Cleaning Out The Trivial Stuff Files Again

Being too lazy to write anything of my own, it seemed the perfect time to clean out some more of the 'trivial junk files'. Have fun!!

~Born 4 January 1838, General Tom Thumb's growth slowed at the age of 6 months, at 5 years he was signed to the circus by P.T. Barnum, and at adulthood reached a height of only 1 meter.
~Because they had no proper rubbish disposal system, the streets of ancient Mesopotamia became literally knee-deep in rubbish.
~The Toltecs, Seventh-century native Mexicans, went into battle with wooden swords so as not to kill their enemies.
~China banned the pigtail in 1911 as it was seen as a symbol of feudalism.
~The Amayra guides of Bolivia are said to be able to keep pace with a trotting horse for a distance of 100 kilometres.
~Sliced bread was patented by a jeweller, Otto Rohwedder, in 1928. He had been working on it for 16 years, having started in 1912.
~Before it was stopped by the British, it was the not uncommon for women in some areas of India to choose to be burnt alive on their husband's funeral pyre.
~Ivan the terrible claimed to have 'deflowered thousands of virgins and butchered a similar number of resulting offspring'.
~Before the Second World War, it was considered a sacrilege to even touch an Emperor of Japan.
~An American aircraft in Vietnam shot itself down with one of its own missiles.
~The Anglo-Saxons believed Friday to be such an unlucky day that they ritually slaughtered any child unfortunate enough to be born on that day.
~During the eighteenth century, laws had to be brought in to curb the seemingly insatiable appetite for gin amongst the poor in England. Their annual intake was as much as five million gallons.
~Ancient drinkers warded off the devil by clinking their cups.
~The Nobel Prize resulted form a late change in the will of Alfred Nobel, who did not want to be remembered after his death as a propagator of violence - he invented dynamite.
~The cost of the first pay-toilets installed in England was tuppence.
~Pogonophobia is the fear of beards.
~In 1647 the English Parliament abolished Christmas.
~Mao Tse-Tung, the first chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, was born 26 December 1893. Before his rise to power, he occupied the humble position of Assistant Librarian at the University of Peking.
~Coffee is the second largest item of international commerce in the world. The largest is petroleum.
~King George III was declared violently insane in 1811, 9 years before he died.
~In Ancient Peru, when a woman found an 'ugly' potato, it was the custom for her to push it into the face of the nearest man.
~For Roman Catholics, 5 January is St Simeon Stylites' Day. He was a fifth-century hermit who showed his devotion to God by spending literally years sitting on top of a huge flagpole.
~When George I became King of England in 1714, his wife did not become Queen. He placed her under house arrest for 32 years.
~The richest 10 per cent of the French people are approximately fifty times better off than the poorest 10 per cent.
~Henry VII was the only British King to be crowned on the field of battle.
~During World War One, the future Pope John XXIII was a sergeant in the Italian Army.
~Richard II died aged 33 in 1400. A hole was left in the side of his tomb so people could touch his royal head, but 376 years later some took advantage of this and stole his jawbone.
~The magic word "Abracadabra" was originally intended for the specific purpose of curing hay fever.
~The Puritans forbade the singing of Christmas Carols, judging them to be out of keeping with the true spirit of Christmas.
~Albert Einstein was once offered the Presidency of Israel. He declined saying he had no head for problems.
~Uri Geller, the professional psychic was born on December 20 1946. As to the origin of his alleged powers, Mr Geller maintains that they come from the distant planet of Hoova.
~Ralph and Carolyn Cummins had 5 children between 1952 and 1966, all were born on the 20th of February.
~John D. Rockefeller gave away over US $500,000,000 during his lifetime.
~Only 1 child in 20 is born on the day predicted by the doctor.
~In the 1970's, the Rhode Island Legislature in the US entertained a proposal that there be a $2 tax on every act of sexual intercourse in the State.
~Widows in equatorial Africa actually wear sackcloth and ashes when attending a funeral.
~The 'Hundred Years War' lasted 116 years.
~The British did not release the body of Napoleon Bonaparte to the French until twenty days after his death.

