Technicality: How to Lose USD 800,000

If you had USD 880,000 to place on the following question:

"Which popular product was first to go on sale in the US: Post-It Notes, the Sony Walkman, or Macintosh Computers?"

The big question is, would you put 800K of that on Post-It Notes? Even more importantly, how would you feel when you found out that the "correct" answer according to producers of the show, Million Dollar Money Drop, was the Sony Walkman?

This is something that Gabe Okoye and Brittany Mayi experienced recently. Gabe was so confident that the Post-It Notes went on sale first that he risked 800K of their 800K pot. But, Gawker, one of my favourite sites of late, is reporting that the answer, Post-It Notes is in fact correct, particularly when one considers that the question did not stipulate whether "sale" had to be nationally. The YouTube video clearly shows how the question was constructed and what was required.

The truth of the matter is that Post-It Notes went on sale in a number of US states for a series of market trials in 1977. The Post-It Notes then went on sale nationally in 1980. The Sony Walkman went on sale in the US in 1979



The Facebook page of Post-It Notes seems to support arguments for Gabe and Brittany getting "their" money back. Nevertheless, Fox is standing firm behind the producers of their game show and arguing that Post-It Note agrees with them that they did not actually start selling Post-It Notes until 1980. Yet, despite these protestations, it would seem that it is a fairly well-established fact that Post-It Notes have been around for sale since 1977. So well-established that the New York Times even wrote a story quoting the first forays into Post-It Note sales occurred in 1977.

If Rupert Murdoch was a man of principle then he would be ordering the Million Dollar Money Drop game show and its producers to rectify their mistake and return the money to the contestants.

Odd Spots...

Friday and Saturday have been pretty dull days for me blog statistics wise. I guess the visits are inversely proportional (is that the right term / concept?) to the amount of smut or potentially smut-related posts that I do. I noticed my pot on Montana Fishburne trended pretty well there for a while.

Nope, this does not mean that more smut is on the way. Although, a disproportionate number of visitors are arriving here searching for a naked Luna Maya or Cut Tari, and hoping to find a full-frontal nude shot of BCL.

This post is just a random collection of factoids, trivia, and odd spots. David if you're out there and reading this, do your thing and shoot these things down in flames as impossibilities...I know you want to, and I know that you know that I want you to try!

So, here we go:

1. The average speed of an avalanche is 35km an hour;

2. One brow wrinkle is the result of 200,000 frowns (so, if you are like me, then you went something like "bugger me, I must have frowned a whole frackin' lot during my short years on this earth");

3. Chocolate contains the same chemical that your brain produces when you fall in love - phenylethylamine;

4. A blue whale's heart beats at nine beats a minute;

5. Pandas spend about 12 hours of each day eating bamboo;

6. Someone who has an irrational fear of meat is carnophobic;

7. A snail can sleep for three years;

8. The valves of a human heart are as thick as a single piece of tissue paper; and

9. A claque is a group of people who are hired to applaud an act or a performer.

Enjoy!

Did You Know...Revisited

And, now for something a little lighter than the fare of the past...

Did you know that

1. the poisonous copperhead snake smells like fresh cut cucumbers;

2. the poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people;

3. more than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a phone call;

4. an iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes;

5. Some lions mate over 50 times a day; and

6. the youngest pope was eleven years old.

Have a nice day!

Even More Trivia -- Fun Only (Still)...

Did you know any of the following:

1. An average four-year-old child asks 437 questions every day;

2. Every year, the Moon moves away from the earth a distance of 3.82cm;

3. That the Guinness Book of Records holds the record for the book most often stolen from public libraries;

4. Mageiricophobia is the fear of cooking;

5. The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows;

6. Tuna suffocate if they stop swimming;

7. Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 bones;

8. The modern flushing toilet was invented by Thomas Crapper; and

9. The King of Hearts is the only king without a moustache.

Enjoy!

Interesting Factoid

Did you know that the average person spends almost 2 years on the phone in a lifetime!

So, the next time you're on the phone remember that by the end of your life this will be but one call in a constant stream of calls that has eaten up a full two years of your life...Happy Telephoning!

Did You Know...

1. Broccoli is the only vegetable that is a flower...

2. A sneeze travels out of your mouth at over 100 miles an hour...