These files, I thought, only tracked daylight savings time for all the different timezones & offsets from Greenwich Time. Actually, they have a detailed, fascinating history of timezones scribbled in the margins. (via)
posted by Pronoiac on Oct 24, 2009 - 18 comments

Two articles from The Economist's Intelligent Life magazine about changes in knowledge production and acquisition, The Last Days of the Polymath by Edward Carr and Is Google Killing General Knowledge? by Brian Cathcart. The first deals with the implications of increasing specialization in all field of human activity and the second with whether people are not committing facts to memory because they are so easy to look up on the internet.
posted by Kattullus on Sep 28, 2009 - 62 comments

Andy Richter destroys Wolf Blitzer in Celebrity Jeopardy (twice, if you count the rehearsal show). Of course, Richter is no stranger to the game.
posted by Rhaomi on Sep 17, 2009 - 78 comments

Excited for the upcoming Seinfeld reunion on Curb Your Enthusiasm? Well, until then you can practise your Seinfeld knowledge by trying to identify all of the references in this picture. [more inside]
posted by Midnight Rambler on Mar 30, 2009 - 48 comments

Wikitrivia.net makes trivia questions out of Wikipedia pages. It's a bit rough around the edges, but it does pretty well for not having a magic AI that understands English. Hit reload if you get a question you don't like, or grab the source code if you think you can make it better.
posted by tss on Feb 12, 2009 - 14 comments

Strangemaps presents a unique map of the United Statements of America; it's a map of the USA with each state's motto (or a translation thereof) by artist Emily Wick. The strangemaps post includes an explanation of most of the mottoes below the image.
posted by Eideteker on Jan 19, 2009 - 30 comments

Play Trivia to Help Save Abandoned Animals. Free Rice set the standard for on-line charity games and Free Poverty soon followed by donating water. Now you can play for free kibble to be donated to either Rocket Dog Rescue or The Urban Cat Project.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy on Dec 17, 2008 - 9 comments

The mesmerizing live question feed from text118118.com shows questions from curious UK residents. The answers are always polite and reasonable complete and accurate. Sometimes you can see one person submitting the same question or a string of related questions.
posted by closetphilosopher on Nov 24, 2008 - 70 comments

Now that we can dispense with trivia about the U.S. elections, it's time for everyone to get better acquainted with President-Elect Obama: 50 things you should know about Barack Obama vs. Barack Obama: The 50 facts you might not know. (via Buzzfeed) [more inside]
posted by Doktor Zed on Nov 9, 2008 - 112 comments

Inside Jeopardy: An interview with former writer/researcher Carlo Panno [Part 2] [Part 3]
posted by kyleg on Mar 31, 2008 - 27 comments

The 5 Most Badass U.S. Presidents of All-Time. Just in time for Presidents' Day weekend. In ascending order of badassitude: Andrew Jackson, John F. Kennedy, John Quincy Adams, George Washington and your number 1, Theodore Roosevelt. [more inside]
posted by psmealey on Feb 15, 2008 - 65 comments

45 bits of not-so known trivia, much of it word related. [more inside]
posted by edgeways on Oct 22, 2007 - 77 comments

You want trivia? I got your trivia right here. Previously.
posted by hifiparasol on Apr 13, 2007 - 22 comments

You love pop culture trivia quizzes. Am I wrong?
posted by miss lynnster on Apr 3, 2007 - 28 comments

Jeopardy history. This early hint came to pass last night; For the first time after 23 years, all 3 contestants in an episode of Jeopardy came to an exact tie.
posted by Silky Slim on Mar 17, 2007 - 43 comments

For those of us who can't get enough useless (and useful) information, there is Mental Floss. Take the "Color" movies quiz. Find out how Hornando Cortés and his 600 Spaniards subdued 5 million Aztec natives. Remember back to when President Nixon tried to fancy up the outfits worn by White House guards. Had enough? No? OK. Worried about birds exploding from eating wedding rice? Want to know what furfuraceous means? Scroll around this page to find out what Maya Angelou, Marilyn Monroe and Andrew Lloyd Webber were all affected by; what's up with green magazine covers; and why barber shops (as opposed to other places of business) spawned vocal groups? All this and much more! Now, you too can say, "I know more than my friends!"
posted by The Deej on Jan 15, 2007 - 33 comments

...He expressed regret that he had said that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus and enclosed a gift for the Oral Roberts University. After quoting the line "money can't buy me love" from "Can't Buy Me Love" he said, "It's true. The point is this, I want happiness. I don't want to keep on with drugs. Paul told me once, 'You made fun of me for taking drugs, but you will regret it in the end.' Explain to me what Christianity can do for me. Is it phoney? Can He love me? I want out of hell."

