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July 12, 2004 I originally came to this site because the title "Useless Knowledge" seemed well-suited to me, personally. When I was six, I was already an avid reader and took it upon myself to read every volume, cover to cover, of the Encyclopedia Brittanica--a copy of which reposed in my Grandmother's house. I finally finished all 16 or so volumes a year later. I retained a good deal of nonsense information of no particular value to anyone. My daughter is fond of quizzing me on trivia from time to time and says that she's astounded how much useless information I've managed to cram into this head in just 62 years. I know, for example that the word "Aardvark" is a Dutch word meaning "earth pig," and that the Battle of Hastings occurred in AD 1066 or that Aaron Burr, our third Vice President, was tried (and acquitted) of treason after leaving public office, which prompted him to move to Europe for several years--or that his rank in the Revolutionary War was as a Colonel. I know, for another example, that the town where the cartoon Simpsons live is called "Springfield" and the bartender's name is "Moe," even though I've NEVER seen a single episode...ever. I know that a colubrid is a type of snake and that the scientific name of the liver fluke is [i]Fasciola Hipatica,[/i] and that of the organism that causes sleeping sickness is [i]Tripanosoma gambiense[/i]. Of what good is this? Nothing, really, unless I am lucky enough to be asked one of these questions on "Millionaire" or "Jeopardy," which isn't very likely since I won't apply to be a contestant on either. On the former show, the first million- dollar question was, "How far is Earth from the Sun?" I know that light travels at 186,272 miles per second and it takes approximately 12 minutes for light to reach Earth from the Sun. By doing the math in my head, I came up with the correct answer of (approximately) 93 million miles--to the astonishment of my daughter. At any rate, I came to this site thinking that it was a place for trivia buffs, only to find that it's full of eclectic screeds on a wide variety of subjects, but especially politics...another of my pet interests. My daughter wonders why I spend so much time here-- mostly reading. ------------ Email David Allen Jared: Pappadave@sbcglobal.net |
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