- trivia -

food:

Fact: German chocolate cake was invented in Texas​

The “German” part of German chocolate cake comes from an American man—not a European country. Specifically, it’s named after Sam German, who in 1852 created the formula for a mild dark baking chocolate bar for Baker’s Chocolate Company, which was subsequently named Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate. Fast-forward to June 13, 1957. The Dallas Morning Star published the recipe for the cake, invented and submitted by a reader identified as Mrs. George Clay, according to What’s Cooking America.

Whether slender noodles (in some form known as "spaghetti") first appeared in Italy, or China still unresolved.
BUT !!
Spaghetti is often made by extrusion (pushing), while the traditional Chinese process by stretching the noodle dough thinner & thinner.

Similar historic murk clouds the history of pizza, chili, among others. What's your favorite trivia story?

Given all the press coverage of the submersible implosion figured people would find this interesting

What Really Happens to a Human Body at Titanic Depths​

A Millisecond-by-Millisecond Explanation​

"The Titanic wreckage lies at a depth of about 3,800 meters (12,500 feet). At that depth, the pressure is an astonishing 380 atmospheres"

https://mindofjp.medium.com/what-really-happens-to-a-human-body-at-titanic-depths-3f46ab545e0e

Click to expand...

That's a compression ratio of 380 to 1.
For comparison, diesel engines don't have spark plugs, because with a compression ratio of * 18:1 the fuel vapor combusts spontaneously, no spark needed.

While elucidating, the S2 #2 article overlooks some relevant details.

"At the very moment the hull breaches, there’s an immediate equalization of pressure. The air inside the submersible, previously at a comfortable 1 atmosphere, must now contend with the 380 atmospheres outside.
The results are explosive. Literally."

https://mindofjp.medium.com/what-really-happens-to-a-human-body-at-titanic-depths-3f46ab545e0e

Click to expand...

Implosive, literally.
According to Boyle's Law gas volume and pressure are inversely proportional. Increase the pressure, decrease the volume.

So with a compression ratio of 380 : 1 the amount of gas in the submersible would have been compressed to below a volume the 5 human bodies could occupy.
If the interior air chamber were a cylinder 5' in diameter and 8' long, that's 157 cubic feet.
That volume of air at 1 atmosphere compressed 380 : 1 leaves a volume about 0.4 cubic feet, or a cube about 9" on each side. That's not enough room for 5 adult humans to survive comfortably.

The passengers would have been smashed not only by the wall of water bashing in to equalize the pressure, but also by the debris from the vessel.

* Diesel engines are typically constructed with compression ratios in the range 14:1 to 22:1.

Agreed. And there would have been insanely hot temperatures to go with it.

iirc 2 of the 5 aboard were father & son. An account of it reported those two tickets were originally his & hers. BUT !!
The son wanted to go, so mom surrendered her ticket to him.

Proves happy endings aren't the exclusive province of houses of enviable repute.

There are parts of Africa in all four hemispheres​

For people whose education was largely focused on the Western world, it may be surprising to find out exactly how huge the continent of Africa is. For instance, it spans all four hemispheres and covers nearly 12 million square miles.

The unique geography​

Though Istanbul is considered one city, part of it sits on the continent of Europe, neighboring Greece and Bulgaria; the other part sits on the continent of Asia, neighboring Syria, Iran, and Iraq beyond Turkey’s borders. Between them runs the Bosphorus Strait, a narrow body of water that connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea via the Sea of Marmara. The result is a cultural and ethnic melting pot, a cosmopolitan city with Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and modern Turkish structures—a skyline of domes and minarets in mosques, churches, and synagogues, palaces, castles, and towers.


Eat your heart out Kansas City !

sear said:

iirc 2 of the 5 aboard were father & son. An account of it reported those two tickets were originally his & hers. BUT !!
The son wanted to go, so mom surrendered her ticket to him.

Click to expand...

Initial reports said that the son didn't want to go (was terrified in fact) but that statement came from an aunt who is apparently estranged from the family.

The son's mother said something quite different. Seems the kid is a Rubik's Cube freak and was taking a cube with him. He'd already applied to the Guinness Book of Records for solving the cube at a depth of 3,800 meters and his father had taken a video camera long to record it.

Bermuda Onions are not from Bermuda.

