I bet you didnt know that

Skylinehead

Wibbs wrote: »

Both directly inspired the American A-10 ground attack aircraft. The head designer of the project insisted that all members of his team read the memoir "Stuka Pilot" and the author of same and other Stuka crews were asked directly for their personal experiences and advice. One big fear of the Cold War was Soviets massing assaults of tanks across Europe and how to counter such a threat and the guys who had the only real world experience of such things were ex WW2 German pilots. After all these were guys who had fought at Kursk the biggest tank battle in history(8000 tanks IIRC).

Yeah now that's a shithouse of a plane. Think it was the Gulf War where one of the engines and all of the hydraulics was hit by gunfire, but it still kept flying.

The A-10 itself is literally built around the 30mm cannon, like you say for taking out massed Soviet tanks.

valoren

In Home Alone, Buzz's 'girlfriend' was actually a boy wearing a wig. The production team felt it would be in poor taste to use a photo of a girl.


Woof!

Hazys

valoren wrote: »

Reminds me of survivorship bias.

During ww2 researchers looked to minimize bomber losses to enemy fire. So they inspected the damage on bombers that had returned from their missions and returned a recommendation that additional armor be places on the areas where the planes sustained the most damage. A statistician, Abraham Wald, then realized that the research only studied planes which had survived their missions. Those that were actually shot down obviously couldn't be assessed for damage. He suggested that the armor not be placed where the returning aircraft suffered most damage i.e. in the wings and in the fuselage but rather be placed in the areas where no damage was made to the surviving planes which was invariably the engines themselves, his logic being that the planes which didn't return more than likely took damage to those areas whereas the planes in the study could make it home after taking heavy damage in the areas initially recommended for protection.

Did it work though? There is no ending or confirmed outcome to this tidbit.



So after i read this interesting tidbit of a smart idea, all i was thinking was wouldn't it be hilarious if the OP responded to my "Did it work though?" question with "Nah, it turned out this statistician, Abraham Wald was full of **** and he caused 1000's more deaths because he put the additional armor on in the wrong place." :pac:

Buford T. Justice XIX

The largest man made explosion before the Atomic bombs were dropped happened after a collision between two ships in Halifax, Nova Scotia on December 6th, 1917.

Over 2,000 people were killed, 9,000 injured, 1 in 50 survivors had significant eye damage and two square kilometers of the town were levelled.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/halifax-explosion-100-anniversary-main-1.4413663

EndaHonesty

valoren wrote: »

In Home Alone, Buzz's 'girlfriend' was actually a boy wearing a wig. The production team felt it would be in poor taste to use a photo of a girl.


Woof!

I would speculate that the GF is actually Buzz in a wig with braces...?

Evade

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

The largest man made explosion before the Atomic bombs were dropped in Japan happened after a collision between two ships in Halifax, Nova Scotia on December 6th, 1917.

Over 2,000 people were killed, 9,000 injured, 1 in 50 survivors had significant eye damage and two square kilometers of the town were levelled.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/halifax-explosion-100-anniversary-main-1.4413663

The Trinity test was about seven times more powerful, at least according to Wikipedia figures.

Buford T. Justice XIX

And today is the 76th anniversary of the Japanese attack on the American fleet in Hawaii that pushed the US to enter WWII.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor

retalivity

A braigetor was a type of entertainer at the hill of tara in medeival Ireland, alongside poets, bards, harpists and other musicians. They were flatulists, or professional farters.

ohnonotgmail

retalivity wrote: »

A braigetor was a type of entertainer at the hill of tara in medeival Ireland, alongside poets, bards, harpists and other musicians. They were flatulists, or professional farters.

you mean i could be getting paid for that?

Up until the late 19th/early 20th century, boys wore gowns/dresses. The act of being given long pants was seen as a right of passage; it was also when the father would take a more active role in their child's life. It usually happened when child was 10.

The practice was called breeching.

LirW

The symbol for Potassium is K (Things you learn on RTE2)

Wibbs

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

you mean i could be getting paid for that?

One of the biggest acts at the height of the Moulin Rouge(Red Windmill) nightclub in Paris was a flatulist. He would do national anthems and impressions and animal noises and the like and was feted by the great and the good of the time. I think Toulouse Lautrec did a portrait of him(going of memory there mind you).

On that note Toulouse-Lautrec didn't suffer from classical dwarfism, his legs had both broken when he was a kid and never healed properly and stopped growing, but the rest of him grew normally(and apparently he had a ginormous willy). His Nobel family were spectacularly inbred. Great painter and poster maker for the Moulin Rouge.

The same club featured an outdoor area at the back with a giant elephant, which contained an opium den, accessed by a staircase in one of the feet. One could also ask for a private dance from one of the ladies, while getting off your biscuits on opium. As you would. The elephant and opium is gone, but the club is still there.

Deleted User wrote: »

Up until the late 19th/early 20th century, boys wore gowns/dresses. The act of being given long pants was seen as a right of passage; it was also when the father would take a more active role in their child's life. It usually happened when child was 10.

The practice was called breeching.

IIRC there was also a folk backstory to that, because some beliefs held that fairies or whatever would seek out and kidnap boy children and spirit them away, so the dresses were also a disguise to hide them.

ohnonotgmail

LirW wrote: »

The symbol for Potassium is K (Things you learn on RTE2)

it is from kalium, the latin for potassium

ohnonotgmail

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

it is from kalium, the latin for potassium

Sodium being Na is nice too.

Early spy satellites used Kodak cameras to capture their images. When the camera was full, it would eject the roll in a special capsule that had a parachute attached to it. Whoever controlled the satellite would then be required to fly a plane and grab the capsule midflight, however in some instances they missed and might land on a farm.

