I bet you didnt know that

pickarooney

Esel wrote: »

My father had a saying:

"The three rarest things - a jennet's* foal, a sweet arsehole, and the tops of the rushes green."

* http://www.irelandlogue.com/about-ireland/irish-slang-a-jennet.html

I never realised that word was only used in Ireland or that the other name for it was a hinny.

A 'genet' is a rather beautiful cat I've just discovered, and not another spelling of jennet.

Capt'n Midnight

During WWI Vickers were billing the UK government for patents owned by the German company Krupps for the fuses used in shells that were killing Germans (yes this is as bizarre as it sounds) but were keeping the money for themselves.

After the war they paid Krupps back some of the money, which helped Germany rearm.

http://armingallsides.on-the-record.org.uk/case_studies/vickers-and-krupp/

Captain_Crash

In keeping with WWII, the Saturn V rocket that launched man to the moon was just a beefed up V2 rocket, and a large number of the scientists involved in NASA were former nazi scientists.

StupidLikeAFox

Wibbs wrote: »

He didn't design them, but he was one of the main suppliers to the reich alright and a fully paid up member of various nazi organisations. After the war he was fined and his company was taken from him(directly. his family went on to run it). Considering his support he got off lightly. Then again only a minuscule number of high ranking nazi businessmen got punished, or even tried. Most got away pretty much scot free. A travesty of justice given how German(and a few international) big business fostered and supported the nazi's.

Hugo boss was up to his neck in it alright, but in fairness if you were an average business owner in Germany at that time I don't think you could really say no the the old nazis

bonzodog2

Captain_Crash wrote: »

In keeping with WWII, the Saturn V rocket that launched man to the moon was just a beefed up V2 rocket, and a large number of the scientists involved in NASA were former nazi scientists.

Well, ... the V2 was 14m and the Saturn V was 110m high and multi-stage. Much development between the two.
But many Nazi rocket engineers were involved

kingchess

bonzodog2 wrote: »

Well, ... the V2 was 14m and the Saturn V was 110m high and multi-stage. Much development between the two.
But many Nazi rocket engineers were involved

A case of "we aim for the stars,but some times we hit London"????

Captain_Crash

bonzodog2 wrote: »

Well, ... the V2 was 14m and the Saturn V was 110m high and multi-stage. Much development between the two.
But many Nazi rocket engineers were involved

That's what I mean by "beefed up"... The technology used was developed directly from the V2, by many of the same scientists who developed the V2

jimgoose

Captain_Crash wrote: »

In keeping with WWII, the Saturn V rocket that launched man to the moon was just a beefed up V2 rocket, and a large number of the scientists involved in NASA were former nazi scientists.

One of the foremost of these was one Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun, who was not only a card-carrying Nazi but also an SS Sturmbannführer.

Wibbs

StupidLikeAFox wrote: »

Hugo boss was up to his neck in it alright, but in fairness if you were an average business owner in Germany at that time I don't think you could really say no the the old nazis

Oh sure and the party had a lot of genuine support because of what a lot of ordinary people saw as a massive turnaround in their personal circumstances and a renewed pride in their country and lives. Germany went in a few short years from utter defeat, crippling inflation, food shortages and political unrest to apparently stable and growing into the future. It's easy for us with hindsight, but at the time and on the ground it is very easy to see why people bought into it, while ignoring the darker stuff that came along for the ride(which crept in, at least in the public perception). It is more than likely that if we were all there at the time the support for Hitler would be the majority.

That's the ordinary Hans and Greta Citizen, the big business owners, particularly the massive German industrial complex owners, had far more of an overall picture, knew of the dodgy stuff far earlier on, knew they were arming up for war and were supporting it and making millions on the back of it. They signed up for the party and bought into the whole thing. Contrary to popular belief it wasn't a requirement and many Germans didn't bother, including small business owners. It was a major ticket into the main nazi money machine however and made fortunes for many. But when the war was over and the allies were looking for justice, as usual it was the "foot soldiers" who took the bullets and the noose and not the vast majority of the movers and shakers who actually put the pricks in power.

Sticking with the theme of the thread and something some might not know, another difference with the German war effort was unlike the allies they didn't press the women of Germany into war production. There was no Reinhelda the Riveter. Instead they made up the labour shortfall with imported workers and slave labour.

Chancer3001

Speaking of slave labour

We had slave labour in ireland until very recently.

The women in those "mother and daughter" homes made board games for hasbro

valoren

The etymology of the famous Cork slang 'Langer'.

While the Munster Fusiliers, an infrantry regiment of the British army, were based in India, among the local wildlife was the gray langur monkey.

It was loud, obnoxious and generally seen as a bloody nuisance.

So in time, a loud obnoxious person in Cork came to be known as a 'Langer'.

PMBC

A sewer pipe flowing under gravity i.e. sloped and with no pumping carries the same volume when half full as when full!
It carries the greatest volume when less than full - somewhere around 98% full depth/diameter.

stimpson

valoren wrote: »

The etymology of the famous Cork slang 'Langer'.

