I bet you didnt know that

CalamariFritti

sbsquarepants wrote: »

The majority of people just don't have the memory or the mental arithmetic ability to properly count even a single deck. I read somewhere before that when the first books detailing how to count cards were published they actually made a fortune for the casinos via a sudden influx of get rich quick imbeciles blowing their pensions at the card tables!

I think its actually easier than you think. I believe you simply do a -1 for any card worth 10 and +1 for any other card. So when your count increases into good positive figures you now know there are more cards worth 10 left in the deck than lower cards. Assuming you play perfect backjack this will increase your odds in your decision making as opposed to the house which usually has the slight edge. With betting and odds its all about fractions...

Edit: re-phrased

Six feet under is widely recognized as the depth of a grave, but it's not actually a requirement in most cases. Graves can be as little as two feet deep in the right terrain, but usually they are dug to greater depths so they can be reused for the burial of other family members, and if the burial ground is in particularly wet land it also requires burial to a greater depth, often deeper than the proverbial six feet. Cross Bones Cemetery beside Guys Hospital in London famously had 'exploding' graves because of a combination of overcrowding, flooding, and of course the rampant trade in graverobbing to supply the hospital with fresh cadavers for education and monster-building.

Some of these (not the monsters) were factors in one of the lesser known consequences of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Because much of New Orleans is technically below sea level, the breaking of the levee and the pressure of subsequent flooding caused coffins and caskets to literally bob to the surface and take sail in the floodwaters like macabre flotillas, and many waterlogged coffins and caskets even popped their lids from the pressure, parting the occupant from the coffin and making identification a more complex operation if found.

For years afterwards occupied and empty caskets were being discovered in swamplands and other unlikely locations miles from their original resting places, and skeletal remains were fetched from treetops and dislodged from between tombstones in the immediate aftermath. A special taskforce was formed to identify and rehome the more difficult cases, and that work continued for ten years after the event. No small task when there were already so many newly dead to identify, about fifty of which remain anonymous to this day.

The much wealthier (and above sea level) uptown area was spared most of this trauma, since above-ground mausoleums were constructed to house the remains of those who could afford it, and the famous Lafayette Cemetery in the St Charles district was barely touched by the worst of Katrina.

Even when dead, it was the poorest residents of the city that paid the highest price for the disaster.

py2006

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

QI

Ah that was it

Realt Dearg Sec

Candie wrote: »

Six feet under is widely recognized as the depth of a grave, but it's not actually a requirement in most cases. Graves can be as little as two feet deep in the right terrain, but usually they are dug to greater depths so they can be reused for the burial of other family members, and if the burial ground is in particularly wet land it also requires burial to a greater depth, often deeper than the proverbial six feet. Cross Bones Cemetery beside Guys Hospital in London famously had 'exploding' graves because of a combination of overcrowding, flooding, and of course the rampant trade in graverobbing to supply the hospital with fresh cadavers for education and monster-building.

Some of these (not the monsters) were factors in one of the lesser known consequences of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Because much of New Orleans is technically below sea level, the breaking of the levee and the pressure of subsequent flooding caused coffins and caskets to literally bob to the surface and take sail in the floodwaters like macabre flotillas, and many waterlogged coffins and caskets even popped their lids from the pressure, parting the occupant from the coffin and making identification a more complex operation if found.

For years afterwards occupied and empty caskets were being discovered in swamplands and other unlikely locations miles from their original resting places, and skeletal remains were fetched from treetops and dislodged from between tombstones in the immediate aftermath. A special taskforce was formed to identify and rehome the more difficult cases, and that work continued for ten years after the event. No small task when there were already so many newly dead to identify, about fifty of which remain anonymous to this day.

The much wealthier (and above sea level) uptown area was spared most of this trauma, since above-ground mausoleums were constructed to house the remains of those who could afford it, and the famous Lafayette Cemetery in the St Charles district was barely touched by the worst of Katrina.

Even when dead, it was the poorest residents of the city that paid the highest price for the disaster.

I worked a summer job in a graveyard in Kilkenny when I was in college and there was a log book in the groundsmen's shelter/tea room where there was an entry for every grave in the place clarifying how many people were buried in each plot, and how far down. They frequently had to dig a grave for a recently deceased person in an existing family plot and had to be sure not to dig too far (or not far enough, if there were clear plans regarding who else would be going in there in the future).

