The First Book of Factoids
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Sam Vaknin >> The First Book of Factoids
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9 Copyright (C) 2002, 2003 by Lidija Rangelovska.^M
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The First Book of Factoids
1st EDITION
First Published in the
Links and Factoids Study List
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/linknfactoid
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.
Editing and Design:
Lidija Rangelovska
Lidija Rangelovska
A Narcissus Publications Imprint, Skopje 2003
Not for Sale! Non-commercial edition.
© 2002, 2003 Copyright Lidija Rangelovska.
All rights reserved. This book, or any part thereof, may not be used
or reproduced in any manner without written permission from:
Lidija Rangelovska - write to:
palma@unet.com.mk or to
vaknin@link.com.mk
Visit the Author Archive of Dr. Sam Vaknin in "Central Europe Review":
http://www.ce-review.org/authorarchives/vaknin_archive/vaknin_main.htm
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Visit Sam Vaknin's United Press International (UPI) Article Archive
-Click HERE!
Philosophical Musings and Essays
http://samvak.tripod.com/culture.html
Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited
http://samvak.tripod.com/
ISBN: 9989-929-40-8
Created by: LIDIJA RANGELOVSKA
REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA
C O N T E N T S
I. A
II. B
III. C
IV. D
V. E
VI. F
VII. G
VIII. H
IX. I-J
X. K
XI. L
XII. M
XIII. N
XIV. O
XV. P-Q
XVI. R
XVII. S
XVIII. T
XIX. U-V-W
XX. X-Y-Z
XXI. The Author
XXII. About "After the Rain"
A
Abdication Crisis
The love affair of Edward, Prince of Wales (Edward VIII) and Wallis
Simpson in 1936 is the stuff of romantic dramas. Alas, reality was a
lot less inspiring. Even as she was being wooed by her regal paramour
- and while still being married to Ernest Aldrich Simpson, who knew of
the Prince's attentions and even discussed the adulterous
relationship with him - Wallis had an affair with Guy Marcus Trundle,
a car salesman.
So reveal documents released in January 2003 by the Public Record
Office in the United Kingdom. Trundle is described as a "very charming
adventurer, very good looking, well bred and an excellent dancer". He
lived at 18 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London (a prestigious address).
Simpson's first husband was Earl Winfield Spencer. The King met her on
January 10, 1931 but was not impressed. Even in the months after May
1934, when he met her for the second time, dined with her and her
husband in their London flat and invited them to his country retreat -
she did not captivate him. He did take her on a cruise, two years
later, unaccompanied by her husband. He tried to introduce her in
court, but George V was outraged. Upon his death, the Prince of Wales
became King on January 20, 1936. Ernest Simpson - who was having a
long-term affair of his own - moved out of the Simpson household in
July 1936.
Nor was Wallis the Prince's first American liaison. He contemplated
marrying one, Thelma Furness, but then dumped her for Simpson. The
British media - though perfectly aware of all the goings-on, reported
noting almost until the King's abdication. The European and American
press, in contrast, provided extensive coverage of the developing
romance.
At first, the King did not wish to marry Simpson, merely to make her
his consort by changing the law to allow for a morganatic marriage (of
people from different classes, with no rights of inheritance). Simpson
herself thought of giving up the marriage. Yet, finally, they got
married after the abdication, in France. Though Simpson became the
Duchess of Windsor, she could not be addressed as "Her Royal
Highness".
Additionally, the King was not allowed by the British government to
address the British people and the Empire through the BBC.
The government's constitutional experts wrote:
"If the King disregarded it, constitutional monarchy would cease to
exist. The King is bound to accept and act upon the advice of his
ministers ... for the King to broadcast in disregard of that advice
would be appealing over the heads of his constitutional advisers. "The
last time when this happened in English history was when Charles I
raised His Standard at the beginning of the Civil War on 22 August
1642."
Edward abdicated from the throne on 11 December 1936, making a
different speech.
After having abdicated the throne, in exile, not allowed to return on
pain of losing their allowance, the couple visited Adolf Hitler
in 1937. Simpson was thrilled to be "entertained by Herr Hitler" but
there is no proof of further contacts with the Nazi regime with the
exception of a telegram from Edward to Hitler, urging peace. Edward
was later appointed Governor of the Bahamas. Recently released FBI
files identify Simpson as a Nazi sympathizer, though. The FBI
suspected her of having an affair with a leading Nazi and spied on
her.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/uk/2706889.stm
Abraham
Abraham, the son of Terah, Noah's descendent, and brother of Nahor and
Haran, first appears in the Bible in Genesis 11:27. He may have been
born in Ur, in today's Iraq, near Nasiryah, around 4000 years ago. His
brother, Nahor, definitely was born in Ur and, having fathered Lot,
also died in Ur Kasdim (Ur of the Chaldeans). Ur was the capital of
S(h)umer but the Kasdim - Khaldeans - did not make it to Ur until 1300
years after the birth of Abraham. Why do the Bible call it Ur Kasdim?
