Totally useless information/trivia

[Houlston]

The umbilical cord is as long as it is so that if a woman gives birth unaided or in isolation the baby can reach the breast for milk. Apparently the baby will work its way there even if the mother is unconscious.

[cheltenham_villa]

The umbilical cord is as long as it is so that if a woman gives birth unaided or in isolation the baby can reach the breast for milk. Apparently the baby will work its way there even if the mother is unconscious.

why would a baby need to reach the breast for milk if the umbilical cord is still attached?

[Xann]

The umbilical cord is as long as it is so that if a woman gives birth unaided or in isolation the baby can reach the breast for milk. Apparently the baby will work its way there even if the mother is unconscious.

why would a baby need to reach the breast for milk if the umbilical cord is still attached?

It's attached to the placenta that should follow the baby out.

[mjmooney]

The original hipsters were so named because of their awareness and openness to a certain attitude toward life. In fact, the words “hep” and “hip” are both derivations of the African word hepi—meaning to open one’s eyes.

Link

[GarethRDR]

The original hipsters were so named because of their awareness and openness to a certain attitude toward life. In fact, the words “hep” and “hip” are both derivations of the African word hepi—meaning to open one’s eyes.

Link

I knew that before it was trivia.

[mjmooney]

The original hipsters were so named because of their awareness and openness to a certain attitude toward life. In fact, the words “hep” and “hip” are both derivations of the African word hepi—meaning to open one’s eyes.

Link

I knew that before it was trivia.

That's cos you's a hipster.

[GarethRDR]

[The_Rev]

Picked up a short history of almost everything about two years after I bought it and I get the impression that it is going to be full of great trivia. I am still at the start, but the author (Bill Bryson) is trying to convey just how incredibly massive space is.

If we were making one of those scale models of space and decided to use a pea to represent Earth then Jupiter would be about 300 meters away. You would probably have to get on a bus or something to put Pluto where it needed to be because it would be a mile and a half from our pea sized Earth. If you wanted to put the nearest star outside of our Solar System, Proxima Centauri on the model then you would need to get on a plane. Assuming you were in Birmingham when you placed down the pea to represent Earth then you would have to travel all the way to Sydney, Australia to get the correct distance to represent Proxima Centauri. Space is huge.

[mjmooney]

Picked up a short history of almost everything about two years after I bought it and I get the impression that it is going to be full of great trivia. I am still at the start, but the author (Bill Bryson) is trying to convey just how incredibly massive space is.

If we were making one of those scale models of space and decided to use a pea to represent Earth then Jupiter would be about 300 meters away. You would probably have to get on a bus or something to put Pluto where it needed to be because it would be a mile and a half from our pea sized Earth. If you wanted to put the nearest star outside of our Solar System, Proxima Centauri on the model then you would need to get on a plane. Assuming you were in Birmingham when you placed down the pea to represent Earth then you would have to travel all the way to Sydney, Australia to get the correct distance to represent Proxima Centauri. Space is huge.

You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.

[The_Rev]

For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons.

Man, I love The Hitchhiker's guide. I still think the best version is the BBC Radio play though. :nod:

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

The universe is bigger and getting bigger as far as I know ?

If it keeps on getting bigger though then everything dies and the universe goes dark and thus can be classed as dead?

Dunno, just popped in my head. I am wrong on the above ?

[mjmooney]

For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons.

Man, I love The Hitchhiker's guide. I still think the best version is the BBC Radio play though. :nod:

Assuming you mean the BBC radio series, I totally agree. Books second. TV a distant third. Never saw the stage play and don't intend to watch the "movie" (sic). I understand the oven glove was quite impressive though.

[The_Rev]

The universe is bigger and getting bigger as far as I know ?

I think that depends on how you interpret it. My understanding of it is that everything in the universe is getting further apart from everything else, but there is no "edge" to the universe.

[The_Rev]

was number one in the charts in France from August 28th 1999 until January 8th 2000. That is twenty weeks btw. Brian Adams managed sixteen over here I think.

[leviramsey]

I think we have the explanation for Tony, then...

[leviramsey]

Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men's collaboration "One Sweet Day" holds the US record at 16 weeks.

That said, it's interesting that of the tracks to spend 10 or more weeks at #1, the breakdown by year goes

1955: 2 (McGuire Sisters - "Sincerely" & Perez Prado - "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White": both 10 weeks)

1956: 1 (Elvis Presley - "Hound Dog"/"Don't Be Cruel": 10 weeks)

1977: 1 (Debby Boone - "You Light Up My Life": 10 weeks)

1981: 1 (Olivia Newton-John - "Physical": 10 weeks)

1992: 2

1994: 2

1995: 1

1996: 2

1997: 2

1998: 1

1999: 1

2000: 2

2002: 3

2004: 1

2005: 2

2006: 1

2008: 1

2009: 2

So of the 28 songs to go 10 weeks at #1, in the roughly 60 years that the Billboard chart has existed, 14 were from 1992-2001. I'm tempted to credit this to the lag between the record industry's decision to de-emphasize singles to force people to buy albums (which started in the early 1990s) and Billboard's decision in 1998 to allow chart entry by songs that were not available as singles; there were quite a few songs not released as singles that had extended runs on the airplay chart in that period that may well have snuck in a few weeks at #1 had the rule been relaxed earlier.

[islingtonclaret]

You can't name a folder "con" on Microsoft Windows.

I just gave this a go and it's true. Any idea why?

It's true. And, what is more, I didn't find this out by reading about it, I found out because I had to rename files 'CON' at work. It's...er....basically essential to our work operations.

[TheDon]

You can't name a folder "con" on Microsoft Windows.

I just gave this a go and it's true. Any idea why?

It's true. And, what is more, I didn't find this out by reading about it, I found out because I had to rename files 'CON' at work. It's...er....basically essential to our work operations.

You're a con man?

Honestly though, any IT system that needs you to be able to name a file or folder con is one that should never exist. It's a well known reserved name.

[leviramsey]

[levi @ tatiana | 10:34:06] ~     echo "Blah blah blah" > con

[levi @ tatiana | 10:34:27] ~     cat con

Blah blah blah

[levi @ tatiana | 10:34:29] ~     rm -f con

Worksforme

(/dev/console on the other hand...)

[Stevo985]

Levi sucks the fun out of another thread