The Book Of General Ignorance Part 14

The full official name of Krung Thep is Krungthep Mahanakhon Amorn Rattanakosin Mahintara Yudthaya Mahadilok Pohp Noparat Rajathanee Bureerom Udomrajniwes Mahasatarn Amorn Pimarn Avaltarnsat.i.t Sakatattiya Visanukram Prasit.

In Thai, this is written as a single word of 152 letters or 64 syllables.

It translates roughly as 'Great City of Angels, the supreme repository of divine jewels, the great land unconquerable, the grand and prominent realm, the royal and delightful capital city full of nine n.o.ble gems, the highest royal dwelling and grand palace, the divine shelter and living place of the reincarnated spirits.'

The front part of the name Bangkok is the common Thai word bang bang meaning village. The second part is supposed to have come from an old Thai word meaning village. The second part is supposed to have come from an old Thai word makok makok which means some kind of fruit (either olives or plums or some sort of mixture of the two). So it could be 'Village of Olives' or 'Village of Plums'. n.o.body seems to be quite sure which or to care. which means some kind of fruit (either olives or plums or some sort of mixture of the two). So it could be 'Village of Olives' or 'Village of Plums'. n.o.body seems to be quite sure which or to care.

Krung Thep (or Bangkok if you insist) is the only city in Thailand. It is almost forty times bigger than the next largest town.

ALAN Pluto and Bangkok don't exist. I'm scared to go out. Pluto and Bangkok don't exist. I'm scared to go out.

What's the world's largest city?

a) Mexico City b) So Paolo c) Mumbai d) Honolulu e) Tokyo Honolulu, although it's a bit of a trick question.

Under a Hawaiian state law established in 1907, the City and County of Honolulu are one and the same. The county not only includes the rest of the main island of Oahu but also the rest of the north-western Hawaiian islands which stretch 2,400 km (1,500 miles) into the Pacific.

This means that Honolulu covers the largest area of any city 5,509 square km (2,127 square miles) despite only having a population of 876, 156. Seventy-two per cent of the city is covered in seawater.

The world's most populous city is Mumbai (formerly Bombay) with 12.8 million people living in 440 square km (170 square miles): an astonishing 29,042 people per square kilometre. If the whole metropolitan area is included, the most populous city is Tokyo with 35.2 million living in 13,500 square km (5,200 square miles).

Honolulu is the state capital of Hawaii, but it is not on the island of Hawaii. It is on Oahu, which is much smaller but much more densely populated. Hawaii is the most isolated major population centre on earth.

The islands of the Hawaiian Archipelago are the projecting tips of the world's biggest mountain range. Hawaii is the only US state that grows coffee. More than a third of the world's pineapples come from Hawaii and Hawaiians are the world's largest per capita consumers of Spam, getting through seven million cans a year.

Spam's popularity is mysterious but is probably due to the heavy US military presence during the war and the fact that tinned meat is handy during a hurricane. Spam fried rice is a Hawaiian cla.s.sic.

Captain Cook discovered the Hawaiian islands in 1778 and renamed them the Sandwich Islands in memory of his patron, the Earl of Sandwich. Cook was murdered on Hawaii in 1779.

By the early nineteenth century the islands were known as the Kingdom of Hawaii. Although it became an American territory in 1900, and the 50th state in 1959, Hawaii is the only US state that still uses the Union Jack on their flag.

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What's the largest lake in Canada?

Great Bear Lake. None of the five 'Great Lakes' are entirely 'in' Canada.

Huron and Superior are larger than Great Bear Lake, neither are wholly inside Canada; Erie and Ontario are neither wholly inside Canada nor bigger than Great Bear Lake; and Lake Michigan, though larger than Great Bear Lake, isn't in Canada at all.

Great Bear Lake up in the North West Territories on the same parallel as the Bering Strait and lying partly inside the Arctic Circle. It has a total area of 19,166 square miles, larger than the Canadian portions of Lake Superior, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Despite its relatively low profile it is the fourth largest lake in the Americas.

It is also larger than more than seventy of the world's countries, including Albania, Belgium, Israel, Lesotho and Haiti.

