Random trivia

I make mistakes.  Go take a look through the thread.  I am sure I have gotten many answers wrong.

And I do apply for Jeopardy, yearly.
 
I must have overlooked many of them, which is probably my mistake.

BTW, about Perun's question, 2 more countries is again correct (I checked it). Apparently you (and perhaps also Perun?) must have known that the world has 10 countries with more than 100 million people. If not, then I can't explain this:

Hmm....I think there's two more.  Possibly...Argentina and...Sudan?  No, not Sudan.  Probably not Argentina either.  I still think there's two more.
 
Do I have to back up everything with where I learned it?

This one I can even fucking reference if you like.  Grade 12 geography.  Ask the Duke.  He was there.  In my group.

And 2 countries is wrong.  There's 3 now, according to UN estimates referenced on Wikipedia.  I have since checked, knowing I didn't know the answer.
 
Perun said:
Loosey got most of them. From the top of my head, I can only think of two others, one being in Asia, the other in Africa.
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The Asian one I would guess is Bangladesh. Africa, I really have no idea: as a total guess, I'll say South Africa.
 
LooseCannon said:
Do I have to back up everything with where I learned it?
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No, not really, but the "I think it's two more" (without knowing/guessing them) sounded a bit awkward in my ears.

LooseCannon said:
And 2 countries is wrong.  There's 3 now, according to UN estimates referenced on Wikipedia.  I have since checked, knowing I didn't know the answer.
Click to expand...

Is it? Alright, I only checked the continents Asia and Africa, and trusted on the input of Perun and yours truly.
 
Bangladesh is correct. South Africa isn't... and yes, Loosey is correct, another country recently passed the 100 Million mark... in the Americas.

Forostar, take my word for it... Loosey has no reason to cheat, and in my memory has never done so.
 
I think I will accept it then, even though I find it very amazing. I really hope you'll get that Jeopardy seat, Loosey. (please check your pm)
 
Perun said:
Portugal really isn't dense. It's very rural- it really only has two urban centres. Although I will agree with you that its population is surprisingly high for those conditions.
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This is what I thought of France.  The countries on Forostar's list were not surprising once I read them, but I'd never would have put France at #3!  I thought they had many smaller cities and not enough to be so big.  Without looking up I cannot think of major urban areas besides Paris (metro) and Marseilles.
 
Genghis Khan said:
This is what I thought of France.  The countries on Forostar's list were not surprising once I read them, but I'd never would have put France at #3!  I thought they had many smaller cities and not enough to be so big.  Without looking up I cannot think of major urban areas besides Paris (metro) and Marseilles.
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Yeah, but Paris (the urban area in total) is huge.
 
With your permission I'd like to give the top 10 cities by population from these top 10 countries in Europe:

Russia / calculation population 2008
1 Moscow             10 555 512
2 Saint Petersburg   3 928 634
3 Novosibirsk          1 400 576
4 Yekaterinburg      1 270 971   
5 Nizhniy Novgorod  1 246 239
6 Omsk                 1 114 804
7 Samara Самара    1 102 280
8 Kazan                 1 095 024
9 Rostov-na-Donu   1 072 160
10 Chelyabinsk        1 039 407


Germany / calculation population 2008
1 Berlin       3 411 991 
2 Hamburg  1 764 163
3 Munich    1 328 355
4 Cologne     995 824
5 Frankfurt    653 227
6 Stuttgart   595 182
7 Dortmund   587 017
8 Essen        580 906
9 Düsseldorf  580 267
10 Bremen    548 852


France / calculation population 2008
1 Paris        2 156 424
2 Marseille     789 877
3 Lyon          483 209
4 Toulouse     451 760
5 Nice           336 046
6 Strasbourg   279 400
7 Nantes        278 870
8 Montpellier   258 719
9 Lille             247 765
10 Bordeaux    238 676


United Kingdom / calculation population 2008
1 London       7 705 971
2 Birmingham  1 002 479
3 Glasgow        608 794
4 Liverpool       472 713
5 Leeds           468 303
6 Sheffield       456 466
7 Edinburgh      449 746
8 Bristol           442 022
9 Manchester    399 579
10 Leicester     348 735


Italy / calculation population 2008
1 Rome       2 512 523
2 Milan       1 321 294
3 Naples        965 421
4 Turin          864 875
5 Palermo      652 868
6 Genoa        588 450
7 Florence     376 714
8 Bologna      372 380
9 Bari           305 843
10 Catania    293 093


