I bet you didnt know that

cdeb

In 1987, Magnus Magnusson hosted an April Fool's edition of Mastermind.

The specialist subjects were the Eighty Years War; Australasian Fauna; the life and works of Karl Gloping; and the life and novels of CP Armitage.

But Gloping and Armitage never existed at all. The contestants and Magnusson were all in on it, and the whole thing (questions/answers) was written by Stephen Fry. The joke was on the TV audience.

delly

Just in relation to the airfield being reused as something else, it reminds me of the section of M1 motorway that looks to be used by local farmers. I drive by it most days, and if you didn't remember driving on it when the M1 was being built, then you would never know it was there. I have an image in my head that it looks like a set from The Walking Dead, overgrown and abandoned.

Conchir

On the topic of planes landing at the wrong airport...

The Boeing Dreamlifter is a large cargo plane, really a heavily modified 747, that is used solely for transporting Boeing Dreamliner parts. It currently has the largest cargo hold of any plane in the world.

In 2013 one landed accidentally at Jabara Airport, rather than its intended destination McConnell Air Force Base, 9 miles away. Jabara is a small general aviation airport, definitely not used to taking things as big as the Dreamlifter, and doesn't even have a control tower. The runway there is only 6100ft compared to 12000ft at McConnell (or 8600ft at Dublin). Despite this, it managed to take off the next day.

Here's the ATC of the landing. There was massive confusion over their location:

And a clip of the takeoff:

cdeb

The world's largest waterfall is underwater.

It's off the coast of Iceland, in the Denmark Strait.

At 11000ft, it's three times higher than Angel Falls, the highest above-water falls.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark_Strait_cataract

Kat1170

^^^^^^^^

In 1983 a jet landed at Mallow racecourse and they had to build a runway so it could take off again.

Story HERE

Gwynplaine

The hotel manager in The Shining was the first actor to play James Bond. His name was Barry Nelson.

mzungu

At the church of St. Burchardi in Halberstadt, Germany, a performance of John Cage's "Organ²/ASLSP (As Slow As Possible)" that started on September 5th 2001.....has not yet finished!! The expected finish date is not for another 622 years which brings us up to sometime in the year 2640.

When Cage composed the piece, he instructed that it should be played "as slow as possible." A time of 639 years in length was chosen to commemorate the first documented permanent organ installation, in 1361 in the Halberstadt Cathedral, 639 years before the proposed start date of 2000. As the organ imposes no time limits, the note is held indefinitely. The performance began in September 2001 with a pause lasting until February 5th 2003. The first chord struck then lasted until July 5th 2005 and the next chord struck after that (A above middle C, C above middle C and the F♯ above that (A4-C5-F♯5, essentially an F♯dim chord) was struck in January 2006 and concluded in July 2008.

The last note changed was back in October 2013 (Youtube video below)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSoH4_valAs

...and the next note change is not due until sometime in 2020!!!!

Realt Dearg Sec

mzungu wrote: »

At the church of St. Burchardi in Halberstadt, Germany, a performance of John Cage's "Organ²/ASLSP (As Slow As Possible)" that started on September 5th 2001.....has not yet finished!! The expected finish date is not for another 622 years which brings us up to sometime in the year 2640.

When Cage composed the piece, he instructed that it should be played "as slow as possible." A time of 639 years in length was chosen to commemorate the first documented permanent organ installation, in 1361 in the Halberstadt Cathedral, 639 years before the proposed start date of 2000. As the organ imposes no time limits, the note is held indefinitely. The performance began in September 2001 with a pause lasting until February 5th 2003. The first chord struck then lasted until July 5th 2005 and the next chord struck after that (A above middle C, C above middle C and the F♯ above that (A4-C5-F♯5, essentially an F♯dim chord) was struck in January 2006 and concluded in July 2008.

The last note changed was back in October 2013 (Youtube video below)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSoH4_valAs

...and the next note change is not due until sometime in 2020!!!!

