I bet you didnt know that

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

When Brazil fought for independence from Portugal their leader was the son of the Portuguese king. So the prince became the Emperor of a newly independent Brazil.

He later became King of Portugal too but the whole story is so messy and complicated that I won't even try to summarise it, just read up about the Empire of Brazil, it's very interesting.

New Home

Deleted User wrote: »

Interesting so I checked it out. It seems it's an unsubstantiated online story from 2012,
denied entirely by Beretta, it seems.

New Home wrote: »

I heard it a few years before that, maybe 2008 or 2009, and frankly I'm not be overly surprised that Beretta denied it. I'll see if I can dig out more about it.

I had a quick look but now I can only find references to it being an hoax (just like when you need black socks, but you are only able to find really really really really dark grey ones - or something). If I come across it again, I'll make sure to post the link here.

Kat1170

^^^^^^^ :D:D

New Home

Back in my day, we couldn't afford blue socks of any kind, we had to make do with grey ones. You young ones have it made, these days.

IvyTheTerrible

Wibbs wrote: »

Speaking of malaria and gin and tonics... The name of the disease is an interesting one and survives as an echo of what was once accepted medical thought. Malaria, "bad air" in Italian. The theory went - and it had a long history, all the way back to the greeks - that illnesses and especially epidemics were caused by "miasmas", the smells, the bad air given off by rotting matter. Within such miasmas the theory went that there were tiny particles of infection that when breathed in would cause disease(they were kinda on the right track to be fair). The theory led to some very welcome changes in city planning and water treatment. And again did so from way back. The Romans threw lots of cash and time at clearing and drain swamps near major towns.

The French word for malaria is "paludisme", which comes from the word used to describe the workers who harvested salt from low-lying marshy mosquito-infested places ("paludier"). So it was a disease they were particularly prone to.

Wibbs

In both Britain and Ireland there was a form of malaria(different to the tropical type) that was around until the 19th century. Marsh Fever was the usual name for it or "ague"(though that could mean fever in general). Oliver Cromwell died from it, or at least it weakened him enough to do him in and one theory has it that he picked said dose up in Ireland. Catholic mosquito no doubt. I seem to recall reading that many neolithic bones found here show widespread anaemia in the population which might have been from the same dose.

Speaking of horrible doses... The first recorded case of what looks to be lung cancer is from a Neandertal lad found in France(La Ferrassie One) who died 60,000 years ago. He was only 45. Fairly old for one of them mind you. 60 seemed to be their upper limit. They were also the first people to show similar rates of left handedness to us in their population.

Conchir

Just after WWII, the Jewish population of Afghanistan was estimated at around 5000. In the early 2000's, that number was down to just 2. The two men lived in an old synagogue in Kabul, and apparently they didn't get along too well. One died a few years ago, so now there is just a single Jewish person living in the whole of Afghanistan.

Must be pretty lonely at times... but he has a wife and children living in Israel!

FanadMan

Wibbs wrote: »

In both Britain and Ireland there was a form of malaria(different to the tropical type) that was around until the 19th century. Marsh Fever was the usual name for it or "ague"(though that could mean fever in general). Oliver Cromwell died from it, or at least it weakened him enough to do him in and one theory has it that he picked said dose up in Ireland. Catholic mosquito no doubt. I seem to recall reading that many neolithic bones found here show widespread anaemia in the population which might have been from the same dose.

Speaking of horrible doses... The first recorded case of what looks to be lung cancer is from a Neandertal lad found in France(La Ferrassie One) who died 60,000 years ago. He was only 45. Fairly old for one of them mind you. 60 seemed to be their upper limit. They were also the first people to show similar rates of left handedness to us in their population.

Please tell me that you either live in or own a private library. Feck wikipedia, we should all be consulting Wibbs!

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

When the USSR occupied North Korea, they didn't find many communists to help them establish a new regime. Pyongyang was the most christian city in the country and very conservative. Most of the communists lived in Seoul or other places under US occupation. So many of the founding intellectuals and politicians of the North Korean regime were former Japanese collaborators who influenced the propaganda and ideas of the country with their fascist ideals. This is why North Korea is quite distinct to other Soviet bloc countries, highly racist and (Despite what most people think) doesn't even claim to be a communist country anymore. In spite of all this, the North Korean government is now bitterly anti-Japanese.

Meanwhile, the south was full of people who supported the north. Before and during the Korean War there were enormous massacres of suspected communists. The biggest took place when communists rebelled on the island of Jeju in 1948 and one fifth of the island's population were killed in the crackdown.

Not that Japanese collaborators didn't become important in the south- Park Chung-Hee, the military dictator and father of recently impeaced president Park Gyun-Hee, was a former Japanese soldier.

AndrewJRenko

Conchir wrote: »

There's a pizzeria in Nome, Alaska, which will deliver for free to extremely remote locations hundreds of miles away from it (such as islands in the Bering Sea which use ice runways in Winter, or isolated coast guard stations).

How? It just puts them on Bering Air flights departing Nome Airport.

begbysback wrote: »

I'd send it back, would be freezing

What happens when they forget to send the Garlic Bread side order?

Chancer3001

The current queen of England was born the same year as Marilyn Monroe.

Greybottle

FanadMan wrote:

Please tell me that you either live in or own a private library. Feck wikipedia, we should all be consulting Wibbs!

www.Wibbsipedia.com

sbsquarepants

Chancer3001 wrote: »

The current queen of England was born the same year as Marilyn Monroe.