In the older parts of the graveyard you couldn't fit the digger, so they (and we as the summer help) had to dig the grave by hand. It is easily the toughest work I've ever done, shoveling into tightly packed, deep, claggy clay, and then raising each shovelful above your head and out onto the ground above. Far too hard work to ever get preoccupied by how morbid the whole thing might seem.

The muscles the full-timers had were unreal. And the drinking we did after an afternoon digging one of the old graves even moreso. I only did it once. Never studied as hard in my life as I did the following year.

Lady Haywire

My father was a part-time gravedigger (one of the by hand diggers!) and he never thought it morbid either. He did say that digging in the rain and having water pooling around his feet seeping from the ground around was a bit sickening though, esp as the grave over was fairly fresh :pac:

One grave he dug, he said he was able to tell whose skull he was looking at without even having to check- apparently the man had a really big forehead and it was still obvious.

Realt Dearg Sec

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Never studied as hard in my life as I did the following year.

I can only imagine the level of motivation. I'm not built for gravedigging but I had my share of student jobs and nothing focuses the mind quite like knowing what you don't want to be doing.

sbsquarepants

Candie wrote: »

Cross Bones Cemetery beside Guys Hospital in London famously had 'exploding' graves because of a combination of overcrowding, flooding, and of course the rampant trade in graverobbing to supply the hospital with fresh cadavers for education and monster-building.

.

Sorry, what now?:eek:

New Home

Ask Dr. Frankenstein.

runawaybishop

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Sorry, what now?:eek:

Back then an Italian scientist Galvani discovered dead flesh would move if a current went through it - he thought at the time though it was bioelectrical energy. Galvanism as it was called spawned experiments with cadavars and lead to Shelley's book. Sean bean is in a tv series based (loosely) on it.

Freak shows used to create 'monsters' from cadavars for their shows.

DEFTLEFTHAND

When Nipper Read pinced the Kray twins and charged them in 1968 he unintentionally saved their lives.

Their own Firm had grown tired of the twins irrational violence and were disgusted by the brothers paedophilic habits with young boys.


Freddy Foreman their most loyal henchman hatched a plan with the Lambrianou brothers, two other members of the Firm to kill Ronnie and Reggie.


The hit was planned for 3 weeks from the day they were busted.


Foreman and the Lambrianou's were also indicted and convicted, they served 15 and 20 years respectively.

MikeyTaylor

Giraffes can jump but elephants can't.

Lorelli!

Some species of jellyfish are biologically immortal.

New Home

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=106978444&postcount=9368

Chancer3001

Differ female cuckoos lay different colour eggs .
And therefore specialise on different speices of birds as they need to lay a similar colour egg to the other bird for better success

New Home

I always thought females cuckoo were able to change the colour of their eggs as needed.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Differ female cuckoos lay different colour eggs .
And therefore specialise on different speices of birds as they need to lay a similar colour egg to the other bird for better success

And the gene dictating egg colour are only passed down the female line.

Chancer3001

New Home wrote: »

I always thought females cuckoo were able to change the colour of their eggs as needed.

no. that would be a bit exceptional if the cuckoo could look in a nest, think sexy thoughts about that colour and have its egg change to that colour

each individual cuckoo can only lay one colour

Lady Haywire

Chancer3001 wrote: »

no. that would be a bit exceptional if the cuckoo could look in a nest, think sexy thoughts about that colour and have its egg change to that colour

each individual cuckoo can only lay one colour

I can't stop laughing at this bit :D:D

New Home

Chancer3001 wrote: »

no. that would be a bit exceptional if the cuckoo could look in a nest, think sexy thoughts about that colour and have its egg change to that colour

each individual cuckoo can only lay one colour

See, I thought they planned ahead (planned parenthood, wha' ) and recognised the birds whose nest they were going to occupy, then varied their diet to include minerals that would allow for the shells of their eggs to be a certain colour/pattern. Obviously not!

cdeb

Actually, some birds vary the colour of their eggs to foil cuckoos. I think each individual bird lays the same colour, but across the local population there's a variance. So it means the cuckoo can't tell what colour egg is in the nest, and while it might match the colour by chance, the odds are it won't, and so the egg will be spotted and removed

New Home

Nature is fantastic!

Chancer3001

it really is.

Latest david attenborough series had a fish using tools. And an octopus using shells and stones as camoflague.

Just amazing stuff

mzungu

Before Google launched Gmail, "G-Mail" was the name of a free email service offered by Garfield's website.

runawaybishop

runawaybishop wrote: »

Back then an Italian scientist Galvani discovered dead flesh would move if a current went through it - he thought at the time though it was bioelectrical energy. Galvanism as it was called spawned experiments with cadavars and lead to Shelley's book. Sean bean is in a tv series based (loosely) on it.

