I bet you didnt know that

EndaHonesty

py2006 wrote: »

In 1923, jockey Frank Hayes won a race at Belmont Park in New York despite being dead...

He suffered a heart attack mid-race, but his body stayed in the saddle until his horse crossed the line for a 20–1 outsider victory.

It's a nice story but not a provable fact.

It's very possible, likely even, that the jockey was alive until after they crossed the line.

The race in question was a steeplechase and the idea that a dead man could stay on a horse that was jumping over fences is frankly ludicrous...

Capt'n Midnight

The Vauxhall Nova. No va is like doesn't go in Spanish

Ted_YNWA

Similarly the Mazda MR2 (MR deux in French, sounds like merde or sh1t)

cdeb

Or fast food in Germany - fast in German means almost, so "fast food" is "almost food".

Which actually isn't far off the mark.

(Not a brand name, I know, but I like the bilingual pun anyway)

castletownman

Everyone knows about the Aran Sweater....but it is strongly believed that the Arklow Gansey predates it and was an inspiration to the sweater.

In the 1890s, the Irish Fisheries Board sent experienced fishing communities to the Aran Islands to teach new fishing methods to an area being held back by traditional ways. Arklow fishermen were regarded as among the most proficient in Europe, and regularly traveled around the neighbouring coasts of Ireland depending on the season.

The Arklow Gansey was knitted with the wool of Wicklow sheep, and its high lanolin count made it more waterproof than other styles. Each local family had its own unique pattern- in fact so unique that whenever a fisherman or sailor came ashore after being lost at sea, they could immediately be identified as being from Arklow (provided he was still wearing the gansey of course). Said gansey would be returned to the town where the family could identify their particular pattern and thus claim the body for burial.

Anyway, two years after Arklow fishermen arrived at the Aran Islands, the first documented Aran sweaters began appearing, and became the global phenom so beloved of American tourists to this day

Incidentally, coastal communities in north England use the same word for the same item of clothing, which harks back to Arklow fishermen's connection with that area as well. And further testament to their "nomadic" lifestyle, the first two vessels to attend the scene of the Lusitania sinking were Arklow fishing boats, "Dan O'Connell" and "Elizabeth". They were fishing for mackerel off of Kinsale (as they done on an annual basis) when the torpedo struck.

mzungu

EndaHonesty wrote: »

It's a nice story but not a provable fact.

It's very possible, likely even, that the jockey was alive until after they crossed the line.

The race in question was a steeplechase and the idea that a dead man could stay on a horse that was jumping over fences is frankly ludicrous...

I respectfully disagree. If Weekend at Bernie's is anything to go by, winning that steeplechase should have been a mere doddle. :pac::pac::D


Back on topic.

When Viagra is dissolved in water, it can make cut flowers stand up straight for up to a week longer than usual.

Link to article about the study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1126921/

Graces7

On one of the outer Orkney islands, North Ronaldsay, there is a unique breed of sheep that eats only seaweed. There is a wall so that they cannot get off the beach..
Originally this was to protect land for crops.

Then it caught on as a special breed..

They are horned, smaller than usual, brown or grey
The meat is a prized delicacy said to be gamey

and they have protected status.

hussey

acai berry wrote: »

TV Series "My Kitchen Rules - Australia" is better in every way than its counterpart in Britain. The Australian one is more slick and sophistocated. The Aussie contestants really make an effort to dress the part for dinner - style is "something else". The chief Judges, Pete and Manu, are the hottest looking guys, dressed to perfection from head to toe. A third judge, Colin Fassnidge, actually hails from Dublin, and now owns a top class restautant in AU. The popup-restaurants each team of two contestants have to set up in their own homes, are outstanding. Then there's the actual cooking - mostly brilliant, representing a wide variety of cultures.

