I bet you didnt know that

dasdog

An estimated 300 million people died from small pox in the last century. A particularly nasty virus that has been contained through an immunisation program initiated by the World Heath Organisation. It was declared eradicated in 1980.

Jonathan Swift author of Gulliver's Travellers, left his wealth to setup St. Patrick's Mental Health hospital in 1747. It is Ireland's leading non profit mental health organisation.

Nigeria is growing faster than any other nation and is projected to be the world's third most populous country by 2050.

cdeb

The place names in Gulliver's Travels are often plays on words. So Lindalino in Book III has two "Lin"s - so it's a double-lin, or Dublin.

A couple of years earlier, in 1722, Daniel Defoe wrote "A Journal of the Plague Year", telling the story of London in 1665 as the Black Death swept the city. Defoe was only 5 in 1665, and wrote "Journal" nearly 60 years later because he was typically in and out of debtor jail, and he needed money. There was a general feeling by 1722 that a plague was overdue - in fact, it never returned - and Defoe wrote "Journal" and its sequel, "Due Preparations for the Plague, as Well for Soul as Body", to first create and then cash in on fear of the plague. He died in 1731, still in hiding from his creditors.

It's a fantastic read if history is your thing.

Realt Dearg Sec

Defoe is also responsible for one of the great continuity errors in literary history, when Robinson Crusoe stripped naked, swam out to his ship and filled his pockets with biscuits.

Sadly it may not have been an error, because "naked" could refer at the time to someone with underwear on. Perhaps more importantly, Robinson Crusoe at other times refuses to go nude even though he is alone in the island. This is a signal of his being a civilised person, and not a savage.

But the error is still hilarious when you read it.

RiderOnTheStorm

Realt Dearg Sec wrote:

... because "naked" could refer at the time to someone with underwear on....

Interestingly (to me anyway), naked means having no protection, as in naked flame, naked wires etc. Nude means not having clothes.

Realt Dearg Sec

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

Realt Dearg Sec wrote:

... because "naked" could refer at the time to someone with underwear on....

Interestingly (to me anyway), naked means having no protection, as in naked flame, naked wires etc. Nude means not having clothes.

Yeah I'm told the idea that nude and naked are synonyms came later. Before then a nude person was naked, but a naked person wasn't necessarily nude. It's probable the "error" would have registered with a contemporary reader, but it wouldn't have been "wrong" either.

I'm not an expert in that era so I couldn't be sure.

Professor Moriarty

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Defoe is also responsible for one of the great continuity errors in literary history, when Robinson Crusoe stripped naked, swam out to his ship and filled his pockets with biscuits.

Sadly it may not have been an error, because "naked" could refer at the time to someone with underwear on. Perhaps more importantly, Robinson Crusoe at other times refuses to go nude even though he is alone in the island. This is a signal of his being a civilised person, and not a savage.

But the error is still hilarious when you read it.

Whether or which, by the time he got back from his ship, the biscuits would be in a terrible condition. Does Defoe happen to mention - were they Hobnobs or Fig Rolls?

New Home

Probably ginger nuts. Then it wouldn't have mattered, 'cause they're gross anyway.

Chancer3001

Maybe pockets was slang for a body part

Ted_YNWA

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Maybe pockets was slang for a body part

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzgT-fg01vY

New Home

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Maybe pockets was slang for a body part

Oh, you mean like with hamsters? Sure, that sounds plausible.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Whether or which, by the time he got back from his ship, the biscuits would be in a terrible condition. Does Defoe happen to mention - were they Hobnobs or Fig Rolls?

Not quite. They were Ship's biscuits, or Hardtack, that had to be soaked in brine for quite some time before they were edible.

New Home

valoren

During the Second World War, 2nd Lt. Charlie Brown was a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot with the 379th based out of Bomber Group at RAF Kimbolton, England.