Frankly the four minute video was too long for me. But as a concept this is incredibly cool, the more I thought about what Cage is doing with musical directions and the concept of time/transcendence in music etc, the more I liked it.

But the thing I didn't get, was that I presumed when the video went to the church you'd hear a note playing continuously or something, but you couldn't. Does it just play the note and then silence for a few years? Because when it switched you could hear the first note and then the one it switched to.

cdeb

cdeb wrote: »

In 1987, Magnus Magnusson hosted an April Fool's edition of Mastermind.

The specialist subjects were the Eighty Years War; Australasian Fauna; the life and works of Karl Gloping; and the life and novels of CP Armitage.

But Gloping and Armitage never existed at all. The contestants and Magnusson were all in on it, and the whole thing (questions/answers) was written by Stephen Fry. The joke was on the TV audience.

Meta April Fools?

mzungu

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Frankly the four minute video was too long for me. But as a concept this is incredibly cool, the more I thought about what Cage is doing with musical directions and the concept of time/transcendence in music etc, the more I liked it.

But the thing I didn't get, was that I presumed when the video went to the church you'd hear a note playing continuously or something, but you couldn't. Does it just play the note and then silence for a few years? Because when it switched you could hear the first note and then the one it switched to.

As far as I gathered, it is meant to be one continuous note (and the organ can hold the note indefinitely), however the chap in the video does say that it came out very low. The reason I used that vid was because it showed the ceremony that takes place when the note changes. There might actually be a better one on YouTube where you can clearly hear the changes.

Tell me how

For anyone who was a fan of David Simon's "The Wire" you probably know that Simon was a former journalist covering the police department and so had literally seen it all. A recent exposure of goings on within the Baltimore Police Force could easily be translated in to the plot line for a new series in the Maryland City

The Wire (In real life)

It consists of rogue cops in a specialist unit who progressed over several years from racial profiling, illegal searches outside of warrants, tracking of drug dealers cars, stealing drugs, guns, money, FBI investigations, contract killings, murdered witnesses, sacked police commissioners by ticked off Mayors and the protagonists facing life behind bars.

The article lines around "popping doors" which was similar to McNulty and the boys shutting down corners on the tv show and the fact that one of the lawyers now working with the States Attorney's office is called Levi made me smile at the similarities between the series and real life.

valoren

It's the Masters Tournament this week.

Since the first time it was played in 1934, 6,467 golfers have teed it up at Augusta National Golf Club (Par 72) and 4,159 of them have played all four rounds of the tournament.

Not one of them, however, has shot four rounds in the 60s in one Masters.

valoren

valoren wrote: »

It's the Masters Tournament this week.

Since the first time it was played in 1934, 6,467 golfers have teed it up at Augusta National Golf Club (Par 72) and 4,159 of them have played all four rounds of the tournament.

Not one of them, however, has shot four rounds in the 60s in one Masters.

That's a really interesting one, wouldn't have thought that at all.

Outlaw Pete

In U2's Pride, Bono sings 'Early morning, April 4, shot rings out in a Memphis sky' in reference to MLK being shot, but King wasn't shot until 6:01pm that day, so Bono lied.

If you didn't know that, you can now say you found it out early morning, April 4.



Assuming you read this post before midday of course.

pleas advice

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Frankly the four minute video was too long for me.

GBX

The Tibetan boy in the Eddie Murphy movie, The Golden Child was actually played by a girl.

razorblunt

cdeb wrote: »

The world's largest waterfall is underwater.

It's off the coast of Iceland, in the Denmark Strait.

At 11000ft, it's three times higher than Angel Falls, the highest above-water falls.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark_Strait_cataract

Can water fall if it's contained by water?

Greybottle

razorblunt wrote: »

Can water fall if it's contained by water?

Yes, if it's denser. Cold water is denser than warm water and it's cold water that's falling down this waterfall.

