Posts tagged “trivia”

Inflation-adjusted, Cleopatra (1963) cost more than King Kong. And Kong isn't even the priciest recent film -- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire cost $308m, more than all three Lord of the Rings combined. None of which diminishes my desire to see the giant monkey movie.

Keira Knightley had an early role as Queen Amidala's decoy in Star Wars Episode One. The makeup was so convincing that nobody recognized her.

Quick trivia: the three original estates were clergy, nobility, and commoners. The press became the fourth estate in 1837. I'd never heard any of these terms before, and now I'm sharing them with you, ironically helping to kill journalism in the process.

London Underground's "Inspector Sands" announcement is a coded message to staff that a fire alarm has been triggered, designed to avoid panicking passengers. Large public venues use similar systems, though the exact meaning varies depending on your source.

The rule placing Election Day on "the first Tuesday after the first Monday" in November exists to avoid November 1st, which is both a Catholic holy day and the day merchants balanced their books. Big business and the religious right shaping US politics? Apparently a founding tradition.

The term "I18n" (internationalization) was coined by programmers who replaced the 18 middle letters with the number 18, inspired by a DEC employee whose long surname got abbreviated to "S12n" for his email account. This "numeronym" convention spread because, honestly, geeks find that sort of thing funny.

The "alarm" character in modern computing descends directly from a literal bell on old line printers. Today it still bypasses everything and makes your computer beep. Thirty years of technological evolution, ignored completely. I find that wonderful.