His B-17F was called “Ye Olde Pub” and it's first mission was a bombing raid over Bremen which targeted an aircraft factory in December 1943. Having dropped their payload, Ye Olde Pub was badly damaged by some of Bremen's 250 flak guns. Having lost one of their four engines, with another badly damaged, one of the flak gun destroyed the planes plexiglass nose, exposing the crew to an air temperature of -60 C. Ye Olde Pub thus lost it's place in the formation and was attacked by a dozen fighters for over 10 minutes until they moved onto other targets. All but 3 of their machine guns (from the 11 available) froze due to the low temperatures. They were sitting ducks.

Most of the crew were wounded: the tail gunner, had been decapitated by a direct hit from a cannon shell. Brown was wounded in his right shoulder. The morphine syrettes onboard froze, complicating first aid efforts by the crew, while the radio was destroyed and the bomber's exterior heavily damaged. The onboard compass was damaged and they were flying deeper over enemy territory instead of heading home to Kimbolton.

After flying over an enemy airfield, a pilot named Franz Stigler, was ordered to take off and shoot down the B-17F. When he got near the B-17, he could not believe his eyes. In his words, he “had never seen a plane in such a bad state”. The tail and rear section was severely damaged. He could see the remains of the tail gunner.

The nose was smashed and there were bullet holes everywhere. Stigler upon seeing the plane recalled the words of his commanding officer during his time in North Africa. “If I ever see or hear of you shooting at a man in a parachute, I will shoot you myself."

Despite having ammunition, Franz flew to the side of the B-17, protecting them from spotters and flak guns on the ground. Stigler looked at Brown who was scared stiff and struggling to control his damaged and bloodstained plane. Aware that they had no idea where they were going, Franz signaled at Brown to turn 180 degrees. Franz escorted the stricken plane to and slightly over the North Sea towards England. He then saluted Brown and veered away, back to base.



When Franz landed he told his C.O. that the plane had been shot down over the sea, and never told the truth to anybody. Brown managed to fly 250 mi (400 km) across the North Sea and land his plane at RAF Seething and gave a full report. The crew were ordered to not mention it. It would humanise the enemy if word got around.

In 1986, the then-retired Lieutenant Colonel Brown was asked to speak at a combat pilot reunion event called a "Gathering of the Eagles" at the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell AFB, Alabama. Someone asked him if he had any memorable missions during World War II; Brown thought for a minute and recalled the story of Stigler's escort and salute. Afterwards, Brown decided he should try to find the unknown German pilot.

After four years of searching vainly for U.S. Army Air Forces, U.S. Air Force and West German Air Force records that might shed some light on who the other pilot was, Brown hadn't come up with much. He then wrote a letter to a combat pilot association newsletter. A few months later, Brown received a letter from Stigler, who was now, a business man, living in Canada. "I was the one", it said. When they spoke on the phone, Stigler described his plane, the escort and salute confirming everything Brown needed to hear to know he was the German fighter pilot involved in the incident.

They, and the surviving crew of Ye Olde Pub, met in the USA at a 379th Bomber Group reunion in 1990, together with 25 people who were alive - all because Franz never fired his guns that day.

Brown and Stigler became close friends and remained so until their deaths within several months of each other in 2008.

What a super story.

robindch

New Home wrote: »

I don't know if it's still the case, but in France they used to have different rules regarding right of way on the roundabouts, so that people already on the roundabouts had to give right of way to cars approaching it on their right. Bizarre, to say the least.

Yes, that's correct - and that's why French roundabouts still have a reminder to "Cedez le passage" - ie, don't charge onto the roundabout any more as the guy there has right of way!

Capt'n Midnight

By the end of WWII Lieutenant General James Doolittle reckoned that the P38 Lightning could carry the same bomb load as a typical B17.

Half the engines , a tenth of the crew, and much faster on the way home.

bonzodog2

Kangaroos don't produce methane

The Oort Cloud

I bet you didn't know this, regarding heart-burn.