Abraham's family are described as pastoral nomads. Wandering shepherds
rarely pitch their tents, proverbial or not, next to metropolises.
Terah left Ur only to settle near yet another city, Harran, on the
current border between Turkey and Syria. He spent the next 60 years of
his life there. Harran is 1200 kilometers off the beaten path to
Canaan (today's Israel and Palestine). Why such a diversion?
Scholars suggest that Ur is actually Urfa in Turkey - about 30
kilometers away from Harran. It boasts a cave where Abraham is said to
have been born.
SOURCE: Bruce Feiler, Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths
and Walking the Bible: A Journey By Land Through the Five Books of
Moses.
http://www.ot-studies.com/Documents/Ur.htm
http://members.aol.com/mfuprojects/abrahambirth.html
Ants
There are 11,000 species of ants. The oldest ant fossil is more than
90 million years old. Ants are closely related to bees and wasps. They
are so numerous that in some habitats - the Amazon forest, for
instance - their combined weight is four times the combined weight of
all other animals in the area. Ants have brains. The main nerve -
similar to our spine - runs along the bottom of the ant's body. Ants
smell, taste and touch with their antennas. Their cylinder-like heart
pumps colorless blood throughout their body.
Ants digest only liquid food or food rendered liquid with their
digestive juices. Ants share digested food with each other. They can
carry 15-20 times their body weight.
Only the colony's queen breeds. Unfertilized eggs develop into males.
The queen also lives much longer - up to 10 years, compared to worker
ants which survive on average 50-150 days and up to 2 years in the
tropics.
Some ant varieties create no nests. Instead, worker ants link their
legs to form a living fabric on which the queen resides and performs
her functions.
http://www.lingolex.com/ants.htm
http://ant.edb.miyakyo-u.ac.jp/INTRODUCTION/Gakken79E/Page_02.html
Appendix
The appendix is located at the beginning of the large intestine. Many
types of animals have it, including rabbits and rodents. It contains
gut associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) involved in recognizing foreign
antigens in ingested food. The appendix is also helpful in the
maturation of certain white blood cells (B lymphocytes) and antibodies
(Immunoglobulin, or IgA). Molecules manufactured in the appendix serve
as "traffic guides" and direct lymphocytes to other parts of the body.
The appendix is not, therefore, useless, as most people think. It is
part of the immune system. The GALT disappears after age 60, though.
The appendix has additional functions. Endocrine cells appear in the
appendix of the human fetus and produce biogenic amines and peptide
hormones, both instrumental in maintaining bodily homeostasis.
Finally, the appendix is used to replace the "sphincter muscle" in
urinary a bladder surgically reconstructed from intestinal tissue
(after removal of the original bladder). It also replaces removed
ureters, leading urine from the kidney to the bladder.
http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health/digest/summary/append/
http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/stomach/appendicitis.html
http://www.merck.com/pubs/mmanual/section3/chapter25/25e.htm
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian massacres in Turkey started in the 19th century and
continued well after the Armenian genocide of 1915 in which some
600,000 Armenians perished. The Armenians were also raided by Kurdish
tribesmen on a regular basis. An Ottoman military tribunal, convened
between 1919-21, even convicted for the crimes members of the
administration of the Young Turks, including cabinet ministers.
Many of the perpetrators fled the country only to return, triumphant,
after the establishment of modern Turkey in 1923. The Turkish
government today denies that an organized, premeditated genocide ever
took place and pegs the number of Armenian fatalities at 200-300,000
at the most.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the Armenians formed guerrilla
movements in eastern Van (the Armenakans, in 1885) and in Russia.
Radical nationalist parties were established by Russian-Armenian
emigrants in 1887 (Hunchak or Henchak, "The Bell") and in 1890 in
Georgia (Dashnak or Dashnaktsutyun, "Union"). Mass demonstrations in
the Turkish capital (in 1890 and 1895) and armed uprisings followed
(in 1894-5). The Dashnaks even invaded Turkey from Russia in 1896 - a
demonstrative act which resulted in the slaughter of 50,000 Armenians.