Actually barely any of that is true, Pete evans is a nut job of the paleo kind, and brought a cookbook out which suggested giving bone broth to children, until the health department banned the book. But yet he goes on TV eating any food put in front of him.
The contestants are brought on a cooking course before the series, and knowing how to cook is not a requirement of the show, it's all about 'drama' contestants being bitchy to each other.

Colin's top class restaurants have closed.

The houses are not theirs either (do you really think every contestant owns a dining table that can seat 12?) and a 5 bedroom mansion.
The contestants are only given their 'menu' that morning (hence why you hear a lot of, I've never actually cooked this before, and kitchen disasters)
If it was really your menu, you would cook it every day until you get it perfect.
A few of them do go on to cooking jobs in real kitchens, and some are very good, but most are using the platform as a springboard to social media influencer, or rep for a brand and do cooking demos in shopping centres etc.

Compare that to Masterchef Australia, where the contestants have gone on to open Hatted restaurants (like a Michelin Star).

That's Pete Evans, one of the Aussie judges. See what I mean! :cool:

Do a google for 'Paelo Pete' and his activated almonds or bone broth, the guy is a dangerous nut job, and just sells anything for money.

I live in Sydney, so probably see more of what really happens. But to sum up the show is the bachelor of cooking, completely fake, and made for fake drama, as opposed to content ... and does very well in ratings.

Cookie_Monster

Ted_YNWA wrote: »

Similarly the Mazda MR2 (MR deux in French, sounds like merde or sh1t)

Toyota even?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_MR2

acai berry

hussey wrote: »

Actually barely any of that is true, Pete evans is a nut job of the paleo kind, and brought a cookbook out which suggested giving bone broth to children, until the health department banned the book. But yet he goes on TV eating any food put in front of him.
The contestants are brought on a cooking course before the series, and knowing how to cook is not a requirement of the show, it's all about 'drama' contestants being bitchy to each other.

Colin's top class restaurants have closed.

The houses are not theirs either (do you really think every contestant owns a dining table that can seat 12?) and a 5 bedroom mansion.
The contestants are only given their 'menu' that morning (hence why you hear a lot of, I've never actually cooked this before, and kitchen disasters)
If it was really your menu, you would cook it every day until you get it perfect.
A few of them do go on to cooking jobs in real kitchens, and some are very good, but most are using the platform as a springboard to social media influencer, or rep for a brand and do cooking demos in shopping centres etc.

Compare that to Masterchef Australia, where the contestants have gone on to open Hatted restaurants (like a Michelin Star).


Do a google for 'Paelo Pete' and his activated almonds or bone broth, the guy is a dangerous nut job, and just sells anything for money.

I live in Sydney, so probably see more of what really happens. But to sum up the show is the bachelor of cooking, completely fake, and made for fake drama, as opposed to content ... and does very well in ratings.

What you have to say, there, hussey, can stand on its own as background information, assuming all of it is true. I don't know.

As for being a reponse to my post above, I don't think it has any relevance. I was comparing the end products of both British and Aussie productions. (My Kitchen Rules Australia and Britain). Mind you, I can contribute a fact that maybe not everybody knows: It's not very nice to be ganged up on the way I have been on this thread.

I am going by the end product that I see on TV - comparing both. Of course MKR in all countries are meant to be reality TV shows. They're building up a fantasy end product using objective standards that apply to nearly all programmes of that genre. I suppose it comes under the heading of Reality TV.

Whether or not Pete Evens wrote a book that was banned, is immaterial to the point I was making. What I was mainly saying about Pete and Manu (Aussie judges), is that they are immaculately turned out in comparison to their counterparts in Britain, who look sloppy and badly groomed. Their whole performances are choreographed to the nth degree. Pete and Manu have great panache, that makes the women almost faint. Colin Faassnidge (the Dubliner judge) has written about his life in Australia, in the Irish Times, and I believe has done programmes about "his Ireland" for showing in AU. He has written about how he was told by the Producers that he needed to up his game as a judge, i.e. become more "out there" sharper and slicker, if he was to be kept on. I had noticed, when he came on first, his English usage was not great, grammar-wise. He has risen up to what was expected of him and does very well now as a judge.