5,000,000 cubic metres a second or about 5,000 times bigger than the Victoria Falls. Or the equivalent of 2.5 Croke Parks going over it every single second.

Greybottle

That tunnel in Croke Park which is betwen the Cusack Stand and the Davin Stand (Canal End) is officially called the Muhammad Ali Tunnel. It's the tunnel he used when he fought there in 1972.

You can get a better view of it here at 0:54 https://youtu.be/yDpvZPFW5pE?t=54

Franz Von Peppercorn

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

In U2's Pride, Bono sings 'Early morning, April 4, shot rings out in a Memphis sky' in reference to MLK being shot, but King wasn't shot until 6:01pm that day, so Bono lied.

If you didn't know that, you can now say you found it out early morning, April 4.


Assuming you read this post before midday of course.

Dammit

facehugger99

The largest known diamond in our Galaxy is about 50 light years away in the Centaurus constellation.

It's about twice the size of the earth and weighs 10 billion trillion trillion carats.

It's was christened Lucy by astronomers after the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

Lorelli!

facehugger99 wrote: »

The largest known diamond in our Galaxy is about 50 light years away in the Centaurus constellation.

It's about twice the size of the earth and weighs 10 billion trillion trillion carats.

It's was christened Lucy by astronomers after the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

And the song itself was inspired by a picture named "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by John Lennon's son Julian. He had drawn it in playschool of a girl in his class called Lucy.

Similarly Queen's Radio Ga Ga was originally Radio Ca Ca. Rodger Taylor's son said it when trying to say the radio was eh bad or ****!

joeguevara

Lorelli! wrote: »

And the song itself was inspired by a picture named "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by John Lennon's son Julian. He had drawn it in playschool of a girl in his class called Lucy.

Similarly Queen's Radio Ga Ga was originally Radio Ca Ca. Rodger Taylor's son said it when trying to say the radio was eh bad or ****!

I think the whole Lucy being drawn by Julian is an absolute p1ss pull. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds spells LSD and the song is about the images it invokes.

Lorelli!

joeguevara wrote: »

I think the whole Lucy being drawn by Julian is an absolute p1ss pull. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds spells LSD and the song is about the images it invokes.

That's what I read anyway. But maybe you're right? The other story sounds nicer though

Franz Von Peppercorn

Lorelli! wrote: »

That's what I read anyway. But maybe you're right? The other story sounds nicer though

Wiki agrees with your story.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_in_the_Sky_with_Diamonds

maccored

Anders Shy Aircraft wrote: »

Malin Head is in The South i.e. not in The North.

its in the republic but technically in the north of the country

joeguevara

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Wiki agrees with your story.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_in_the_Sky_with_Diamonds

He said that story in an interview and is in the imagine film. However, they were getting flak from the record company as it was around the same time that Paul got caught with weed and they needed to distance themselves from drug references in their song. That is where the Julian story about a classmate called Lucy came up.

It is obviously about LSD and was an acronym for the same. Look at the video. It is one long acid trip. Not about a cutesy 4 year old.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

maccored wrote: »

its in the republic but technically in the north of the country

That was 14 months ago. And I think you missed the point.

facehugger99

joeguevara wrote: »

He said that story in an interview and is in the imagine film. However, they were getting flak from the record company as it was around the same time that Paul got caught with weed and they needed to distance themselves from drug references in their song. That is where the Julian story about a classmate called Lucy came up.

It is obviously about LSD and was an acronym for the same. Look at the video. It is one long acid trip. Not about a cutesy 4 year old.

Ironically, you would need to be on lsd to believe the song was not about lsd.

Nevertheless, both John and Paul rigidly stuck to the story about young Julian's drawing.

Franz Von Peppercorn

I’m inclined to believe that John and Paul knew more about it than anybody else.

Edit:

And Julian who wrote a song for Lucy as late as 2009. After contacting her he finds she has lupus and dedicated some of the earnings for the single to her. he says he drew the picture.