Impress Your Friends with Random Trivia, Vol. 4: Washington State Edition

It seems like these days it’s hard to find native Washingtonians living in Washington. For non-native Washingtonians residing in this state, you may find it easy to fit in to the culture of Washington with your casual attire, eco-friendly lifestyle and love of the outdoors.  But what happens when you’re at a party and the conversation turns to the natural and cultural history of our fair state? (I know.  It happens all the time.) Fear not.  You can impress your fellow party-goers with these interesting tidbits about the 42^nd state in the Union. To help you become a know-it-all, the Burke Blog brings you the next installment of:

Prior to 1916 Lake Washington was 10 feet higher than present.  That was the year the Lake Washington Ship Canal (listed on the National Register of Historic Places along with the Ballard Locks), was completed, which dramatically changed the hydrology of many Seattle area wetlands resulting in the Black River to dry up. 

The Valley of the Rainforest Giants, located in the Quinault Valley, is home to some of the world’s largest trees.  Measuring over 170 feet tall and nearly 20 feet in diameter, the largest western red cedar tree (Thuja plicata) in the world calls this valley home.

At 1,486 feet deep, Lake Chelan is the third deepest lake in the United States behind Crater Lake in Oregon and Lake Tahoe in California.

The Puget Sound region experiences huge variations in rainfall thanks to our multiple rain shadow effects (the blocking of rain producing weather patterns by mountains).  Sequim lies in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains resulting in 10 – 15 inches of rain each year while Seattle receives 38 inches of rain annually. 

The Olympic National Park, home to Olympic marmots (Washington States’ official endemic mammal), mountain goats, and Roosevelt Elk, is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve.

Did you already know all that?  Then you may have what it takes to win Burke Trivia Night at the College Inn Pub, which are held on the first Thursday of every month.  Can’t wait until then?  You’re in luck because the museum is hosting a special edition this Thursday, August 25 with Washington Wilderness Coalition. Test your knowledge of public lands including parks, national forests, roadless areas, wilderness, wild rivers and much more!

Posted by: Karin Moughamer, Communications 

Impress Your Friends with Random Trivia, Vol. 3

Some people know a lot about a little, others know a little about a lot. We need both types of people; without the experts, we wouldn’t gain any new knowledge, and without the know-it-alls, we wouldn’t have anyone to roll our eyes at.

To help you become a know-it-all, the Burke Blog brings you the next installment of our monthly feature:

Know a little about a lot:

• Recently, a new species of dinosaur was described by British scientists. The dinosaur was named Brontomerus, which translates to “thunder thighs” after its enormously powerful thigh muscles (and you thought being called “thunder thighs” was an insult!).

• The earliest evidence of a human presence in North America comes from a site in Paisley, Oregon, where archaeologists identified fossilized human poop that date to 14,100 years ago.

• It’s cherry blossom season! In Japan, a traditional custom known as hanami often involves having an outdoor party to enjoy the beauty of the cherry blossom flowers (this sounds like a good idea – after you impress your friends with random trivia, maybe they will come to an outdoor flower appreciation party that you host).

• Fish that migrate from salt water to spawn in fresh water (like salmon) are known as anadromous. Fish that migrate from fresh water to spawn in salt water (like some eels), are known as catadromous. [Saying "anadromous catadromous" ten times fast will make you dizzy.]

• Eusociality is a social system exhibited by bees, termites and other insects, in which hierarchical colonies are ruled by one queen, who is the only female that breeds, and other members of the colony serve as soldiers or workers. The only mammal species with eusocial behavior is the naked mole rat.

So now you know. And now you can impress people you meet by telling them something cool that they didn’t know. But please, be careful with your approach:

Posted by: Julia Swan

Impress Your Friends with Random Trivia, Vol. 2

As we’ve previously explored, you can never have too much random knowledge.

  Being a smarty pants can help you out in so many situations, such as making small talk with your seatmate on an airplane, beating another human (or a super computer, as the case may be) at Jeopardy, or winning a natural history-themed trivia night at your local pub. To help you become a know-it-all, the Burke Blog brings you the next installment of our monthly feature:

 Future smarty pants, take note:

• Even though Seattle is home to many publically-display totem poles (Pioneer Square, Pike Place Market, the Burke Museum), totem pole carving is not actually native to Western Washington. Totem poles were originally carved only by northern Northwest Coast people, such as the Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia. Read more

• There has never been a discovery of a dinosaur in Washington State. It is possible that dinosaur fossils exist in Washington, as the state includes some rocks of the appropriate age and origin, but to date none of them has yielded a dinosaur fossil.

• Contrary to popular belief, the seeds of a chili pepper have nothing to do with spiciness. The level of spiciness of a pepper is based on the amount of capsaicin (cap-say-uh-sin), a chemical compound, in the pepper. Capsaicin is not found in pepper seeds, but is highly concentrated in the placental tissue that holds the seeds. Read more

• A female lobster is called a hen. A male lobster is called a cock. [feel free to snicker about this. I did]

• When the genus and species of a particular animal are the same, its scientific name is known as a tautonym. Examples of tautonyms are Bison bison (American Bison), Vulpes vulpes (Red fox), and Gulo gulo (Wolverine).

So now you know. And now you can impress people you meet by telling them something cool that they didn’t know. But we beg you, please don’t be totally obnoxious about it:

Posted by: Julia Swan

Impress Your Friends with Random Trivia!

The applications for random knowledge are practically limitless: you can use trivia facts to impress a new date, start a conversation with your dentist, or win a natural history-themed trivia night at your local pub. To help you become a know-it-all, the Burke Blog brings you a new monthly feature:

Here we go:

• There are 148 species of mammals that live in Washington State (click here to see a list of all of them). That’s only 2.7% of the 5,416 recorded mammal species living on the planet.

• The Earth is 4.6 billion years old. According to the fossil record, the first life on Earth appeared 3.8 billion years ago in the form of single-cell organisms.

• There is technically no such thing as a Brontosaurus. The word “Brontosaurus” is an obsolete synonym for Apatosaurus, a large sauropod dinosaur. Don’t believe us? Read more.

• Footprints, burrows, and fossilized excrement are all examples of trace fossils. The study of trace fossils is called ichnology!

• The Arctic Tern has the longest migration of any bird on the planet. Each year, it travels an average of 44,000 miles, flying in an S-shaped pattern from the North Pole to the South Pole and back.

So now you know. And now you can impress people you meet by telling them something cool that they didn’t know about the natural world. Just try not to be obnoxious about it:



Do you know something cool about natural history? Submit your trivia to us and we'll consider using it for the next installment of Impress Your Friends with Random Trivia!

Posted by: Julia Swan