While the Munster Fusiliers, an infrantry regiment of the British army, were based in India, among the local wildlife was the gray langur monkey.

It was loud, obnoxious and generally seen as a bloody nuisance.

So in time, a loud obnoxious person in Cork came to be known as a 'Langer'.

I'm assuming the monkey was well endowed, giving rise to that other use of the term.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

stimpson wrote: »

I'm assuming the monkey was well endowed, giving rise to that other use of the term.

That's often suggested to have come from leangaire, meaning a long, slender salmon.

Wossack

In a bid to combat counterfeiting, many colour photocopiers and scanners recognise currency, and blankly refuse to operate*. Nowadays, this recognition is largely done by an arrangement of just 5 little circles printed throughout it, dubbed EURion. Have a look at your nearest 20e note, and you'll notice them (many yellow o's, it looks like the same arrangement printed in various orientations). This same method is used on many currencies all over the world (USD, EUR, zloty, rupee, peso for example).

If you manage to get around that, and get some print outs of your funny money, dont just run to the bank.. Have a close look at the printout with a magnifying glass and under some bright light. Many colour laser printers also print a series of tiny yellow dots** throughout whatever was meant to be printed - encoding the printer serial and manufacturing numbers into every(!) printout made. Which can potentially be used to trace a printout (any printout) to a specific printer..

* very early xerox machines used to lock up completely, and would require an engineer to unfuck (and potentially attract some legal questions..)
** this may be limited to the USA

Yourself isit

That little muppet ditty Mahna Mahna was originally written for a Swedish soft porn documentary. The muppets weren't in it.

Capt'n Midnight

bonzodog2 wrote: »

Well, ... the V2 was 14m and the Saturn V was 110m high and multi-stage. Much development between the two.
But many Nazi rocket engineers were involved

A lot of development.

The V2 used alcohol as a fuel but diluted with water so it wouldn't get too hot. Water is not an ideal rocket fuel.

Also the V2 used internal propellent tanks, and a frame, and outer covering. Most other rockets use the tanks as part of the structure which saves a lot of weight.


So if you were to scale up a multi stage V2 to replace a Saturn I rocket , then it would be 2600 feet tall. A smidgen under half a mile.

.

readytosnap

Yourself isit wrote: »

That little muppet ditty Mahna Mahna was originally written for a Swedish soft porn documentary. The muppets weren't in it.

That explains why the muppets were being fisted during their performance.

valoren

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

A lot of development.

The V2 used alcohol as a fuel but diluted with water so it wouldn't get too hot. Water is not an ideal rocket fuel.

Also the V2 used internal propellent tanks, and a frame, and outer covering. Most other rockets use the tanks as part of the structure which saves a lot of weight.


So if you were to scale up a multi stage V2 to replace a Saturn I rocket , then it would be 2600 feet tall. A smidgen under half a mile.

.

The Saturn rockets and the V2 also shared similar black and white marking schemes, obviously more spread apart on the longer, multi stage Saturn. This was to aid ground crews who used the markings to monitor the roll of the rockets, or to call an abort if the rocket rolled too much.

valoren

The movie Titanic (1997) cost more to make than the actual ship itself.

The movie cost $200 million.
The actual costs to construct the ship between 1910 to 1912 were $7.5 million.
Adjusted for inflation, that would be around $125 million in 1997.

fiachr_a

King Kong (the first one from the 1930s) is a copy of a movie from the 1920s called Lost world. Same story and scenes but with a dinosaur.

Hunger kills more people worldwide than the 'Big Three' diseases - HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis - combined.

HIV/AIDS is no longer one of the top ten causes of death worldwide for the first time in almost three decades.

steddyeddy

Candie wrote: »

Hunger kills more people worldwide than the 'Big Three' diseases - HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis - combined.

HIV/AIDS is no longer one of the top ten causes of death worldwide for the first time in almost three decades.

A member of our team went of to work on the HIV vaccine. It's a remarkable virus.

SEPT 23 1989

George W Bush lived in Compton Los Angeles as a child

steddyeddy

steddyeddy wrote: »

A member of our team went of to work on the HIV vaccine. It's a remarkable virus.

Went to a great lecture recently where a medical primatologist went into a lot of detail on simian immunodeficiency viruses and also trisomy disorders in other primates, was riveting stuff.

steddyeddy

Candie wrote: »

Went to a great lecture recently where a medical primatologist went into a lot of detail on simian immunodeficiency viruses and also trisomy disorders in other primates, was riveting stuff.

I would have paid to be at that. Sounds fascinating!

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

George W Bush lived in Compton Los Angeles as a child

Before White Flight I assume.

retalivity

Allinall wrote: »

Laois is the only Irish county that doesn't border a coastal county.

Uzbekistan and liechtenstein are the only 2 countries that dont border a country with a coast. They are doubly landlocked, so they are the only countries in the world that require transit through 2 other countries to get to the coast

farmerwifelet

Elvis was blonde. he dyed his hair black.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

farmerwifelet wrote: »

Elvis was blonde. he dyed his hair black.

It was actually sandy brown, or mousy, rather than blonde.