There are somewhere in the region of two million lakes in Canada no one knows exactly how many covering about 7.6 per cent of the Canadian landma.s.s.

The second-largest lake wholly inside Canada is Great Slave Lake (17,751 square miles) which is also the deepest lake in Canada (2,014 feet).

There are 31,752 lakes with an area of at least one square mile and an uncounted number of smaller ones. One square mile is about 640 acres, which is a pretty big lake: almost seven times the area of Vatican City.

There are so many lakes in the country that naming them seems to have a been a bit of a problem. There are 204 Long Lakes and 182 Mud Lakes. Other popular choices are: Lac Long (152), Long Pond (144), Lac Rond (132), Lac a la Truite (109), Round Lake (107), Otter Lake (103), Little Lake (101), Lac Perdu (101) and Moose Lake (100).

What's the single largest man-made structure on Earth?

Wrong answers include the Great Pyramid, the Great Wall of China and (for clever-d.i.c.ks) Mubarak al-Kabir Tower, Kuwait.

Our answer is Fresh Kills, the rubbish dump on Staten Island, New York, though we quite like Jimmy Carr's alternative suggestion Holland.

Opened in 1948, the Fresh Kills landfill site (named after the Dutch word kil kil meaning 'small river') soon became one of the largest projects in human history, eventually trumping (by volume) the Great Wall of China as the world's largest man-made structure. meaning 'small river') soon became one of the largest projects in human history, eventually trumping (by volume) the Great Wall of China as the world's largest man-made structure.

The site is 12 square km (4.6 square miles) in area and, when operational, twenty barges, each carrying 650 tons of rubbish, were shipped in every day. Had Fresh Kills continued to stay open as planned, it would have grown to be the highest point on the Eastern Seaboard. At its peak the dump was already 25 m (over 80 feet) higher than the Statue of Liberty.

Under local pressure, the landfill closed in March 2001, only to be opened again to cope with the enormous amount of debris created by the destruction of the World Trade Center.

It is now completely shut down, and new restrictions mean it can't reopen (no landfill is allowed within NYC limits). The site is currently being flattened and landscaped into parkland and a wildlife facility. Nice.

Arguably, there are structures which are spread across more s.p.a.ce the US road network, perhaps? The internet? The GPS satellite network? but the Fresh Kills landfill is the largest single cohesive structure.

PHILL They sometimes have landfill explosions, don't they? They sometimes have landfill explosions, don't they?

JIMMY Which I think they should keep. They should turn it into land for ramblers ... and then let them take their chances. It's sort of natural selection. Which I think they should keep. They should turn it into land for ramblers ... and then let them take their chances. It's sort of natural selection.

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How many times can you fold a piece of paper in half?

Everybody knows its only seven times, because most of us have tried it. But, in December 2001, a fifteen-year-old American schoolgirl called Britney Gallivan proved everybody wrong. And here's her proof: [image]

W is the width of the paper, L is the length, t t is the thickness, and n is the number of folds. The first equation describes folding a piece of paper in half in one direction and then the other, alternately; the second one describes folding it in one direction only. is the thickness, and n is the number of folds. The first equation describes folding a piece of paper in half in one direction and then the other, alternately; the second one describes folding it in one direction only.

The number of possible folds depends on both the length and the thickness of the paper, so you need either a very, very long or a very, very thin piece of it.

Britney tested her first equation by folding an extremely thin, square sheet of gold foil in half (in alternate directions) twelve times. She then took a single piece of toilet paper 1,200 metres (4,000 feet) long and folded it lengthways, breaking the world records for nine, ten, eleven and twelve folds one after another.

This doesn't work for an ordinary A4 sheet of paper. You won't be able to fold it more than five times, after which it becomes thicker than it is long. With, say, a 3-metre (10-foot) length of loo paper, though, seven folds is easy and eight just about possible, but you won't be able to do it with your bare hands. Using the alternate folding method, the American TV show Mythbusters Mythbusters managed to fold a piece of paper eleven times, but after eight folds they needed the help of an industrial tarmac roller and a fork lift truck. managed to fold a piece of paper eleven times, but after eight folds they needed the help of an industrial tarmac roller and a fork lift truck.

