and is the original name for Wheelchair Rugby.
The World Games, for sports not usually in the Summer Olympic Games, were first held in 1981 in Santa Clara, California. The World Games are are organised and governed by the International World Games Association (IWGA), under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Gedser Odde on the island of Falster in the Baltic Sea is Denmark's southernmost point.
The British Seafarers' Union was formed in Southampton in England in October 1911 being a trade union which organised sailors and firemen in the British ports of Southampton and Glasgow between 1911/1912 and 1922.
Gibraltar's North Bastion and South Bastion were built by Spain in the 1560's to protect the city against attacks from either direction.
Encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean, Somoa’s flag features five stars having a red field with a blue rectangle in the canton which bears the Southern Cross Constellation: four large white stars and one smaller star.
Australia does have the largest deposits of lead, nickel and zinc.
In the video game Frog Fractions, the player travels from a lily pad on Earth to Mars, where they must obtain a work visa to continue working on the planet.
Pope Gregory XIII signed the Papal Bull introducing the Gregorian calendar in 1582.
The Australian War Memorial was opened by Governor-General Lord Gowrie in Canberra on November 11, 1941.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Trivia Bits 26 June
Thomas Middleton's 1624 comic satirical play A Game at Chess was considered so scandalous that the Globe Theatre was closed and the actors and author were put on trial as audiences immediately recognized the play as an allegory for the stormy relationship between Spain (the black pieces) and Great Britain (the white pieces). King James I of England is the White King; King Philip IV of Spain is the Black King. Thomas Middleton never wrote another play.
The 2013 Formula One World Driver’s Championship was won by German Formula One racing driver Sebastian Vettel.
The two Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom in 1979 were James Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher.
Past Olympic mascots include several bears named Misha, Coal, Howdy and Hidy, and dogs Cobi and Waldi.
The first Tsar of Russia was Ivan IV Vasilyevich also more commonly referred to as Ivan the Terrible being the Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and Tsar of All the Russias from 1547 until his death in 1584.
Cape Catastrophe is located in the Lincoln National Park in South Australia, 249 km west of Adelaide and 9.5 km south of Port Lincoln.
Australian actor Hugo Weaving played Agent Smith in the Matrix movie series written and directed by The Wachowski Brothers, and starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano.
The Australian Statutory body ACCC is the acronym for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
In use as a castle during the Sanzan period (1322–1429), Shuri Castle, a Ryūkyūan castle in Shuri, Okinawa, Japan, was declared an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.
Mark Wahlberg starred as Captain Leo Davidson in the 2001 movie Planet of the Apes directed by Tim Burton and also starred Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti and Estella Warren.
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Trivia Bits 25 June
The phonograph was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison and was the first to be able to reproduce the recorded sound.
Staurophobia is the fear of crucifixes or crosses.
There are large stands of primeval forest on the border between Poland and Belarus and are forests that have attained great age without significant disturbance thereby exhibit unique ecological features.
Salsa verde translates into English as Green Sauce.
The Prince Regent, later King George VI, sometimes stayed at Moulsecoomb Place, in the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove, where he would sit in a dovecote and practise playing a silver flute.
In 2010, Australian theatre, film, and television actress Jacki Weaver won an AFI Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the Australian crime drama Animal Kingdom.
Darkness at Noon was a 1940 novel written by the Hungarian-born British novelist Arthur Koestler and is the tale of Rubashov, an Old Bolshevik who is arrested, imprisoned, and tried for treason against the government which he had helped to create.
Australian actor Shane Porteous starred as Dr Terence Elliott in the TV series A Country Practice it and ran on the Seven Network in for 1,058 episodes from 18 November 1981 to 22 November 1993.
The creator and executive producer for the American crime drama television series Breaking Bad which premiered in 2008 is Vince Gilligan.
The Eastern Pacific giant conchs, Lobatus galeatus, were used as wind instruments by a pre-Incan civilization nearly 3000 years ago.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Trivia Bits 24 June
Han Solo was frozen in carbonite in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
The lasso of truth was wielded by comic book superhero Wonder Woman.
Fort Caspar in present-day Casper, Wyoming was founded in 1859 at a prominent crossing of the Emigrant Trail across the North Platte River.
American silent movie actress Florence Turner was originally known to audiences only as the Vitagraph Girl after in 1906 joining the fledgling motion picture business, signing with the pioneering Vitagraph Studios.
Australian author Joan Lindsay wrote the novel Picnic at Hanging Rock which was made into a movie in 1975 and directed by Peter Weir.
