I’ve found my newest time-wasting obsession: Factoclock. “You learn something new every minute.”
Here’s a few of the things I learned at the moments that I learned them:
16:07 – James Joyce’s Ulysses chronicles the passage of Leopold Bloom through Dublin during an ordinary day, 16 June 1904. The 16th of June is now known as Bloomsday.
16:08 – J.K. Rowling makes about $8 every second.
16:12 – Twelve cows are called a flink.
16:15 – The word ‘uncopyrightable’ is the is the only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating any letter.
16:23 – Sir Isaac Newton was 23 when he discovered the law of gravity.
And the minutes that I didn’t make note of? A solid 50% of those facts were about English poets. In the half an hour that I checked it, no science or tech facts. Mostly history and pulp trivia. So, is this a useful waste of time? Not sure.
16:25 – The earliest recorded use of the word Australia in English was in 1625.
I’ve made a discovery! I was really confused why the clock was giving me so many historical facts from the 1600s, and then I realized that the time relates to the fact. Looking back on my list, I’m a little embarrassed that I didn’t notice this earlier. If you, the reader, put it together before I did and can prove it, I’ll buy you a catfish sandwich.
