I bet you didnt know that

Wossack

Everything is either a potato or not a potato

ArnoldJRimmer

jimgoose wrote: »

You could bring a Euro-spec kettle with you, but you'd have to plug it into the cooker ring-main using heavier-than-standard flex because it would be drawing around twice the current it normally would.

I'm happy enough to wait the extra time, gives me a chance to make breakfast while I wait for the kettle to boil. I actually still use an iron I brought over years ago though and use an adaptor plug.

jimgoose

ArnoldJRimmer wrote: »

I'm happy enough to wait the extra time, gives me a chance to make breakfast while I wait for the kettle to boil. I actually still use an iron I brought over years ago though and use an adaptor plug.

The average iron runs about 1,200W, which will result in a current-draw of ~14A, under the limit of a standard B.16 circuit-breaker. Most kettles run about 2,800W.

Red Kev

CAF303 wrote: »

A shark will only bite you if it's wet (or if you're wet), not sure which one it is.

It's if the shark is wet. Here's your proof:;)

Red Kev

This bridge in Dublin is officially called 'Effin Bridge'.

It carries the main Dublin-Maynooth-Sligo rail line over the Royal Canal. It's a "Vertical Lift Bridge", there's only a couple of these in operation in Ireland.

There's some good pics of how it operates here: https://irishwaterwayshistory.com/tag/effin-bridge/

Before:





After:

CAF303

I'm confused now.

diomed

Maewyn Succat was St Patrick's real name.

Red Kev

diomed wrote: »

Maewyn Succat was St Patrick's real name.

...And his wife's name was Sheela. "Sheela's Day" was March 18th and was celebrated mostly by women.

Hot off the presses folks: http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/st-patrick-had-a-wife-and-her-name-was-sheelah-1.3013056

St Patrick had a wife and her name was Sheelah
A UCC folklorist has uncovered accounts from the 18th and 19th century that indicate the patron saint of Ireland was married

about 5 hours ago Updated: about 4 hours ago
Olivia Kelleher


St Patrick has long been associated with snakes and shamrocks, but the fact that he had a wife has largely been confined to the annals of history, according to a folklorist from UCC.
In the old Irish calendar, the day after St Patrick’s Day is Sheelah’s Day, but what is less known is that Sheelah was Patrick’s wife.
Shane Lehane, Department of Folklore UCC, says Sheelah was Patrick’s “other half” and that the March 17th celebrations were extended for an additional twenty four hours to commemorate her life.
Lehane observes that antiquarian journals and newspaper accounts of the 18th and 19th centuries in Ireland indicate the wide-spread belief that St Patrick had a wife.
“Pre Famine, pre 1845, if you go back to the newspapers in Ireland they talk not just about Patrick’s Day but also Sheelah’s Day. You have Paddy’s day on the 17th and it continues on to Sheelah’s day. I came across numerous references that Sheelah was thought to be Patrick’s wife. The fact that we have Patrick and Sheelah together should be no surprise. Because that duality, that union of the male and female together, is one of the strongest images that we have in our mythology.”
An early reference to the continued celebrations on March 18th, which was St Sheelah’s day, is found in John Carr’s 1806 The Stranger in Ireland.
Carr said that on the anniversary of St Patrick, the country people assembled in their nearest towns and villages and got very tipsy.

“From a spirit of gallantry, these merry devotees continue drunk the greater part of the next day, viz., the 18th of March, all in honour of Sheelagh, St. Patrick’s wife.”
Lehane claims the fact that Patrick had a wife is a really fascinating angle from a feminist point of view.