The aardwolf is a small mammal native to the continent of Africa living in open, dry plains and bushland, avoiding mountainous areas and due to their specific food requirements, they are only found in regions where termites occur.
The Three Colors film trilogy was directed by Krzysztof Kielowski and was released in 1993 and 1994.
The Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea border Egypt.
The Monty Python song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" was conceived as a parody of the style of song often featured in Disney films and may be considered an answer song to the entire genre, but particularly to songs such as "Give a Little Whistle" from Pinocchio.
Suraj Sharma played the titular character in the 2012 film the Life of Pi.
Monday, June 23, 2014
Trivia Bits 23 June
The Sea of the Hebrides is part of the Atlantic Ocean located off the coast of western Scotland, separating the mainland and the northern Inner Hebrides islands (to the east) from the southern Outer Hebrides islands (to the west).
Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy directed the 1987 comedy film Three Men and a Baby starring Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, Ted Danson, and Nancy Travis.
The nickname of Ramona’s older sister, Beatrice, in the children’ s series Ramona was Beezus with Ramona a series of eight humorous children's novels by Beverly Cleary centering on Ramona Quimby, her family and friends being first published in 1999.
St Mary's Church, Cleobury Mortimer, in Shropshire, England, is notable for its twisted shingled spire. The earliest structure in the present church is the tower dating from the 12th century with the spire was added during the following century.
In the 2011 Canadian CGI children's television series Franklin and Friends, Franklin is a turtle.
The Great Sandy Desert is located in the Australian state of Western Australia and covers an area of 284,993 square kilometres (110,036 sq mi).
Another name for German Measles is Rubella.
In the 1983 movie Risky Business Joel Goodsen (Tom Cruise) dances in his underwear.
In 1847, Queen Victoria officially declared Melbourne, Victoria, a city.
Formerly Lake Mobutu Sese Seko, Lake Albert is located on the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda and is about 160 km (100 mi) long and 30 km (19 mi) wide, with a maximum depth of 51 m (168 ft), and a surface elevation of 619 m (2,030 ft) above sea level.
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Trivia Bits 22 June
Playing the titular role in the 2012 American biographical comedy-drama Hitchcock was Anthony Hopkins which centres on the relationship between director Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) and his wife Alma Reville (Helen Mirren) during the making of Psycho, a controversial horror film that became one of the most acclaimed and influential works in the filmmaker's career.
Io is the innermost of the four Galilean moons of the planet Jupiter and, with a diameter of 3,642 kilometres (2,263 mi), the fourth-largest moon in the Solar System. It was named after the mythological character Io, a priestess of Hera who became one of the lovers of Zeus.
An Open Swimmer was Australian novelist and short story writer Tim Winton’s first novel published in 1981 winning The Australian/Vogel Literary Award.
The Arctic Winter Games, founded in 1969, are held biennially for athletes from the "circumpolar North" with The Hodgson trophy for fair play and team spirit awarded at the end of every games.
The famed River Danube runs through the Hungarian city of Budapest.
Involved in the collision with South African athlete Zola Budd at the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles, California was American world champion Mary Decker in the 3000 m race.
The inhabitants of the Syrian village of Kafr Zita claim descent from the Mawali tribes who dominated the northern Syrian Desert until the 18th century.
The smallest state in Australia is the island state – Tasmania.
The 364-metre pier in Withernsea, England built in 1877 was struck by ships four times, finally leaving it only 15 metres long.
The famed message "England expects that every man will do his duty" - a signal sent by Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, from his flagship HMS Victory as the Battle of Trafalgar was about to commence on 21 October 1805 is misquoted on Nelson's Column in London as the original quote was “England Confides That Every Man Will Do His Duty”.
The 2012 Guia Race of Macau was the last car race in which Chevrolet participated as a works team in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC).
Armenia is bordered by Turkey to the west and Georgia to the north.
In 1964 historian Mary C. Wright became the first woman to be named as a full professor in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yale University.
The 2013 Canadian-Irish historical drama television series Vikings was filmed in Ireland.
William Shakespeare’s famous lines All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players come from As You Like It and is believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the First Folio, 1623.
The cartoon character Garfield is an orange tabby cat in Feline terms.
Australian singer born Helen Porter Mitchell is better known as Dame Nellie Melba.
Vyacheslav Molotov was a Soviet Union politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s and served under Joseph Stalin.
The Calayan Rail flightless bird that inhabits Calayan Island in the Philippines is a significant recent species discovery, announced on 16 August 2004.
After France, the country with the highest population of French speaking people is the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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