Shiftless2 said:

the kid is a Rubik's Cube freak and was taking a cube with him. He'd already applied to the Guinness Book of Records for solving the cube at a depth of 3,800 meters and his father had taken a video camera long to record it.

Click to expand...

When NASA's shuttle Columbia disintegrated, it showered debris over several States. IIRC included in what was retrieved, a camcorder tape. I get the impression it may have been in playable condition.
Reportedly major chunks of debris from the imploded submersible have already been retrieved. I suspect the relatively intact segments already retrieved were from a non-depressurized portion of the vessel.

Shiftless2 said:

his father had taken a video camera long to record it.

Click to expand...

I suspect items not bolted or lashed down have sprinkled to the ocean floor. But if the camera is retrieved, I wouldn't assume its images are not retrievable. Not impossible to imagine the video cam captured the implosion. Worth a look.

Shiftless2 said:

Bermuda Onions are not from Bermuda.

Click to expand...

Fact: German chocolate cake was invented in Texas​

The “German” part of German chocolate cake comes from an American man—not a European country. Specifically, it’s named after Sam German, who in 1852 created the formula for a mild dark baking chocolate bar for Baker’s Chocolate Company, which was subsequently named Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate. Fast-forward to June 13, 1957. The Dallas Morning Star published the recipe for the cake, invented and submitted by a reader identified as Mrs. George Clay, according to What’s Cooking America.

125 Interesting Facts About Practically Everything

Stop right there! You're about to learn some seriously interesting facts about science, history, and pop culture that will blow your mind.

www.rd.com

Not quite sure where that leaves Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (black forest cake).

McDonald’s Celebrates the Powerful Fact that 1 in 8 Americans Have Worked Under the Golden Arches​

(CHICAGO – Oct. 11, 2023) – Astronauts. Teachers. Award-winning playwrights. Executives. Small business owners. 1 in 8 Americans have one thing in common: the experience of working at a McDonald’s restaurant (just think... that means 1 in 8 Americans have been trusted with the World Famous Fries®). Whether their career continued within the Golden Arches or beyond, McDonald’s is celebrating both former and current crew members who make up this diverse community with the launch of its new “1 in 8” initiative.

McDonald’s Celebrates the Powerful Fact that 1 in 8 Americans Have Worked Under the Golden Arches

corporate.mcdonalds.com

The glass half-empty crowd may be bitter about this, resenting exploitation, or whatever. BUT !
McDonald's may be a superb training ground for first-time, coming of age employees entirely devoid of employment skills.

Travelers in the 3rd millennium may not wish to risk an unfamiliar menu. But even when thousands of miles from home,
a weary, hungry traveler can stop at McD's and find a recognizable meal.

> > >

In the United States, it's "fast food".
In Germany, it's fast eating, "schenell imbus". Bratwurst ! ummm !

You know what. But,
do you know why?

In English there are both vowels, and consonants.

Ever wonder why?

"Words" with only vowels sound like whining.

"Words" with only consonants sound like a punctured pneumatic tire gushing air.

A word in English can begin with either vowel or consonant. But vowel & consonant alternate from there, so each intended sound can be distinguished by their fundamental vocal differentiation.

What human spoken language does not share this characteristic?

So in my lifetime what was created and is/are now obsolete?

I asked AI….

Creating a comprehensive list of everything invented since 1951 that is now obsolete is a vast task, given the sheer number of inventions and the rapid pace of technological change. However, I can provide a list of some notable inventions that were once significant but are now largely obsolete:

### 1950s
- **Transistor Radios** (1954): Once revolutionary for their portability, replaced by more advanced portable music players and smartphones.
- **8-Track Tapes** (1960s): A popular music format in the 1960s and 1970s, replaced by cassette tapes and later CDs.
- **Mainframe Computers**: Early computing giants that have been replaced by personal computers and cloud computing.
- **Slide Rules**: Used for calculations before electronic calculators became widely available.

### 1960s
- **Betamax Tapes** (1975): A videotape format, eventually outdone by VHS and later DVDs.
- **Pagers (Beepers)**: Widely used for communication in the 1980s and 1990s, now replaced by mobile phones.
- **Punch Cards**: Used in early computers for programming and data storage, replaced by digital storage.
- **Vacuum Tubes**: Once essential in early electronics, largely replaced by transistors and semiconductors.