The suppression of these revolts claimed 200,000 Armenian lives. In
1909, in Adana, more than 23,000 Armenians were massacred as the
warships of the Great Powers stood idly by. In 1912-3 the Great
Powers, led by Russia, pressured Turkey to cease its mistreatment of
the Armenians. This intervention was resented by the Ottoman
authorities. By 1915, Armenian calls for autonomy were deemed a danger
to the disintegrating realm, now at war with Russia.
When the first world war broke, Turkey allied itself with the Germans.
All Armenian men aged 20-45 were conscripted to the army as soldiers,
soon to be disarmed and serve as pack animals or in menial jobs. When
Russian Armenians recruited Turkish Armenians for the anti-Turkish
Russian Army of the Caucasus, in April 1915, the elite of the Armenian
community was arrested and executed. Between May and June 1915 the
Armenian population was deported to Mesopotamia. The deportation
followed mass executions.
Many more died from starvation, exposure, dehydration, abuse and
outright torture. The survivors - less than 300,000 - were subjected
to additional slaughter in Syria. People were beaten with blunt
instruments, burnt alive or drowned forcibly. The massacres were
carried out by military officers with dictatorial powers, aided by
criminals especially released from jails and assigned to their
gruesome duties.
Armed resistance in Van province, Mussa Dagh, Shabin Karahisar and
Urfa - as well as setbacks in the war - prevented the Turks for
deporting the urban Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire's major
cities. Today there are less than 60,000 Armenians in Turkey compared
to at least 1.8 million in 1910.
http://www.armenian-genocide.org/
http://www.cilicia.com/armo10.html
Art, Modern
We are all acquainted with the tales - many apocryphal, some real - of
how art critiques, curators, collectors and buyers were fooled into
purchasing "works of art" created by monkeys. The animals "painted" by
dipping their paws in pigments and running to and fro over empty
canvasses.
There are numerous such striking examples of the fluidity of what
constitutes art and the dubious expertise of art "professionals".
There is no other masterpiece so studied, analyzed and scrutinized as
Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Yet, when it was stolen from the Louvre
in Paris in 1912, forgers passed 6 replicas as the original, selling
them for a fortune. The painting was rediscovered in 1915.
Henri Matisse is revered as the father of Fauvism and of modern
painting in general. Yet, one of his more famous tableaux, Le Bateau
(The Boat), hung upside down for 2 months in 1961 in the Museum of
Modern Art in New York. Not one of the art critics, journalists,
116,000 visitors, or curators has noticed it.
Perhaps the most famous case of artistic misjudgment involves Vincent
van Gogh whose work has hitherto fetched the highest prices ever paid
in auctions. Despite his connections with leading painters, gallery
owners, art professors and critics - his brother owned a
successful art dealership in Paris - van Gogh sold only one piece
while alive: "Red Vineyard at Arles." His brother bought it from him.
By the time he died he had painted 750 canvasses and 1600 drawings.
http://www.geocities.com/illonaz/ArtHistory.htm
Atlantis
Atlantis (or Atlantica) was described in antiquity as a large island
in the sea to the west of the known world (the Western Ocean), near
the Pillars of Hercules (the Gibraltar Straits?). It was not,
therefore, a part of the known geography of the period. An earthquake
was said to have submerged it in the ocean.
It is first mentioned in the dialogs Timaeus and Critias written by
the Greek philosopher Plato (428-347 BC). An Egyptian priest was
supposed to have described it to the Greek statesman Solon (638-559
BC).
The priest insisted that Atlantis was enormous - bigger than Asia
Minor (today, a part of Turkey) and Libya combined. It harbored a
technologically advanced civilization, recounted the priest, in the
10th millennium BC (c. 12,000 years ago).
Curiously, he also said that the Atlantians conquered all the lands of
antiquity, bar Athens (which only came into existence in the Neolithic
period, about 3000 years later).
Arab geographers propagated the story of Atlantis and medieval
European authors referred to it as fact.
Current oceanographers, scholars and conspiracy theorists place
Atlantis all over the map - from an island in the Aegean Sea (Thera,
or Santorini it suffered an earthquake in 1640 BC and housed the
flourishing Cycladic civilization), through the Canary Islands to
Scandinavia. Considering that many ancient civilizations - such as
Troy, long considered a mere fable - were unearthed by archeologists,
it is not futile to continue to look for Atlantis.
http://dmoz.org/Science/Social_Sciences/Archaeology/Alternative/Lost_C
ivilizations/Atlantis/
Automatic Switchboard (Phone Exchange)
Almon B. Strowger, an undertaker in Kansas City, faced unfair
competition. The wife of a competing undertaker was an operator at the
local (manual) telephone exchange. She re-routed calls to her husband,
even when the caller asked for Strowger.