Speaking of Kodak; they were the first who realized about nuclear testing before the news broke anywhere else. During WW2 people were complaining about images in their cameras coming out grainy and that it appeared to be an issue with their film roll.

Kodak checked their stock in this particular factory and noticed a lot of roll had been damaged and realized that it must have been caused by nuclear.

They complained to the US government, who then swore them to secrecy for the duration of the war and fortified their factories against damage.

secondrowgal

Deleted User wrote: »

Sodium being Na is nice too.

Also from latin - natrium

Kat1170

Wibbs wrote: »

On that note Toulouse-Lautrec didn't suffer from classical dwarfism, his legs had both broken when he was a kid and never healed properly and stopped growing, but the rest of him grew normally(and apparently he had a ginormous willy).

In fairness the ability to say your knob hangs down to your knees is slightly diminished if your legs are only 12 inches* long :D:D



*May or may not be an actual measurement taken by me :pac::pac:

cdeb

Babies in Iceland aren't given a name until they're six months old. Until then, they're just called "boy" or "girl:

The surname is a mix of father's name + son (or mother's name + dottir). Foreigners are exempted (or barred) from this though. So Eiđur Guđjohnsen's dad is called Arnur Guđjohnsen - because the family is Danish.

The first name must come from an approved list, with no spelling variations - an Irish equivalent would see Kieran, Kyron, Kieron, Keiran and Ciaran all banned, and only Ciarán allowed. (Proper order, I think!)

A similar requirement exists in Holland. Dennis Bergkamp was to be called Denis, after Denis Law, but his parents were told this wasn't a legitimate Dutch name, so he had to be called Dennis

Big Nasty

Think I remember reading somewhere about a couple in one of those countries going to court because they wanted to name their kid Metallica. They lost.

razorblunt

Big Nasty wrote: »

Think I remember reading somewhere about a couple in one of those countries going to court because they wanted to name their kid Metallica. They lost.

Sofie Metallicadottir is now in school though.

filbert the fox

Deleted User wrote: »

Early spy satellites used Kodak cameras to capture their images. When the camera was full, it would eject the roll in a special capsule that had a parachute attached to it. Whoever controlled the satellite would then be required to fly a plane and grab the capsule midflight, however in some instances they missed and might land on a farm.

Speaking of Kodak; they were the first who realized about nuclear testing before the news broke anywhere else. During WW2 people were complaining about images in their cameras coming out grainy and that it appeared to be an issue with their film roll.

Kodak checked their stock in this particular factory and noticed a lot of roll had been damaged and realized that it must have been caused by nuclear.

They complained to the US government, who then swore them to secrecy for the duration of the war and fortified their factories against damage.

Playtex supplied material for the spacesuits

Whitehorse

The HP in HP sauce stands for London's Houses of Parliament. The label still has the picture of the Houses of Parliament, even-though all Hp sauce is now made in the Netherlands.

Kat1170

Whitehorse wrote: »

The HP in HP sauce stands for London's Houses of Parliament. The label still has the picture of the Houses of Parliament, even-though all Hp sauce is now made in the Netherlands.

Release of this information would stop Brexit in it's tracks :D

Greybottle

The most watched video on Youtube as of this week is Despacito by Luis Fonsi*. It has been seen more than 4.47 billion times since it's upload on January 12th 2017.

That works out at over 150 people watching it every second since it was uploaded.

There are currently 87 videos that have been seen over a billion times, with only one of these having been released prior to 2010. That is "The Gummy Bear Song" by icanrockyourworld.

It is also the only video released prior to 2010 that is in the Top 100.

*(I had never heard the song, or of Luis Fonsi before I wrote the above. That's called being old.

But I did get to see most of the truly great bands (apart from Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy )

New Home

I wonder how many of those were accidental clicks or cases of "we force you to watch this to get to what you're looking for".

Greybottle

New Home wrote: »

I wonder how many of those were accidental clicks or cases of "we force you to watch this to get to what you're looking for".

I often wonder that if Youtube had been around since the 1950's, which song would be most viewed... Love Me Do? ....Satisfaction?...Rock Around the Clock?...Bohemian Rhapsody?.....Do They Know Its Christmas?.... Candle In The Wind?...

Or if had always existed, would it be something by Beethove, Mozart, Vivaldi or Greenfileds?

Ronaldo won the World Player of The Year award last night. It#s forerunner, the Ballon D#Or was only for those playing in Europe. France Football did a revamp a few years back and worked out that Pele, who never won it, would have won it 7 times in total.

johndaman66

Greybottle wrote: »

Or if had always existed, would it be something by Beethove, Mozart, Vivaldi or Greenfileds?

Presumably you meant Greensleeves? Greenfields doesn't seem to fit in with the other artists/ pieces of work you mentioned and wouldn't be around nearly as long.

IvyTheTerrible

Speaking of radiation caused by nuclear testing, it can be used to verify if ivory is legal (ie taken before the widespread ban on ivory hunting) or illegal (taken after). Most atmospheric nuclear tests (which generated Carbon 14) happened between 1955 and 1970, with the peak in 1965. Ivory hunting was banned from the late 1970's/mid eighties.
Any elephants alive from the time of the ban would have absorbed much more of the c14 than elephants who died before. So scientists can determine if seized ivory is legal or not. (Previously, ivory traders would try to make their ivory look "old" to get around the ban).

sbsquarepants

retalivity wrote: »

A braigetor was a type of entertainer at the hill of tara in medeival Ireland, alongside poets, bards, harpists and other musicians. They were flatulists, or professional farters.

Today i learned my 18 month old daughter is a braigetor:D

valoren

Esso is the phonetic version of 'S-O' based on the 'Standard Oil' company which was split up into 34 separate companies in 1911.