There is no country called France ... and other things

[tim2]

13 hours ago, marklaspalmas said:

Not true.

Yama is mountain, as in many Japanese names.

Many Japanese called Mt. Fuji "Fiji-Sama", sama being an honorific suffix greater than the normal 'san'

Curse you, QI, with your quite regular incorrect facts !!!!!

[Padge]

45 minutes ago, Copa said:

Australia has 3 internal territories; the Northern Territory (Darwin etc), Australian Capital Territory (Canberra)  and Jervis Bay Territory.

The vast majority of Australians have no idea about the existence of Jervis Bay Territory even though it’s less than 3 hours south of Sydney and there are large signs saying “you are now leaving NSW”. Around 300 to 400 people live there.

It’s not on maps used in schools, it’s not mentioned in school classes, it’s not a drop down option for deliveries  when online shopping.  It’s the persona non grata of the Territories.

It has great camping facilities and beautiful beaches.

 

So you're told, nobody can find them, can't put it in a satnav can yer.

[Futtocks]

50 minutes ago, JohnM said:

At which point, I was led to this bizarre publication.

https://www.amazon.com/Philosophical-Rejection-Big-Bang-Theory/dp/1986907376

He doesn't like paragraph breaks, does he?

[Clogiron]

13 hours ago, JohnM said:

Then why did John Belushi in the Blues Brothers church scene shout "I have seen the light"

Because There's a Darkness on the edge of town.

[Mumby Magic]

Pronunciation of Shrewsbury and Sowerby Bridge still need to be confirmed.

[Bleep1673]

On 07/03/2021 at 15:25, Graham said:

... then there’s the lakes in the Lake District... there’s sixteen of them...

Only Bassenthwaite Lake is officially a lake by name the others are meres or waters.

eg Windermere rather than Lake Windermere. To be fair to common sense though saying that does distinguish it from the town of Windermere which is not a lake!

Mere means lake, so Lake Windermere should be only be called Windermere, same as Grasmere.

[Bleep1673]

2 hours ago, Copa said:

Australia has 3 internal territories; the Northern Territory (Darwin etc), Australian Capital Territory (Canberra)  and Jervis Bay Territory.

The vast majority of Australians have no idea about the existence of Jervis Bay Territory even though it’s less than 3 hours south of Sydney and there are large signs saying “you are now leaving NSW”. Around 300 to 400 people live there.

It’s not on maps used in schools, it’s not mentioned in school classes, it’s not a drop down option for deliveries  when online shopping.  It’s the persona non grata of the Territories.

It has great camping facilities and beautiful beaches.

 

Is the reason behind this could be because it's an Australian Naval protection, used for fire practise? It does have it's own airport though. (JBT)

[JohnM]

Sounds like the ideal spot for  a nuclear power station.

[JonM]

2 hours ago, JohnM said:

Sounds like the ideal spot for  a nuclear power station.

I like the fact that the two spots proposed by the NSW government for a nuclear power station to supply electricity to the NSW grid were both outside of NSW territory - Jervis Bay and a site in the ACT.

[JonM]

5 hours ago, tim2 said:

Curse you, QI, with your quite regular incorrect facts !!!!!

FWIW, I was told that Japanese people never call it Fuji-sama, and that in the name Fuji san, the san does not have its normal meaning of an honorific title. The kanji character to represent yama/mountain is used in writing, but pronounced as san. Or something like that. 

[gingerjon]

1 hour ago, JonM said:

I like the fact that the two spots proposed by the NSW government for a nuclear power station to supply electricity to the NSW grid were both outside of NSW territory - Jervis Bay and a site in the ACT.

Presumably, there was another proposal where they just drew a mushroom cloud on Melbourne.

[Copa]

7 hours ago, Bleep1673 said:

Is the reason behind this could be because it's an Australian Naval protection, used for fire practise? It does have it's own airport though. (JBT)

There are two small villages populated by indigenous Australians. I’ve been for a jog down a road to one of the villages and there’s a large sign saying visitors are not permitted. It’s a village on private property.

Much of Jervis Bay Territory is national park and as you enter the territory you are stopped at a booth generally manned by local indigenous people who charge the national parks visitors’ fee to enter.

The last time I was at a beach there a submarine cruised up and stopped just off the beach.

[gingerjon]

Pitcairn - and let's not dig too deeply into that territory's recent past too much - has a population of 43.

It counts as a proper legislature and so elects an Island Council to be its Parliament.

The Island Council has 10 members.

Which is equivalent to the House of Commons having 16,275,000 MPs.

[Mumby Magic]

1 hour ago, Johnoco said:

I used to work there and I was reliably informed by locals that it is Saw-be Bridge. 

Yeah that's what I got corrected to say.

[Padge]

Ye Olde Tea Shoppe is pronounced The Old Tea Shop.

It's just an old English spelling of the exact same words.

[gingerjon]

5 hours ago, Padge said:

Ye Olde Tea Shoppe is pronounced The Old Tea Shop.

It's just an old English spelling of the exact same words.

I had an English teacher who was so pleased the day he stopped the lesson to explain the existence of THORN.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_(letter)

[marklaspalmas]

16 hours ago, JonM said:

FWIW, I was told that Japanese people never call it Fuji-sama, and that in the name Fuji san, the san does not have its normal meaning of an honorific title. The kanji character to represent yama/mountain is used in writing, but pronounced as san. Or something like that. 

Yeah, also not true.

[hindle xiii]

This thread seems to be Uninteresting Trivial Facts in another guise, but that oldie withered a while ago.

When you hold your breath and it starts to hurt, that is your body telling you to get rid of the carbon dioxide, not a sign you need oxygen.

[Shadow]

The facts on here are far too interesting to go in the Uninteresting Trivial Facts Thread

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, Shadow said:

The facts on here are far too interesting to go in the Uninteresting Trivial Facts Thread

I'm going to take that as a challenge

[JohnM]

32 Things You Always Believed That Simply Aren't True (buzzfeed.com)

 

[Dr Tim Whatley]

Some great stuff on here - every day's a school day and all that.

Gobi means desert, so Gobi Desert is 'Desert Desert'

[Derwent]

Windermere is technically not a mere. The definition of a mere relates to a body of water's depth in relation to its breadth i.e. meres tend to be broad and shallow, under which Windermere is not classed as a mere.

It is in fact a Ribbon Lake.

[Tommygilf]

42 minutes ago, Dr Tim Whatley said:

Some great stuff on here - every day's a school day and all that.

Gobi means desert, so Gobi Desert is 'Desert Desert'

Naan Bread

[gingerjon]

3 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Naan Bread

Chai Tea, as well, I believe?

(I actually don't have an issue - though some do - with this. As it's how loan words are adopted into plenty of languages. Thus panini is actually an English singular and paninis perfectly fine as a plural.)