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submitted 10 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] grue@lemmy.world 102 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

To be fair, "do hummingbirds have feet" seems eminently wikipediable. I'd like to think that if I ever felt the need to drunk-dial an expert, it'd be for something less trivial.

[-] TheGreenGolem@lemm.ee 55 points 10 months ago

Not even 20 years ago smart phones and the internet weren't ubiquitous. I'm only 35 but even I remember personal stories about bar disagreements where we just simply couldn't use our phones to search the net. Because all they were capable of is dialing a number and Snake.

[-] uid0gid0@lemmy.world 25 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Way back in the 1950s some guy had the same observation you did. He came up with an idea for a book that would solve disputes over trivia by bar patrons. 70 years later the Guinness Book of World Records has over 22,000 entries in their database.

[-] Arielcorn@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

began as an idea conceived by British engineer and industrialist Sir Hugh Beaver, the managing director of the Guinness Brewery, to solve trivia questions among bar patrons. During the early 1950s Beaver was involved in a dispute during a shooting party about the fastest game bird in Europe; however, the answer could not be found in any bird reference book.

Wow. That guy sure was serious about bird trivia!