John Lennon's Born-Again Phase
posted by y2karl on Jan 4, 2007 - 79 comments

TriviaFilter: 100 things we didn't know last year --a roundup of the best? of the year from BBC News' 10 things weekly column. ...20. Sex workers in Roman times charged the equivalent price of eight glasses of red wine.... 57. The word "time" is the most common noun in the English language, according to the latest Oxford dictionary. ...
posted by amberglow on Dec 28, 2006 - 50 comments

12 Days of Quizzes. You're having to work the day after Christmas. You hate it. You hate your boss for making you work. None of your friends are having to work. So do what I did - kill some time and sap the last bit of profitability out of 2006 by taking these 12 quizzes. It'll be lunchtime before you know it. Five short hours later, you can go back home and procrastinate on taking down all those decorations.
posted by Oriole Adams on Dec 26, 2006 - 4 comments

All I wanted was a pepsi.
posted by RTQP on Nov 18, 2006 - 101 comments

That sounds true... Blufr (from Answers.com) tests you knowledge by mixing real factoids with made-up trivia. And it ends with an "r" so it must be Web 2.0!
posted by GuyZero on Sep 15, 2006 - 22 comments

A new iteration of the Fun Movie Quiz has been posted. For those unfamiliar, single frames from films are shown, and the users must guess what movie the image comes from. Previously.
posted by lilbrudder on Jul 27, 2006 - 52 comments

"So, like many of you, I’m sure, I have this huge styrofoam version of my head sitting in the garage." -- Ken Jennings, former unstoppable Jeopardy! killing machine, blogs. [Who?]
posted by Gator on Jun 27, 2006 - 32 comments

In 1963, a full 3 years before his first MoI recording, a young, beardless Zappa appeared live on the Steve Allen show playing a musical composition on bicycles. Jerry Hopkins, the show's talent coordinator, discusses how the young musician's debut performance came about. Hardcore zappaphiles can view Part 1, Part 2 (Danger: long & grainy B&W YouTube clips, diamonds in the rough).
posted by madamjujujive on Jun 26, 2006 - 24 comments

Test your knowledge of philosophy with the 2006 IAP Philosophy Trivia Quiz! This quiz is extremely hard, so you might want to take a break at the Cognitive Science Cafe [pdf].
posted by painquale on Feb 7, 2006 - 10 comments

100 things we didn't know this time last year. We seem to have an overload of year-end lists, but this one from the BBC was rather entertaining (if UK-centric). Feel free to add anything that you didn't know a year ago in your corner of the world.
posted by spock on Dec 30, 2005 - 61 comments

The most interesting pieces of pop music trivia (that you know are 100% false.) For example,

With the exception of 1990's Fourth of July, every Galaxie 500 song released has the exact same opening five seconds.

"American Pie" songster Don McLean is ironically both Canadian, and allergic to pastry.

Rapper 50 Cent Blasts Colonel Oliver North for role in Iran Contra Affair

posted by The Jesse Helms on Oct 10, 2005 - 68 comments

Notes & Queries - questions that only fools and geniuses would dream of.
posted by Gyan on May 13, 2005 - 19 comments

Did you know? Each year, more people are killed by teddy bears than by grizzly bears; an average of 100 people choke to death on ball point pens each year; and, there is an ATM at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, which has a winter population of 200.
posted by shepd on Oct 14, 2004 - 38 comments

How long can he go? Jeopardy streak hits $697760 for 21 consecutive days.