In an effort to get rid of her, Strowger invented the first automatic,
electromechanical switchboard and, together with his cousin, produced
the first model in 1888. He was granted a patent in 1891.
Strowger joined forces with Joseph B. Harris and Moses A. Meyer to
form "Strowger Automatic Telephone Exchange" in October 1891. A year
later, the first Strowger exchange was installed with great fanfare at
La Porte, Indiana. It had less than 80 subscribers.
Strowger died in 1902 but his company still survives as AG
Communications Systems.
http://www.roserpark.net/greenwood/strowger.html
http://www.strowger.com/history.html
http://www.agcs.com
B
Barbie
Barbie was invented by Ruth Handler in 1959. It was modelled on a
minuscule German sex doll called "Lilli". Barbie was the nickname of
Ruth's daughter, Barbara. Ruth proceeded to found Mattel with her
husband, Elliott. It is now one of the world's largest toy
manufacturers (revenues - c. $5 billion annually, a third of which in
Barbie sales). More than 1 billion Barbies were sold by 1996. Mattel
commemorated this event by manufacturing a "Dream Barbie".
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~tsawyer/barbie/barb.html
http://www.barbiecollectibles.com/whatshot/barbiehistory/index.asp
http://www.mattel.com/our_toys/ot_barb.asp
Bathory, Erszebet
If you think that today's serial killers are unsurpassed, try this for
size:
In 1611, Countess Erszebet Bathory was tried - though, being a
noblewoman, not convicted - in Hungary for slaughtering 612 young
girls. The true figure may have been 40-100, though the Countess
recorded in her diary more than 610 girls and 50 bodies were found in
her estate when it was raided.
The girls were not killed outright. They were kept in a dungeon and
repeatedly pierced, prodded, pricked, and cut. The Countess may have
bitten chunks of flesh off their bodies while alive. She is said to
have bathed and showered in their blood in the mistaken belief that
she could thus slow down the aging process.
Her servants were executed, their bodies burnt and their ashes
scattered. Being royalty, she was merely confined to her bedroom until
she died in 1614.
She was married to a descendant of Vlad Dracula of Bram Stoker fame.
She was notorious as an inhuman sadist long before her hygienic
fixation. She once ordered the mouth of a talkative servant sewn. It
is rumoured that in her childhood she witnessed a gypsy being sewn
into a horse's stomach and left to die.
For a hundred years after her death, by royal decree, mentioning her
name in Hungary was a crime.
http://www.angelfire.com/realm/shades/demons/vampires/booksandmovieseb
athory.htm
http://www.alienplayground.net/disgusting/idols.html
http://bathory.freehosting.net/ebathori.html
http://samvak.tripod.com/objectrelations.html
Berliner
When President John F. Kennedy sought to impress the Germans in 1961 -
then besieged by the Russians - he visited Germany and famously said,
in a public speech: "Ich bin ein Berliner". Alas, "Berliner" in German
is also a kind of yummy doughnut with jam filling and vanilla icing.
This gave rise to the fallacy - adopted even by "The Economist" - that
"Berliner" is wrong usage or gaffe.
It is not. "Berliner" in German means "that which belongs to Berlin or
of Berlin". The Berlin Wall is the "Berliner Mauer", for instance.
Berlinerin is the female form of Berliner. Kennedy was grammatically
correct to have said "Ich bin ein Berliner".
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa021700a.htm
http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/berliner.htm
Bible
The Jews do not include the 27 books of New Testament in their Bible.
The factoids below relate to the version of the Bible used by
Christians everywhere: Old (39 books) and New Testament. Altogether
1189 chapters (929 of which are in the Old Testament), 31173 verses.
The Old Testament contains 592439 words (2728100 letters), the New
Testament contains 181253 words (838380 letters). Of the 27 books of
the New Testament, 14 were written by St. Paul.
The Bible contains words in Hebrew, Aramaic and Koine Greek.
The Bible is the bestseller of all times. More than 50 copies are
still being sold every minute. The Bible is also the most shoplifted
book in the world.
According to the Concordance - a compilation of the words and names in
the Bible - cats are not mentioned at all. Christians appear only 3
times (Acts 11:26; 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16). The words "grandmother" and
"eternity" only once each. The Bible records seven suicides and seven
different Jeremiahs - but not a single "trinity".