Ukraine / calculation population 2008
1 Kiev                2 500 267
2 Kharkiv            1 411 591
3 Dnipropetrovs'k 1 016 191
4 Odesa               988 857
5 Donetsk             973 101
6 Zaporizhzhya      787 958
7 L'viv                 711 560
8 Kryvyy Rih         644 745
9 Mykolayiv          512 570
10 Mariupol'          477 747


Spain / calculation population 2008
1 Madrid      3 221 602
2 Barcelona  1 622 401
3 Valencia    828 006
4 Sevilla       708 845
5 Zaragoza   672 740
6 Málaga      564 117
7 Murcia       432 809
8 Palma        401 498
9 Las Palmas 392 129
10 Bilbao       350 114


Poland / calculation population 2008
1 Warsaw      1 597 813
2 Cracow         748 909
3 Łódź             748 582 
4 Wrocław        628 003
5 Poznań          562 049
6 Gdańsk          461 262
7 Szczecin        411 743
8 Lublin            361 969 
9 Bydgoszcz      359 172
10 Katowice      307 668


Romania / calculation population 2008
1 Bucharest    1 874 406
2 Cluj-Napoca    317 933   
3 Iaşi               314 775
4 Timişoara       314 427
5 Craiova          307 391
6 Constanţa      294 637
7 Galaţi            288 965   
8 Braşov           268 005
9 Ploieşti          225 674
10 Brăila           211 511


Netherlands / calculation population 2008
1 Amsterdam       749 372
2 Rotterdam        596 370
3 s-Gravenhage   489 755   
4 Utrecht            290 777
5 Eindhoven        214 807
6 Tilburg             202 151 
7 Almere             194 067
8 Groningen         187 087
9 Breda              172 530
10 Nijmegen        162 476



Europe: cities / population
1 Moscow           10 555 512
2 İstanbul           10 460 433
3 London             7 705 971
4 Saint Petersburg 3 928 634
5 Berlin                3 411 991
6 Madrid              3 221 602
7 Rome                2 512 523
8 Kiev                 2 500 267
9 Paris                2 156 424
10 Bucharest       1 874 406

Europe: metropolitan areas / population
1 Moskva               14 744 150   Russia
2 London               12 759 076   UK
3 Istanbul              12 488 363  Turkey
4 Paris                  11 818 503   France
5 Rhein-Ruhr          11 817 132  Germany
6 Randstad             6 579 720   Netherlands
7 Madrid                 6 333 723   Spain
8 Barcelona             5 009 902   Spain
9 Sankt-Peterburg    4 820 815   Russia
10 Milano                4 308 403   Italy

If you're interested in such stats and if you may wonder where I got this from, please check out
The World Gazetteer, which provides a comprehensive set of population data and related statistics: http://www.world-gazetteer.com
 
I have to admit Forostar, some people just seem to have a knack at retaining data/stats for even the most trivial of things. For example, if I am having a conversation about football, I sometimes can reel of a load of historic scores from ceratin matches (particularly FA Cup Finals, going back to 1970, or England World Cup matches) and on occasions give the scorers as well. And it does seem to amaze people. For some reason, these things just stick in my head - but my short-term memory is appalling. :D
 
The African country you're looking for is Nigeria. Can we move on now?


Forostar said:
What I think or say is not entirely based on what happened today. For years I have wondered about your exact knowledge on every matter in this topic. I mean, that is unbelievable, even if it's the truth.

If you're so good, why are you no millionaire then? By doing this on television or something?
Click to expand...

Forostar, LC and I actually frightened our teachers in High School about how we memorized obscure fact, especially ones having to do with geography (which often come up on this thread).
As you suggest, we actually DID do this competitively. Our school had a team in the "Reach for the Top" organization, a set of organized trivia competitions for Canadian high school kids. We were the ultimate geeks at this - traveling around to other schools to do this in tournaments.
http://www.reachforthetop.com/ Click the link to check out the program, or contact the Law teacher at South Colchester Academy in Brookfield, NS.
 
Who would stand a chance against 2 Canadian geeks?  :lol: j/k

Not me, that's for sure!  ;) I mean, I'm good with numbers, but that much information...no way. Not this chick! lol
 
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