Eddie Izzard was born in 1926?:eek:

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Another North Korea fact- during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, lots of people, mostly the many ethnic Koreans in Manchuria, fled from China into North Korea to avoid famine and political instability. Not lot after, many would try to go back.

Also, lots of ethnic Koreans from Japan moved to North Korea in the 1960s because it seemed to be the most stable and prosperous of the two Koreas. Needless to say, they soon regretted this.

diomed

In the early days of horserace commentary broadcast through loudspeakers on the racecourse they stopped commentating for the last few hundred yards of the race, presumably to avoid affecting the result.

Capt'n Midnight

Chlorine trifluoride is perhaps the closest thing we have to a "universal solvent".

It's a liquid but has a low boiling point of 11c so most of the time it's a boiling liquid. But that is the very least of the problems.

Almost everything you can think of will spontaneously burst into flames on contact with it releasing corrosive and toxic gases. Including stuff that can't possibly burn like snow or sand or bricks or asbestos or chicken or glass or ashes.

steddyeddy

The mutation which makes certain African populations resistant to Malaria also makes them prone to sickle cell anemia.

ohnonotgmail

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Chlorine trifluoride is perhaps the closest thing we have to a "universal solvent".

It's a liquid but has a low boiling point of 11c so most of the time it's a boiling liquid. But that is the very least of the problems.

Almost everything you can think of will spontaneously burst into flames on contact with it releasing corrosive and toxic gases. Including stuff that can't possibly burn like snow or sand or bricks or asbestos or chicken or glass or ashes.

This guy has an interesting blog on obnoxious chemicals including this article on Chlorine trifluoride. http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time

You can find his other articles here. http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/category/things-i-wont-work-with He can be very funny.

stimpson

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Including stuff that can't possibly burn like snow or sand or bricks or asbestos or chicken or glass or ashes.

If you think chicken can't burn you should come around to my ma's for Sunday lunch.

New Home

Chlorine trifluoride boils at 11 degrees C., but burns chicken despite chicken needing higher temperatures to cook... which would make it a Shroedinger's chicken, both raw and cooked at the same time.

Conchir

German U-boat crews had an incredibly high fatality rate during WWII. Roughly 38-40,000 men served, with roughly 30-32,000 of those being killed in action (~75-80%). Add to that number a few thousand taken as POWs and your chances of making it home alive and well were extremely slim.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Had a great chat with a gran uncle of mine last Wednesday, hadn't spoken to him in years. 86 years of age but fresh looking, still has some black left in his hair and believe this is not the type of man who'd use Just for Men.

Bright guy too, great head for figures. As a young man in the 50s he left the family homestead in north Offaly to move to Dublin to work with Guinness.

Got on a great there, he told me it was a great job, good pay and benefits, they really went out of their way to look after their employees.

As we chatted on I asked why he never rose higher in the organisation considering that he was very capable and above average intelligence.

He looked at me like I was stupid and "because I'm a Catholic, Michael".

Seemed to be a certain level or glass ceiling in the old Guinness that Catholics topped out at.

Jesus Wept

Conchir wrote: »

There's a pizzeria in Nome, Alaska, which will deliver for free to extremely remote locations hundreds of miles away from it (such as islands in the Bering Sea which use ice runways in Winter, or isolated coast guard stations).

How? It just puts them on Bering Air flights departing Nome Airport.

Nom Airport

steddyeddy

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Had a great chat with a gran uncle of mine last Wednesday, hadn't spoken to him in years. 86 years of age but fresh looking, still has some black left in his hair and believe this is not the type of man who'd use Just for Men.

Bright guy too, great head for figures. As a young man in the 50s he left the family homestead in north Offaly to move to Dublin to work with Guinness.

Got on a great there, he told me it was a great job, good pay and benefits, they really went out of their way to look after their employees.

As we chatted on I asked why he never rose higher in the organisation considering that he was very capable and above average intelligence.

He looked at me like I was stupid and "because I'm a Catholic, Michael".

Seemed to be a certain level or glass ceiling in the old Guinness that Catholics topped out at.

That's not true. Members of my family were fairly high up in Guinness. One was the chief botanist (yes they exist) for the business. Guinness was generally pro Catholic rights.

Wibbs

steddyeddy wrote: »

That's not true. Members of my family were fairly high up in Guinness.

Same here.

tomwaterford

Micheal Collins death was never registered,

nor is there a death cert available for him

Bassfish

Can't find a link to it but I read once that In 1916 Guinness fired any employee that was known to have any involvement in the rising.

steddyeddy

Bassfish wrote: »

Can't find a link to it but I read once that In 1916 Guinness fired any employee that was known to have any involvement in the rising.

A myth I'm afraid. Again I've had family members work at Guinness with known nationalist tendencies. They punished any employees that broke the law.

lmimmfn

steddyeddy wrote: »

The mutation which makes certain African populations resistant to Malaria also makes them prone to sickle cell anemia.

I was always told in secondary school that sickle cell anemia was a genetic disorder, I.e. not prone to it but always have it

IvyTheTerrible

lmimmfn wrote: »

I was always told in secondary school that sickle cell anemia was a genetic disorder, I.e. not prone to it but always have it

I think he means "more likely to have it".
Basically, people in malarial regions of Africa are more likely to have malarial resistance and sickle cell anaemia.
(IIRC, the parasites can't infect the red blood cells because of the shape they are with that type of anaemia)