what I have learned today.

[TheLurker]

The RAF had a specialist ECM unit , No. 100 (Bomber Support) Group, as early as November 1943 and, amongst other aircraft, they flew B-17s, Flying Fortresses.   It's not clear, but I think they were designated Fortress III in RAF use.

[nicknack]

The RAF had a specialist ECM unit

Who'd have thought that the RAF would be into Scandinavian jazz?

[T42]

That there's a simple version of Wikipedia for ignorami such as i who want a vague idea of what Higgs energy might be without delving into the grimier underdrawers of the Standard Model.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson

[Torslanda]

...that if your seatpost slips when you're on a ride, don't just carry on and complete it unless you have shares in Germolene. My things may spontaneously combust later!

[Efrogwr]

That the Welsh name for Japanese knotweed translates into English as Devil's vegetables.

[pcolbeck]

That Sheryl Crow's song  "My Favourite Mistake" is about a relationship she had with Eric Clapton.

[T42]

From the Chronicles of County Wexford:

On the Cromwellian Distribution of 1654, Clogh East [Castle] fell to
Captain Richard Waddy, who very prudently married the
heiress of Clogh East, and with her received all the deeds.

What can you expect of a family whose members include blokes with names like Baruck and Cadwallader?

Richard's family tree feeds into our distaff side in the 19th century.

He was from Yorkshire. Just sayin'.

[Kim]

That a parish lengthsman is a thing, and it doesn't involve being guardian of the sacred tape measure.

[ElyDave]

That my colleague who dropped us in the SH!t two years ago and almost did the same last year hasn't turned it around - Here I am again, waiting for him to do stuff for clients for an absolutely mandatory 31st March deadline that involves all sorts of horrible fines and EU sanctions.  Yet again he's completely failed to prioritise stuff to spot problems early.  I certainly won't be "taking one for the team" if it goes pear shaped.

I know  - the Rant thread is >>>

[Kim]

That EU passports are pink.

[PeteB99]

That EU passports are pink.

Yeah - I saw that quote somewhere as well.

I always thought the passport was brown although apparently it's called burgundy.

[Kim]

To me it looks on the red side of the blood/poo ambiguity line, which sounds about right for burgundy.  Certainly not pink.

[PeteB99]

Idly looking at passport colours I see there is a colour called Cordovan described as "a rich shade of burgundy and a dark shade of rose.".   

Also it seems EU passports don't have to be Burgundy anyway, the Croatians have blue ones.

[Mr Larrington]

Also it seems EU passports don't have to be Burgundy anyway, the Croatians have blue ones.

Wait... WHAT??!?  Then the whole Brexit omnishambles was FOR NOTHING!!1!

[T42]

CROATIAN CYANOSIS EPIDEMIC ! !

[PeteB99]

Also it seems EU passports don't have to be Burgundy anyway, the Croatians have blue ones.

Wait... WHAT??!?  Then the whole Brexit omnishambles was FOR NOTHING!!1!

Yup all for nothing

I'm waiting for the first numbskull to rejoice over not having to have the EU flag on their number plate.

That's not compulsory either

Think I'll order a nice burgundy cover if they change the colour for my next passport

[ian]

Surely a proper Brit-port is the most royal blue imaginable. A pigment enriched by millennia of lordly tradition. And the size and weight of a paving slab. Like they used to be when we owned the world and everyone had their own gunboat.

You still get the idiots (guaranteed to be over 60 and clutching a copy of the Daily Mail) who encase their current passport in a giant blue cover and then have to faff around to extract it in the immigration queue.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The blue I remember was virtually black.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Something I learned through experience yesterday, or proved in practice as it's fairly obvious really; but I'm mentioning it because it was fun.  Riding over the cattle grid at the north end of Sodbury Common at ~22mph is not only smoother than normal speeds, but makes my shiny brass Lion Bellworks bell ring itself in a very pleasing manner. (Presumably any cattle grid would do, but I'm highly unlikely to ever reach such speeds over any other cattle grid.)

[SteveC]

Surely a proper Brit-port is the most royal blue imaginable. A pigment enriched by millennia of lordly tradition. And the size and weight of a paving slab. Like they used to be when we owned the world and everyone had their own gunboat.

First issued in 1920, so not quite millennia

[fuzzy]

That one week of my summer holibob wil be spent landscaping an enclosure for a Spotted Genet and keeping him entertained

[clarion]

Is he called Jean?

[PeteB99]

From the Guardian TV pullout

When the Queen visited the Game of Thrones studios in Belfast she had to decline the offer to sit on the Iron Throne as she's not allowed to sit on the throne of any foreign kingdom.

Even one that doesn't exist and has dragons.

[Legs]

That one week of my summer holibob wil be spent landscaping an enclosure for a Spotted Genet and keeping him entertained

Surely that link should be in NSFW...

(you can see its genet tail 'ere)

[fuzzy]

That one week of my summer holibob wil be spent landscaping an enclosure for a Spotted Genet and keeping him entertained

Surely that link should be in NSFW...

(you can see its genet tail 'ere)

Here you go Legs, this kagoul is yours isn't it?