### 1970s
- **VHS Tapes** (1976): Videotape format that became the standard but was replaced by DVDs and digital streaming.
- **Rotary Dial Telephones**: Replaced by push-button phones and later, mobile phones.
- **Analog Televisions**: Replaced by digital TVs.
- **Cassette Tapes**: Popular for music, replaced by CDs, and later digital formats like MP3s.

### 1980s
- **Floppy Disks**: Used for data storage in early personal computers, replaced by CDs, USB drives, and cloud storage.
- **Walkman**: Portable cassette player that was replaced by portable CD players and then digital music players like the iPod.
- **Dot Matrix Printers**: Replaced by inkjet and laser printers.
- **Polaroid Cameras**: Instant photography lost popularity with the advent of digital cameras.

### 1990s
- **Dial-Up Internet**: Slow internet connection method replaced by broadband and fiber optics.
- **Palm Pilots**: Early personal digital assistants (PDAs), replaced by smartphones.
- **CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs**: Once a standard for software distribution and media, replaced by digital downloads and streaming.
- **CRT Monitors**: Bulky computer monitors replaced by flat-screen LCD and LED monitors.

### 2000s
- **BlackBerry Phones**: Once the standard for business communication, replaced by smartphones like the iPhone and Android devices.
- **HD-DVD**: Competed with Blu-ray but quickly became obsolete.
- **MySpace**: Early social media platform overtaken by Facebook and other social media sites.
- **Portable GPS Units**: Replaced by smartphone navigation apps like Google Maps.

### 2010s
- **MP3 Players**: Replaced by smartphones which can play music through streaming services.
- **Compact Digital Cameras**: Many replaced by smartphone cameras as phone photography has improved.
- **Optical Drives in Computers**: CD/DVD drives are now rarely included in laptops, replaced by USB storage and cloud services.
- **Flash Animation**: Once popular for websites and online games, replaced by more advanced technologies like HTML5.

### 2020s and Beyond
- **Fax Machines**: While still in use in some industries, largely replaced by email and other digital communication methods.
- **Landline Phones**: Becoming increasingly rare as mobile phones dominate.
- **Traditional Alarm Clocks**: Many people now use their smartphones instead.

This list represents a snapshot of some notable inventions that became obsolete due to technological advancements and shifts in consumer behavior. The cycle of invention and obsolescence is ongoing, with new technologies continually emerging and replacing older ones.

I’m Next ..

Shiftless2 said:

### 1950s
- **Transistor Radios** (1954): Once revolutionary for their portability

Click to expand...

I thought the shirt-pocket transistor radio was years later.


Guess not.
Perhaps mass production hadn't lowered the price enough for them to proliferate right away.

Many Silicon computer chips have transistors. In '54 a transistor was a sub-circuit component, the pea sized cylindrical can on a tripod on the circuit board of a transistor radio.
Now the entire circuit is on the chip. It's been suggested there are more transistors on Earth than there are leaves on trees.

It's not merely that life for humans is changing. Change has been constant. What has changed is the rate of change, now increasing exponentially.

Shiftless2 said:

I’m Next ..

Click to expand...

There are more humans alive today, than have died ?

< < < > > >

PASSING THE BUCK / THE BUCK STOPS HERE

Most men in the early west carried a jack knife made by the Buck knife company.

When playing poker it as common to place one of these Buck knives in front of the dealer so that everyone knew who he was.

When it was time for a new dealer the deck of cards and the knife were given to the new dealer.

If this person didn't want to deal he would "pass the buck" to the next player.

If that player accepted then the buck stopped there".

Shiftless2 said:

I asked AI….

I’m Next ..

Click to expand...

Remember who is supposed to be answering the question ....

Shiftless2 said:

Remember who is supposed to be answering the question ....

Click to expand...

AU ?

Shiftless2 said:

So in my lifetime what was created and is/are now obsolete?

I asked AI….

Creating a comprehensive list of everything invented since 1951 that is now obsolete is a vast task, given the sheer number of inventions and the rapid pace of technological change. However, I can provide a list of some notable inventions that were once significant but are now largely obsolete:

### 1950s
- **Transistor Radios** (1954): Once revolutionary for their portability, replaced by more advanced portable music players and smartphones.
- **8-Track Tapes** (1960s): A popular music format in the 1960s and 1970s, replaced by cassette tapes and later CDs.
- **Mainframe Computers**: Early computing giants that have been replaced by personal computers and cloud computing.
- **Slide Rules**: Used for calculations before electronic calculators became widely available.