If it were possible to fold a very large piece of paper of standard thickness without restriction, because the thickness of the paper would double each time it was folded, after just fifty-one folds you would have a tower of paper more than 100 million miles high tall enough to reach from here to the sun.

Where's the coolest place in the universe?

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It's in Finland.

In 2000, a team from Helsinki University of Technology cooled a piece of rhodium to a tenth of a billionth of a degree above absolute zero (273C).

Rhodium is a rare metal, whose main use is in catalytic converters for cars.

The next coldest spot is in the Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology. In 2003, a team led by Wolfgang Ketterle produced extremely cool sodium gas.

Ketterle won the n.o.bel Physics Prize in 2001 for his work on Bose-Einstein condensate, a new state of matter that only exists close to absolute zero. As a child, his interest in science was sparked by playing with Lego.

These extremely cold temperatures produced in laboratories are remarkable. Even in deep s.p.a.ce, the temperature rarely falls below 245 C.

The only known exception to this is the Boomerang Nebula, identified by Australian astronomers in 1979. It looks like a boomerang (or possibly a bow tie). At its core is a dying star, three times heavier than our own sun.

The Boomerang Nebula has been spraying out gas at a speed of 500,000 kph (over 300,000 mph) for the last 1,500 years. Just as our breath cools when we force it through the narrow hole of our mouths, the gas squeezed out of the nebula is two degrees lower than the s.p.a.ce it is expanding into. It reaches 271 C, the lowest natural temperature so far recorded.

The coldest temperature in the solar system, 235 C, measured in 1989 by Voyager II on the surface of Triton, one of Neptune's moons is barely chilly by comparison; and the coldest temperature ever recorded on earth, 89.2 C in Antarctica in 1983, is positively tropical.

Low temperature research is important in the study of superconductors, materials which have zero electrical resistance but which so far have only been found to work at very low temperatures.

If superconductors can be harnessed they will totally transform the world.

They will ma.s.sively increase the power of computers, while hugely reducing the cost of electricity and the emission of greenhouse gases. They will provide fuel-free transport, an alternative way of seeing inside the human body without the use of dangerous X-rays, and the E-bomb a weapon which destroys the enemy's electronics without the need to kill anyone.

PHILL There's bound to be one scientist ... Goes in with the big iron bar one day ... [looks around furtively and sticks his tongue to the desk]. There's bound to be one scientist ... Goes in with the big iron bar one day ... [looks around furtively and sticks his tongue to the desk].

When did the most recent Ice Age end?

We're still in it.

Geographers define an ice age as a period in the Earth's history when there are polar ice caps. Our current climate is an 'interglacial' period. This doesn't mean 'between ice ages'. It is used to describe the period within an ice age when the ice retreats because of warmer temperatures.

'Our' interglacial started 10,000 years ago, in what we think is the Fourth Ice Age.

When it will end is anyone's guess; ideas about the duration of the interglacial period range from 12,000 to 50,000 years (without allowing for man-made influences).

The causes of the fluctuations are not well understood. Possible factors include the position that the land ma.s.ses happen to be in, the composition of the atmosphere, changes in the Earth's...o...b..t around the Sun and possibly even the Sun's own orbit around the galaxy.

The 'Little Ice Age', which began in 1500 and lasted for 300 years, saw the average temperature in northern Europe drop by 1 C. It also coincided with a period of extremely low sunspot activity, though whether the two were linked is still being argued over.

During this period, the Arctic ice sheet extended so far south that Eskimos are recorded as reaching Scotland in kayaks on six different occasions and the inhabitants of Orkney had to fight off a disorientated polar bear.

Recent research at Utrecht University has linked the Little Ice Age with the Black Death.

The catastrophic decline in population across Europe meant that abandoned farmland was gradually covered by millions of trees. This would have led to a significant absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, forcing the average temperature down in an 'anti-greenhouse effect'.

Who lives in igloos?

Probably no one any more.

