Things you don't need to know...

Organized cheerleading was born at the University of Minnesota when student Johnny Campbell directed a crowd attending an American college football game to cheer on their team. Thus one of the more dangerous sports out there came to be.

pibbur who has made up his mind, but still not sure about what
 
Organized cheerleading was born at the University of Minnesota when student Johnny Campbell directed a crowd attending an American college football game to cheer on their team. Thus one of the more dangerous sports out there came to be.

pibbur who has made up his mind, but still not sure about what

Pibbur has a mind? Hmm, interesting...
 
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Wannabe sightings of the Ghost Ship of Northumberland Strait are most common between September and November.

pibbur who has never seen a pixie, but aknowledges their presence in the networks and computers
 
For some reason the recommended pronunciation of the name of the planet Uranus is /ˈjʊərənəs/ EWR-ə-nəs with stress on the first syllable, in contrast to the colloquial /jʊˈreɪnəs/ ew-RAY-nəs, with stress on the second syllable.

Maybe we should have stuck with the name suggested by William Herschel, the official discoverer of said planet: "George".

Other proposed names were "Neptune" (which was quite silly as that's the name of the yet-undiscovered-planet-beyond-this-one) or "Neptune George", or "Neptune Great Britain" to commemorate the British Royal Naval fleet pwning someone during the American Revolutionary War.

The british "Her Majesty's Nautical Almanac Office" switched from "George" to "Uranus" merely 69 years after the discovery of the planet.

Nobody suggested "Nibiru".

pibbur who regrets the demoting of the even more distant planet-has-been Pluto, as this was the one closest to being named after him. OTOH it makes Gustav Holst's "The Planets" up to date again.

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Uranus with the stress on the first syllable is the correct German pronounciation.
Since Herschel was of German origin, he might have called this planet like how he would pronounce it in his mother language.
 
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Uranus with the stress on the first syllable is the correct German pronounciation.
Since Herschel was of German origin, he might have called this planet like how he would pronounce it in his mother language.

But it wasn't Herschel who came up with the name "Uranus". It was Johann Elert Bode (german astronomer) who suggested the name that was eventually chosen. There seems btw to be a connection between Uranus" and Uranium, since - according to Wikipedia - "Bode's Royal Academy colleague Martin Klaproth named his newly discovered element "uranium" in support of Bode's choice"

Actually, both pronounciatioins are accepted by astronomers, but the on stressing the 'U' is the most common one.

pibbur who calls Uranus Uranus.
 
Bah, it was always yer-AY-nus until the ivory tower figured out the kids were laughing at them. Insert Beavis and Butthead laugh here. Suddenly, the intelligencia started saying YER-uh-nus. Go figure.
 
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Bah, it was always yer-AY-nus until the ivory tower figured out the kids were laughing at them. Insert Beavis and Butthead laugh here. Suddenly, the intelligencia started saying YER-uh-nus. Go figure.

Which proves the superiority of Norwegian compared to English, since there's no double meaning no matter how you pronounce the name. Hah!

.. cough …

pibbur who says Aluminium. And Natrium. And Kalium. And a lot of other things.
 
Sternium, too ? ;)
 
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King George III placed the "deeply-deplored" Princess Charlotte of Wales under the superintendence of the pious Martha Elgin 18 years after giving name to the planet-aka-Uranus.

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what profession is that?
 
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The Charles V Wall (not pictured) was built by Spain to keep the Barbary pirates out of Gibraltar, but ended up being used by the British to keep the Spanish out.

Which reminds me: The skin is what keeps the outside out and the inside in.

pibbur who is well aware that said organ (not the wall, silly) has one or two other functions as well.

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According to Norwegian headlines of a History Channel program, scientists are worling to defend the earth against

- asteroids
- comets
- gamma bursts
- the sun (I assume it's the turning of the sun into a red giant)
- dark energy

pibbur who predicts a Nobel price when they succeed.

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