### 1960s
- **Betamax Tapes** (1975): A videotape format, eventually outdone by VHS and later DVDs.
- **Pagers (Beepers)**: Widely used for communication in the 1980s and 1990s, now replaced by mobile phones.
- **Punch Cards**: Used in early computers for programming and data storage, replaced by digital storage.
- **Vacuum Tubes**: Once essential in early electronics, largely replaced by transistors and semiconductors.

### 1970s
- **VHS Tapes** (1976): Videotape format that became the standard but was replaced by DVDs and digital streaming.
- **Rotary Dial Telephones**: Replaced by push-button phones and later, mobile phones.
- **Analog Televisions**: Replaced by digital TVs.
- **Cassette Tapes**: Popular for music, replaced by CDs, and later digital formats like MP3s.

### 1980s
- **Floppy Disks**: Used for data storage in early personal computers, replaced by CDs, USB drives, and cloud storage.
- **Walkman**: Portable cassette player that was replaced by portable CD players and then digital music players like the iPod.
- **Dot Matrix Printers**: Replaced by inkjet and laser printers.
- **Polaroid Cameras**: Instant photography lost popularity with the advent of digital cameras.

### 1990s
- **Dial-Up Internet**: Slow internet connection method replaced by broadband and fiber optics.
- **Palm Pilots**: Early personal digital assistants (PDAs), replaced by smartphones.
- **CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs**: Once a standard for software distribution and media, replaced by digital downloads and streaming.
- **CRT Monitors**: Bulky computer monitors replaced by flat-screen LCD and LED monitors.

### 2000s
- **BlackBerry Phones**: Once the standard for business communication, replaced by smartphones like the iPhone and Android devices.
- **HD-DVD**: Competed with Blu-ray but quickly became obsolete.
- **MySpace**: Early social media platform overtaken by Facebook and other social media sites.
- **Portable GPS Units**: Replaced by smartphone navigation apps like Google Maps.

### 2010s
- **MP3 Players**: Replaced by smartphones which can play music through streaming services.
- **Compact Digital Cameras**: Many replaced by smartphone cameras as phone photography has improved.
- **Optical Drives in Computers**: CD/DVD drives are now rarely included in laptops, replaced by USB storage and cloud services.
- **Flash Animation**: Once popular for websites and online games, replaced by more advanced technologies like HTML5.

### 2020s and Beyond
- **Fax Machines**: While still in use in some industries, largely replaced by email and other digital communication methods.
- **Landline Phones**: Becoming increasingly rare as mobile phones dominate.
- **Traditional Alarm Clocks**: Many people now use their smartphones instead.

This list represents a snapshot of some notable inventions that became obsolete due to technological advancements and shifts in consumer behavior. The cycle of invention and obsolescence is ongoing, with new technologies continually emerging and replacing older ones.

I’m Next ..

Click to expand...

Since the big bang, change has been ubiquitous.
What is unusual, exceptional, if not unique: the rate of change for humans living today is increasing exponentially, compared to most of the million years that preceded us.

### 1950s
- **Transistor Radios** (1954): Once revolutionary for their portability, replaced by more advanced portable music players and smartphones.

Click to expand...

One of my favorite examples.

Shiftless2 said:

"Remember who is supposed to be answering the question ...." S2 #14

Click to expand...

Some may consider it speculation. But there's already historic precedent. Dinosaur extinction is a common reference. Photosynthesis may be the more momentous.
It's photosynthesis that liberates Oxygen, thereby comprising about 20% of Earth's atmosphere. No Oxygen, no humans.

We have already entered the bionic age.
The onslaught of the artificial includes:
- dental fillings
- corrective lenses
- replacement limbs, now more advanced than the wooden post, and even
- vital organs, including kidney, and heart.

How long will it be before a presidential candidate uses brain / cognitive augmentation?
This offers potential for a candidate to demonstrate literally super-human, encyclopedic knowledge.
That could potentially provide insurmountable advantage in a presidential candidate's debate.

Reductio ad absurdum
We reach the 50% threshold, where either a human, or later, most humans include manufactured components.

Or perhaps we'll be eclipsed by robots more directly, gradually taking on progressively more of the entire labor force.
How long will it be before robot law experts can and do represent us at law court?
Or perform open heart surgery?

And what after that? What will human's place be, if robots deem us extraneous?

