I bet you didnt know that

blinding

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

One thing I didn’t know until recently is that dead grass isn’t necessarily dead. The grass in my lawn turned green recently. It’s the same grass!

Grass is great and I mean the eating ( for animals ) variety of it .

KevRossi

When Hillary and Norgay climbed Everest in 1953 the news was sent using runners along some of the route. This allowed the news to reach London quicker, reaching it at 10am on the morning of Queen Elizabeths coronation.

It is thought to be the last piece of significant world news that was delivered using a runner.

IvyTheTerrific

Grass is an extremely broad family of plants (Graminae or Poaceae are the scientific names for this family), with more than 12000 species. These include obvious ones like lawn grass and fodder grass species, but also bamboo and the cereals (like rice, oats and wheat).

New Home

IvyTheTerrific wrote: »

Grass is an extremely broad family of plants (Graminae or Poaceae are the scientific names for this family), with more than 12000 species. These include obvious ones like lawn grass and fodder grass species, but also bamboo and the cereals (like rice, oats and wheat).

And bananas. But you probably knew that already. Also, some varieties of bamboo can grow up to a metre a day.

IvyTheTerrific

New Home wrote: »

And bananas. But you probably knew that already. Also, some varieties of bamboo can grow up to a metre a day.

No, bananas are a herbaceous plant but not a grass, I'm afraid.

New Home

IvyTheTerrific wrote: »

No, bananas are a herbaceous plant but not a grass, I'm afraid.

I stand corrected, so. :P

ohnonotgmail

KevRossi wrote: »

When Hillary and Norgay climbed Everest in 1953 the news was sent using runners along some of the route. This allowed the news to reach London quicker, reaching it at 10am on the morning of Queen Elizabeths coronation.

It is thought to be the last piece of significant world news that was delivered using a runner.

How did using runners allow it to reach london quicker?

KevRossi

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

How did using runners allow it to reach london quicker?

The nearest place at the time with a telegraph station was Namche Bazar, about 3 days walk from Everest Base Camp.

The expedition had about 400 people, which meant it would have been 6-7 days to pack up and get to Namche. The runner did it in a little over 24 hours.

Everest was climbed on May 29th.
Times journalist in Base Camp confirmed this and gave coded message to runner late on May 30th
He reached Namche on morning of June 1st.
Coded message reached London very early on June 2nd.
Was confirmed, announced officially at 10:00am on June 2nd

Using the runner got the news to London 5-7 days in advance.

Wibbs

IvyTheTerrific wrote: »

Grass is an extremely broad family of plants (Graminae or Poaceae are the scientific names for this family), with more than 12000 species. These include obvious ones like lawn grass and fodder grass species, but also bamboo and the cereals (like rice, oats and wheat).

And for such a ubiquitous family of plants they didn't show up on the surface of the earth until quite late in the game, roughly towards the end of the age of the dinosaurs. For most of that age dinosaurs wouldn't have known grass or seen grasslands like we have today all over the world. Grasses not unlike mammals really took off after the mass extinction at the end of the cretaceous.

Chancer3001

so in dinosaur times did they have plains of dirt? Plains covered in ferns n stuff? or just no plains...everything covered in trees??

IvyTheTerrific

Chancer3001 wrote: »

so in dinosaur times did they have plains of dirt? Plains covered in ferns n stuff? or just no plains...everything covered in trees??

There are plenty of plants that aren't grasses or trees!

Fourier

Chancer3001 wrote: »

so in dinosaur times did they have plains of dirt? Plains covered in ferns n stuff? or just no plains...everything covered in trees??

The current consensus is:


Though recent excavations make it more likely that stegosaurus could house four lasers.

IvyTheTerrific

So conifers, ferns, mosses, and early flowering plants were the main types of plants around in dinosaur times.

Wibbs

Lots of ferns about around ground level, cycads too. As time went on trees went from nearly all conifers or members of the gingko family to more flowering trees we're more used to.

Shpud2

KevRossi wrote: »

The nearest place at the time with a telegraph station was Namche Bazar, about 3 days walk from Everest Base Camp.

The expedition had about 400 people, which meant it would have been 6-7 days to pack up and get to Namche. The runner did it in a little over 24 hours.

Everest was climbed on May 29th.
Times journalist in Base Camp confirmed this and gave coded message to runner late on May 30th
He reached Namche on morning of June 1st.
Coded message reached London very early on June 2nd.
Was confirmed, announced officially at 10:00am on June 2nd

Using the runner got the news to London 5-7 days in advance.

Why use coded message?

IvyTheTerrific

Shpud2 wrote: »

Why use coded message?

So they wouldn't get scooped?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Shpud2 wrote: »

Why use coded message?

It was to keep the scoop from other news media.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

The Everest coded message was written by the Times journalist with the expedition James Morris, who in the early 70s had sex reassignment and is now 91 year old Jan Morris.

BaZmO*

Fourier wrote: »

The current consensus is:


Though recent excavations make it more likely that stegosaurus could house four lasers.

That’s obviously a fake. Perspective in paintings was only introduced in the 15th century

New Home

BaZmO* wrote: »

That’s obviously a fake. Perspective in paintings was only introduced in the 15th century

Duh. It was obviously made by aliens. :rolleyes:

Realt Dearg Sec

BaZmO* wrote: »

Fourier wrote: »

The current consensus is:


Though recent excavations make it more likely that stegosaurus could house four lasers.

That’s obviously a fake. Perspective in paintings was only introduced in the 15th century

It's a photograph, duh.

New Home

But they didn't have colour photography back then, come on!

Capt'n Midnight

New Home wrote: »

But they didn't have colour photography back then, come on!

How many times do I have to explain this ?

KevRossi

Shpud2 wrote: »

Why use coded message?

As others have said, to prevent a scoop. At the time it was the norm to inform the King or Queen of it first as a matter of protocol.

The coded message was: "Snow conditions bad stop advanced base abandoned yesterday stop awaiting improvement".

This was designed to throw anybody else off the scent. It wasn't unheard of for post office employees to link scoops at the time to rival publications.

Having worked so hard to ensure other newspapers did not steal its scoop, The Times reported the achievement briefly, hidden on an inside page under the headline: "Everest Conquered".

It was left to the Daily Express, which also sent reporters to Nepal, to give the story the prominence it deserved - splashed across the front page, alongside news of the Coronation, under the headline: "All this and Everest too."

New Home

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

How many times do I have to explain this ?

I could care less (:pac:)! Irregardless (:pac:), my point still stands, couldn't be a photograph from back then. Anyway, where does Barney keep his lasers?

Capt'n Midnight

New Home wrote: »

I could care less (:pac:)! Irregardless (:pac:), my point still stands, couldn't be a photograph from back then. Anyway, where does Barney keep his lasers?

A reminder , what you actually said was

New Home wrote: »

But they didn't have colour photography back then, come on!

Why did you say specifically say colour photograhy ?

It's too late to backtrack, you've confirmed that some sort of imaging existed :cool:

"Never believe anything ... until it has been officially denied."
- Otto von Bismarck

New Home

Well, it'd be like photocopying a B&W picture on a colour photocopier - you wouldn't expect to get a colour picture, would you? Even a Transmogrifier couldn't do it.

BaZmO*

What have I started?!!

New Home

BaZmO* is a fake news spreader. I bet you didn't know that!

Realt Dearg Sec

Transmogrifiers, ffs this is a knowledge thread not science fiction, can we get back to talking about the laser dinosaurs please?