Author Topic: what I have learned today. (Read 858953 times)

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #200 on:** 03 March, 2014, 10:43:51 am »

That Turkmenistan had hydroelectric power in 1910.
http://deser.pl/deser/51,111858,15534671.html?i=8

Kim · « **Reply #201 on:** 03 March, 2014, 12:52:39 pm »

Quote from: Cudzoziemiec on 03 March, 2014, 10:43:51 am

That Turkmenistan had hydroelectric power in 1910.
http://deser.pl/deser/51,111858,15534671.html?i=8

Phwor, look at the commutators on that!

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #202 on:** 03 March, 2014, 01:49:50 pm »

There's appreciation for you! They're Hungarian, just to add to your enjoyment.

rogerzilla · « **Reply #203 on:** 18 March, 2014, 08:51:25 pm »

The Concorde in the so-bad-it's-good "Airport '79 - The Concorde" was the actual plane that crashed near Paris in July 2000. So it crashed twice. Sort of.

mcshroom · « **Reply #204 on:** 28 March, 2014, 09:53:15 am »

That the Dewey Decimal System has:

Quote

941 General history of Europe; British Isles
942 General history of Europe; England & Wales

but no "General History of Europe; Scotland"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dewey_Decimal_classes#Class_900_.E2.80.93_History_.26_geography

pcolbeck · « **Reply #205 on:** 28 March, 2014, 10:06:05 am »

Quote from: mcshroom on 28 March, 2014, 09:53:15 am

That the Dewey Decimal System has:
Quote
941 General history of Europe; British Isles
942 General history of Europe; England & Wales
but no "General History of Europe; Scotland"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dewey_Decimal_classes#Class_900_.E2.80.93_History_.26_geography

That's odd isn’t it.

I bet Alex Salmond claims this is a deliberate slight on Scotland by the English (even though Dewey Decimal is an American system)

Mind you the only country in Europe that gets a category all to itself is France.

tiermat · « **Reply #206 on:** 28 March, 2014, 11:59:41 am »

After a discussion last night revolving around live music, and reading the OPG for "Car SOS", in which one of the presenters is described as "Musician and classic car expert", I looked up his Wikipedia entry.

Turns out he was a) the drummer in PWEI and b) the technical editor of "Practical Classics", both jobs he is no longer doing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzz_Townshend

Wombat · « **Reply #207 on:** 28 March, 2014, 01:06:43 pm »

Quote from: Kim on 03 March, 2014, 12:52:39 pm

Quote from: Cudzoziemiec on 03 March, 2014, 10:43:51 am
That Turkmenistan had hydroelectric power in 1910.
http://deser.pl/deser/51,111858,15534671.html?i=8

Phwor, look at the commutators on that!

It could only be you....

p.s. that is a compliment, really!

hulver · « **Reply #208 on:** 28 March, 2014, 02:25:23 pm »

Quote from: tiermat on 28 March, 2014, 11:59:41 am

After a discussion last night revolving around live music, and reading the OPG for "Car SOS", in which one of the presenters is described as "Musician and classic car expert", I looked up his Wikipedia entry.

Turns out he was a) the drummer in PWEI and b) the technical editor of "Practical Classics", both jobs he is no longer doing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzz_Townshend

(click to show/hide)

tiermat · « **Reply #209 on:** 02 April, 2014, 10:28:22 am »

The SR-71 Blackbird was actually given the designation of RS-71, but a senator got it wrong when announcing the existence of said plane. Rather than embarrass the politician, they spent $'000's changing all the paperwork from RS-71 to SR-71.

Bledlow · « **Reply #210 on:** 02 April, 2014, 04:50:59 pm »

Slightly OT since I didn't just learn it, but following on . . .

The F-35 Lightning II , AKA JSF, should have been the F-24 (the next unused designation in the series of US fighters), but the US undersecretary for defence confused the designation of its experimental precursor the X-35 (on a different series of numbers) with the production aircraft designations at a press conference in 2001.

