Random trivia

Well done, Zare. In Sweden it was definitely not the most popular measurement of the 20th century:

180px-Sweden1967.jpg

Stockholm, shortly before 15:00 on Dagen H (The H day). The day, on which traffic in Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right. The H stands for Högertrafik, the Swedish word for "right-hand traffic".

About Russia: well I suppose there were no motorized vehicles, but the rule accounts for all vehicles on wheels, basically all traffic on the road.
 
A vote was put to the people of Sweden to ask if the wanted this switch - and apparently over 80% said no.

I guess the answer is the switching of the flow of traffic - be it cars or horse and coaches.

OK, on this note - only 4 countries in Europe still drive on the left. Name them.
 
Odd. I was convinced that I'd seen a car with an Eastern European license plate a few years back that had its wheel on the right side.
 
Perun said:
Odd. I was convinced that I'd seen a car with an Eastern European license plate a few years back that had its wheel on the right side.
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I can explain that mate. I admit that I read it earlier this evening on wiki:

Although Russia drives on the right, cheaper grey import cars from Japan are more popular than LHD (left-hand drive) cars of the same class. Russia is estimated to have more than 1.5 million RHD (right-hand drive) vehicles on its roads. In the far eastern regions, such as Vladivostok or Khabarovsk, RHD vehicles make up to 90% of the total. This includes not only private cars, but also police cars, ambulances, and many other municipal and governmental vehicles.

During spring 2005, the rumour that RHD vehicles would be completely banned from the roads drove thousands of protesters to the streets everywhere in the country. On 4 July 2005 Russian minister of industry and energy Viktor Khristenko announced that RHD vehicles would be allowed on the roads but would have to conform to all Russian traffic safety requirements.

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So in other words, in Russia (and I guess also in some other countries) the rule is to drive on the right, but it is allowed to have the wheel at the right front seat.
 
I was going to say:

I have no explanation for that, not unless it was exported from the UK. Which would seem even odder considering the prices we pay here for cars in comparison to the rest of the EU. But that's another story. :D

But Forostar answered it.
 
OK no one is answering my question, so I'll provide a hint.  The traffic mortality rate is not only affected by the number of cars, but by other factors such as doctors per person and traffic laws.  ;)  Second hint: Antarctica is NOT one of the choices.  ;)

Name two continents where traffic mortality is highest.
 
I'll guess North America and Europe.  I am assuming developed continents with extensive high-speed freeway systems would have the highest auto mortality rates. 

wasted155 said:
The Stanford Cardinal  (supposedly for the Catholic Cardinal instead of a bird)
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:blink:

No.  Like the Harvard Crimson, the name "Cardinal" is based on the color.  Stanford's nickname was originally the "Indians", but for obvious reasons that was later deemed to be inappropriate.  They didn't decide to change the nickname because they wanted to stop offending Native Americans and start offending Catholics. 

Sorry I am late to the party on the college nickname question, but as a Stanford graduate, I couldn't simply let that one go uncorrected.  By the way, there are a number of other answers: Tulane Green Wave, Tulsa Golden Hurricane, Massachusetts Minutemen, etc.

BONUS QU:  Because the nickname is a color, what does Stanford actually use for a mascot at sporting events?  Since there is a question pending, I'll just supply the answer.  This is the mascot (widely regarded as the most patently ridiculous mascot in major U.S. college sports, which is intentional):

stanford%20tree.jpg


It is based on the tree on the official university seal: 
SU_Seal_Card_pos_small_100.gif
 
Thats very cool!!  I knew that there'd be more names out there, and thanks for the resoning behind the name.  OH, and cool mascot, too!!
 
wasted155 said:
Asia and Africa.  (per capita, right)
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Right.

I cannot currently locate the WHO (World Health Organization) article that explains this further.  Working from memory, the following countries/regions have the highest rate of mortality per capita (100,000 pop.) ranging from highest to lowest.

1. Ethiopia
2. Africa
3. Middle East
4. Southeast Asia
5. Russia
6. Baltic States
7. Slovenia

These are not exact, but they're fairly accurate.  Western and northern Europe are fairly low on traffic mortality rate.
 
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