The word 'igloo' (or iglu iglu) means 'house' in Inuit. Most igloos are made of stone or hide.

Snow-block igloos were part of the lifestyle of the Thule, the precursors of the Inuit, and were used until fairly recent history in central and eastern Canada.

But only Canadian Eskimos build igloos from snow. They are completely unknown in Alaska and, according to a 1920s census of 14,000 Eskimos living in Greenland, only 300 had ever seen one. Few remain anywhere today.

The first igloos seen by Europeans were encountered by Martin Frobisher on Baffin Island in 1576 during his search for the North-West Pa.s.sage. He was shot in the bottom by an Eskimo. In return, Frobisher's men killed a few Inuit, captured one of them and took him to London where he was exhibited like an animal.

In the 1920s, a newspaper in Denver, Colorado erected a snow igloo at the munic.i.p.al buildings near where some reindeer were kept, and hired an Alaskan Eskimo to explain to visitors that he and the other reindeer herders of Alaska lived in that type of house when they were at home. In fact, he had never seen one before except in the movies.

In Thule, in north-eastern Greenland, by contrast, the locals were such expert igloo-builders that they built vast halls of ice for dancing, singing and wrestling compet.i.tions during the long dark winters.

The community was so remote that, until the start of the nineteenth century, they believed themselves to be the only people in the world...

Would you call someone an Eskimo?

The term 'Eskimo' covers a range of distinct groups and is not necessarily (as is sometimes a.s.serted) insulting.

Eskimo describes those who live in the high Arctic regions of Canada, Alaska and Greenland. Bestowed by Cree and Algonquin Indians, the name has several possible meanings, including 'one who speaks another language', 'one who is from another country' or 'one who eats raw meat'. describes those who live in the high Arctic regions of Canada, Alaska and Greenland. Bestowed by Cree and Algonquin Indians, the name has several possible meanings, including 'one who speaks another language', 'one who is from another country' or 'one who eats raw meat'.

In Canada (where the politically correct term is 'Inuit'), it is regarded as rude to describe someone as an 'Eskimo' but Alaskan Eskimos are perfectly happy about it. In fact, many prefer 'Eskimo' because they are emphatically not not Inuit, a people who live mainly in northern Canada and parts of Greenland. Inuit, a people who live mainly in northern Canada and parts of Greenland.

To call the Kalaallit in Greenland, the Inuvialuit in Canada and the Inupiat, Yupiget, Yuplit and Alutiit in Alaska 'Inuit' is like calling all black people 'Nigerians', or all white people 'German'. The Yupik of south-western Alaska and Siberia don't even know what the word Inuit means. As it happens, Inuit Inuit means 'the people'; means 'the people'; Yupik Yupik goes one better: it means 'real person'. goes one better: it means 'real person'.

The languages of the Eskimo-Aleut family are related to each other but to no other languages on earth.

Inuit, which is thriving, is spoken in northern Alaska and Canada as well as in Greenland, where it is now the official language and the one used in schools. Also known as Inupiaq or Inukt.i.tut, it has only three vowels and no adjectives. The Inuit language was banned in the USA for seventy years.

Eskimos buy refrigerators to stop their food from getting too cold and if they need to count to more than twelve, they have to do it in Danish.

They do not 'rub noses' when greeting each other. Most get annoyed at this suggestion. The kunik kunik is a sort of affectionate (rather than s.e.xual) snuffling, mostly practised between mothers and infants but also between spouses. is a sort of affectionate (rather than s.e.xual) snuffling, mostly practised between mothers and infants but also between spouses.

In some Eskimo languages the words for 'kiss' and 'smell' are the same.

In 1999, Canadian Eskimos were given one-fifth of the land of Canada (the second largest country in the world) as their own territory. Nunavut is one of the world's newest nation states: it means 'our land' in Inuit.

At five to a car, all the Eskimos in the world could park at Los Angeles International Airport. More people use computers in Iqualuit, capital of Nunavut, than in any other town in Canada. It also has the highest suicide rate of any town in North America.

The average Eskimo is 1.62 m (5 feet 4 inches) tall with a life expectancy of thirty-nine.