Spotty's Little Known Facts

[Harry Genshaw]

I feel for you..

[Lost Leopard Spot]

It's a little known fact that Spotty, Il Pirate and I are the only three people on earth to have seen The Fall without having then being recruited to the band!

I was too busy. That's my excuse.

[Il Pirate]

It's a little known fact that Spotty, Il Pirate and I are the only three people on earth to have seen The Fall without having then been recruited to the band!

I was being 'all rock star' with another band Bruce. .........gen chit chat page 80: the good lookin' one on bass....................... .

[Montreal Wanderer]

It is a little known fact that Chaka Khan was NOT a King of the Zulus. Where I live it is, however, a well known fact that when this answer is accepted in pub quizzes it enrages me. Last night was but the latest example, with a pub quiz taking place which I had singularly failed to register for which found me dishing out information to the team next to me gratis (I’m kind like that).
Question 15 of 20 was: Which famous King of the Zulus features in Rider Haggard’s novel King Solomon’s Mines?
I cheerfully informed the neighbouring team that Zulus failed spectacularly to appear anywhere within the covers of that book and therefore I was stumped as to what the answer might be.
Four of the seven teams present however answered Chaka Khan, and the knobwelly that ran the quiz accepted that answer even though his ‘official answer’ was Shaka Khan!!!

I was outraged.
Four things, knobwelly.
First: (although I’ve had to look this up since to confirm my suspicions) Zulus did not appear in King Solomon’s Mines and no king of said tribe is mentioned. There is a native African tribe modelled on the Zulu in the book – the Kukuana (who speak the made up language isiZulu), who live in Kukuanaland (a completely made up location), and ruled over by a (purely fictional) King Twala.
Second: The actual kings of the Zulu in real life were Shaka, Dingane, Mpande, and Ceteswayo.
Third: Khan is a title for a ruler in Turkic and Mongolian languages and also used by Persians, Punjabis, and Pashtuns for chiefs and noblemen. It is also a surname used in various Asian nations, and through the diaspora of peoples has recently spread to most parts of the world. Khan is not a name or title used by Zulus.
Fourth: Chaka Khan is a feckin’ singer. Her only connection to royalty is that she is known as the Queen of Funk. She is an American. She has as much to do with Zulus as my back passage, i.e. zero.

(PS during the course of my research I discovered that Zulus had briefly, in the past, invaded Northampton )

Out of curiosity I looked Shaka Khan up in the Urban Dictionary to discover this useful definition.

Shaka Khan

A word/phrase that can used as an exclamation... perhaps instead of sayingyelling "dude!?", or "WTF!?" after someone steals your food (for example).
Shaka Khan?!

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Out of curiosity I looked Shaka Khan up in the Urban Dictionary to discover this useful definition.

Shaka Khan

A word/phrase that can used as an exclamation... perhaps instead of sayingyelling "dude!?", or "WTF!?" after someone steals your food (for example).
Shaka Khan?!

A truly little known factoid right there!
I don't believe I've ever said or yelled "dude!?" as an exclamation either.

[Montreal Wanderer]

Out of curiosity I looked Shaka Khan up in the Urban Dictionary to discover this useful definition.

Shaka Khan

A word/phrase that can used as an exclamation... perhaps instead of sayingyelling "dude!?", or "WTF!?" after someone steals your food (for example).
Shaka Khan?!

A truly little known factoid right there!
I don't believe I've ever said or yelled "dude!?" as an exclamation either.

The word factoid is interesting. Most people assume it is a small or trivial fact or piece of information, but actually it is a piece of information that is believed because it is often repeated, but may or may not be true. I have never yelled 'Dude!' either - it is a generational thing.

[PC1978]

It is a little known fact that throughout its entire recorded history (1831-2001) the Magnetic North Pole has lain in Canada. It is an even less well known fact that the Magnetic North Pole has recently (last year or this) sped up and asked for political asylum in Russia.

