I bet you didnt know that

LordSutch

...that technically speaking bees are too heavy to fly (for the size of their wings)!

Capt'n Midnight

LordSutch wrote: »

...that technically speaking bees are too heavy to fly (for the size of their wings)!

That factoid dated from 1934. Airships were still a thing back then.

Aerodynamics theory has improved since.

They use vortex lift

Muahahaha

alchemist33 wrote: »

The UK government's COBRA commitee (called after terrorist incidents etc) might sound like an agency from a Bond movie but it's actually called after where the meetings happen: Cabinet Office, BoardRoom A

True but it is Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, its in Whitehall.

stimpson

LordSutch wrote: »

...that technically speaking bees are too heavy to fly (for the size of their wings)!

This was disproved years ago. Well it was obviously disproved because they do actually fly, but the mechanism was not understood. Basically bees use a shorter stroke but a higher frequency of flaps compared to fruit flies. When a bee is carrying a load such as pollen it increases the amplitude of the stroke but keeps the frequency the same to generate more lift. There is also lift generated from vortices which hadn't been known previously.

Ipso

Albert Einstein didn't say half the stuff that is attributed to him on Facebook.

diomed

Canada has a bigger area than the USA but the USA has a bigger land area.

Realt Dearg Sec

Ipso wrote: »

Albert Einstein didn't say half the stuff that is attributed to him on Facebook.

- Abraham Lincoln, 1855

StupidLikeAFox

Ipso wrote: »

Albert Einstein didn't say half the stuff that is attributed to him on Facebook.

Ipso - 2017

In the 1970s, Ireland had its own version of Rolos called Rovals.

IvyTheTerrible

The Spanish flu of 1918 was so called because people thought it came from Spain, because the first news reports of big outbreaks came from there. However, it was untrue that Spain was the first place with big outbreaks, it was simply that other countries more involved in World War 1 censored news reports on the disease.

pickarooney

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

To go back to the computer AI subject (just for a min, as I am only catching up now), I heard that a test used for determining intelligence, is for a computer to be able to differentiate a cat from a dog.
A 2nd test is to be able to tell the true subject in the sentence "I saw a nice bike in the shop window, and I am going to buy it". The "it" here is the bike.... But a computer will identify "it" as the window.

Lastly, a joke....
A programmers wife asked him to go to the shops and get a litre of milk, and if they have fresh eggs, get 6. The programmer did as he was asked and returned with six litres of milk. The wife asked why he got 6 litres of milk, he replied "because the eggs were fresh".

Nice try, Mr. Computer, but the subject in that sentence is "I".

I think I saw a program that could differentiate between a hot dog and not a dog a couple of weeks ago.

mikemac2

The area in Dublin near Aughrim Street, Prussia Street and North Circular Road was Dublins livestock market. The site was huge! Replaced by housing when it closed.



Cattle came from all over the country and were unloaded at Glasnevin Junction station. This station is long since closed but the platforms and the water tower are still there. It's a little before the east side of Broombridge, have a look next time you are on the Maynooth line

Now how do you get cattle from the mart down to the docks? You drive them down the north circular road. Today's motorists complain about errant cyclists but back then a beast might belt your motor car. Many a stray sheep who wandered down a laneway was grabbed by the residents and ne'er seen again

Phibsborough here


Dublin had a large amount of small unhygienic back street abattoirs. An entirely unsatisfactory situation so the corpo decided to centralise this into one modern facility. This was built on Blackhorse Avenue off the Navan Road. Vested interests were against this proposal and the cute hoors found a loophole :cool:

Before 1890 Navan Road area was outside city limits and the Dublin Cowkeepers and Dairymens Association lobbied hard for exemptions and won. But saying that the corpo was corrupt as hell and many of the worst housing were owned by the aldermen!

Anyway down to the docks and loaded onto boats to England. He is the MV Munster in 1965 down the docks and you can see the cattle pens in the background. Only shiny American banks there these days

iLikeWaffles

The earths period of rotation in respect to the stars is 4 minutes less than 24 hours (23 hours 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds) and there are about 366.242 stellar days in one mean tropical year (one stellar day more than the number of solar days).

The planet's rotation is slowing down overall because of tidal forces between Earth and the moon. Roughly every 100 years a day gets about 1.4 milliseconds longer.

In about 50 billion years the Moon will stop moving away from us and settle into a stable orbit. At this point the Moon will take about 47 days to go around the Earth (currently, it takes a little over 27 days). When this new stability is achieved the Earth and the Moon will be tidally locked to each other.