There is no need to go to the chemist or store looking for heart-burn tablets when you have the heart-burn. The natural way to get rid of heart-burn acid indigestion is to use one tea-spoon of baking soda 'Shamrock bread soda' or similar Sodium Bicarbonate and put the teaspoon of this into a half glass of water, stir it until the water is clear, stir for around 30 seconds and ingest. This will completely get rid of said heart-burn within 2/3 minutes.

The natural way.

Oort

Agent Smyth

The Oort Cloud wrote: »

I bet you didn't know this, regarding heart-burn.

There is no need to go to the chemist or store looking for heart-burn tablets when you have the heart-burn. The natural way to get rid of heart-burn acid indigestion is to use one tea-spoon of baking soda 'Shamrock bread soda' or similar Sodium Bicarbonate and put the teaspoon of this into a half glass of water, stir it until the water is clear, stir for around 30 seconds and ingest. This will completely get rid of said heart-burn within 2/3 minutes.

The natural way.

Oort

Why go to all that hassle, when you can just swollow a dollop of toothpaste.
A tour guide told me this in Cuba back in 2000, Haven't bought a Rennie since then

DivingDuck

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Oh yeah ?

Explain Dark Suckers then :cool:

Reading back through this thread, there are so many excellent posts.

...And then there's this.

I should not have read the contents of that link when I haven't had any sleep. It started to make sense to me by the end, which is genuinely terrifying.

Tell me how

The Oort Cloud wrote:

The natural way to get rid of heart-burn acid indigestion is to use one tea-spoon of baking soda 'Shamrock bread soda' or similar Sodium Bicarbonate....

Agent Smyth wrote:

Why go to all that hassle, when you can just swollow a dollop of toothpaste. A tour guide told me this in Cuba back in 2000, Haven't bought a Rennie since then

What's wrong with drinking half a glass of milk?

Are Am Eye

Eating a banana does the trick also.
Additionally provides potassium. For all your potassium needs.

Dtp1979

DivingDuck wrote: »

Reading back through this thread, there are so many excellent posts.

...And then there's this.

I should not have read the contents of that link when I haven't had any sleep. It started to make sense to me by the end, which is genuinely terrifying.

I just read it there now too. I'm pissed of that I wasted 2 minutes of my life reading such utter shjte

368100

DivingDuck wrote: »

Reading back through this thread, there are so many excellent posts.

...And then there's this.

I should not have read the contents of that link when I haven't had any sleep. It started to make sense to me by the end, which is genuinely terrifying.

It still doesn't make sense......if the "dark sucker" collected/absorbed dark.....and dark has a mass, then the LIGHTBULB would get heavier the more it operated.

Wossack

uh, its a joke

lmimmfn

Tell me how wrote: »

What's wrong with drinking half a glass of milk?

Exactly what I do, works a treat

eisenberg1

The Oort Cloud wrote: »

I bet you didn't know this, regarding heart-burn.

There is no need to go to the chemist or store looking for heart-burn tablets when you have the heart-burn. The natural way to get rid of heart-burn acid indigestion is to use one tea-spoon of baking soda 'Shamrock bread soda' or similar Sodium Bicarbonate and put the teaspoon of this into a half glass of water, stir it until the water is clear, stir for around 30 seconds and ingest. This will completely get rid of said heart-burn within 2/3 minutes.

The natural way.

Oort

I just mentioned this on another thread a couple of days ago. You can also use it clean your teeth, deodorise sneakers, place some in a jar in the fridge to remove odours, and on and on....

Incidentally both milk and bananas give me indigestion.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Titanic had 9 deck officers. Charles Lightholler was the only one to survive the sinking. He was on watch on the Bridge with fellow Officers at the time the ship struck the iceberg.

Due to the superstitious nature of the maritime industry at the time he was blackballed after Titanic and never worked as a Ships Officer again in civilian life. He became a publican instead.

A snippet of his tale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUwGwNMZUE0

bobbyss

Donegal Catch Cod Fillets do't come from Donegal.

Kat1170

bobbyss wrote: »

Donegal Catch Cod Fillets do't come from Donegal.

But Milky Way bars do come fro the Milky Way