The books of Esther and the Song of Solomon do not contain the word
"God". The Jewish codifiers of the Bible almost left them out (i.e.,
almost declared them apocryphal).
Amen is the word that seals the Bible.
http://www.gospelcom.net/bible
http://bible.crosswalk.com/
http://unbound.biola.edu/
http://www.concordance.com/
Bioluminiscence
The bobtail squid lives in the shallow waters of the coast of Hawaii.
During the day, it is buried deep in the sand. It emerges to hunt at
nightfall. Moonlight is its mortal enemy: conveniently for its
predators, the squid casts a black and moving shadow. To fend off
these risks, the squid emits a blue glow from a "light organ". The
luminosity perfectly matches the amount of moonlight filtering through
the water, rendering the squid indistinguishable from its
light-flooded environs.
To generate the fine tuned radiance, the squid hosts a community of
luminescent bacteria called Vibrio fischeri. From the first moments of
its life, the squid circulates bacteria-infested seawater through a
hollow chamber in its body. Only the Vibrio fischeri cells are caught
by the squid's tiny cilia. Henceforth, the squid provides his
microscopic "prisoners" with oxygen and amino acids - and they
reciprocate with emitted light.
The squid constantly monitors to what extent the night sky is
illuminated, using dedicated sensors on the surface of its body. It
then adjusts an iris-like "shutter" to release the correct amount of
light from his bacterial colony. The squid replaces the hosted vibrios
daily.
Still, bacteria multiply ceaselessly. How is a constant level of
luminescence maintained as time passes?
Woody Hastings, a microbiologist at the University of Illinois,
noticed in the early 1960s that though the bacterial population
doubles every 20 minutes - the quantity of luciferase (the light
producing enzyme) remains constant for up to five hours. luciferase
production resumes only when a certain "critical mass" (quantitative
threshold) is attained. This is called "quorum sensing".
http://www.lifesci.ucsb.edu/~biolum/
http://www.biolum.org/
Black Death
AIDS has infected hitherto 42 million people, of which perhaps 22
million have died.
The "Black Death" - an epidemic of bubonic plague which ravaged both
Europe and the Mediterranean in 1347-1351- killed one quarter to one
third of the population - c. 25 million people. This is the equivalent
of 250 million today. It took 150 years for the population to recover
its pre-epidemic levels.
Scholars believe that the plague emanated from the Middle East through
southern Russia, between the Black and the Caspian seas.
Contemporaries did not use the term "Black Death". They called it the
"Pestilence" or the "Great Mortality". They regarded it as divine
punishment of humanity's sins.
http://www.ento.vt.edu/IHS/plague.html
Black Holes
Black holes are extremely dense bodies. Their density and gravitation
are so enormous that it was thought nothing - not even electromagnetic
radiation such as light - can escape them once caught by their
gravitational pull. Hence the "black" in "black holes". This is what
laymen and the media know about them.
Yet, the truth is different.
The English physicist Stephen William Hawking proved that in the
vicinity of tiny black holes, it is possible for one member of an
electron-positron or proton-antiproton pair of particles to escape
while the other is hurled towards the singularity (i.e., the center of
the black hole). The escaping particle draws energy from the black
hole itself and thus "evaporates" it. It is as if the black hole gives
off heat, thermal radiation.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/rjn_bht.html
http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/NumRel/BlackHoles.html
http://cfpa.berkeley.edu/BHfaq.html
http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/gr/public/bh_home.html
Bolivar, Simon
Simon Bolivar (1783-1830) is a Latin American folk hero, revered
for having been a revolutionary freedom fighter, a compassionate
egalitarian and a successful politician. He is credited with the
liberation from Spanish colonial yoke of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador,
Peru, and Bolivia, a country named after him. Venezuela's new
strongman, Hugo Chavez, renamed his country The Bolivarian republic of
Venezuela to reflect the role of his "Bolivarian revolution".
Yet, while alive, Bolivar was a much hated dictator and - at the
beginning of his career - a military failure.
His aide and friend, Gen. Daniel O'Leary, an Irish soldier described
him so:
"His chest was narrow, his figure slender, his legs particularly thin.
His skin was swarthy and rather coarse. His hands and feet were small
...a woman might have envied them. His expression, when he was in good
humor, was pleasant, but it became terrible when he was aroused. The
change was unbelievable."
Bolivar explained his motives:
"I confess this (the coronation of Napoleon in 1804) made me think of
my unhappy country and the glory which he would win who should
liberate it"
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