This guys is simply amazing to watch. He's had more airtime than some tv stars. Any bets to how long he can go?
posted by blahblah on Jul 1, 2004 - 56 comments

A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia.
posted by Johnny Assay on Apr 28, 2004 - 9 comments

The Pencil Pages :: An Introduction to Pencils and Pencil Collecting
with gallery, pencil geek humor, pencil trivia, and much more
posted by anastasiav on Feb 18, 2004 - 3 comments

It's common for pregnant women to dream they've given birth to an animal. According to a report by the New York Post, Winston Churchill's parrot is still alive. Charlie, a 104-year-old blue and gold female macaw, lives in southeast England and likes to curse Hitler. In the first century, Pliny the Elder claimed that mustard would improve lazy housewives. All of these "facts" and more can be found in the Mr. Smarty Pants Archive.
posted by ColdChef on Feb 18, 2004 - 9 comments

King William's College Christmas Quiz - Pupils at King William's college on the Isle of Man have suffered its annual general knowledge quiz since 1905. Until 1999, it was compulsory and the average score was two (out of 180). Nowadays the questions, set by an unidentified islander, are posted to parents with the end-of-term report. See how you fare. Answers will be posted in the new year. (last year, last years answers).
posted by BigCalm on Dec 24, 2002 - 38 comments

The Rec.Sports.Soccer Statistics Foundation is heaven for all football buffs (attention: proper football). For example, what is the worst football team in the world? Or when did the most ridiculous penalty shootout happen?
posted by edsousa on Sep 6, 2002 - 14 comments

Want to know more about your favorite song? Try SongFacts: sample entry: Song: "The Things That I Used To Do" by Guitar Slim Date: 1953 Songfacts: Slim claimed he was offered a song from God and a song from The Devil. He chose this one, the song from The Devil. Covered by many guitar greats, including Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Chuck Berry. Slim's innovative playing, including the use of distortion, became widely copied. A rare R&B song that was popular in the North and South. Most hits at the time were specific to a certain region. Proceeds from this allowed Slim to feed his liquor habit. He died of pneumonia at 32. Slim often played guitar with his teeth or behind his back when he performed this, theatrics that would be copied often in the years to come.
posted by lilboo on Jun 21, 2002 - 15 comments

Who wants to be a saintly millionaire? I thought stealing was wrong...or is this just a homage?
posted by kirkaracha on Feb 11, 2002 - 5 comments

Would you like some lemon juice with that? I have often been accused in the past of going on holiday and not posting a link for a while. This should remedy that. Jammed packed full of useful information :- Male nipples, Why? , How dogs eat - all this and more... Good for kids...
posted by Spoon on Dec 17, 2001 - 14 comments

Hey, it's a clever flash game ... umm ... something's off here. Never a sucker for banner ads, I click on an ad from Yahoo for some type of "advertising trivia" game. Cool enough, but it seems all of the questions are about laundry products, P&G laundry products. The capper came when the started streaming a Tide ad as part of the "game." So naturally, the whois is some entity in Cincinnati.

Jeez, do I feel like a simp.
posted by foist on Dec 12, 2001 - 8 comments

Piranhas fins usually regenerate within a month.Body bites even faster! I never knew this. Any other strange facts?
posted by Niahmas on Oct 14, 2001 - 9 comments

American Flag Display Quiz and the answers for all the ignorant folks out there. When the American Flag is displayed on a wall, the canton (the blue field and stars) should be on the left as you face the wall. Am I the only one in America who knows this?
posted by canoeguide on Sep 19, 2001 - 9 comments

Is this the MeFi for the sci-fi convention set? All the big questions of fandom seem to be discussed here: Questions about lizard-man genitalia, what happens when Vulcan women go into Pon Farr, and so much more. God help me... I used to be one of these people in High School...
posted by Perigee on Jun 5, 2001 - 11 comments

Coming to a tv near you: WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE - Couples edition. Thus proving 2 people can be stupider than one...
posted by tiaka on May 21, 2001 - 11 comments

Man, this guy must give Photoshop a workout. "An Invisible is a screen shot from a movie in which some or all of the actors have been completely removed from their clothing. It's your job to figure out what the movie is." New film trivia site: Filmwise. Fun stuff.
posted by robbie01 on Apr 2, 2001 - 33 comments