trivia

A baby blue whale gains in excess of 200 pounds a day.

List of Fun Words:

Antediluvian- (adj) Etymology: ante- + Latin diluvium flood
1 : of or relating to the period before the flood described in the Bible
2 : made, evolved, or developed a long time ago <an antediluvian automobile>

Callipygian- (adj) Etymology: Greek kallipygos, from kalli- + pygE buttocks
having shapely buttocks

Chimerical- (adj) Etymology: chimera
1 : existing only as the product of unchecked imagination : fantastically visionary or improbable
2 : given to fantastic schemes

Debauchery- (n) 1. extreme indulgence in sensuality
2. archaic: seduction from virtue or duty

Juxtaposition- (n) Etymology: Latin juxta near + English position
the act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side; also: the state of being so placed

Obfuscate- (v) Etymology: Late Latin obfuscatus, past participle of obfuscare, from Latin ob- in the way + fuscus dark brown 1 a : DARKEN b : to make obscure
2 : CONFUSE

Parthenogenesis- (n) Etymology: New Latin, from Greek parthenos + Latin genesis genesis
: reproduction by development of an unfertilized usually female gamete that occurs especially among lower plants and invertebrate animals; "virgin birth"

Phylactery- (n) Etymology: Middle English philaterie, from Medieval Latin philaterium, alteration of Late Latin phylacterium, from Greek phylaktErion amulet, phylactery, from phylassein to guard, from phylak-, phylax guard
1 : either of two small square leather boxes containing slips inscribed with scriptural passages and traditionally worn on the left arm and on the head by Jewish men during morning weekday prayers
2 : AMULET

Sesquipedalian- (adj) Etymology: Latin sesquipedalis, literally, a foot and a half long, from sesqui- + ped-, pes foot
1 : having many syllables : LONG <sesquipedalian terms>
2 : given to or characterized by the use of long words <a sesquipedalian television commentator>

Solipsism- (n) Etymology: Latin solus alone + ipse self
: a theory holding that the self can know nothing but its own modifications and that the self is the only existent thing

Soliloquy- (n) Etymology: Late Latin soliloquium, from Latin solus alone + loqui to speak
1 : the act of talking to oneself
2 : a dramatic monologue that gives the illusion of being a series of unspoken reflections

Synchronicity- (n) 1 : the quality or fact of being synchronous
2 : the coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events (as similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens) that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality -- used especially in the psychology of C. G. Jung

Names for blood or vitality drinking undead in various cultures: Vampire, Nosferatu, Vampyr, Lamia, Lillitu, Mul�, more as discovered.

The Myth of the Fisher King:
Balin was on a quest to avenge a fellow knight. He was dining at the killer's brother's castle and killed the murderous bastard. This caused the king, one King Pellam, to attempt to kill Balin. Balin was rushing through the castle and found a room that a voice urged him not to enter. He ignored it, because an enraged king was chasing him. He entered an saw the Holy Grail and the Lance of Longinus. He picked up the lance and drove it through both of Pellam's thighs in what is known as the Dolorous Stroke. Since the king is married to the land, this caused untold suffering throughout Logres. Pellam took up fishing and became known as the Fisher King or the Maimed King. The culmination of the quest for the Holy Grail was when Galahad used the Grail to heal the Fisher King, thus restoring the land of Logres. The Fisher King supposedly supplied fish to Joseph of Aramathea, who brought the Grail to Britain, and in return was given the Grail for safekeeping. In some myths he is Joseph of Aramathea. The integral part of the myth, though, is that the king is wed to the land and that, through healing a maimed king, the land could be restored. Strength in a monarch is an important quality in many old legends.

The Hand of Glory:
The Hand of Glory is an ancient and grisly occult secret. The Hand cast an enchantment over the people living in a home, causing them to sleep. The house could then be burglarized with no repercussions. The Hand was made from the right hand of a thief hanged at a crossroads. Remove the blood, and place it in a pot containing a mixture of herbs for two weeks. Remove it from the pot and allow it to sun-dry. Make a candle from the fat of a hanged man, using his hair for the wick, and place it between the fingers. Light the candle on the premesis of those you wish to enchant.
There were many folk remedies to protect against the Hand of Glory, as they were believed to be very powerful. One such recipe calls for a mixture of the gall of a black cat, the blood of a screech owl, and the fat of a white hand to be prepared during the dog days of summer and then smeared over all possible entrances. This would protect the house for the following year.

The majority of animal-caused deaths in Egypt are by hippos.

Trivia

One can hardly make a page about trivia without mentioning its namesake. Trivia was the Romanized version of the Greek Hecate, the Queen of Witches. I consider myself to have worshipped Hecate in the past, as I ate occasionally in the cafeteria in high school and the consumption of dog meat is integral to her worship. One could often contact her at crossroads, and she was featured in Shakespeare's Macbeth. She had three heads.

A Klein bottle is the topological representation of a four-dimensional shape immersed in three dimensions, just like the Mobius strip is the representation of a two-dimensional shape immersed in three dimensions. The Klein bottle is made in 4-D by taking a rectangle and connecting two sides together to make a cylinder, then taking the other opposing sides and connecting them with a half-twist. Since this isn't possible in our universe, it can be simulated by taking a bottle whose neck goes through the side of the bottle and opens up at the bottom. It isn't a true Klein bottle, though, and is more like the photograph in two dimensions of a three-dimensional bottle, only in this case it is the "photograph" of a four dimensional object in 3-D. For those of you who are mathematically-minded, here is the set of parametric equations that define the surface of the Klein bottle:
x = cos(u)*(cos(u/2)*(sqrt_2+cos(v))+(sin(u/2)*sin(v)*cos(v)))
y = sin(u)*(cos(u/2)*(sqrt_2+cos(v))+(sin(u/2)*sin(v)*cos(v)))
z = -1*sin(u/2)*(sqrt_2+cos(v))+cos(u/2)*sin(v)*cos(v)
If you prefer working in polynomial form:
(x^2+y^2+z^2-1)[(x^2+y^2+z^2-2y-1)^2-8z^2]+16xz(x^2+y^2+z^2-2y-1)=0
Doesn't topology just get you all excited? Anyways, since none of you understood that at all, I took the liberty of stealing a diagram of what an immersion would look like. Strips are removed so you can see what's going on inside the bottle. Remember, it's open on the bottom.

The Watchers were a race of angels set to, you got it, watch humanity. These "sons of god" wound up wanting to get in the pants of the "daughters of men" and, to seduce them, offered them celestial knowledge such as warfare, cosmetics, metalworking, and occult knowledge. They fathered children on the mortal bitches that were known as the Nephilim and were "men of reknown" according to the bible. The most common conjecture was that these were the giants, sometimes known as the Anakim, Golioth being the last of the race. Similar stories crop up in multiple other religions, one of which being that Isis had sex with an angelic being that she summoned in order to learn the secrets of alchemy in order to aid Horus in his war against Set.