This annoyed the manufacturers & the USAF, USN & USMC, which had all been assuming it would be called F-24 & had been using that term in internal documents. The office that assigns designations recommended that F-24 should be used. But to no avail: F-35 stuck, & was officially adopted.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #211 on:** 18 May, 2014, 08:05:59 pm »

That in 1888, the county of Middlesex passed a byelaw that a cyclist approaching a horse-drawn vehicle should either dismount or "politely inquire of the driver if they might pass." London cyclists, beware!

mcshroom · « **Reply #212 on:** 18 May, 2014, 08:08:38 pm »

That an area of Huddersfield is called 'Tandem'

Salvatore · « **Reply #213 on:** 18 May, 2014, 08:25:13 pm »

Quote from: Cudzoziemiec on 18 May, 2014, 08:05:59 pm

That in 1888, the county of Middlesex passed a byelaw that a cyclist approaching a horse-drawn vehicle should either dismount or "politely inquire of the driver if they might pass." London cyclists, beware!

Coincidentally, 1888 was when the 26th Middlesex (Cyclist) Corps was founded. I wonder they observed the byelaw?

Morning Post 18th Feb 1888

Diver300 · « **Reply #214 on:** 19 May, 2014, 07:36:21 pm »

Quote from: Kim on 03 March, 2014, 12:52:39 pm

Quote from: Cudzoziemiec on 03 March, 2014, 10:43:51 am
That Turkmenistan had hydroelectric power in 1910.
http://deser.pl/deser/51,111858,15534671.html?i=8

Phwor, look at the commutators on that!

I suspect they are slip rings not commutators [/belated pedantry]

barakta · « **Reply #215 on:** 19 May, 2014, 08:45:30 pm »

Most people when applying for a job don't do basic "respond to the fucking job spec"... 50 down 20 to go in shortlisting...

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #216 on:** 22 May, 2014, 12:58:59 pm »

That the word "bugger" derives from "Bulgar". Apparently when the Manichaean sect of heretical Christians were exiled from the Euphrates by Emperor Alexis Comnene in the ninth century, they settled in Philippopolis, present day Plovdiv in Bulgaria. From here they spread west in the middle ages, establishing the Cathar stronghold in southern France, whose adherents were known to the French as 'Bougres'. One of their heretical tenets was an abhorrence of matter and a search for salvation through the eventual extinction of the human race. The English, in an English way, assumed that their rejection of procreation must lead them into sexual as well as religious heterodoxy.

Somebody had better tell the Wombles.

Kim · « **Reply #217 on:** 22 May, 2014, 01:09:48 pm »

Quote from: Cudzoziemiec on 22 May, 2014, 12:58:59 pm

Somebody had better tell the Wombles.

Bledlow · « **Reply #218 on:** 22 May, 2014, 01:56:26 pm »

Quote from: Cudzoziemiec on 22 May, 2014, 12:58:59 pm

...Apparently when the Manichaean sect of heretical Christians ....

Manichaeanism isn't specifically, or originally, Christian.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #219 on:** 22 May, 2014, 02:27:57 pm »

No, but the "Bulgarian" variety was.

Ruth · « **Reply #220 on:** 25 May, 2014, 03:58:23 pm »

That rosebay willowherb is in the same family as the fuschia.

I would never have guessed.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #221 on:** 30 May, 2014, 09:59:17 pm »

If you're at a seminar thing held in a church with a sort of music booth with a drum kit in it, you're NOT ALLOWED to hide in the music booth and punctuate the Director's attempts at jokes during his presentation with a ba-ding-tish.

clarion · « **Reply #222 on:** 31 May, 2014, 11:05:46 am »

Oh. Now that is a disappointment.

Canardly · « **Reply #223 on:** 31 May, 2014, 12:47:01 pm »

That 'Wendy' of Peter Pan fame is buried not far from home, together with her father, upon whom Long John Silver is apparently based. May take a ride out there tomorrow.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #224 on:** 31 May, 2014, 12:49:22 pm »

Quote from: clarion on 31 May, 2014, 11:05:46 am

Oh. Now that is a disappointment.

For him as much as me, I thought.

Author Topic: what I have learned today. (Read 858953 times)

Ruth