“What I think is very interesting is that people in Ireland in the past had no problem whatsoever accepting that Patrick had a wife. The church was very strong and during the period of Lent you had major prohibitions. However, folk tradition was such that Patrick afforded a special dispensation and Irish people were allowed to celebrate Patrick’s day. It seems to have been extended to the 18th of March and was a continuation of celebrations. They continued to drink on Sheelah’s day and there is a sense that the women were more involved in the celebrations on the 18th. So there is a feminist angle in there.”
Lehane has unearthed references to Sheelah’s day in the Freeman’s Journal of 1785, 1811 and 1841.
There are also many accounts in the 19th century Australian Press evidencing the observance of Sheelah’s day, usually in the context of the consumption of too much alcohol.
He says whilst the feast day is largely forgotten about in Ireland, Sheelah still has a keen presence in the history of Newfoundland, Canada.
“St Sheelah’s Day was news to me. I thought it was amazing, as all memory of her seems to have died out here. Sheelah and Patrick, at one time, came to represent the ubiquitous Irish couple. Paddy and Sheelah became a byword for all Irish people. Sheelah has been forgotten altogether except in Newfoundland, Canada and in Australia. Irish people headed over to Newfoundland from the late 1600’s. And they brought over with them this tradition of Sheelah and Sheelah’s Day. “
Lehane says perhaps the most enduring legacy of Sheelah is the so-called “Sheelah’s Brush.” This is the name given by Newfoundlanders and Atlantic Canadians to a winter snowstorm that falls after St Patrick’s Day.
Sometimes referred to as “Sheelah’s Broom” - or if the snowstorm is mild with only a bare covering of snow, “Sheila’s Blush” - it is still referred to respectfully by meteorologists and fisherman in that part of the world.
Lehane suggests that perhaps the key to understanding the inherited notion that St Patrick had a wife, Sheelah, is to explore the archaeological manifestation that also bears her name: the Sheelah-na-Gig.
“Sheela-na-Gig is a basic medieval carving of a woman exposing her genitalia. These images are often considered to be quite grotesque. They are quite shocking when you see them first. Now we look at them very much as examples of old women showing young women how to give birth. They are vernacular folk deities associated with pregnancy and birth.”
Lehane proposes that it is time to revisit and embrace the story of Sheelah.
“Sheelah represented, for women in particular, a go-to person because she represented the female. The Sheela-na-Gig is a really important part of medieval folk tradition. The figure of Sheelah was perhaps much bigger than suggested by the scant mentions we find in the old newspaper accounts. She represents a folk personification, allied to, what can be termed, the female cosmic agency, and being such, would have played a major role in people’s everyday lives. It is a pity that the day has died out. But maybe we will revive it. I am sure Fáilte Ireland would be delighted with it. I think it would be a great idea!”

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

On the subject of electric kettles, you can't even buy them here. Most Colombians just boil water in the microwave or on the hob. Like the US, the voltage isn't suitable.

CINCLANTFLT

Wossack wrote: »

Everything is either a potato or not a potato

What about sweet potatoes?

Noddyholder

Japanese researchers have concluded that cats do recognise the sound of there owners voice, its just they don't really care when called...

Noddyholder

Mickey Mouse was the first non human to win an Oscar.

Buford T. Justice XIX

CINCLANTFLT wrote: »

What about sweet potatoes?

Schrodingers sweet potatoes, being both potato and not potato at the same time...

Kat1170

The sitcom Porridge had no theme tune ...

Red Kev

The VW Beetle looks like it remained more or less unchanged from the late 1946 to it's prodcution end in Mexico in 2003. Except that to keep up with the times almost every part was changed, modified, redesigned or altered. The only two parts that are interchangeable from the 1946 and 2003 cars are a clamping strip that holds down the front hood and the engine lid rubber seals.

Noddyholder wrote: »

Mickey Mouse was the first non human to win an Oscar.

And Red Rum the only non human to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Kat1170 wrote: »

The sitcom Porridge had no theme tune ...

Excellent. Never thought of that.

Duckworth_Luas

Noddyholder wrote: »

Mickey Mouse was the first non human to win an Oscar.

Actually, animated characters and animals are ineligible for an Academy Award nomination. So Mickey Mouse never won an Oscar, Walt Disney did.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Red Kev wrote: »

And Red Rum the only non human to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year. .

What year?

Never happened.

VG31

No. 245 Templeogue Road, an unusual art-deco house, was named ‘Konstanz’ in 1940 after the German city at the west side of Lake Constance. It was the home of Stephen Carroll Held and was an IRA safe-house. Held was the adopted son of a German man and a member of the IRA. He had travelled as an IRA courier to Germany in early 1940. The local myth of the time said that there was a swastika painted on the roof.