Of course, it's all a fantasy, they are building on that for our entertainment. The Australian version is way out there ahead of the British version, and I beg to differ with the responses I received that what I am saying is pure opinion. There are certain objective standards that these kind of shows go by in order to be successful. From start to finish, based on these standards of what makes a good show of this genre, AU is streets ahead of Britain in My Kitchen Rules.

Seeing as you bring up the subject again, dear hussey, I beg to assert that I was not going purely by "opinion" but on a set of objective standars that I have perceived to exist with all of thse type of shows. Going by these standards, it is a fact, no doubt, that Britain, falls far below Australia, far as MKR is concerned.

The end product is watchability, and I have to say the British version is painful to watch by comparison. It falls short of these objective standards in so many ways.

I did not argue this above, as I felt I was decended upon by a group of nerds, men, I presume, whose sensibilities were possibly ruffled by the gif that I put up, truth be told, who'd rather see stuff such as abstruse mathematical eqautions, and the like, that nobody is interested in, adorning the thread. I honestly don't think there would have been that response, had I not put up the gif. That's why I just let it go. I saw no point in arguing. I was told my post was not in the spirit of the thread i.e not nerdy enough, as I took it - and I don't apologise for expressing that as an opinion. There you have it.

I decided here is one thread where I will click on Unfollow and move on.

Water John

Interesting Facts 1 Personal Opinions 0.

Fourier

acai berry wrote: »

I did not argue this above, as I felt I was decended upon by a group of nerds, men, I presume, whose sensibilities were possibly ruffled by the gif that I put up, truth be told, who'd rather see stuff such as abstruse mathematical eqautions, and the like, that nobody is interested in, adorning the thread.

As the person who has discussed maths and physics the most, I will come out and admit my toxic male nerd hatred of Australian cooking show gifs. I hope the rest will be brave enough to come forth as well.

Realt Dearg Sec

acai berry wrote: »

I decided here is one thread where I will click on Unfollow and move on.

Good stuff.

acai berry

hussey107750102 wrote:

As the person who has discussed maths and physics the most, I will come out and admit my toxic male nerd hatred of Australian cooking show gifs. I hope the rest will be brave enough to come forth as well.

Kudos to your bravery, Fourier! You can spare the others, as they've already declared themselves en masse with their Thanks.

BTW, Fourier, where does hussey come into this? Is there a sockpuppet in the house?

Peregrine

I bet you didn't know that my intolerance towards Australian cooking gifs was caused by me being a man and my interest in abstruse mathematical equations that nobody is interested in.

acai berry

Peregrine wrote: »

I bit you didn't know that my intolerance towards Australian cooking gifs was caused by me being a man and my interest in abstruse mathematical equations that nobody is interested in.

LOL! At least a bit of humour is beginning to surface! Didn't look like there was any around here for a long time.

elvis83

Can we move on and stop derailing the best thread on boards? (opinion, not fact)

Obligifact: During World War II, the crew of the British submarine HMS Trident kept a fully grown reindeer called Pollyanna aboard their vessel for six weeks (it was a gift from the Russians).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/hampshire/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8386000/8386947.stm

Graces7

castletownman wrote: »

Everyone knows about the Aran Sweater....but it is strongly believed that the Arklow Gansey predates it and was an inspiration to the sweater.

In the 1890s, the Irish Fisheries Board sent experienced fishing communities to the Aran Islands to teach new fishing methods to an area being held back by traditional ways. Arklow fishermen were regarded as among the most proficient in Europe, and regularly traveled around the neighbouring coasts of Ireland depending on the season.

The Arklow Gansey was knitted with the wool of Wicklow sheep, and its high lanolin count made it more waterproof than other styles. Each local family had its own unique pattern- in fact so unique that whenever a fisherman or sailor came ashore after being lost at sea, they could immediately be identified as being from Arklow (provided he was still wearing the gansey of course). Said gansey would be returned to the town where the family could identify their particular pattern and thus claim the body for burial.