Freak shows used to create 'monsters' from cadavars for their shows.

And if anyone hasn't already guessed, this is the origin of the phrase 'Galvanized into action'.

Graces7

Candie wrote: »

Six feet under is widely recognized as the depth of a grave, but it's not actually a requirement in most cases. Graves can be as little as two feet deep in the right terrain, but usually they are dug to greater depths so they can be reused for the burial of other family members, and if the burial ground is in particularly wet land it also requires burial to a greater depth, often deeper than the proverbial six feet. Cross Bones Cemetery beside Guys Hospital in London famously had 'exploding' graves because of a combination of overcrowding, flooding, and of course the rampant trade in graverobbing to supply the hospital with fresh cadavers for education and monster-building.

Some of these (not the monsters) were factors in one of the lesser known consequences of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Because much of New Orleans is technically below sea level, the breaking of the levee and the pressure of subsequent flooding caused coffins and caskets to literally bob to the surface and take sail in the floodwaters like macabre flotillas, and many waterlogged coffins and caskets even popped their lids from the pressure, parting the occupant from the coffin and making identification a more complex operation if found.

For years afterwards occupied and empty caskets were being discovered in swamplands and other unlikely locations miles from their original resting places, and skeletal remains were fetched from treetops and dislodged from between tombstones in the immediate aftermath. A special taskforce was formed to identify and rehome the more difficult cases, and that work continued for ten years after the event. No small task when there were already so many newly dead to identify, about fifty of which remain anonymous to this day.

The much wealthier (and above sea level) uptown area was spared most of this trauma, since above-ground mausoleums were constructed to house the remains of those who could afford it, and the famous Lafayette Cemetery in the St Charles district was barely touched by the worst of Katrina.

Even when dead, it was the poorest residents of the city that paid the highest price for the disaster.

Burial customs are fascinating.

We have a small graveyard here on the island, but they stopped burying folk there as the ground is rock and they could not dig deep. As the rabbits knew when they failed to settle here.

(Not found that graveyard yet)

In parts of Kerry the graveyards look like hobbit villages; mausoleums all grown over with grass

wexie

Graces7 wrote: »

Burial customs are fascinating.

In some (very few) places in the world burials are done by hanging the coffins on the side of a cliff....

http://www.bbc.com/travel/gallery/20180405-the-filipino-tribe-that-hangs-its-dead-from-cliffs

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

New Home

And in some villages high up in Tibet, since they cannot dig graves into rock and wood is so scarce cremation isn't an option, they rely on the rather gruesome practice of a Sky Burial, where the corpses of their deceased are dissected and fed to the vultures.

Graces7

New Home wrote: »

And in some villages high up in Tibet, since they cannot dig graves into rock and wood is so scarce cremation isn't an option, they rely on the rather gruesome practice of a Sky Burial, where the corpses of their deceased are dissected and fed to the vultures.

Yes I saw that in a travel programme ere towers. I am assured it is only for high ups though these days, priests etc,. There was a film.

New Home

No, that was for everyone - if they don't have soil or wood for VIPs, they definitely don't have it for common folk.

Graces7

Graces7 wrote: »

Burial customs are fascinating.

They are indeed, and some traditional funerary cultures can cause havoc and death among the living.

During the last West African ebolavirus epidemic, Kissi villagers in Guinea attempted to prevent infection control officials from interfering with their traditional practice of removing the fetus from a deceased pregnant woman and burying both separately. They believe it interferes with the natural cycles of life and death, and that interference can cause other natural disruptions with crops, human fertility, and wildlife.

The poor lady was a casualty of ebola, and even when they were made aware of the dangers of handling the woman, never mind the issue of the amount of infected blood the operation would involve, they remained resolutely convinced that if they didn't bury her according to tradition that her soul would be damned along with that of her child, and the village would pay the price. It took considerable intervention from an anthropologist who enlisted the help of a village elder to revive other funerary traditions with complex rituals that satisfied their concerns but didn't involve an infection risk, to prevent them from exposing their population to death by ebola.

Religious tradition was a major factor in the delay in containing the outbreak in Sierra Leone too, as families felt they were doing wrong by their dead by not adhering to the usual practice of family handwashing the corpses before burial.

It's interesting how we can consider sabotaging ourselves rather than alter an engrained behaviour accepted over generations, centuries, millennia. Us humans shun and embrace change in equal measure it seems.