Might playing cards have been a teaching tool? To keep illiterate agricultural peasants in sync. w/ the growing seasons?
Numbered up to 10, an alternate to counting on fingers?
If so how did they contend with season creep? If orbital mechanics determines a year is 365.25 days, but their playing card calendar
is 7 x 52 = 364
In a few generations their date tracking method would be obviously out of sync. with the celestial season.

More celestial trivia? 12 months per year, and therefore 12 zodiacal signs. Right?

Nearly. It may be an also-ran in astrology. But in astronomy ...

Oph·i·u·chus
n.
A constellation in the equatorial region near Hercules and Scorpius.
[Latin Ophiūchus, from Greek ophioukhos : ophis, serpent + okhos, holder (from ekhein, to hold; see segh- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots).]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.

"Stressed" is "desserts" spelled backward. Coincidence ?!

Who / what is that classic rock [-n-roll] song about? One of many listed at: https://chillfactfun.com/song-story-is/39/

‘American Pie’ by Don McLean​

Don McLean’s 1971 anthem, ‘American Pie, ‘ honors Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper, who were lost in a 1959 crash. Coined “the day the music died,” it’s filled with cryptic cultural narratives, inviting endless analysis while McLean observes silently.
“American Pie” skyrocketed Don McLean from obscurity to stardom in the ’70s. This global hit not only became an era-defining track but also cemented McLean as one of the most influential voices of his time. https://chillfactfun.com/song-story-is/39/

A mathematical / geometric conundrum?
Why are out night skies not nearly as bright as day? If no matter which direction we point, there's likely to be a star in that direction (in our galaxy or someone else's)
why isn't our night sky flooded with the light of countless millions of stars? Rendering Earth's night sky nearly as bright as day?

Olbers's paradox​

Argument in astrophysics against the theory of an unchanging universe

Olbers's paradox, also known as the dark night paradox or Olbers and Cheseaux's paradox ... named after the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers (1758–1840). More from Wikipedia

Britannica
Not exactly. All of our evidence seems to indicate that space has no edge, but the universe itself does, not a spatial edge but a temporal one. As far as we know, the universe had a beginning, or at least a time about 13.7 billion years ago when the universe was so small and crumpled up with itself that our standard notion of space and time breaks down. And since only a finite amount of time has passed since this so-called beginning, that means that some of the stars necessary to fill up the brightness in every direction are so far away that light from them plain hasn't had time to reach us yet.

It's as if the universe were a big thunderstorm and we're still waiting to hear the thunder from the really distant stars. But wait, it's better than that. Since light takes time to travel across the universe, when we point our telescopes at something really far away, we're actually seeing that part of the universe as it was when the light was emitted.

So when we look at 13.5-billion-year-old light, it's not that we don't see stars just because the light from them hasn't gotten to us yet, we don't see any stars because we're getting a peek at the universe before any stars had formed, a starless universe. Now, that sounds to me like a pretty good reason why we look up and see a dark night sky, but it's not.

I mean, it is true that we can find points in the sky where there aren't any stars by looking past the earliest stars and, thus, farther back in time. But even when we point our telescopes past the earliest stars, we still see light, not star light but the light leftover from the Big Bang. We detect this cosmic background radiation coming more or less evenly from all directions, forming a background beyond the stars.

So I guess the night sky isn't actually dark to begin with. Right. So if our telescopes tell us that the night sky isn't dark, then why does it look dark? Here's a clue to the real answer. When the Hubble Telescope photographed the distant stars of the astoundingly beautiful Hubble extreme deep field, it took the picture using an infrared camera.

Why? Well, distant stars and galaxies are moving away from us because the universe is expanding. So the same way a record slowing down lowers the pitch of my voice, the Doppler effect causes stars moving away from us to become redder. And the farther away they are, the faster they move away from us and the redder they become until they become infrared.

And then we can't see them anymore, at least not with our human eyes. And that's why the night sky appears dark. In summary, if we lived in an infinite, unchanging universe, the entire sky would be as bright as the sun. But the sky is dark at night, both because the universe had a beginning so there aren't stars in every direction, and more importantly, because the light from super distant stars and the even more distant cosmic background radiation gets red shifted away from the visible spectrum by the expansion of the universe. So we just plain can't see it. ...

What causes space and the night sky to appear dark | Britannica

Learn how infrared energy from stars causes space and the night sky to appear dark.

www.britannica.com