LordSutch

That Holland is flat...

retalivity

LordSutch wrote: »

That Holland is flat...

Its not...but 26% of it is below sea level and over 50% is less than one metre above sea level. The largest 'mountain' is in the far southeast and is only 320m high.
The first dutch polders were dried out over 400 years ago, and there are still new ones in the works to reclaim more land from the sea. So technically while god may have created the world, the dutch really did create holland

retalivity

retalivity wrote: »

Its not...but 26% of it is below sea level and over 50% is less than one metre above sea level. The largest 'mountain' is in the far southeast and is only 320m high.
The first dutch polders were dried out over 400 years ago, and there are still new ones in the works to reclaim more land from the sea. So technically while god may have created the world, the dutch really did create holland

Just out of interest, how are the Dutch allowed to reclaim lands under EU directives? Drying out wetlands or altering tides seems to be a no-no on the environmental side.

LordSutch

...that the moon is a breakaway part of the earth.

Buford T. Justice XIX

LordSutch wrote: »

...that the moon is a breakaway part of the earth.

Chancer3001

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Using a diet mixer with your drink gets you 27% drunker than if you use a non diet mixer. Reason being that the diet mixer passes through the stomach much faster due to the lack of calories and brings the alcohol with it.

You'd get drunk in no time at all mixing a spirit with water by that logic ?

Chancer3001

Chancer3001 wrote: »

You'd get drunk in no time at all mixing a spirit with water by that logic ?

Not so, studies have shown that carbonated mixers increase the absorption of alcohol versus non carbonated mixers.

GritBiscuit

In the Simpsons, Kelsey Grammer of Frasier fame voices infamous villain Sideshow Bob.
Cecil, Sideshow Bob’s brother is voiced by David Hyde Pierce (who plays Niles, Frasier's brother on the show).
Sideshow Bob and Cecil's father, Dr. Robert Terwilliger, is voiced by John Mahoney (the actor who plays Niles and Frasier's dad).

New Home

I knew about Bob and Cecil, but I didn't know about their father!

ohnonotgmail

I haven't watched the simpsons in a long time. i didnt even realise their father appeared on the show.

Lorelli!

retalivity wrote: »

Its not...but 26% of it is below sea level and over 50% is less than one metre above sea level. The largest 'mountain' is in the far southeast and is only 320m high.
The first dutch polders were dried out over 400 years ago, and there are still new ones in the works to reclaim more land from the sea. So technically while god may have created the world, the dutch really did create holland

The Dutch and their methods were also used to drain The Fens region in England in parts of Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. The drainage system made these areas particularly favourable for arable agriculture in Britain. It's meant to look really nice at night time because the land is flat.

Ipso

The reason behind Van Halen's no brown M&Ms demand.
http://www.businessinsider.com/van-halen-brown-m-ms-contract-2016-9

Persephone kindness

Ipso wrote: »

The reason behind Van Halen's no brown M&Ms demand.
http://www.businessinsider.com/van-halen-brown-m-ms-contract-2016-9

Rider clauses are a real deal ..judges won't undo bad deals. Creative. I like it.

Thargor

Persephone kindness wrote: »

Rider clauses are a real deal ..judges won't undo bad deals. Creative. I like it.

Ipso wrote: »

The reason behind Van Halen's no brown M&Ms demand.
http://www.businessinsider.com/van-halen-brown-m-ms-contract-2016-9

Ben Affleck And Matt Damon put a scene in the Good Will Hunting script when they were shopping it around to directors to see who was actually reading the whole thing, it was a scene where Robin Williams and the grumpy maths professor Stellan Skarsgard were arguing about Will in his office but it ends up with Robin Williams giving Stellan Skarsgard a blowjob, Harvey Weinstein was one of the only people to question it and he ended up directing it:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/30/good-will-hunting-gay-sex-scene_n_6581054.html

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

The longest distance a ship can travel in a straight line without hitting land is from Pakistan to the Kamchatka peninsula.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpQwuGueeoA

It seems counter intuitive because we are used to looking at maps, rather than globes.

iLikeWaffles

Of the air we breath roughly 78% of it is Nitrogen 20% oxygen 1% argon 1-3% water vapour and 0.04% carbon dioxide the rest is a mixture of all sorts of gases. The lungs and brain only use about 4% of oxygen that is inhaled. This is why giving mouth to mouth works when a person stops breathing.

LordSutch

.. That some people still think the earth is flat.