Anyway, two years after Arklow fishermen arrived at the Aran Islands, the first documented Aran sweaters began appearing, and became the global phenom so beloved of American tourists to this day

Incidentally, coastal communities in north England use the same word for the same item of clothing, which harks back to Arklow fishermen's connection with that area as well. And further testament to their "nomadic" lifestyle, the first two vessels to attend the scene of the Lusitania sinking were Arklow fishing boats, "Dan O'Connell" and "Elizabeth". They were fishing for mackerel off of Kinsale (as they done on an annual basis) when the torpedo struck.

|There is so much myth around our aran sweaters that it gets hard to separate out....

wiki has an accurate article and no mention of arklow....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aran_jumper

and

https://blog.loveknitting.com/ever-wondered-about-the-real-origin-of-the-aran-sweater/

and a strong channel island connection also..

and the dates given here are far too early.

I knitted for decades for the aran export industry in scotland. one sweater takes they say 78 hours.. and these days in Ireland in the tourist shops. a mixed scene . Hand knitters get paid... peanuts and less.

There are inexpensive versions; they say HAND PIECED, meaning machine knitted and machine sewn up but the pieces are held by hands to ream them!

The next step up is hand knitted but not in Ireland. Irish women will not work for peanuts so the handknits we see at well under \E100 are worked by women in PortugaL. The wool is from NZ as Irish wool is fit only for carpets as the staple is too short. we process it here...

If you want a genuine aran hand knitted here? around 200-300 euros. I used to know Cranaknits up in donegal. rosaleen had still a team of older women she paid well..
I knit my own designs now; always incorporate cables

Fourier

One I think is relatively unknown is that your computer or phone is only able to perform maybe two to eight tasks at once and most of these are taken up with background stuff.

So if you are on your browser and watching a movie, what's really happening is that it performs the computations for the movie for a few milliseconds, then those for the browser and back and forth so fast you never see the pauses and think both are on at once.

Wibbs

acai berry wrote: »

I was told my post was not in the spirit of the thread i.e not nerdy enough,

Nope, TBH I thought someone had posted in the wrong thread by mistake. That you can't see it is baffling. Oh and by the by, one of the best posters on this thread is a woman. Not the only one either. They don't follow your stereotype of "nerdy men" or women thinking a cookery programme is an interesting fact.

Ted_YNWA wrote: »

Similarly the Mazda MR2 (MR deux in French, sounds like merde or sh1t)

MR2 stands for Mid engined, Rear wheel drive(or Runabout) 2 seater.

On car names... The Mitsubishi "Starion" from the 1980's got its name from a mashup of Star of Arion, not because as is often reported that Japanese folks had difficulty pronouncing "Stallion". Mitsubishi had other horsey names at the time like "Colt" so it's easy to see how the rumour took off. Arion was the name of Hercules' horse. A horse who could outrun the wind and could talk too. Handy.

wildlifeboy

acai berry wrote: »

It's based on my knowledge as an expert TV watcher. Has that not as much right to be here as the fact that rats and horses can't vomit? Still confused, wildlifeboy????

Just suck it up and realise you posted utter ****e in an otherwise great thread, we all make mistakes Horse!

acai berry

elvis83 wrote: »

Can we move on and stop derailing the best thread on boards? (opinion, not fact)

A sole Thanks, given by Wibbs

Then he goes on to open up the subject again. So who's doing the derailing?

Wibbs wrote: »

Nope, TBH I thought someone had posted in the wrong thread by mistake. That you can't see it is baffling. Oh and by the by, one of the best posters on this thread is a woman. Not the only one either. They don't follow your stereotype of "nerdy men" or women thinking a cookery programme is an interesting fact.

MR2 stands for Mid engined, Rear wheel drive(or Runabout) 2 seater.