245 Templeogue Road (‘Konstanz’)

In May 1940, Hermann Görtz, an agent of the Abwehr (German military intelligence) landed by parachute in Ballivor, Co. Meath. He walked to Laragh, Co. Wicklow in full Luftwaffe uniform and was not apprehended, despite asking for directions in a Garda barracks. He made contact with the IRA and was taken to Held’s house. During Görtz’s stay in ‘Konstanz’ he met with the IRA Chief of Staff, Stephen Hayes.


Hermann Görtz

Only a few weeks after his arrival, one of Held’s servants told Gardaí of the suspicious visitor and 24 May the house was raided. Held fabricated a story of having a mysterious lodger who only left the house at night. The Gardaí did not believe Held and entered Görtz’s room, seizing his medals, a wireless transmitter, $20,000, documents relating to Irish defence infrastructure and an IRA plan to invade Northern Ireland (known as Plan Kathleen). Görtz managed to escape over a fence in the back garden.

He remained on the run for nineteen months, far longer than any other German spy in Ireland. Görtz was finally captured in a house in Clontarf in November 1941 and was interned for the remainder of the war in Mountjoy Prison and then a camp in Athlone. He committed suicide in Dublin Castle in 1947, ingesting a cyanide pill after being told that he would be deported to Germany.

Winterlong

Red Kev wrote: »

And Red Rum the only non human to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Not according to wiki!

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

During his reign as Bulgarian Tsar, Simeon the Second of Bulgaria was a young boy and matters of State were presided over by a regency comprising of the Prime Minister, a General and his uncle. When the monarchy was abolished and Bulgaria came under communist control post WW2, the young Tsar was forced into exile in Egypt, and later Spain.

He returned in 1996 and formed a new political party called the National Movement for Stability and Progress, and was elected Prime Minister of the Bulgarian Republic from 2001 to 2005, spending a further four years as part of a coalition government before leaving politics in 2009.

He's the only European Monarch to have also been a democratically elected head of government, and only the second world wide following Norodom Sihanouk, former King of Cambodia who was elected head of government in 1955.

More than 30 million Chinese people live in caves today. Most of these caves are in the North-Western Shaanxi region, where the soil is conducive to excavation.




Many of these manmade cave systems have electricity, some even have plumbing. The rising rents in the larger cities have led to an upsurge in cave homes being excavated, as people move to more afforadable accommodation.

Most cave homes are not 'stand alone', and are part of a community that includes cave stores and cave schools.

diomed

The Ian Fleming novel Goldfinger, was named after Hungarian born architect Ernő Goldfinger, whose work Fleming abhorred.
Fleming had previously been among the objectors to the pre-war demolition of the cottages in Hampstead that were removed to make way for Goldfinger's house at 2 Willow Road.

25% of Russian men won't see their 55th birthday. Compare that to <6% of British men and 2 -3% of American men.

The reason is alcohol, mainly vodka.

Barry Badrinath

Kate interupts people eating their breakfast.

Kate's a bollox.

Hagar7

Nero never played the fiddle whilst Rome burned,it wasn't invented until the 16th century.

Hagar7

Senor Fancy Pants wrote: »

Kate interupts people eating their breakfast.

Kate's a bollox.

If it's Kate Hopkins then I agree,if she interrupted my breakfast then I'd gladly puke it all over her face.

Dtp1979

The 1 to 5 settings on a toaster are actually minutes

Hagar7

Hagar7 wrote: »

Nero never played the fiddle whilst Rome burned,it wasn't invented until the 16th century.

In the Middle Ages, stringed instruments were classified as fidicula, from which the word fiddle is derived.

Nero most probably played an early version of the lute, which was accurately described as him playing a fidicula as Rome burned, later misinterpreted as Nero playing the fiddle during the inferno.

New Home

I always thought he played the lyre, or something similar.

New Home

New Home wrote: »

I always thought he played the lyre, or something similar.

That's actually what I was thinking of, now that you say it. I confused my Lyres with my Lutes :P