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Questions Answered!

2008-06-24 · Q&A · Hank · 3:45 · watch on YouTube

Topic: History & curiosities (also: Science & nature, Pop culture) · mode: Q&A & conversation · tags: timely hook, community lore, civic or action cta, self promotion

After ranting that ice on Mars is not news, Hank reports the Nerdfighters' answers to his earlier questions (mono vs uni, the origin of 'trivia', TV vs real-life murders, dictators' pets) and asks for Star Trek material for a montage in his over-four-minute Star Trek song.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Rant: ice on Mars isn't news; only the lander landing on ice is

  • ★★★ Hank insists there has always been ice on Mars and it has been known for about 50 years, so it is not news. — 00:00:02 · Mars
  • ★★ Mars has ice caps, sometimes coated with carbon dioxide dry ice, but both are water ice at the core. — 00:00:25 · Mars
  • ★★ Hank says the real news is only that the lander landed on ice, which is great for people who want to study the ice. — 00:00:34 · Mars

00:00:41 — Nerdfighters' answers: mono vs uni; the origin of 'trivia'

  • ★★ Hank recalls asking Nerdfighters a couple of weeks ago to answer some questions; they did remarkably well on all but one, a hard one. — 00:00:41 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Viewers told Hank the difference between mono and uni is that uni is Latin and mono Greek; he had thought both were Latin. (hedged) — 00:00:54
  • ★ Others said uni connotes many brought into one (university) and mono one on its own (monomer), though that fails for unicycles. — 00:01:05
  • ★★ Hank was right that 'trivia' comes from tri-via, three roads: where three roads met, people gathered to gossip about unimportant things. — 00:01:24 · trivia

00:01:38 — Are there more murders on TV or in real life?

  • ★★ Whether TV or real life has more murders stays unanswered; consensus says real life probably has more, but per capita TV definitely does, and TV characters live shorter lives. — 00:01:38

00:02:08 — Do evil people have pets? Hitler's Blondi and Fuchsl, Lenin's cats, Mao's pet killings

  • ★★ Lots of evil people had pets: Hitler had a German Shepherd, Blondi, who apparently died by poison pill, the same way as Hitler and his girlfriend. (hedged) — 00:02:08
  • ★★ Hitler also had a terrier, Fuchsl, that he found and adopted in the World War I trenches and that was later stolen from him. — 00:02:20
  • ★★ Lenin loved cats and had lots of them; Hank adds that Lenin sort of opened the door for Stalin to take over after he died. (hedged) — 00:02:42
  • ★★ Some evil people hated pets: Mao declared pets a symbol of bourgeois oppression and had them killed in the 1960s and 70s, tens of thousands of dogs and cats. — 00:02:53

00:03:11 — Star Trek song over four minutes: invoking the montage clause; ask for Star Trek material; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank is making a Star Trek song longer than four minutes that he can't shorten, so he invokes the longer-than-four-minutes clause, which requires a Nerdfighting montage. — 00:03:12 · Four-minute rule
  • ★★★ Hank asks viewers to email him anything to do with Star Trek, preferably The Next Generation with Captain Picard, at sparksflyup@gmail.com for the montage. — 00:03:24

Humor (significant)

  • Hank notes TV has more murders per capita, so if certain TV detectives show up at your party, just leave. — 00:01:54

    “Run away because I think your jewels are going to get stolen or you are going to get whacked!”

  • Hank tells how Hitler's beloved terrier Fuchsl was stolen from him in World War I. — 00:02:33

    “Whoever stole Fuchsl may in fact have been responsible for Hitler turning out the way he did.”

  • Mao had tens of thousands of dogs and cats killed, even ones raised for food. — 00:03:05

    “Not that they would not have died.”

  • Hank's sign-off is handed to a cat named after the Lenin of his pet answers. — 00:03:40

    “Lenin's kitty says, "Click the little yellow box and subscribe!"”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Adolf Hitler · Mars · Star Trek (franchise)

Also: People: Angela Lansbury · Joseph Stalin · Mao Zedong · Tony Shalhoub · Vladimir Lenin

Works: Star Trek: The Next Generation

Rituals: Four-minute rule

Terms: trivia

Concepts: Greek language · Latin

Events: World War I

Characters: Hercule Poirot · Jean-Luc Picard

Products: Phoenix (spacecraft)

animal: Blondi · Fuchsl

Also centred on Adolf Hitler: Hitler and Sex! · Literally Hitler

Replies to

  • answers · Adorable Puppy Injury!!!! — “couple weeks ago, I asked the Nerdfighters to use their collective brain cells and Googling-fingers to answer some question.”

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