On car names... The Mitsubishi "Starion" from the 1980's got its name from a mashup of Star of Arion, not because as is often reported that Japanese folks had difficulty pronouncing "Stallion". Mitsubishi had other horsey names at the time like "Colt" so it's easy to see how the rumour took off. Arion was the name of Hercules' horse. A horse who could outrun the wind and could talk too. Handy.

I fail to see where discussing car names is any more interesting than the merits of a Reality TV show. But I have not objected to any poster's right to express their interest in said car names - a subject which seems to abound on this thread.

I had already left this thread, way back, until hussey aka fourier resurrected it again. So, don't accuse me of derailing the thread.

Be it on your own heads if this subject surfaces again. Unfollowed!

wally79

acai berry wrote: »

A sole Thanks, given by Wibbs

Then he goes on to open up the subject again. So who's doing the derailing?



I fail to see where discussing car names is any more interesting than the merits of a Reality TV show. But I have not objected to any poster's right to express their interest in said car names - a subject which seems to abound on this thread.

I had already left this thread, way back, until hussey aka fourier resurrected it again. So, don't accuse me of derailing the thread.

Be it on your own heads if this subject surfaces again. Unfollowed!

Because they are discussing facts about car names. Not opinions

EndaHonesty

acai berry wrote: »

A sole Thanks, given by Wibbs

Then he goes on to open up the subject again. So who's doing the derailing?



I fail to see where discussing car names is any more interesting than the merits of a Reality TV show. But I have not objected to any poster's right to express their interest in said car names - a subject which seems to abound on this thread.

I had already left this thread, way back, until hussey aka fourier resurrected it again. So, don't accuse me of derailing the thread.

Be it on your own heads if this subject surfaces again. Unfollowed!

Bandana boy

acai berry wrote: »

Be it on your own heads if this subject surfaces again. Unfollowed!

Mr. CooL ICE

acai berry wrote: »

I think the OP or Mod should be the judge of that. You are taking on their role. If you were to to watch samples of each of those shows, you'd see that what I'm saying is fact - not just opinion. Less of your minimodding, if you please, Squall Leonhart, and previous posters who have responded to this!

Mod: Ok. You are presenting your opinion as fact and ruining the thread for everyone else.

Don't post in this thread again.

Capt'n Midnight

elvis83 wrote: »

Obligifact: During World War II, the crew of the British submarine HMS Trident kept a fully grown reindeer called Pollyanna aboard their vessel for six weeks (it was a gift from the Russians).

During WWI the British submarine HMS E11 fought against Turkish cavalry.

KevRossi

There were just over 20,000 Spitfires built, of which about 55 are left.

They were in active service until 1961, one of the last air forces to use them being the Irish Air Corps. We had one until recently enough.

The biggest contingent outside of the UK was in the Russian Air Force. They had over 1,250 of them.

One of the few known cases of Spitfire's fighting against each other was in Israel in early 1949. They were flown by British pilots on one side and by Canadian and Americans on the other.

The Germans also flew a few in combat that they had captured and repaired.

A large number of them were scrapped after the war due to metal shortages and the aluminium from them was used to build the first Land Rovers in 1948.

freshpopcorn

Mod: Don't call one another horses!

Realt Dearg Sec

KevRossi wrote: »

There were just over 20,000 Spitfires built, of which about 55 are left.

They were in active service until 1961, one of the last air forces to use them being the Irish Air Corps. We had one until recently enough.

The biggest contingent outside of the UK was in the Russian Air Force. They had over 1,250 of them.

One of the few known cases of Spitfire's fighting against each other was in Israel in early 1949. They were flown by British pilots on one side and by Canadian and Americans on the other.

The Germans also flew a few in combat that they had captured and repaired.

A large number of them were scrapped after the war due to metal shortages and the aluminium from them was used to build the first Land Rovers in 1948.

Wait, Britain fight against Canada and America in 1949?! Jaysus...