Trivia Today - Monday, August 11, 2014

Greetings Infomaniacs,

Sometimes no matter how hard you try, you just can't predict the future. Don't believe me? Then read the predictions I included in today's issue that definitely didn't hit the mark!

Enjoy!
Melissa

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Questions? Comments? Email Melissa


WHO SAID IT?
QUOTE: "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future."

HINT: (1885-1962), Danish physicist, first to apply the quantum theory, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922.


RANDOM TIDBITS
In 1966, Time Magazine predicted, "By 2000, the machines will be producing so much that everyone in the U.S. will, in effect, be independently wealthy." In that year too CoCo Chanel said about miniskirts: "It's a bad joke that won't last. Not with winter coming."

In 1954, a concert manager fired Elvis Presley, saying, "You ought to go back to driving a truck." In 1962, Decca Records rejected the Beatles, "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."

In 1894, A.A. Michelson, who with E.W. Morley seven years earlier experimentally demonstrated the constancy of the speed of light, said that the future of science would consist of "adding a few decimal places to the results already obtained."

After the invention of the transistor in 1947, several US electronics companies rejected the idea of a portable radio. Apparently it was thought nobody would want to carry a radio around. When Bell put the transistor on the market in 1952 they had few takers apart from a small Japanese start-up called Sony. They introduced the transistor radio in 1954.

Irish scientist, Dr. Dionysius Lardner (1793-1859) didn't believe that trains could contribute much in speedy transport. He wrote: "Rail travel at high speed is not possible, because passengers 'would die of asphyxia' [suffocation]."

In 1943, Thomas Watson, the chairman of IBM forecast a world market for "maybe only five computers." Years before IBM launched the personal computer in 1981, Xerox had already successfully designed and used PCs internally... but decided to concentrate on the production of photocopiers. Even Ken Olson, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, said in 1977, "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."

(Courtesy of didyouknow.org)


*** Weekly Mind-Scrambler ***
I can help you have some fun,
Sometimes I get stronger from the sun.

If you never give me a break,
You will find I may never again wake.

I am optimistic on one side,
I can be short, fat, tall, or wide.

Rectangle, cylinder are just a couple of my shapes,
And maybe I can even help you make some videotapes.

Sometimes you have to wait long for me to get ready,
Just hold on for a few hours and be steady.

I can help you get around to the market or mall,
and even help you make a call.

What am I?

Submit your answer by clicking: HERE

Answer will be posted in Friday's Trivia Today. Good Luck!

If your name appears in Friday's newsletter, EMAIL MICHELE your complete name and address to be shipped your prize. Be sure to put "Winner" in the subject line.


WHO SAID IT?
QUOTE: "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future."

ANSWER: Niels Bohr.

***
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