Now you can impress your friends(or bore them to tears). Until the mood to write strikes again, take care.

Getting Around

Having spent considerable time traveling and living around the globe, I've had a chance to experience many types of public and private modes of transportation. These are only a small part of the total transportation picture as I've seen it. I'll likely post more at a later date. So, here goes......


...a "tuk-tuk" in Thailand, named for the sound of the 2-cycle engine at idle.....


....a similar method in the Philippines made by hooking a sidecar to a small motorcycle, usually 225cc or less.....


.....the same style in the Philippine countryside, probably a family outing.....


....infamous 'Rabbit Bus' used around Manila, stops for very few things and is a genuine 'white knuckle' riding experience......


....a 'Rabbit' in a more rural setting, much faster and less stopping.....


.....one of the famous Philippine 'Victory Liner' buses in a city environment....


.....one in a more rural setting, where the approach is 1st noticed by the loud exhaust, which is often barely muffled......


......and one in a very rural setting. These are the backbone of the Phillipine inter-city transit system, and they might........


.......slow and possibly swerve for a farm cart, and might even stop.....


........for a kid on a 'carabao' who wanders onto the roadway.

And then there's a whole world of adventure awaiting travelers in Japan who use buses, taxis, or private vehicles to navigate streets......


....such as this (note the little 'covers' on the sides of the road, these are usually just laying there and cover drainage ditches. They often come loose and unwary drivers can end up with 'square wheels' if they go in a ditch at night)......


.......or this........


.......or this.....


....or even an alley-like lane such as this. The simple rule seems to be that if you can get down it and it's not marked 'do not enter', it's a road. If you can drive down it and it's not marked 'one way', you can drive either way, no matter how narrow. This causes many problems, such as blind corners. These are overcome by using these devices.......


.....'intersection mirrors' placed at......


....almost every blind intersection. A major rule driving in Japan is "if the car ahead of you pulls to the right, do not pass on the left as it may be swinging wider to turn down the tiny street ahead on the left." There are only a few dangerous maneuvers the drivers there make and, since they all get trained exactly the same, they generally all do the same few dangerous things. If you learn these few oddities of driving there it's really safe and easy. There is one area I always had trouble with though. My employers invariably gave me a small van to use and ......



....always had mirrors such as this.....




......or these installed as the transportation folks in the USA deemed them necessary for 'safety' on the Japanese streets. I don't think any of them really had experienced driving in Japan first-hand. I first learned of the hazards during my 'orientation' trip as a VERY young man. Anxious to try my newly learned language I attempted to give a Taxi driver on Okinawa the destination we sought. Not knowing the local dialect, this was proven to be unsuccessful when the driver turned to me and in a NYC/Japanese accent asked, "Where you wanna go, Mac?". After I told him and mentioned to that we were in a bit of a rush (big mistake!!!) the former NYC cabbie commenced to show us how to make time down the back streets of the city. This resulted in us reaching our destination with time to spare, along with the loss of the mirrors on both sides of the taxi on the narrow streets. That this was common was confirmed by the driver laughing and saying he had plenty of spares.
After taking up residence there I learned, thanks to the van mirrors, just how common it was. Concrete poles inching into the narrow streets take a toll when there's approaching traffic to deal with. The transportation guys, who were Japanese, finally convinced my employers to make an exception for me after many, many, many mirror 'removals' by yours truly. At first they got to......


....try this style, which merely reduced the losses until, finally, they....


....convinced them that this would be better. They told me later that they convinced the 'stateside' safety guys that it'd be just as safe to use them on my van and far cheaper to repair occasional body damage than to replace the mirrors constantly. They were correct. Not once did I ever hit another pole, wall, tree, bus, or did I ever have an accident there. Until next time, take care and drive safely.