Not only that but no one actually knows which way the earth is oriented. We may be in the southern hemisphere and Australia and New Zealand are in the Northern Hemisphere. Someone just decided hundreds of years ago and we have no way of proving one way or the other.

I also have never seen The Soprano's.

I seem to recall from college that astronomically speaking, we are in the Southern Hemisphere. That is why when mapping other planets, South is at the top. Not sure how much truth there is in that though.

[Bruce Rioja]

It is a little known fact that Chaka Khan was NOT a King of the Zulus.

Didn't look like one either, to be honest. Why the blithering crin would the King of the Zulus want to go on TotP anyway?

Heft ahoy!

[bwfcdan94]

It's a little known fact that Spotty, Il Pirate and I are the only three people on earth to have seen The Fall without having then been recruited to the band!

My dad is obsessed with the fall in fact they are his favourite band so that makes 4

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I seem to recall from college that astronomically speaking, we are in the Southern Hemisphere. That is why when mapping other planets, South is at the top. Not sure how much truth there is in that though.

Now I might be wrong PC1978, but it was my understanding that astronomical maps show south at the top due to the fact that that is the way most astronomers observe the universe as the instruments they use through their optical properties show an upside down universe. It is too wasteful of light to compensate and reverse the images to show correct orientation, and therefore the maps show what you see...

[bobo the clown]

I seem to recall from college that astronomically speaking, we are in the Southern Hemisphere. That is why when mapping other planets, South is at the top. Not sure how much truth there is in that though.

Now I might be wrong PC1978, but it was my understanding that astronomical maps show south at the top due to the fact that that is the way most astronomers observe the universe as the instruments they use through their optical properties show an upside down universe. It is too wasteful of light to compensate and reverse the images to show correct orientation, and therefore the maps show what you see...

Once you get out into space there will be no North or South, Shirley ?

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I seem to recall from college that astronomically speaking, we are in the Southern Hemisphere. That is why when mapping other planets, South is at the top. Not sure how much truth there is in that though.

Now I might be wrong PC1978, but it was my understanding that astronomical maps show south at the top due to the fact that that is the way most astronomers observe the universe as the instruments they use through their optical properties show an upside down universe. It is too wasteful of light to compensate and reverse the images to show correct orientation, and therefore the maps show what you see...

Once you get out into space there will be no North or South, Shirley ?

Once you get out into the deep universe there may be no north or south, but we'll probably never be in that situation. Within the solar system itself, the plane of the ecliptic orientates you to a north-south axis. Beyond the solar system the ecliptic corresponds remarkably well to a galactic plane and therefore within the Milky Way north-south is still relevant. (EDIT: although east-west is redundant and spinward-antispinward is more meaningful)

[bobo the clown]

You looked that up !!!

[Lost Leopard Spot]

You looked that up !!!

Oh no I didn't.

PS. I've got a BIG telescope. Next time you manage to find yourself outside the borders and you're fed up with leek tossing, I might let you have a look through it.

[TANGODANCER]

So, does the sun rise in the east and set in the west or not?

[malcd1]

So, does the sun rise in the east and set in the west or not?

Depends if the north is the north and the south is the south.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

So, does the sun rise in the east and set in the west or not?

Yes. That is a well known fact, and has no business on this thread.

[thebish]

PS. I've got a BIG telescope. Next time you manage to find yourself outside the borders and you're fed up with leek tossing, I might let you have a look through it.

now that's a clumsy come-on!!

[Lost Leopard Spot]

PS. I've got a BIG telescope. Next time you manage to find yourself outside the borders and you're fed up with leek tossing, I might let you have a look through it.

now that's a clumsy come-on!!

If you are feeling left out, and if you make the trek north, I'll let you too furtle with my massive instrument. I'm not proud.

[thebish]

PS. I've got a BIG telescope. Next time you manage to find yourself outside the borders and you're fed up with leek tossing, I might let you have a look through it.

now that's a clumsy come-on!!

If you are feeling left out, and if you make the trek north, I'll let you too furtle with my massive instrument. I'm not proud.

can we look at uranus?